ICM Ural 4320 army truck - cab.

The cab is, as mentioned before, a very nice one piece moulding. This did require a little fettling, some mould lines needed removing and others filling, care is needed but the moulding looks much better for it. I also had to replace two of the three marker lights on the roof as they were damaged, probably when the cab left the mould. A simple case of drilling out the remains and letting in some styrene rod. There's a lamp and air filter to be fitted, and I've also added grab handles behind the cab doors made from .33mm brass wire. Here it is in primer;

Like the load bed the cab was sprayed with Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform WW2. I decided to add the decals at this stage, firstly spraying the cab with Vallejo gloss varnish, then applying the decals followed by another coat of gloss varnish. This sealed the decals and has helped to hide the carrier film. To dull the finish down again I applied Testors Dullcoat from a rattlecan. At first however I attempted to brush paint the varnish locally on the cab doors, this left brush marks so I removed the varnish, and the underlying paint, then attempted to touch up the doors with the airbrush. This didn't work as well as it should, so the whole cab was re-primered and re-sprayed. Lesson learned.

The interior painted and ready to fit;

The seats are Vallejo 982 Cavalry Brown, a match for the Humbrol Satin Brown specified.

Here it is with the glazing fitted;

This was glued in place using Johnsons Kleer. Marker lights are Revel Orange, main lights Vallejo Silver. The side lights were first painted white, then the top 3/4 painted orange as per photos of the prototype, I haven't got the dividing line quite straight but its good enough (for me anyway).

Footsteps were added next after being painted separately;

The slight forward lean to the air filter is deliberate, copied from photos of the prototype.

The inner wings and radiator caused a bit of head scratching, the instructions aren't clear on how the radiator fits, but I think its right;

The radiator is nicely moulded, but cannot be seen once fitted even though I drybrushed it with light grey after painting it black to help it stand out.

Here's the cab placed on the chassis;

Looking good. I still need to fit the light lenses and mirrors, but that can wait until the lorry is in one piece.

I applied all of the decals when I did the cab. Next job will be lightly weathering the chassis before final assembly.

Paul