This is one of the newer offerings from the Ukraine based company ICM. The Zil-131 has been reboxed many times by ICM. The original tool, however, dates to the 1990s. Considering the age of the tooling, despite some very minor flash, the details are very crisp for a military truck and trailer at this scale. A note on the trailer, I cannot find any information on the trailer, so I do not know if this an older ICM mold or from another manufacturer. The kit comes in a sturdy ICM box. The sprues for the truck and the trailer are packaged in separate cellophane bags. There are two separate instruction sheets in ICM’s typical style with paint callouts in their own brand of acrylic paint. There are decals for two vehicles.

I did the trailer first, ICM plastic is relatively soft, so it is not difficult to clean up attachment points and mold lines. If, however, you are too aggressive, you could damage the part, so take care cleaning and sanding. I started with the trailer first. It went together with ease. The trailer box is one of the tightest fitting parts and went together well. I kept the chassis, tires, and trailer separate until painting.

When it came to assembling the truck, it took a great deal more deliberation than the trailer. When it comes to following the assembly instructions, the truck uses exploded diagrams which makes it rather challenging to follow. Study the drawings closely in order to understand the order of assembly. As with most vehicles, you begin with the chassis. Given the size of the parts and the age of the mold, I am suitably impressed. There is little in the way of flash. Assembly, though, had its challenges. The pieces that make up the rear axle assembly was difficult. The pieces that have the gear boxes did not fit into the hole that was provided. Each part (A8 and A7) required some surgery to nestle into their proper holes. In terms of other parts of the chassis, the exhaust system came in several pieces. All of the pipes broke. For something at this scale, individual exhaust pipes just are not the way to go.

The body of the vehicle went together without a problem. One of the things I noted, was I had to do is remove the winch and remount it on the bumper so the cab could fit firmly and square. The cab that fits on the back of the truck is easy to put together. You can tell it is an older kit given how chunky the transparencies are. The bits and pieces that fit on the cab have some flash, but go to together easily. There is a ladder provided on the sprue is longer than the body of the cab, so it must be trimmed. The roof of the cab has a slight angle to it, which means the two grills that go on top will have to be sanded and fitted before gluing so it assumes the shape of the roof and does not leave a gap. There are two railings that line the top of the cab. They don’t have positive attachment points, so you have to be careful when assembling it. Unfortunately, I lost the bumper that goes in front of the winch. Cannot find it! Also, the towing hooks that go on the front of the bumper are so small and difficult to maneuver, I opted to keep them off.

Given the small size of the kit, I decided to go old school and paint this by hand. The chassis of the trailer and the truck, as with their Soviet predecessors, can be painted black. I used Taymia XF-1. I also used it as primer for the tire hubs and a portion of the cab. I had some ICM acrylic paint left over from another project. For the body of the truck, I used 4BO Green and their rubber black for the tires. ICM paint is well suited for brushes, but it needs a slight bit of thinning. For a gloss coat, I used Future. The decals are the digital camouflage that was in vogue before the current conflict with Russia began. These are ICM decals. They are not the best, but they go on in a satisfactory manner. For an older kit, despite the fragility of many of the pieces, I enjoyed this little truck/trailer combination. If you test fit, clean the flash, it goes together well.