Voroshilovets Artillery Tractor by Trumpeter

This one, in my opinion is best looking of those three. It looks more like a truck with tracks instead of a towing tractor. It also has a “doghouse” or in other words – area for sitting personnel with benches and windows and cover to keep them out of wind and rain.

I’ve seen couple of models built from different modelers around the world, which features a lot of cool ideas regarding this compartment. Damage cover, only rails withuot cover or the whole area modified to carry stuff or FLAK gun mounted over it.

Happy for modelers out there, last 10 years companies around the world produce all kind of models of every possible think you can think of being out there sometime, somewhere. So imagining a supporting vehicle with many different functions and mods, you can make out of that model pretty much everything you can think of.

The model itself assembles pretty straight forward. I would suggest two things regarding that.

First – keep the rear compartment /wooden section/ aside and paint it separately.

Second – use Friul tracks for that vehicle.

Let me explain:

Rear compartment should be wooden. It is well casted, with all wood-looking scratches and stuff. So it’ll be a lot easier to paint it in different color and apply different weathering techniques in order to separate it from the metal parts from which the rest of the tractor is made of. Then – attach it to the truck itself – also already painted and weathered. Final touches to blend the worn look of both, and I believe you will have the perfect tractor.

The tracks – well, they in my opinion cannot be fixed in any other way but to change them. They are not well casted, nor clever engineered, so it is difficult to make the movable, or more properly said – impossible to make them movable or good looking. And considering the rest of the truck is a great model, it worth the expense on aftermarket tracks.

Other trick that I might suggest is, in case you haven’t bought masks from any company – Eduard or DN-Models or whoever else makes such, you can easily rest the windows and lights aside while finishing the model, and then attach them. Then just add a little bit of dust and that should do fine. Except for the wipers, but again – it is about a personal feel of the finished product, nothing more.

In my case I discovered the track problem the hard way, and unfortunately – too late. If I only knew, I would’ve done my model with Friuls. Not that the final result was such a bad one, but again, it is a cool looking model, and it is all about the little things that can make it look better. And it has a potential.

Originaly many of those were used for towing artillery or pull damaged tanks from ditches or swamps.  In both cases there are options for you to make a cool looking diorama, or just complete the model by adding another one to it. Imagine Voroshilovets towing an artillery gun like D-20 or B-4. Well, it will look like one helluva long model, but still, it will be a lot different than having only one of either two on the plate. So you can consider making research and buying additional model to make the project more attractive. My personal add-ons on it were couple of aftermarket parts – shovel, resin crate, metal towing chain and steel rope. Just to make it look more like an used, working machine.

I recommend this model to every artillery fan out there! Just don’t forget the tracks, and eventually the masks! Otherwise, Trumpeter did great job!

Have fun with it!