The Little World

I have been the recipient of a very kind gift yet again – this Hobby Boss model of a Red Army ZIS-5 truck was purchased in Singapore at a very good hobby shop and came to me at a very advantageous price…

The box art is stirring, but the basic truck looks plain. Inside, however, you can see how much the Hobby Boss makers have made of it – there are very large, very clean sprue trees as well as rubber tyres, clear windscreen parts, and a sheet of photo-etch. The quality looks to be superb.

Closer examination of the instruction sheet in conjunction with the sprue trees shows that there has been little left to chance or clumsy moulding. The chassis will be constructed from correct longitudinal rails and cross-members just as the original was. Ditto the engine and drive train. It is evident that the design team has a real ZIS-5 in hand to take their measurements from and may have disassembled it to do so. I will be using thin cement for this one!

There is little in the way of decoration for the truck – and the internet reveals little enough variation in the paint jobs during wartime. I fancy something a bit brighter than Russian Green, so I’ll be basing my build on preserved examples that reside in Moscow. It’s been painted in a light tan, much like the bare styrene of the kit. A museum piece can also be clean, rather than weathered and filthy.

The internet search did reveal one ZIS-5 painted in bright yellow with a blue plastic tarp cover over the rear – it is a sales van for Sochi beer at festivals. If I can find a clearer shot of the signs on the back I am tempted to do this one, but the internet from Russia is not playing very well. I think this image is from happier times.