Rapid Fire! Gulf Wars in 1/72nd scale - Converted Frog-7 for Iraq

The Frog-7 (Luna M), ground to ground missile system, was one of the last vehicles I still needed for my Gulf Wars Iraqi army.

This vehicle exist in resin but its expensive and I wanted at least three.

Somehow I remembered not to place the missiles from the 4D Puzzle Model S-300 AA missile system inside their tubes. Without knowing I had the beginning of the Frog-7 as the S-300 missiles are similar in shape to the Luna M.

When the Fabbri/Amercom (not sure about the origin) showed up in Portugal with the name Veículos Militares the number 2 was the BM-27 Uragan which uses the same Zil-135 truck as the Frog-7.

After looking carefully at the plans the main changes are relatively easy to be done:

Take out the 16 missile pod and its support from the Uragan and use Plasticard tubing, rod and plate for most of necessary parts.

The launching ramp for the missile is in a triangular shape. Be careful with this part. I made mine 2 or 3 mm thicker and it shows.

The end of the missile (from the S-300 AA missile) had to be increased in 1 cm for proper length.

The missile elevator was the trickiest part. I burned and twisted a number of plastic parts until I got this ugly thing.

The elevator ended a bit shorter and it should be almost as tall as the launching ramp (but as the launching ramp is also too tall, maybe the elevator is not that bad... who knows...).

Three Frog-7 represent a Battalion for Rapid Fire! rules. 

With all this scratch building no Frog-7 is exactly similar to the other but the final result is Ok for me.

One of the most difficult parts in these diecast vehicles is to open them and extract parts as it is needed here. Find a screwdriver that fits ONLY and tightly in one of the three sides of the triangle and apply some strenght in order to unscrew it.  

Most of the faults are hardly seen after priming.