Italeri ISU-152 Self Propelled Gun
Tamiya Russian Tank Crew at rest
By Mark Nebbeling, IPMS/West Michigan

The ISU-152 assault gun was basically an artillery piece in a big metal box placed on the top of a
KV-1 frame. In 1942 the Russians found that they needed to support their infantry in a more
mobile means than having a line of guns setup four miles behind their lines. So they came up with
a series of different guns placed on the same KV chassis.

The ISU-152 by Italeri is actually a kit that has been produced by Zvezda of Russia for about 15
years. In the past if you wanted any of these kits you needed a pen pal in the Soviet Union, but
that is over now and most of these kits are easy to find.

The kit is actually pretty good except for the tracks which are vinyl and in two pieces so they can
be rather worrisome. The kit goes together very fast and without any major problems. There is
no interior so I put a piece of .004 plastic card stock inside to cover over all the holes and
openings, which also placed a floor for the interior. All the hatches can be placed in the open or
closed position.

I cut off the front and rear fenders and replaced them with .004 aluminum printing plates which is
thin and easy to manipulate. I painted my model olive drab in accordancewith Concord book:
Stalin's Heavy Tanks 1941-1945.

Now came the hard part; the TRACKS. There wasn't enough to go around, let alone sag like I
wanted. I also couldn't find a track set of single links for a Stalin tank so first I warmed them up in
warm water and stretched them slightly. I don't advise doing this more than once as the tracks
will probable brake. Next I glued the two sections together with super glue and then over coated
that with rubber glue and then put a staple in them to hold them together. Finally I pulled them
down slightly and put a piece of thin medal rod on top to give the tracks a slight sag. Believe me;
if you can find single link tracks get them, they're worth it!

The next thing was figures: usually I have to make mine out of spare parts and modify, modify,
modify. But lucky me, Tamiya has just released a group of figures (MM214-Item 35214**600)
which are the best I have seen by any manufacturer to date. There are six figures and believe it
or not one is finally a woman! The figures are nicely molded and are posed in a multitude of
positions. The thing is that all the figures, except the driver can be placed on the front and inside
looking out, without any modification! And the girl; that's what the crew is looking at, she is doing
a little victory gig, just like in the propaganda photos. It all falls together just right.

The ISU-152 goes for about $26. A DML which is comparable and has nice single tracks which
can be sagged goes for about $30. You make the choice. The figures will fit with either kit and
probably with just about any other Russian tank in one way or another so I'd say the Tamiya kit is
a must for armor builders. Price $9.00.