Trumpeter 1/35 Russian ASU-85 Mod. 1956
By Rob Folden
Stock #1588
MSRP: $39.95
What is small, green, and packs a mean punch? No, it’s not a miniature Incredible Hulk, it’s the Russian ASU-85 Airborne Self-propelled gun, mod. 1956. The ASU-85 was developed during the 1950’s as an air-droppable tank for use by the Soviet airborne units [similar to the US M551 Sheridan]. Unlike most other airborne tanks, the ASU-85 can also be dropped from the Mi-6 and Mi-10 helicopters. The 15.5 ton tank is a little less than 20ft in length, 7ft high and about 9ft wide. For comparison, that’s about 1 foot longer, 2 feet wider, and a couple inches taller than a Ford Excursion SUV. That makes for a very small tank! Armed with an 85mm, D-70 main gun with a 7.62mm coaxial gun, the ASU-85 has a top speed of 28 mph. While not heavily armored or very fast, the ASU-85 can air-drop in and provide support where-ever needed.
Previously, the only way to get an ASU-85 in 1/35 scale was to kit-bash/scratch build one, or spend some serious money on a full resin kit. Finally, an injection molded kit has come along. Trumpeter has come to the rescue with its new kit of the ASU-85. The kit comes on a total of 15 sprues, 9 of which cover just the tracks. The detail is very crisp, with no flash and nicely hidden ejector pin marks. On my sample, I was pleased to find no sink marks or other mold defects. Also included is a fret of photo-etched parts, and a length of braided copper cable, which has the same look as steel when painted, but is much more flexible than what is normally offered in kits. Markings are included for two tanks, one in traditional Soviet Airborne markings, the other, well, to be honest I’m just not sure about. While the kit includes a full color paint/markings guide, it does not list what the units are, or where they are from.
The kit is very well designed, and initial test fit of some of the parts showed no gaps and most of the hull seams are hidden along actual armor seams. A nice touch that Trumpeter did was to mold the tracks in a rust-brown colored plastic. This gives a nice “base color” to start off with. The tracks are individual and sprued, however Trumpeter thought ahead and made sure the sprue connections are on the joining edges, and there are NO ejector marks on the tracks themselves.
Overall, I’d say this is a great kit from Trumpeter. It’s an under-represented subject, that fills a gap in the Soviet armor models offered. I’m sure we will see detail sets available shortly, although the kit really doesn’t need it. I would recommend the modeler pick up some MV lenses for the headlights, as they are quite prominent on this tank. My thanks to Stevens International for providing the review sample and to Trumpeter for finally producing the ASU-85 in an affordable, styrene kit. Happy Modeling.
