Hi guys,

I'm watching HBO's Chernobyl series and noticed this scene, where a BRDM-2 RKhB passes by. Since I have the Trumpeter kit for this vehicle, I was wondering how normal would it be to see it without the flags?

Hi Ricardo,

I'm also very much interested in the Chernobyl accident, read quite a lot about it and visited the Chernobyl museum on a visit to Kiev. I was also able to get hold of a book with exclusive pictures by Igor Kostin. The book was initially censored by the government and until this day is very hard to find and the few copies on sale are expensive. I paid mine 500 euros. I'm planning to model a BRDM2 RkH-B after the Chernobyl incident, but in less than good conditions a couple of years later, abandoned in the woods around the site. You can find pictures on the net if you want.

I think that after the accident, almost all vehicles were used to transport people around, you have to know that they deployed almost 600 000 people to work the effects of the accident at some point; so lots of transport means were used, especially vehicles like this one designed to do the job.

The flags are disposable items, and would be used to indicate safe corridors through contaminated areas (mostly with chemical agents) in nature. You can find the BRDM2 RkH-A with one set of dispensers on the right rear or the B version with 2 sets either side like the one in the picture. I guess it was taken in or nearby the city of Prypiat, close to the nuclear power plant. Therefor, since flags would not work on paved roads and since the whole area was contaminated, there was no real need to indicate safe corridors since there were none.

The vehicle also carries what looks like a loudspeaker on the front right fender, which is not standard. This picture is probably taken a few days after the incident, when vehicles drove around the cities and especially Prypiat to warn the population of the upcoming evacuation which took place around that time.

You can also contact me should you have more questions or need pictures...

Regards

Here some period pics :

















H.P.

Hi,

the picture I posted is a frame from the HBO series "Chernobyl", not a picture taken during the event (which, to me, shows enormous attention to detail, as they used this particular version on the show).

I think I saw a YouTube video filmed during the incident, where the flags were in storage position and covered with what seemed a canvas "backpack" like in the photos posted by Henri-Pierre, but I can't find the video anymore.

I think I'll builde the vehicle as it's shown on the TV series, as some of the photos above show it would not be entirely wrong.

The last picture in my post is apparently a vidcap from a 2006 documentary called The Battle of Chernobyl :

https://www.imcdb.org/movie_1004509424-The-Battle-of-Chernobyl.html

On Youtube :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GTvaW34O0

H.P.

More BRDM-2RKhB pics from Chernobyl:

https://www.drive2.ru/b/2721638/
https://pripyat-city.ru/photo/191-likvidaciya-avarii-na-chaes-chast-i.html
https://pripyat-city.ru/photo/208-likvidaciya-avarii-na-chaes-chast-ii.html

The use of late BRDM-2RKhB modification is correct, both late and early ones were deployed to the Chernobyl Zone.

Issues concerning the particular vehicle shown in HBO Chernobyl posted in this thread:

1. The vehicle appears too clean, even without dust.
2. It lacks tactical insignia, which almost always were present on BRDM’s deployed to the area: typically, three-digit numbers and (not for all vehicles) lettering “ZONA” (“zone”) in white circle; though the latter appeared later, after the moment shown in this frame, through the liquidation process itself.
3. The turret MG is in place, though it is known and confirmed by photo material that all the armament was dismantled from these vehicles, there was no need for it.

Thanks Michael.

I'm thinking how I should tackle the removal of the MG, since I don't have any clear photos of what it should look like.

Maybe just cut the MG from part J3 and drill it.



As for the markings, I don't know about any specific markings for a Chernobyl vehicle, so I'll probably just use some generic numbers I can find in my stash that look reasonably close to the photos posted.

from this walkaround :

http://davehal9000.tripod.com/tankistaarmorofmodernrussiaandtheformersovietunion/id16.html




H.P.

Thanks! That's what I was thinking it probably looked like

The vehicles in Chernobyl or Pripyat would have been VERY clean. They were constantly cleaned and decontaminated, never more than that days dust and mud... FWIW.

In the book Chernobyl: history of a nuclear catastrophe there’s a story of the crews of the Hind-RKhRs that no matter how often they washed their machine, it still burned the grass it sat on overnight from radiation...

Same for vehicles used in the zone, there were huge DeCon operations on going for years.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-soldiers-in-chemical-protective-suits-decontaminating-the-helicopters-23013043.html



https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-military-hardware-working-in-the-chernobyl-disaster-area-undergoing-22825613.html

https://c7.alamy.com/comp/B93P11/the-wrecked-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-accident-liquidators-B93P11.jpg

(added a photo of markings mentioned above from later in liquidation.)

And my dream for a Chernobyl model is ICM to actually release their Zil-131 Ac-40 fire truck!

I wonder how much this accident cost the Soviet Union in equipment?
Dan

I'm also waiting for that fire truck. Also, I searched for a Lada Riva in 1/35th but no luck...

CZ Model makes a resin conversion set for the firetruck.



ICM has also announced it as coming and has shown box art. Hopefully it will be here soon.





There is the Lada Niva from Balaton Modell that could be used.

This report : https://uscglobalhealth.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/2016_chernobyl_costs_report.pdf

says $.046 billion for "Disposed vehicles and equipment, activities"...



H.P.