Introduction

One look at the SU100Y and you realize that the designers wanted to send a message: Mother Russia does not do subtle. It's essentially a metal house on tracks and a huge gun in the front. The internal volume suggests that besides an engine and some space for the gun and ammo, the Soviet engineers managed to fit a sauna in for the well-being of the crew.

Looking at the sheer size of the thing, one would be forgiven to think it was only a paper project, but a prototype was actually built and even used in battle.

The basis of this vehicle was the T-100 heavy tank prototype, which was a multiturreted heavy tank designed in the late '30s. It failed field trials miserably in Finland; however the hull was still useful for other purposes. After the experience of the Winter War, and the difficulties of destroying fortifications, it was realized that large caliber assault guns were needed to overcome fixed defenses. One –more successful, but that does not say much under these circumstances- such vehicle was the KV-2. The other, finalized design was the SU-100Y, which was essentially a siege-gun, mounting a 130mm gun. The vehicle went through a couple of design-phases with different superstructures and guns, but the main idea remained the same. The final version had the 130 mm naval gun (B-13-S2) stuck onto the chassis of the T-100, and was intended to demolish fortifications encountered during the Winter War. The large casemate structure is a result of necessity: it was the only way to make the ammo handling practical. Considering the size, the armor was paper-thin; this, coupled with the enormous silhouette made the vehicle especially vulnerable. It arrived too late to take part in the hostilities in Finland. The sole prototype, however, got its chance to fight during the defense of Moscow (and -despite its size and lack of armor- it survived). Fortunately it was not scrapped, and today it can be seen in the Kubinka Tank Museum. (Other sources say it did fight in Finland; I do not have access to Russian documents, so it’s difficult to know for sure.)

Review

Ostmodels offers both the SU-100Y and the T-100. These kits are made for order, so you will have to wait a bit before they arrive, but the wait, I think, is well worth it.

The SU is a relatively simple model. The whole chassis and superstructure comes as one part, the gun mantlet and gun come as a separate part, and finally the running gear and tracks. Essentially that's it. The bag consists of quite a lot of parts, but most of them are the road wheels, suspension arms and track sections. The basic construction is quite simple. While it is quite tedious to attach each road wheel to its suspension arm (more on that a bit later), it makes it possible to depict the vehicle on an uneven terrain.

All of the parts were packed into two Ziploc bags, with a small leaflet. There are no instructions included with the kit, but the construction, as I mentioned, is straightforward.

The detail in general is good and sharp. The gun is reinforced with a metal wire, which makes sure that it will not warp or break easily; I found this solution by Ostmodels an especially nice touch. The road wheels come as one unit (every wheel was made out of two wheels attached to each other). This means that the groove between the two halves needs to be cleaned up, as there are bits of resin there. The detail on the rubber tires is somewhat soft.

Due to the casting technology, there is a very thin film of resin attached to every part, which makes cleanup a very tedious process. (However no need to saw gigantic resin plugs, which is always a plus.) Once clean-up is complete, the build itself is very simple, although not without challenges. Well, one challenge, to be fair. The suspension arms are somewhat of a weak point of this model. Their ends are supposed to fit into their respective holes on the lower chassis, but this fit is way too tight; either the ends are too thick –or the holes are too small. There are no locator pins, which mean the swing arms can be positioned in any position (you can depict a vehicle on an uneven terrain, a vehicle with broken torsion bars. However, if you plan to depict the vehicle on a flat surface, then you are probably better off building a small jig that helps you position them accurately and evenly, as in the case of the Miniart SU-76. This jig would ensure that there is an even distance between the hull and the surface the model is standing on.

It’s also probably wise to insert small wires into the attachment points to make the joints more stable –and also flexible until you set the arms into their correct positions. Putting some support between the hull and the other end of the arms (where the wheels are, and hence they cover this support) is also probably a good idea, as the model itself is quite heavy. I used strong two part epoxy glue to fix the arms into their place, and small pieces of plastic to reinforce the whole running gear; if you are careful, it is not visible unless you turn the model upside down. (The wire idea came way too late in the building process, and the whole setup is a bit wobbly.)

Using online references (mainly the photos of the vehicle), and the included technical drawing, the location of parts is easy to determine. The tracks are provided as short, straight sections, and you will need to warm them up with a hair dryer or hot water, to make them soft enough to be wrapped around the drive wheels and idlers. There really is no more to say about the build –once you glue the road wheels and tracks on, you are done. The large, flat surfaces offer a lot of opportunities for weathering; the model is about the size of a 1/35 panzer I. (I used MIG’s dry transfer set for the slogan on the side.)

Conclusion

A really nice kit of a very rare vehicle.