I recently reviewed ICM’s 1/72 offering of this iconic truck. When this version came up for a review, I could not say no to the opportunity to review it. According to scalemates.com, the original tool came from ICM in 2014 and has been reissued many times since. Given the age of the mold, there is a little flash, and the parts are crisp. As many ICM fans know, ICM plastic is on the soft side. It is easy to clean up, but you cannot be too aggressive when you clean up the pieces. There are ten frames, with two of them being doubled. There are two frames for clear parts and two sets of what I am assume is rubber for tires. There is a separate frame for the driver. The instructions are typical ICM, with exploded diagrams and paint call outs with ICM paints. Color-equivalent charts can be found online, so if you do not have ICM paints, you can easily find replacements. There are decals and markings for one vehicle in the 2022-24 time frame. The scheme is the digital camouflage that is often seen on Ukrainian vehicles.

The first step is building the chassis. If you have built any ICM vehicles, you often have to build the chassis one piece at a time; that is, the cross members are assembled first, followed by the chassis rails. The attachment points are well designed, and everything, for the most part, snaps into place, though test fit before gluing. The basic chassis went together quickly and was perfectly square. The engine comes next. It is a bit short on molded in detail, but looks nice when fully assembled. To avoid fit issues, I attached the exhaust pipe before I put the engine in the vehicle. While it worked, maneuvering the engine into place, I snapped off the drive shaft. I was able to glue it back together, but please take care if you choose to assemble components out of order. The remaining parts of the chassis went in smoothly. Because of the qualities of the ICM plastic, even though it can mold very fine details, those details often break without much effort. For example, part A 66, the brush cover over the winch on the front bumper, was very finely molded, but it broke after just a tiny bit of flex. Otherwise, there were no problems.

Before moving on to assembling the body, the last bit of the chassis is the axles. They are in multiple parts, so pay attention to not only the order of assembly, but also the relative directions of some of the parts. For the rear axles, pay particular attention to the direction of parts A65 and A73. If they are not put in the correct direction, then the rest of the suspension will not fit properly. Once assembled, they pop into the chassis with ease. From there, it is time to assemble the body.

The cab is in separate pieces, so care must be taken to ensure that each part is correctly placed to avoid gaps of the ill-fitting cab. Everything goes together fine. Be gentle with the frames for the seats. If you are too aggressive with your sprue cutters, they could break. While the plastic molding is fantastic, I have found that the composition of their plastic, makes for very fragile parts. Time and again, grab handles, in particular, break. The various pieces of the cab went together well. I broke from the instructions and glued in the front windshield prior to putting on the roof of the cab. Given how fragile ICM plastic can be, I wanted the windshield frame to be stiff rather than flexible. The windshield solved that issue. Once the windshield was in, the roof went on securely. When it comes to mating the cab with the frame, there are four tabs, two on each side. Unfortunately, two of them had to be cut so the frame would rest solidly on the chassis. Not sure if it is the kit or the operator area. Once the cab was on the frame, it was time to work on the larger cab.

The larger cab went together without an issue at all. All four sides and the roof went together without an issue. Where I encountered issues was attaching the frame rails to the bottom of the cab. The illustration that shows the bottom of the vehicle does not match the plastic piece. Those attachment points for the rails simply do not match the drawing. After several failed attempts at placing them in, what I thought, was the correct position, I threw in the towel and glued them directly the chassis. For this particular model, that seems to be the best strategy. I enjoy ICM kits and this is the first time that I have seen such a mismatch between parts and instructions. Nevertheless, after dry-fitting the larger cab, it seems to fit. Naturally, some of the other attachment points for parts that go on the underside of the cab were missing as well, but they were considerably easier to install. I left most of the windows out until the entire kit was assembled.

Once the major components were done, I painted them separately. I have some ICM paint from another project, but given the size of this truck, I substituted Tamiya paints for the exterior color. The interior of the driver’s cab I used ICM 4BO Green (1073). The chassis and underside of the driver's cab were painted Tamiya NATO Black (XF-69). It is not pure black but black with a blue tone. I have come to prefer using that rather than straight flat black. The exterior of the vehicle, I used Tamiya NATO Green (XF-67). I used Tamiya Clear to gloss the surface. The decals are typical of ICM. They are thin, so take care when you are putting them down. Unfortunately, only the left side of the vehicle is featured in the painting instructions, so I had to guess as to what decals went where. As you can imagine, I came up with my own pattern.

This is another winner from ICM. Despite the age of the mold, it goes to together, for the most part, without any real issues. My only challenge was how brittle the plastic was when it came to small pieces, such as grab handles or supports. They either broke on the sprue or when I was handling them. I have noticed this in other ICM kits. While I really like the softer plastic that is traded with a degree of brittleness. I was going to build the driver. Unfortunately, the torso disappeared (probably the cat!?), so all I can say is that his legs and feet look great! I have really enjoyed ICM kits and heartily recommend the ZIL truck. With careful test fitting, they go together like a charm.

Thank you to ICM and IPMS for letting me review this kit.