Russian 9K37M1 BUK Air Defense Missile System

Meng, 1/35 scale

Reviewed by Andrew Judson

Summary

Background

It is absolutely wonderful to see so many new releases hitting the market these days, especially modern subjects. Meng is well known for releasing many new subjects from the current era, and here we are presented with yet another - the Russian 9K37M1 BUK Air Defense Missile System.

The BUK missile system has been in Russian service from 1979 to current times. It is a very effective weapon system, proving itself in current conflicts, shooting down several Georgian aircraft in South Ossetia in 2008. They have also been deployed to Syria in 2012 and are still there in current times, having shot down a US Tomahawk missile in 2018, proving its effectiveness to the world. The missile is a short range weapon.

F i r s t L o o k

Meng’s new kit comes packaged in their usual large high quality box with eye-catching art work on the top.

Inside the box, one will not be disappointed at all, with ten sprues in tan plastic, a clear sprue, some soft polythene cabling, the main hull parts, a photo-etched fret with engine grilles, poly caps, and a sheet of well printed decals. In total to my count, 685 parts.

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Thumbnail panels:

The parts look to be very clean, showing nil flash, with only the usual cleaning when you remove part from sprue.

The kit instructions are typical for Meng - well drawn and 28 pages, with six pages devoted to the history of the vehicle and paints, tools etc. The rest describes construction.

Looking at the instructions, construction begins with the drive line over five steps, then moves onto the main lower hull over the next twelve steps. Care will need to be taken as its quite a busy build. The tracks in this are individual and workable, much like Modelkasten, with a jig to hold the links and pins for each side. Don’t go crazy with the glue!

Next is the weapons platform/turret over the next twelve steps, showing some very nice details.

Clear parts include lenses, windows and the track assembly jig.

Soft polythene parts are supplied for cabling and wheel attachments.

Lastly is the missile launch system and the missiles themselves covered in the last 10 steps. Again care will be needed, especially with movable parts, as the missiles may be posed lowered for transport or raised and ready to launch. Myself, I think I will choose what configuration I want it displayed in just depending on the strength of the structure, but until I build it, I will know then how strong it all is.

Photo-etched grilles are offered oin a small fret.

You have three options for painting this vehicle - Russian, Ukrainian or Finnish. There is a good colour sheet to show you the camouflage patterns and colours used, referring to AK Interactive colours.

Decals are glossy and printed in register.

C o n c l u s i o n

I think that this is a very nice model that should appeal to a wide group of people, especially those who are fans of modern Russian subjects, which I believe is a large growing group, considering the amount of kits hitting the shelves.

Another fine release from Meng.

Thanks to Meng Model for the sample http://www.meng-model.com/