In the second of our forays into the 1/43 world we explore a vehicle which was pretty well ubiquitous behind the Iron Curtain wherever an access-all-areas workhorse was required. You’ll have seen it on numerous Cold-War era set films and newsreels, and here it is, on my dining room table.

It’s the GAZ 69.

ГАЗ, or GAZ, or Gorkovsky Avtomobilnyi Zavod built the 69 from 1953 onwards, production soon being taken over by UAZ for a very long period of time. As well as that it was built by ARO in Romania for a spell; it seems that every company that had a go at building it ended up developing the basic 69 so that, eventually, the various versions were quite different, and better, than the original.

Universally they were powered by four-cylinder gasoline engines of little power but considerable stump-pulling might, and on such were its skills based. There were few off-road roles that the GAZ 69 couldn’t be employed in, from military gopher-wagons through to field liason vehicles. The 69 replaced the 67, which replaced American Willys Jeeps left over following The Unpleasantness.

As with the Willys, the GAZ found many a home outside military service. This model depicts a fire and rescue service vehicle. It’s one of the celebrated line of models produced for DeAgostini.

Once again I present a model to you via totally the wrong lens for the job, but the photos are OK if you squint. The model itself, though, is great. All but one of the decals are printed straight though the one on the cab door looks like it was applied in a drunken stupor. The wheels are accurate and bespoke to the model and the 1960’s tyres wear accurate treads. The accessories are hand attached, running to jewel headlamps and spotlamp, roof mounted scaffold and fuel filler. The paint is generally good and there’s a minimum of swarf or bleed on the die-casting.

The best bit has to be the roof, which is a separate plastic moulding rather than being die-cast. as a result, the grain of the fabric and the stretch and fold marks are somewhat accurately depicted and convincingly canvassy.

 If you enter the term “GAZ 69 die-cast” into one of the popular modern online auction services you’ll no doubt come by a veritable avalanche of models like this one, and if you’re a Soviet 4×4 enthusiast, and I see no reason not to be, then one of these has a rightful home in your display case.  I would rate this model Splendid out of 10.

[Close-Up Images: Copyright 2014 Hooniverse/Chris Haining]