Paraphrasing from the Instructions,

"One of the best known vehicles of the Soviet era was the ZIL-157 truck, which had excellent cross-country  capabilities.

It was developed in 1958 at the design bureau attached to the Likhachov auto factory in Moscow. Serial production began there as well as in Kharkov and Groznij. The ZIL-157 won the Grand Prize at the World Auto Show in Brussels of that year.

The design was an excellent one and a wide range of army vehicles were developed from it. Fuel trucks, mobile command, vehicles, radio and radar trucks, transporters and launchers for anti-aircraft missiles, field ambulances and a host of other vehicles were spawned from this exceptional design.

The command mobile vehicles saw service in Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries as well as with African, Asian and Near East armies."

Once the small box is opened, one finds an even smaller bag of sprues containing the kit. The bits are in either white or black and there are a number of loose parts; mainly wheels, cab and the payload. Molding is rather well done and though there are a few sink marks in some of the thicker parts, none should be difficult to hide or fill.

You get a relatively well appointed interior with steering wheel and shift levers. It really doesn't make a lot of difference that the detail is sparse as you won't see much of it through the rather thick transparencies. Actually, a lot of models in this scale don't have them so that is a plus. A well done chassis and running gear are provided. This is a curbside so no full engine detail. The command section has a sufficient amount of stuff to add to it to make it look properly complex.

Instructions are a single sheet with a history in English and Russian, a parts chart and six nicely drawn construction steps. A color chart in Humbrol and generic references is also given. Basically this thing is Olive Drab with a Black chassis. A full color painting and decal chart in on the back of the box. The decal sheet is somewhat generic as I've seen this with several other vehicles like this.

A rather unusual subject for most of us, but one that will provide some interest and be a change from the norm for most of us. It certainly doesn't look difficult to build and is, as they say, "popularly priced".

June 2006

Thanks to and DLV Company for the review kit. You can find ICM kits at your favorite hobby shop.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by asite that has over 300,000 visitors a month, please contactme or see other details in the Note toContributors.

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