1:100 ZIS-42 Soviet Truck

When wheels stopped being enough

Spring mud and deep snow could stop a column on the Eastern Front more reliably than the enemy. Soviet industry therefore reached for a solution that had proved itself elsewhere too: it took a proven three-ton truck, left it its front steering axle and replaced the rear section with a tracked running gear. That is how the ZIS-42 came about, a machine with a long soft track and a low ground pressure.

A tractor rather than a truck

Production ran during the war and never reached large numbers, and all the more were the finished vehicles prized by the artillery. They towed divisional guns and howitzers where an ordinary vehicle would have bogged down, and they likewise carried ammunition to the firing positions. The later variant received a more powerful engine, because the original powerplant was underpowered for the weight of a tracked chassis.

Size and use

1:100 is the size of tabletop wargames, where whole platoons maneuver side by side. A vehicle of this type fits into the palm of a hand in it and usually consists of just a few parts, so the assembly takes considerably less time than at large scales.

That is precisely why they are worth building in batches. The best result comes from a dark wash into the track marks and a dry brush on the edges of the cab and the fenders, because at a small size the outline carries the main information, not the detail. The rest of the impression is made by a base with tracks in mud. The tracked running gear is wide and conspicuous on this vehicle, so it pays to suggest a deposit of dried earth on it different from the coloring of the bed, otherwise the whole underside merges into one mass.