Self-Propelled Armored 120mm Howitzer/Mortar

Quality of the styrene parts was quite good, perhaps 'soft' in some areas but, generally quite satisfying. The photo-etched items are very well defined and the decals provided are nicely printed on thin carrier film with no trimming required however, the blue stripe on the Russian flags provided with my example are just slightly out of register.

Ample space between parts and sprues for sprue cutters is provided to ease with part removal (unlike other Eastern European manufactured kits that I have built in the past) however, the sprue gates are often larger than the parts being removed and a little extra caution is required. The photo-etched parts were easily removed from the fret with an X-Acto blade. 

There is no interior provided.

Kit Construction:
Fit of the various sub-assemblies i.e.: hull and turret, required a little extra work to assemble properly. Small amounts of gap-filling cyanoacrylate glue and putty were required to mate the parts together with some fine final sanding required to finish off the joins. Care should be taken to ensure proper alignment and 'squareness' of the hull assembly during construction.

The suspension can be assembled in either the lowered firing/air drop position (as shown) or in the optional travel position. This area was the most trying of the kit's assembly. Wheel alignment should fall into place when the tracks are installed however, I am not completely satisfied with my end results.

The photo-etched tracks are folded three times and the folds must be quite tight to each other. I recommend heating the PE to anneal the brass in order to prevent the tracks from splitting at the folds. I did not heat-treat my tracks and consequentially, I had difficulties folding (splitting) and assembling them. When assembled in the firing position, a number of links will need to be cut off.

The mortar tube and exhaust pipe were partially drilled out with a pin vise.

Additional detailing (30 parts) was done with bits of styrene strip plastic, styrene rod (stretched sprue) and brass rod.

Decal Application:
Applied with warm tap water over a thin coat of Future Floor Wax, there were no problems encountered and they reacted nicely to a thin coat of Solvaset decal setting solution. Once all had dried thoroughly, a final thin coat of Future Floor Wax was air brushed on to seal them in place and to remove any remaining hint of the carrier film.

Overall Kit Impression:
Despite some minor kit flaws and my general lack of experience building in this scale, I was quite pleased with the quality of this kit and I thoroughly enjoyed building this model. I did not check for dimensional accuracy, but to me, this model certainly looks like the 2S9 and I would certainly recommend this to the semi-experienced modeler.

The Base:
The base is constructed of scrap pine wood and measures 102 x 76 x 19 mm (4 x 3 x 3/4 in). It is sealed with an acrylic stain and multiple coats of an acrylic polyurethane sealer.

Masking was done with a low-tack drafting tape prior to the addition of the groundwork.

The Groundwork:
This is made from Sculptamold, that was mixed with water and wood glue (aliphatic resin glue). Prior to this setting up, I pressed in the track ruts, stones from kitty litter and other various bits of debris. Verlinden Static Grass was also lightly sprinkled about being set into place by diluted white glue. The dead 'tree' is a root from some unfortunate bush that was pulled up from my property. This was allowed to dry thoroughly and was inserted into a hole and white glued in place. Once the groundwork was in place and completely dry, the painting and weathering process began.

Painting, Weathering and Finishing:  
Acrylic Paints being used throughout. Winsor and Newton Oils thinned with Terponoid Odorless Brush Cleaner and Thinner were used for the wash to provide depth. Dry brushing was also accomplished with the acrylics. Berol Prismacolor colored pencils were sparingly used to aid in the weathering and a light earth shade of Bragdon Enterprises pastel weathering chalk was dusted on as well. PollyScale acrylic Flat Coat was then applied to the overall finished subject and then PollyScale acrylic Gloss Coat was applied to the 'glass' areas.

Final Assembly:
The model and the standing figure were fixed into position with white glue, touching up any gloss from the glue with flat coat once the glue had completely dried.

The name plate was made from shined K&S Engineering brass strip measuring 12.7 wide x .254 mm thick (1/2 in wide x .010 in). Lettering is of the dry-transfer type from Letraset and was transferred to the brass strip with a burnishing tool. Once the lettering was in place, the brass strip was cut to length. I then applied a strip of Avery Self-Adhesive Laminating sheet to prevent the letters from getting worn off and fingerprints on the brass strip. This was then fixed into position on the wood base with double-sided tape.

There are four felt pads fixed to the underside corners of the base.

General Info:
Developed from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, the 2S9 Airborne Mortar system was first introduced to the public in 1985 and is built on the BTR-D (stretched BMD-1) Airborne Combat Vehicle chassis. It is issued to battalion sized airborne units and is fully deployable from An-32 "Cline", Il-76 "Candid" and An-22 "Cock" aircraft. The 2S9 can be para-dropped from these same aircraft with the use of the PRSM-915 heavy drop system, and can be delivered from altitudes ranging from 300 to 1500 m (984 to 4,921 ft). It has also recently been issued to non-airborne units and is currently deployed to Chechnya.

This vehicle offers high-angle in-direct fire capabilities as well as a limited direct fire (anti-tank) capability and was originally developed to replace existing conventional type mortars and howitzers with the added anti-tank capability.

The 2S9 is fully amphibious and can swim in relatively calm rivers and lakes. When operated in this mode, a trim vane is raised at the front of the vehicle and maneuvering is accomplished by two water jets at the rear of the hull. Power can be delivered to both the tracks and water jets simultaneously to ensure a continuous movement from water to shore and vice versa.

Crew positions are: Driver (center) and Commander are located at the front of the vehicle and the Gunner and Loader are positioned in the turret. The vehicle is divided into three compartments; command - front, fighting compartment - center and engine compartment - rear.

Production at the Motovilikha Plants Corporation has been completed and the 2S9 is in service with many former Soviet States as well as with Russian Allies around the globe.

References:
JED The Military Equipment Directory
The Federation of American Scientists
Military Equipment of the former USSR
State Research and Production Enterprise

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