Maquette 1/35 ASU-57 Self-Propelled Gun Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Soviet airborne forces required a family of combat vehicles which could be airlifted anywhere in the world and dropped by parachute, if required, to support the paratroopers. One such vehicle is the ASU-57 self-propelled anti-tank gun, which comprises a long-barrel 57mm main gun on light armored chassis. Like many self-propelled anti-tank weapons from around the world, this vehicle does not have a fully-enclosed crew compartment, rather the top and rear are open.

The Maquette kit is molded in light gray styrene and is provided on five parts trees. Two trees are dedicated to individual track links. At first glance, the kit appears to be a simple project, but when you look into the crew compartment and see the details of the main gun, ammo storage, crew positions, etc., you realize that you're getting a nicely engineered kit for a very reasonable price!

As I mentioned earlier, two parts trees are dedicated to the individual track links. If you're used to 'rubber band' tracks, assembly and installation of these track links might be a challenge, but once you've tried building one of these armored kits with track links and the realistic droop you can achieve with this medium, you won't want to use the 'rubber band' tracks again.

One tree contains the hull parts - top, bottom and sides. The remaining two trees have the variety of interior and exterior fixtures, shields, ammo and main gun parts.

The kit provides markings for a single example, hull number 221. For whatever reason, markings are not provided with the 'airborne' heraldry as depicted on the box cover.

This is a nice kit, especially for the price! This is also an interesting subject as this is one vehicle that has not been previously offered in this scale to my recollection. You can find this kit at Squadron Mail Order.

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!