The Joy of Modeling: "Good Smile Company" Corners market on 1/150 Scale Soviet Soyuz and Erector

Good Smile 1/150 Soyuz Launch Vehicle and Transporter Model Kit Review

Great artwork of missile and erector. Relax.

Apparently humans in the west don’t care about the Soviet Space program. There is little awareness, few kits or reference. I used to be one of these people, but that changed a few years ago when my interest in things Soviet expanded to include space vehicles. They were so weird, like mechanical insects. I didn’t know what end was supposed to be the front or where the occupants sat. And yet, I could tell you what the weld seams look like on a 43’ hexagonal T-34 turret. Yes, sad, in so many ways.

A very nice unboxing experience.

So, I bought a few books (there are only a few) and started to figure this thing out. There are only a few kits out there and all the plastic ones have issues (or conversely, all the modelers of these kits have issues). Mostly they are inaccurate (the kits not the modelers). New Ware makes a resin 1/144 R7 in several flavors as ICBM, Gagarin’s ship or a later Soyuz. The New Ware one is the most accurate, but as a resin kit is expensive and tricky to build. I recall cursing a lot. Aligning the strap-ons and shackles is no simple task.

Earlier this year I discovered this kit by “Good Smile”:

Fresh from the factory.

This is an odd kit, definitely seems to have been made as a result of losing a bet. It has that Japanese gift ware provenance, I was half expecting to find an anime version of a Russian cosmonaut (cosmonaughty?) holding an empty bottle of vodka while sitting on a super deformed transforming AK-47. But alas, no. Only rocket bits inside.

Nice pics but the words no good for me.

The instructions are flashy and in Japanese. Here's an experiment, I'll take my device and google translate the caption under the left most pic of the rocket launch:

The rising Soyuz rocket. The injection of the auxiliary engine for posture control is visible next to the main engine injection. The white part of the lower part of the fuselage is frost stretched over the surface of the fuselage by low temperature liquid fuel. Where to mount a Soyuz manned spaceship on Allocet. All preparatory work is designed to be done sideways. Difficult screen The truss that is visible on the left and right of the upper part hangs the rocket at the first stage middle part. This truss is a pendulum structure that closes only when the weight of Soyuz is applied. It opens automatically when the rocket leaves the floor.

Pretty much nails it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family)

For the haters their are many things in this kit made just for them. Raised panel lines, monolithic parts of complex assemblies and railings that scale out to be 12 inches in diameter. For the rest of us there is a rendition of not only beautiful Soviet rocket, but also the transporter that delivers it to the launch iris. While a bit clunky (especially the 1/150th scale part) this is a nice kit. It will build up to be a spectacular model of a little understood part of Earth's spacial exploration history. Yes my dream is to build my own R7 in 1/72nd scale safely cradled in it's erector. Oh gosh, the dog is barking or something is on fire or I'm late for something, SO GOTTA GO. Enjoy!

Here is the rest of the plastic: