Ural 4320Soviet Army Truck

AER Kit # 7215

Many of my modelingfriends have great interests in soft-skinned military vehicles,so recently I've been trying to expand my horizons a bit bytrying more truck kits, even though they're not quite asappealing to me as armored vehicles. I bought this truck from AERlast year, and thought it would be a good topic for a kitPreview.

The kit is based on theearlier BM-21 Grad, released by Modelism. In fact, it shares mostof the same parts, with only a couple unique to this version, aswell as lacking the rocket launchers from that earlier kit. Aswith the Grad, this model is rather poorly made, with very sparsedetail. There is a lot of flash on my sample, as well as numeroussinkmarks. The clear parts are clear in name only, but with somepolishing, should be pretty good. While I am not turned on byrubber tires, at least they have pretty good tread detail, muchbetter than on the styrene parts. The engine grill is simplistic,and there is next to no detail within the driving compartment.The outside walls of the cargo bed have a decent wood patternmolded on, but the inside is bare.

Markings are included forsix nationalities, and the decals are printed thin, and in prettygood register.

Although this kit is notas good as other truck kits in the market, for those modelers whohave proper references, and enjoy scratchbuilding details, itwill probably turn into a pretty decent replica. Considering theparts breakdown of the kit, and my lack of references, I don'tknow if the completed model scales out to 1/72nd or not.