Just like the Germans, the Russians produced a bewildering variety of self propelled guns, and I've always had a vague hankering for an SU-122, partly as it was the Russian SP gun type chosen for the basic Squad Leader game which only had generic tanks and SP guns. In fact it wasn't a hugely common vehicle, around 600 were built and mainly saw service from late 1942 through 1943 and into early 1944 steadily being replaced by heavier gunned vehicles in the heavy SU role or SU76s in the light assault gun role.
The SU122 wasn't a bad vehicle, and its 122mm howitzer could demolish even quite heavy German tanks with a direct hit, but obviously it was a howitzer and not a gun, and it was rapidly superceded by the 152mm armed SU152 on the KV chassis and later the long 122mm and 152mm guns on the IS chassis. The T34 platform instead became a self propelled anti-tank and was equipped first with the 85mm gun and then the superb 100mm gun which saw active service late into the twentieth century and I even saw several dug in around the airport in Havana in 2004. Anyway, I digress.
As I was perusing the 'Plastic Kit Man' stand at Partisan, I noticed he had a couple of Zvezda SU-122s, so I duly purchased them. I should probably only have got one, as I only have one KV85 and they were produced in similar numbers, but two is somehow more satisfying.
These were very simple kits to assemble, no pratting around sticking the tracks together like the older PSC T34s, and thankfully no horrible internal frame to install to support 'push fit'. The only slightly fiddly bit was getting the gun into the hull, it has to sort of swing and click into place. The mantlet is quite a thin piece of plastic and I was worried about damaging it, but it was OK.
The main components are just two tracks, hull bottom, hull top and gun, although there is a slightly fiddly bit to put on the rear of the fighting compartment. It is the piece just in front of the engine deck in the photo above. The inevitable fuel tanks are also seperate. A lot of the detail is nicely moulded and comes out well with a wash and a drybrush, although in common with other Zvezda kits, some of the finer details are quite shallow and take a bit of work to pick out.
I just did them in plain Russian green, Vallejo 894 mixed with a big dollop of Vallejo Middlestone to lighten it. I didn't bother with an overall wash, but pinwashed around the details and then gave it a light drybrush of Iraqi Sand. I slathered the lower hull, wheels and tracks in mud, and gave them an overall inkwash and drybrush and highlighted the tracks with gunmetal. With overall green (or grey) vehicles, they look much better with mud coloured lower sections.
That was an unexpected bonus purchase, but they have come out well. I just have to find space for them in my bulging box of Russian AFVs!
Martin -
ReplyDeleteVery nice vehicles! For some reason I thought that the SU122 was fairly ubiquitous - not as much as the SU76, withal, but somewhere in the thousands produced. I'd have been wrong there! I have the one only - a metal diecast display item.
I gather the Soviet late war 100mm anti-tank gun was a very powerful weapon. The temptation is to get one, whether mounted in the SU100, or perhaps as a towed weapon. But, apart from a few other items, I've pretty much drawn a line under my WW2 inventories.
It's my 'German box' that is 'bulging'!
Cheers,
Ion
Really outstanding work on this "cat killer" Martin. I love how the color turned out. I'll have to remember mixing russian green with middlestone.
ReplyDeleteThe SU122 is a fun vehicle. We just had to work one into a big Kursk game using the Battlegroup rules many years back. It could have killed the Ferdinand on the table but it kept missing and ran out of ammo! I moved it off the tavle and that was that. An ignominous start to its career on my table 😁