UM 1/72 Airfield Starter Truck AS-2 By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Overview

One of the more interesting vehicles to appear around the World War Two era was the airfield starter trucks. These trucks had an adjustable extension either off the driveshaft or connected to a separate starter motor that would attach to the front of the spinner of an aircraft. The truck would then provide the initial cranking power to start up the propeller aircraft. This proved especially useful in wintertime, but many countries, including Russia, used the concept year-round.

The AS-2 Airfield Starter Truck began as a GAZ-AAA truck, but had its bed shifted back to make room for the new starter motor. A superstructure was welded in place to allow a person to climb out above the cab and make sure the starter was properly engaged with the propeller. Once the propeller caught, the truck simply drove straight back, disengaging the starter device. Through this method one truck could start up several aircraft in a short period of time. The advent of the jet engine eliminated the need for this type of vehicle, and it saw little use after the Second World War.

The Kit

Just like the Soviets during the 1930s and 1940s, UM is getting quite a bit of mileage out of their GAZ-AAA truck chassis. In addition to the straight GAZ-AAA truck, they have also come out with, or announced, the BA-6 armored car, the BA-10 armored car, the BA-3 armored car, the SU-12 76mm gun on a GAZ-AAA, and this kit, the AS-2 airfield starter truck. This means that if you are familiar with any of those other kits, this one will look rather familiar.

The parts come molded in a green plastic, with five sprues total. A close examination reveals that only one of these sprues carries the number of this kit, with all the others labeled as from other versions, again hinting at the broad use of molds here. In addition to the plastic parts the kit comes with ten rubber tires and a small sheet of clear acetate. The latter is for you to cut out the windows, which will result in windows that are to the proper scale thickness. However, some care will be needed to make sure the windows are the right size, and there is no second set provided should you make a mistake on the first.

Construction is about what you'd expect for a kit like this. The instructions have you start with the chassis, which is fairly well detailed. The axles and drivetrain looks good, and the finished chassis will incorporate no less than 46 parts. The cab is also complex, consisting of over 20 parts, including those acetate windows. The main cab floor has a cutout that allows the engine from the chassis to poke through, and the hood is made up from four pieces. The doors of the cab are separate, allowing you the option of having them open or closed.

Moving to the truck bed, this is also well detailed, with eleven pieces building it up. The first step is to build the base structure that the wood bed will rest on, and it is important to follow the instructions here to make sure you trim the right pieces off. The actual wooden bed is very nicely detailed, with wood planking on both sides of all the pieces (and without wood texture, always a good sign). The completed bed sits away from the cab, as it should, to make room for the starter assembly.

The starter assembly is probably the one area that extra cleanup will be needed. This is made up of quite a bit of tubing, and while the moldings are quite good, there will be the inevitable mold parting line to clean up here. As this all fits on top of the truck, it is not something that will be hidden away, so extra time here will definitely pay off with the finished model. For those who want to display this truck attached to their favorite VVS aircraft, some extra adjustment will be needed to position the starter lug properly, but that should not be too hard to do.

The kit comes with no decal sheet, which is odd since the boxtop painting shows a number written on the door. The kit calls for the truck to be painted overall olive drab, so there is not much in the way of exciting finishes for this truck. If you are looking for flashy, I would suggest parking this thing in front of a colorful I-16 and have it cranking the prop.

Conclusion

This is a great addition to the GAZ-AAA line and I am glad that UM decided to do this variant. The display potential is enormous, as this vehicle was used with a great number of aircraft (pretty much all the Polikarpovs, as well as the P-63 and Il-2, among others), and it would be a great way to break into the rapidly expanding market of 1/72 armor. My thanks to Squadron Mail Order for the review sample.