BM-8-24 KATYUSHA
Scale 1/35 - Styrene
A BM-8-24 Katyusha rocket launcher mounted on a surplus T-60 tank chassis.
THE MODEL
KATYUSHA
The 82mm multiple rocket launcher module was initially installed on ZiS-6 Truck chassis, but with the arrival of the autumn ‘rasputitsa’ (roadless season) in 1941 most dirt roads became mud trenches, uncrossable by trucks. At the same time the ZiS truck factory near Moscow had to be evacuated to Miass in Siberia.
THE T-60 CHASSIS
A cooperation between several factories started to install the 82mm 24 missile launcher to turretless T-60 tanks. The GAZ factory (and to a lesser extent plant No38) produced the chassis, which were delivered to plant No113 that installed the rocket launcher along with sights delivered by plant No69.
A LACK OF SOURCES
The BM-8-24 has not been well documented at all. The total amount built during the war is largely unknown and almost all surviving photographs are either of covered up vehicles, travelling to the front, or of destroyed ones abandoned in the field.
RESOURCES
BOOK
Kinnear, James and Pasholok, Yuri Igorevich. Red Machines 1: T-60 Small Tank & Variants. Canfora Grafisk Form, 2017.
KIT
MiniArt. BM-8-24. 1:35