5-Star's 1/72 Zaamurets 1916 Armoured Train

The Armoured Train was a special category of AFV used by most countries in WW1, but especially by those involved in combat on the Eastern Front, were the distances often were huge and the railway net crucial. The Russian Army used several Armoured Trains during the war, one of them the Zaamurets. The Zaamurets had been designed in 1916 on a Fax-Arbel flatbed, it had walls of 12-16mm armour and two Italian 60-hp petrol motors. It was a so called motor wagon, i.e. it could move independently, by it’s own, or pull other armoured wagon trains. The turrets could rotate 360 degrees and the 57mm Nordenfelt guns had an elevation of 10 degrees up and 60 degrees down. It was also armed with eight machine guns, and also had eight periscopes, an intercom system, signalling equipment, searchlights and range finders. It was submitted to several re-designs: in 1917 small square fire control turrets were added, and in 1918 the Nordenfeld guns were changed to 76.2mm Putilovs. During the Civil War the Zaamuret was first used by the Reds, and then captured by The Czech Legion in in Simbirsk on 22 July 1918. It was then a part of the Bolshevik armored train No. 4, Polupanov. The Czechs renamed this armored train Orlik.

For more info, check out Osprey New Vanguard no.83

Click on the pictures for an enlarged version! 

The Polish firm of 5-Star, owned by the same people that are also behind both the Modelkrak and the Armo brand - that all produces really first rate 1/72 military kits - have issued a kit of the Zaamurets. It comes packed in a sturdy cardboard box, illustrated by pics of the assembled kit. The kit comes some 80 parts, all done in a light-yellow, medium hard resin, that is easy to work with. The mouldings are excellent, sharp and crisp, with only tiny amounts of moulding flash to be seen. Many parts requires no trimming at all: you just cut them loose. And some of the parts are very delicate indeed. The way the small parts have been moulded is intelligent indeed, and requires just a minimum of cleaning up - other manufacturers should note 5-Stars simple method. The kit also contains five lengths of track.

The assembly is pretty straight-forward, and is helped by a very fine plan, that also shows the general lay-out of the kit The main parts are the big upper and lower parts of the body. After that a lot of smaller detail is added. The boggie wheels seems straight-forward enough, but be warned: they are VERY tricky to get right: the axle stubs broke time and time again, and then I had to redo the whole thing when in order to get boggie "box" in place. Exasperating! The proper order for doing this should be: first affix the wheels to the boggie (mind the brittle axles) then put the square "collar" around, and finally afix the small square protection plates to the wheels.

I have not enough reference material to be able to say how accurate it is, but it looks good to me. Note that the pics above show the Zaamurets in a later version, with new guns and with fire contraol turrets. My only query is regarding the length of the barrels of the Nordenfelt guns, but as I have no info on them, they could very well be correct. (And judging from the track records of Armo and Modelkrak, this kit as well is probably spot-on.) I will get back on this, when I find out more. Too se the kit built, click here!

You can buy it directly from Jadar Models in Poland.

5-Star first gave us that fabulous kit of the S:t Chamond 340mm Rail Gun. And now this! This is a wonderful kit, quality showing off in every aspect. I can't wait to build it. 5-Star show that they deserve their name.