ZZ Model's 1/87 Zis-150 Truck
By Kent Kirkpatrick
History
The Zis-150 Soviet truck was produced from 1947 through 1957. It replaced the Zis-5. The cabin of Zis-150 was similar with the cabin of International Harvester KR11 truck. Romanian, Russian and China factories produced over 77,000 Zis-150 trucks.
The Kit
Contents of the kit include a small two-page
fully-illustrated instruction sheet, bag of loose styrene parts of various colors (mostly black), clear sprue, black vinyl tires, photo-etch sprue and one clear vacuum-formed cab glass. There are no decals. Initial review of the parts are typical for 1/87 scale offerings. Nicely molded with nominal flash but there are some injector pin marks on some of the parts. Some cleanup will be needed but nothing to fret about. Reviewing the instruction sheet deems this a simple kit to assemble. There aren't a lot of parts with this Zis-150 kit. Assembly begins with the chassis, drive train and
wheels. Next the cab interior including the cab floor, fenders, seats, vacuum-formed window glass and steering wheel are mated to the finished chassis with gas tank and bumper. Detail here is very basic and could be improved. The photo-etch sprue contains a rear window screen and two fender width marker poles. The vinyl tires with tread pattern and wheel hub detail are nicely done. Finally, the one-piece cargo bed with optional ‘canvas' canopy and mud flaps are added to complete the Zis-150. You are done! Once your assembly is complete the instruction sheet
tells you to paint your truck ‘Russian green' with the canopy painted a ‘khaki' color. Use the color photo on thebox art to assist in painting your finished model.
Conclusion
ZZ Model offers other kits ranging in scale from 1/87 to 1/35. Most of their kits are light to heavy duty work trucks but there are some missile platforms and radar units as well. I would like to thank Scale Model Kits for the review kit.