Written by 2:12 pm Previews

Preview: 1/72 Gran’ Ltd C-75 (SA-2 Guideline)

Kit Info
Manufacturer: Gran’ Ltd
Scale: 1/72
Media: Injection
Parts: 32
Price: Rp. 140,000

The Subject
The Lavochkin OKB S-75 (Russian С-75, NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a high-altitude surface-to-air guided missile (SAM) system of the Soviet Union and is the most widely deployed and used air defense missile in history.

The SA-2 was the main reason behind the development of electronic warfare strategy and dedicated aircraft during the Vietnam War. The Wild Weasel program was the direct result of the US Air Force suffering heavy losses from SA-2 batteries.

The SA-2 is currently deployed by as much as 35 countries although it’s starting to be phased out by more modern weapon systems.

The Kit
Gran’ Ltd is a Russian company that produces mainly Russian/Soviet subjects. So I’d be forgiven if I’ve never heard of them. That’s because I don’t collect much on the subject. All this changed when I saw this kit in the shelves. I’ve never heard of the SA-2 being offered in 1/72 scale. The most common scale available for this subject is the 1/35 Trumpeter. Since this one is in 1/72, I just gotta have it. I mean come on, this was the one weapon that made the USAF develop the Wild Weasel program! And it’s in the same scale as my Electronic Warfare aircraft collection. Who can resist?

So anyway, the kit only includes the missile and the launcher. I would have preferred if they included the Fan Song guidance radar but this would have to do. There’s only 2 trees of parts. Details are all raised and everything is cast in white. Parts detail is good even though the panels are raised and the casting quality is reasonable good. There were some flash on the parts but I don’t see any major sinkholes. Nice.

The showcase itself is the missile. It measures about 15cm and is huge compared to the launcher. Looking at its size, this missile must have been a fearsome sight to pilots when it was heading toward them. This missile is easily 3/4 the size of an F-16.

The instructions are pretty straightfoward and is simple to follow. There is a history of the SA-2 on the front page in both Cyrillic and English although I must say, the English isn’t that good. There are no decals included but they offer coloring guides for 4 schemes. 3 of the schemes have some sort of camo pattern on them but they only show one side of the SA-2 so some guesstimation is needed.

The launcher might be small, but the sheer size of the missile should make this into an impressive kit. Who wouldn’t like a model of a giant missile anyway?

Preview courtesy of my wallet

(Visited 241 times, 1 visits today)
Tags: , , , , Last modified: 26 February, 2020
Close