The Little World

The wartime accounts of the use of rocket trucks by the Soviets are quite spectacular. Stories of mass attacks that caused whole vilages to disappear are rife.

These rocket artillery pieces may have been restricted to 5-8 miles range but the effect of 16 of the rockets falling simultaneously – even if the target circle was erratic – must have been definitive. Additional batteries could only have made it far worse. The loading time was long, but the truck could drive away instantly after firing and counter-battery fire would have been ineffective.

The construction of the rocket rails brought a new product into my Little Workshop – I purchased a length of carbon fibre rod to act as the tie-rod between the long pieces. It is one of the neatest assemblies I’ve done. And the fibre rod will be seen in many future aircraft builds as the pitot tubes and aerials. it is light, strong, and flexible, and much easier to cut than a metal wire. You secure it with cyanoacrylate glue.

The complex tubing frame for the rocket rails was not that hard to assemble, as long as it was all jigged in foam offcuts before the cement was applied. It is surprisingly square. The elevation and ground feet are just suggestions, but you could pose the rails in a high firing position as well as on the bed.

The front blast shield can be posed up or down – down is so much more menacing.

The real trucks had artillery unit emblems on the side but that was the missing decal sheet. I’m not fussed – the whole assembly looks the part anyway. Now I need more commander’s cars and stores trucks to go with it. I would despair of seeing PST on the local shelves , but there may have been a batch of them that came in years ago that will surface one day.