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| During WWII the multiple launch rocket system "Katyusha" became the ultimate symbol of Soviet rocket artillery power. Although less accurate than conventional artillery, the "Katyusha" launchers would deliver a devastating amount of explosives to a target area all at once and then move to a new position before the enemy could return fire. |
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| The Katyusha was extremely effective in saturation bombardment. A battery of four BM-13-16 launchers could fire a salvo of 64 projectiles in 7–10 seconds delivering 4.35 tons of high explosives over a 10 acre impact zone. Katyusha batteries were often massed in very large numbers to create a shock effect on enemy forces. |
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| During the war Katyusha rocket launchers were mounted on everything from ZIS-5, ZIS-6, to Lend-Lease Studebakers, GMCs, Fords and Chevrolets, even tanks and trains. Postwar development led to the launch system being installed on the (then) new ZiL-157 chassis with high cross-country capabilities. |
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| The Zil mounted BM-13-16 was exported to virtually every nation friendly to the Soviet Union and due to their cheap, simple and rugged design remained in service with some armies into the 21st Century. |
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THE KIT:
The chassis, cab and undercarriage parts are all common with ICM's line of Zil-157 truck kits (including a cargo truck, fuel bowser, command truck, and 2 other Katyusha launchers). |
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| The launcher is a fairly complex assembly and it requires careful alignment. I had to drill out all of the pivot points to make it fit. I tried my best but still managed to get a few of the rails out of alignment. |
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| Aligning the 16 rockets is also a bit tricky. The M-13 rocket is 132mm (5.2 inches) in diameter has a range of about 8000 meters with an HE fragmentation warhead. |
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| The tips and fins of the M-13 rockets require careful sanding but they look pretty good when completed. Photos suggest that the rockets are most commonly all-black, but were also found in all-green, camouflaged and silver with black fins which I chose for contrast. |
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| I used small strips of masking tape to make the straps holding the shovel which turned out pretty well. |
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| I thinned down the fenders to make them more realistic and made headlight guards out of wire. The provided guards are not shaped like the standard guards found in my research. |
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| Note that the cab has to sit as far forward as possible to allow for the rocket launcher bed to fit, this required me to relocate the front axle a couple millimeters forward. |
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| As you can see I failed to align each launch rail perfectly, luckily it's not as noticeable from other angles. |
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| Overall I'm very pleased with the kit and how it represents the real vehicle. The launcher assembly is a bit intimidating but it does go together with patience and careful sanding. |
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| Here are the various subassemblies before painting. Note the simplified interior and dashboard. A few modifications were made to the spare tire rack using evergreen styrene. |
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Kit: ICM #72571 |
Scale: 1/72 |
Value:
This kit can be found online for around $10.00 (US) which is not bad these days. I actually paid a mere $5.00 for mine during Open House at Squadron Mail Order. |
Decals:
Decals provided for Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany and Hungary. Printed in register and opaque. |
Assembly:
147 parts in the box, molded in green, black and clear. 3 brass axles, 1 decal sheet and 1 instruction sheet.
The chassis, cab and tires are common parts found in all of the ICM Zil-152 kits (also packaged as Omega-K and MAC). All molded reasonably crisp with light flash. There are no part numbers molded on the sprue trees so you have to do a lot of careful referring to the instruction sheet.
Assembly starts with the chassis which is fairly straight forward however test fitting revealed that the cab sits too far forward to clear the front tires. My solution was to move the mounts for the front springs forward a couple of mm. The rest of the cab and chassis assembly went smoothly.
The rocket launcher is a fairly complicated assembly with lots of really small parts. Although the parts are cleanly molded, I had to carefully drill out openings and sand down shafts to get it all to fit. The instructions were not clear where parts C7 and C8 go so I studied photos of the real vehicle to figure it out.
The spare tire rack is too narrow and too shallow to hold the spare tires and it doesn't fit well to the bed either. I modified the rack with scraps of sheet styrene until it looked right to me.
ICM provides two extra road wheels to place in the spare tire rack but they don't look right unless the center caps and air regulator connections are removed. I used a small drill bit and an X-acto blade to carve them away.
The brass axle parts were a bit too long but a few passes with a steel file fixed the problem easily.
The rocket launcher assembly makes this a much more complex build than the other ICM Zil-157 kits but still not terribly difficult to build. |
| After Market Parts Used: None |
Customizations:
I used small gauge wire to build headlight guards. I sanded and thinned the front fenders and mud flaps to make them more to scale thickness. I used metallic sequins and clear epoxy on the headlight lenses. |
Recommendation:
Due to the complexity of the rocket launcher this model is best suited for modelers with a bit of experience. Fans of post-war Soviet equipment will especially appreciate this kit for it's attention to detail. |
