The Soviet Stalinetz Tractors Which Helped Defeat The Nazis

During World War II the Soviets relied on heavily on tractors. “Stalinets” tractors were produced in 1937-1941 in Chelyabinsk Traktornyy Zavod (ChTZ for short) for industrial and construction works, but they were also often used by the Red Army as a prime mover, pulling heavy artillery and mortars across battlefields.


During this time seven other industrial entities (including most of Leningrad’s Kirov Plant, and 15,000 of its workers.) were either wholly or partially relocated to Chelyabinsk, the resulting enterprise, commonly known as “Танкоград” (‘Tankograd’, or ‘Tank City’), The work force increased to 60,000 workers by 1944, from 25,000 during non-military production; during the conflict the works produced 18,000 tanks, and 48,500 tank diesel engines as well as over 17 million units of ammunition.
The Stalinetz S-65 was the most numerous of the Soviet tracked tractors of WWII with 37,656 being produced at the ChelyabinskiyChTZ and Zavod plants between 1937 and 1941 before ChTZ switched to tank production.
With a combat weight of 11.2t the Stalinetz S-65 was used to tow heavy artillery.

Production included the KV tank from 1941,T-34 tank from 1942, KV-85 tank and JS tanks from 1943, and T-34/85 tank and SU-85 self-propelled field gun from 1944 By 1945 the plant had been awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Star, and other honours for its efforts in helping to defeat Nazi Germany.

Here you can see a  “Stalinets” tractor which sank in the winter of 1942 in the Usoditsa lake of the Zapadnodvinsky district of the Tver region, Russia.
The tractor has now gone for restoration. It was in quite good condition with no rust, the mechanics were faultless, and the tanks had oil and fuel inside. This is a unique machine as there are now only a handful of tractors like this in the museums of the world.

Trumpeter have produced a 1:35 scale model kit of the Russian ChTZ S-65 Artillery Tractor without cab which makes an interesting modelling project. 

The following pictures show a model of the Russian ChTZ S-65 Artillery Tractor as completed by John Tolcher, "The kit is made by Trumpeter, with an engine from LZ Models. The canopy was scratchbuilt as a field modification. The model was painted with Tamiya acrylics and weathered using mostly oil paints and pigments."

See even more photos of Johns project here

Trumpeter Aerosan NKL-16 - Model Making: Learn by Doing. Part One

I'm fairly new to this modelling lark, but its something that i've always had an interest in, and having seen just how good some of these kits can look when they have been painted and made into a diorama setting, I'm always keen to give it a go. I've had a few previous attempts and limited success in the past, but I find I'm learning all the time, and they say 'practise makes perfect'.

First things first, it's important to choose a model to build that you are actually interested in, and want to make. I came across the Trumpeter Soviet NKL-16 Aerosan Kit in Hobbies catalogue, and was intrigued by its appearance. It looked almost unreal, like nothing I had come across before and, with a price under £20, I decided to give it a go.



The Trumpeter Soviet NKL-16 Aerosan Kit consists of 151 parts on 9 trees, 86 photo etch detail parts and a short piece of copper wire.

First of all I had to look on Google to see just what these amazing vehicles actually looked like in real-life, and I found photos and read descriptions about how they worked.



A further search turned up some dioramas using the aerosan which were hugely inspiring.

It appears the NKL-16 Aerosan was introduced by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was made of plywood and was powered by an aircraft engine.  Various models were built at car factories, and were always being improved. The Aerosans were organized into transport battalions.

You need a place to work. A laptray in front of the telly is probably not going to work successfully, so in my case, it was the dining room table, with a thick, protective tablecovering over it.
I quickly established that I would need a proper cutting surface, so that my knife didn't end up making holes in the table, so I purchased an inexpensive modellers' tool kit containing small cutting mat, hobby knife & spare blades, a sprue cutter ( so much better than hacking parts from the sprue with the knife), and a small file to 'clean up' the piece.

 

  Tweezers are also 'essential' for handling 'fiddly' smaller parts. 

Light Craft Fluorescent Daylight Compact Table Standing Magnifier Lamp  not only gives clear, shadow-free light which is easy on the eyes,  it gives perfect magnification allowing you to see smaller parts, making them easier to handle, glue, and paint.

Use the correct glue for the materials you are using.
Roket Rapid (Superglue) is perfect for sticking metal photo-etched pieces to plastic ( as well as the more traditional sticking fingers to forehead), but use Revell Contacta for 'plastic to plastic' applications.

 

TO BE CONTINUED . . . 

The Trumpeter 1:16 Scale King Tiger Tank

This Trumpeter King Tiger model kit is remarkable and will entertain the maker with hours of building pleasure. To mistake this kit as a toy instead of a paragon of modelling would be enormously misguided. It will provide even the most accomplished modeller with hours of pleasure due to the kit containing over 1850 high detail pieces. 

Hobbies have just released an unboxing video of this magnificent kit:

An example showing the sheer size of this kit compared to a Hobbies member! at the Hobbies Shop at Raveningham Norfolk.

To view more unboxing videos visit our YouTube page.