Stalins Organ

[rtfoe]

Hi, since I've been featuring mainly aircraft in my thread builds I thought I would show one that was built from an old Italeri kit, the Katyusha. The Katyusha multiple rocket launcher is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. The kit features parts typical of Italeri kits during the 70's which were better detailed then other offerings other than Tamiya.

Here I start off with the sub assemblies as I don't have the images of the sprue and box. What I can say is the plastic is brittle because of age and parts are thin and delicate. The rocket rack and rockets were the only ones affected with flash and slight mis-alignment of mold halves so lots of sanding ensured.



The fit went well with minor scraping with the blade near the front grill joint. The slight warpage to the rocket frame was delt with some delicate pressure bending and once the parts were glued wasn't too bad. I didn't bother too much with the interior of the cab except with some washes added to the seats.



The rubber tyres and wheels were assembled and painted in situ. The molds suffered from slight melt being in contact with the rubber tyres supplied for I don't know what reason except for a chemical reaction. Later I found that I should have protected the plastic rims with acrylic paint before attaching the tyres. The rims have since melted and deformed. After much sanding and scraping the rocket racks looked quite nice.



As I mentioned I didn't do much with the cab interior. The dash board detail was good enough for some drybrushing and washes to bring out the detail.

More to come later.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Dave Ward]

The Italeri model has been around since 1976! It's been reboxed many times, including Revell, and Zvezda ( got one in my stash ). It's still a nice model, it must have been a real revelation when it first came out - under the Italaerei badge ( when did the spelling change? ). I seem to remember the boxes just aft of the spare wheel carriers were pretty poor mouldings..........
Eduard used to make a comprehensive PE set for this.
Good Luck!
Dave

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks Dave, kit was completed many years ago. Spelling wasn't changed...I just simplified it fornetically when I couldn't remember how it was spelt. I will need after market wheels to replace the melted ones. Even my Horsch wheels are affected. What was in those rubber tyre compounds?

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Dave Ward]

Richard - the original spelling was Italaerei - now, it's Italeri -it was changed somewhere between 1976 and now!
Dave

 

[rtfoe]

Hi,
The sub-assemblies were put together and glued at their locating points. Time was most spent on the rockets. I shaved off any locating points, lightly sanded the two halves and slapped them together making as best not to have too much of a step between joints. I used extra glue so they oozed out of the joints and when dry was shaved off.



The edges of the molds were crisp and had to be roughened up especially the mud guard where I used a file to create dinks and then smoothen over with liquid cement and light sanding.



The protruding sight was very vulnerable so care was taken when painting and weathering.

More later.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Richard - the original spelling was Italaerei - now, it's Italeri -it was changed somewhere between 1976 and now!
Dave

Really... wow, I didn't know that. You're right, I checked with some old 78/79 catalogues and they had the old name. The 85 catalogue is with the new name.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jakko]

The kit features parts typical of Italeri kits during the 70's which were better detailed then other offerings other than Tamiya.

I’d rate 1970s Italeri kit above 1970s Tamiya kits, TBH. The Tamiya kits would be easier to assemble, but Italeri had more detail.

 

[rtfoe]

I’d rate 1970s Italeri kit above 1970s Tamiya kits, TBH. The Tamiya kits would be easier to assemble, but Italeri had more detail.

You are right on that point, Jakko. At the time we thought they were over engineered until Dragon and AFV came along.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Si Benson]

Nice work Richard...coming together nicely.
It just so happens I’m also building the Bm13-16.....only I’m doing the 1:72 ICM version. Interested to see more

 

[Steve Jones]

Found this one in a garage in Holland. Wish I had taken more photos



Hope it helps and good luck with the build

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks Guys,

Si, good to have you back. Would like to see the Bm13-16 .

Steve, Wow! them are many pics. Great reference, much appreciated. There are some differences like the tyre stowage is a seat just behind the cabin. The petrol tank is not covered like the kits. Also it's missing the foldable deflecting blast shield. If only I had this reference six years ago.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

There were no decals for the stripes on the rockets so I sprayed black first then masked with cut strips of tape then covered that with white.



Meanwhile the truck and launcher got a base coat of Russian green of my own mix with a little white added. At the time I did post shading and this was done with the same shade of Russian green but with black added.



More to come later.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[geegad]

An old kit but a classic and your doing it complete justice with your build top marks

 

[rtfoe]

Hi John, thanks for your kind comment. The rockets turned out ok in the end...



Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Hi, as this build was done before the new styles like modulation and what nots came about, you could say it's old school.

On top of the base coat I applied post shading with olivedrab and a drop of black. The mixture was sprayed at joints and corners. You can see the difference in the second picture of the cab interior and exterior of the truck.



Homemade pigment dirt and rust scooped from the bottom of paint pots, tins or jars helped create the weathered mudguards and muddy tyres.



Chipping was done with a stiff brush and Nato black stippled at strategic points of wear.

More to come later.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[papa 695]

Nice work Richard

 

[Deleted member 5819]

Hi Richard just caught up with your build, great work as always very near and tidy
Pete.

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks Ian and Pete...behind the blue backing paper is a chaotic work table.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
As always your work is neat and well thought out. As you say this is a nice kit despite it's age.
Jim

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks Jimbo, yep, nice to build if you can get your hands on one. Don't know if Italeri still carries it.

More progress shots. The supports were fiddly and required a level surface before installing. Rubbed steel over the top of the rocket rails...the rockets would be stacked up and under.



I was planning to add stowage and tools left on the deck but since haven't done it.

More later...

Cheers,
Richard