Ukrainian Models Military Technics (UM)

Armored Self-Propelled Railroad Car DT-45

This is the second offering of over a dozen armored railroad car kits by this manufacture in their Rail Wars series of kits. According to the summary on the rear panel of the kit box this armored self-propelled railroad car, DT-45, is an upgraded and modernized version of its predecessor railroad car D-37. Developed by the Russians in 1933 to supersede the D-37 it was designed for use as a scout car running ahead of armored trains and for railroad tracks protection. The cylindrical T-26 turret with the 45mm gun and 71TK radio set with mast rod antenna was fitted to the unchanged D-37 hull. Along with special engineered equipment to allow easy transfer of the armored railroad car onto parallel rail tracks. Manned by a combination of both crew and troop members numbering seven, this armored railroad car was successfully tested but never went into series production due to, at the time, limited manufacturing capabilities. An unspecified number of prototypes were used for training up to the opening days of WWII. I was unable to find any specific information or photos on the Internet of this armored railroad car.

The instructions are the typical UM three dimensional line drawings broken into 13 steps with a history summary written in four languages, including English, presented on the first page of the four page instruction sheet, with the marking and painting guide included both on the 4th page and rear of the kit box. A generic decal sheet is included for use on both the hull and turret. Assembly steps 1- 9 will guide you through building up the rail wheels, hull and placement of the associated photo-etch parts. Step 10 is for the turret and step 11 is for the radio mast assembly with a single dimension detailed drawing to aid you in bending of the wire antenna mast and placement of the photo-etch masts on the wire antenna mast. Step 12 aids you in placement of the turret and radio antenna mast onto the railroad car hull. Step 13 gives you an overall view of the finished model with it placed on the tracks. The instruction sheets are available for viewing over on the Henk Of Holland website in the UM-Technics web page. Scroll down to find kit #602.

My kit's plastic parts came molded in a medium to light green color. The overall quality of the plastic molding is very good with almost no mold flash or misaligned parts. I didn't find any sink holes or ejector pin marks on any of the appearance side of the plastic parts. All of the plastic parts came warp free. The horn, three submachine guns and the 45mm gun barrels will have to be drilled out for added realism. The plastic railroad wheel axles look to be a bit on the weak side and it would be advisable to replace them with heavier plastic rod or brass tubes of equal or close to same diameter parts. Check the UM Technics #604 kit review article by Al Magnus for his work around solution on this problem.

The photo-etch parts sheet, metal wire for the radio antenna and three plastic machine guns came separately sealed in their own clear plastic bag. The metal wire for the radio antenna rod looks to be about the right diameter for the scale but I have no reference to check it against. The photo-etch copper parts look very detailed and appear easy to bend so be careful when removing these parts from the photo-etch fret sheet. The three machine guns are very well detailed and my examples came molded in a metallic gray plastic color.

The kit is detailed enough to make a convincing self-propelled armored railroad car but you could add rivets to the turret sides and hull body for a little extra realism. Opening of the side doors would just add that much more interest to the build not to mention added crew stowage on the rear deck. Humm, just a thought! A faded and worn out winter white wash over the olive drab base color could also be of interest in placing this small Rail Wars car in a typical harsh Russian winter diorama with figures riding outside.

With the exception of the metal and photo-etched radio antenna mast parts this looks to be a fun and easy build right out of the box for modelers at any skill level. Glad to see these often overlooked armored railroad cars being produced by this plastic injection mold manufacture for those of us that just are not able to purchase the higher priced resin railroad car kits.

Thanks UMT. Keep'em rolling!

Article Last Updated: 04 December 2009