1:35 BM-21 Grad

A rocket launcher that redraws the map in twenty seconds

The Soviet army introduced the BM-21 system in 1963 and to this day it remains one of the most widespread weapons of its kind. Forty 122 mm tubular launch rails fire a whole salvo within a few dozen seconds and saturate an area of several hectares. The accuracy of an individual rocket is low, but the effect is decided by the number of impacts in a small space.

The carrier is an all-wheel-drive off-road truck, so a battery can drive out to a firing position, shoot off its load and leave before the opponent's artillery can pinpoint it. It was precisely this tactic that made the system a sought-after export: it has served or still serves in dozens of armed forces, and local variations of it are also built outside the original manufacturer.

What you will find in the box

The package contains injection-molded plastic parts, the launcher rails, the cab and the chassis of the truck. The set comes unassembled and unpainted; glue, paints and tools have to be obtained separately. The build assumes experience with multi-part chassis, above all on the axles and on the mounting of the firing platform.

1:35 is the most common scale for military vehicles, so the finished model fits in among figures, accessories and diorama bases of the same scale. The longer truck chassis looks substantial on the shelf and stands out next to an ordinary armored personnel carrier by its difference in length.

In period and present-day photographs the real system appears exclusively in sizeable batteries, because a single vehicle will not deliver the desired effect. For a diorama it is therefore worth building at least a pair and adding a truck with ammunition and a deployed crew.