1:72 APA-5D Soviet Airfield Starter Vehicle

APA-5D 1:72 — a conversion set of an airfield starter vehicle

A resin conversion set from the Ukrainian brand Armory that turns a model of the Soviet off-road Ural truck into the APA-5D airfield starter and power vehicle. This is not a complete vehicle kit: the chassis and the cab have to come from your own kit of the Ural-375 or Ural-4320 truck in 1:72 scale. The set brings the body and small parts; a photo-etched fret and a small decal sheet go with it.

The real subject

The APA-5D is a Soviet mobile airfield ground power unit: a mobile source of electricity that prepared aircraft for takeoff and fed their systems as long as the machine stood on the apron. It was mounted on the chassis of a heavy off-road Ural truck, so it reached field airfields without trouble. Vehicles of this kind were an indispensable part of every air base, and on a diorama beside a parked aircraft they explain at once what is going on out there.

Building tips

First wash the castings with warm soapy water and cut the casting blocks off with a saw. Both the resin and the photo-etched parts are glued with cyanoacrylate glue; cement for plastic will not hold on them. Test the fit of the body on the truck frame dry and expect to sand the mating surfaces down. Lay a thin primer before painting. Add cables and small grab handles from wire as needed: hardware of this kind is usually a tangle of hoses in photographs.

Who the set is for

• builders of dioramas of Soviet and Russian airfields in 1:72
• more experienced modelers who have already worked with resin and photo-etched parts
• anyone interested in airfield ground support hardware
• collectors of vehicles on Ural chassis

This is an accessory for a model, not a kit. The base truck kit, glue and paints are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.