Ural-375/4320 in Detail
Russian Modern 5-ton Truck and his Variants
Present Vehicle Line No. 5
Frantisek Koran, Ales Knizek, Michal Burian
Wings & Wheels Publications, ©2001
72 Pages, Softbound
ISBN 80-86416-11-9
Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl
Modern Russian armor has seen a recent surge in popularity, with excellent kits from ICM opening up a whole new world for modelers. The only problem with this recent surge of new kits is that the reference shelves are a bit threadbare when it comes to Soviet vehicles. This book helps fill a much needed gap, though, with a complete and thorough photo reference on the Ural heavy trucks, including the Ural-375 with the BM-21 Grad rocket launcher.
Like other books in this series, this title does an excellent job of documenting this widely used 6x6 truck, with over 300 photos covering seven different variants. The photos are both color and black and white and leave virtually no stone unturned as it walks you around, over, under and through the seven vehicle types. In addition to the photos there are a set of drawings showing even more variants of the 375/4320 truck, as well as some detail drawings such as instrument clusters. There's two drawings of the Ural-375 chassis and the Ural-4320 chassis, clearly showing the differences between the two vehicles. With that information, and the photos presented, you could easily convert a Ural-375 kit into a Ural-4320, or vice versa (although I think ICM provides both choices in their kit lineup, so it'd only be for you 1/72 modelers to have to convert).
The Ural 375 Grad is probably the best part of the book for me, as I have the Modelism 1/72 Grad kit and have been looking for some detail photos of the rocket assembly to detail that kit. This book doesn't let me down, either, with 17 photos of the rocket launcher alone. I'll be able to do a really good job on detailing this kit now!
The other vehicles photographed in the book are the Ural-43203 Shelter, the Ural-375 Crane, the Ural-43203 Crane, the Ural-375 Tractor, the Ural-43203 Radar Shelter, and the Ural-375 Wireless Shelter. The last two offer some very interesting modifications, with the latter having two large circular dishes mounted on top of what appears to be a standard shelter, while the former mounts a very large horizontal antenna array. Both would make for an impressive conversion either in 1/72 or 1/35. The Ural-43203 Radar Shelter was used for the S-125 Neva anti-aircraft guided missile and also for the P-18 radar range finder. There's also photos showing the insides of one of these modified shelters, this time for use as a drone controller.
As you can see, the Ural-375/4320 was a solid workhorse of the Soviet military and its allies (many of the vehicles photographed here, if not all, were Czech vehicles). The basic chassis saw many, many uses and from one basic kit you could fill your shelves with the different mods carried. If you've been wanting to build up that ICM kit, you'll definitely want to grab this title quick.
