Trumpeter 1/35 scale Russian Voroshilovets Tractor

When Trumpeter announced its model of the Soviet 203mm tracked artillery piece two years ago, modelers wondered how long it would be before a kit of a prime mover would be available. Well, the wait is over with Trumpeter’s release of the Voroshilovets Tractor.

Molded in tan plastic, the kit is a testament to how far injection molding has come in the past few years. One look at the one-piece chassis tub, cab, canvas bed cover, and hood assemblies, each with fine detail molded on five sides of the parts, and you know this kit is the state of the art. The cab doors can be posed open if you want, but there is no way to easily open the hood (and no motor is provided). All of the bed sides feature a fine wood-grain effect, with not one ejector-pin mark to mar the pieces. The kit also features individual-link tracks and a small decal sheet with markings for two vehicles, one Russian and one captured by Germans. The instruction booklet is well illustrated but lacks much in the way of detail-painting instructions. Also provided is a color painting and markings guide for both decal options.

If you like road wheels and return rollers, you’ll love the Voroshilovets – there are 32 road wheels on either side! But they clean up quickly. I left them off the suspension assemblies to make painting the tires easier. I also left the suspension parts and tracks off the hull until the main painting was done.

I assembled the cab but left off the dashboard and clear parts. The cab floor was attached to the chassis as shown in Step 7. As I assembled the rear bed, I left off only the seats and fire extinguishers.

After I gave everything a coat of Tamiya olive green (XF-58), I lightened the base color with desert yellow and highlighted the panel centers. Tamiya khaki (XF-49) covered the canvas top. The decals went down well on the “wood” over a coat of Pledge Future floor polish, working their way into the grain texture with just a touch of Micro Sol.

While the individual track links fit snugly, you will need to add glue to make them stay together. Step 4 says you should use 70-71 links per side, but the diagram shows only 69. I followed the diagram and made my own link-and-length tracks. With only 69 links, the tracks fit well with only a very small gap (not big enough for another link); I divided the space between the upper front and rear and hid it under the fenders.

All of the clear parts fit well, and I especially liked the clear lenses for the lights.

This might be the best-fitting Trum­peter kit I have built yet: It only took me about 21 hours, and my finished model exactly matched dimensions of the Voroshilovets I found on Wikipedia. Despite the individual-link tracks, this is a perfect kit for armor modelers with only a little experience.

Now, where is my 203mm tracked artillery gun?