Soviet YaG-6 truck with 37mm AA gun - 1/72

 

Name Jag-6 with AA 37 mm
Producer  Legato Armour, Czech Republic
Packing Cardboard box with box-art in color
Type of kit Resin
Quality

The kit is made of 33 resin pieces (including a copper rod) for the Yag truck and 37 pieces for the PST K-61 37 mm. a/a gun, i.e. the PST sprue of this gun (minus the wheels and the carriage). The pieces are relatively easy to detach from the sprue except for the bonnet. Generally speaking the level of detail is good, the spartan interior of the cab is well rendered. Sketches in the instruction sheet are rather clear to understand.

Instruction sheet yes
Decals yes (six-digits number)
General Impression & Note

 This kit leaves its reviewer rather perplexed. First of all it should not be defined a Yag-6 (which had two-axles) but, more properly, a Yag-10 (three axles), if ever.

I cannot verify if it is a properly scaled down Yag-10 as I don’t have adequate scale plans at hand.

The second reason of perplexity arises from the fact that I could not find any pictorial or written reference to the existence of this specific combination, i.e.Yag-10 truck with K-61 37 mm. a/a gun.

TheYag-10 heavy trucks were not built in great numbers before and during the early stage of war, and many of them were employed as artillery platforms for a/a gunnery heavier than the 37 mm, the most known combination being the one with 76,2 mm. gun.

It is perfectly possible that this one made by LEGATO was an unknown field modification, but another possibility is that LEGATO took au unfair short-cut, there being a K-61 PST gun already available on the market.

Other perplexing details: there are no seats for the artillerymen, and that is strange because in vehicles seen on military parades in the Red Square the crew travelled on the truck itself, and there are no ammo storage boxes.

Also the peculiar rounded side-racks of the 76,2 mm. version are not present, not to mention the fact that the correct positioning of the gun is vaguely indicated in the instructions. It is hard to understand how this artillery platform could rotate 360°.

No historical reference of any sort is provided in the instruction sheet, unfortunately, it would have helped a lot.

All in all, this kit looks rather like a common Yag-10 cargo truck upon which a gun had been added; in the worst case one could always omit the gun and build the truck in the cargo version.

For all the above reasons I prefer to suspend my judgement until more info on this version will be available.