I bought the Zis Half-track by Eastern Express a couple of weeks ago and commented on it. I'm painting and decalling it as captured and used by Germans some time in fall 1941. It looks just fine after the initial paint job in German Grey, but I still have misgivings about the tracks. Encouraged by the potential of this model, I bought the Eastern Express Gas AA. I haven't started construction yet, but was even more impressed by this model. If the engineering of the parts is as good as the quality of the parts indicate, then this model approaches the quality of at least Dragon. Eastern Express seems to be farming out their models to other manufacterers because the Gas AA has in addition to the E.E. logo on the sprues, also the name Toko on a separate tag. And this time the parts have their numbers on the sprues beside them ( the Zis had no numbers and you had to constantly refer to a sprues diagram on the instruction sheet). The parts have a finer look to them - better texture where there should be, more pronounced wood grain on the truck body, and the fine parts such as rear view mirror bracket is REALLY fine. This model is obviously made by a different manufacter than the previous vehicle. If anyone needs a WWll Russian softskin, or one captured and used by Germans, I would recommend this model. I got mine for 13.50 Can. which comes to about $10 US - a real steal! By the way, I forgot to mention this, but these vehicles are all in 1/35th scale.

Toko was bought out by EE a few years ago. Also, ICM bought out Omega-K...etc. Lots of moving of molds in Eastern Europe.

I haven't tried any of their 1/35 stuff yet, but i really like their 1/72 armor and guns. FSM says in an article that Eastern Express is a limited run outfit. They should invest some money into infrastructure and keep on putting new stuff out. They have unique subjects, and the quality is good enough to work with without many problems.

hi with a little research you can convert the gaz a series into any one of over 100 different pre war makers who copied ford a in the 1920's , that is not counting the number of actual conversions the russians did on the gaz a, aa, aa chassis , fire engines, 12 types , trucks gs various over 25 styles identified, 6 fuel tankers , 5 water tankers , 2 loggers , ambulances still working through but 8 so far , staff cars 5 , cranes 2 , the list is growing all the time , great models i have built or converted to free french ford , russian 1942 mid production open cab fuel tanker, and now working on water tanker for field kitchen open top mid 1939 production , plenty of potential in this kit cheers ian

To Ian Sadler; OK, so if Gaz was a Ford copy, or subsidiary, did Opel of Germany also produce a vehicle similar to the Gaz? The Opel Blitz was, I believe, a copy of an American Ford model. ( At least, in the movie 'The Phantom', a truck was used, identical to an Opel Blitz, except in the close-ups there was the Ford logo on the grill in place of the name 'Blitz').