| Date of Review |
August 2004 |
| Manufacturer |
Maquette |
| Subject |
Russian PK-43 Field Kitchen |
| Scale |
1/35 |
| Kit Number |
35003 |
| Primary Media |
64 parts (62 in light grey styrene and 2 in dark grey styrene) |
| Pros |
Interesting, off-beat kit can dress up either a diorama or a cargo truck; comes with Soviet "meramite" cans and other details |
| Cons |
Somewhat crude molding will mean extra work to get a clean model when assembled |
| Skill Level |
Basic |
| MSRP (USD) |
$6.49 |
The Soviet soldier in WWII - "The Great Patriotic War" from their point of
view - was often seen as a mythic warrior who could go for days
without food in order to smash the Nazi. Well, not quite, and
even Soviet "politruks" knew that soldiers work better with good
food and a hot meal can't hurt. As a result, they, just like every
other army, had mobile stoves and kit for providing troops with
a good meal.
This one - the Polevaya Kukhnya 43 or Mobile Field Kitchen Model 1943 - was
typical. Mounted on a 1.5 metric ton trailer chassis, it had a
big copper kettle of 250 liters capacity (about 66 gallons) heated
by a wood fire and able to provide for a company or battalion
mess. Most meals prepared would be simple - porridge, stew or
borshch (beet soup) - but as that was what many peasants were
used to, it was better than nothing.
This kit is not a bad little model, being mostly new molds with only the wheels
borrowed from the evergreen Italeri ZIS-3 gun clones out there.
The body consists of a stove section and a limber box section
with an area in between for firewood (10 sections of that are
included in the kit), as well as an optional choice of smokestack
(one section march order, two sections cooking order). It also
comes with OVM (outer vehicle materials) in the form of an axe,
a hatchet and a shovel (wood's gotta come from somewhere!) and
four "Meramite" type food cans. The concept for these date from
Napoleon who felt that men fought better with a hot meal inside
them.
The model has landing gear so it can be displayed in either march order or
cooking order. In march order, items such as this were either
hooked up to a standard limber for horse drayage or to a standardized
cargo truck such as either a GAZ-AA/AAA or ZiS-5. The latter choices
are now given a boost, as cargo trucks with nothing to do are
pretty dull subjects!
The moldings are about typical for Maquette - thicker than one would hope with
flash and tough fits. There are also no wheel hubs per se, so
you will have to come up with some. However, this can be worked
out and a nice model can be made. No markings are included nor
painting instructions. Most vehicles of the period were painted
overall Soviet Army protective green, so at least that part is
not hard.
Overall this is an offbeat but useful little kit, and one cannot complain of
it being overpriced.
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