Carry on up the Urals - or when is too big too big?

I'm still on my Black Ops fad, and with an eye on the imminent release of the Two Fat Lardies modern version of their excellent Chain of Command rules I have been thinking about other stuff to go with my "Modern" Russians (ok Modern-ish). I searched the net for some soft transport - always useful to have around on a table, but there didnt seem to be that much out there - plenty of options for AFVs but nothing after that. Then my mate John came to the rescue - sort of. He had some die cast Ural trucks he had bought for a now defunct project. They were 1:43 which is a bit big, but would I like one?

Yup!

So here it is (Cheers John)

My first problem is getting an idea just how big they are. Here are a couple of shots which show versions of the real thing. As you can see, the front wheel-arch and mudguards are about shoulder high. That's a BIG truck!

My donated die cast is clearly a bit too big! However mulling over the problem John suggested that if I lowered the suspension a bit maybe that would work ? And a project was born.

I dismantled the truck and went to work with a Dremel

I relocating the axles as far up as I could - about 8mm in this case. It looks a mess from underneath but is pretty much invisible from other angles. This has brought the whole model down to a much more reasonable height - though it still looks BIG it now looks a bit more in proportion with the figures, who can now see over the mudguards without using a ladder :-)

That done the next step is to repaint it. I wanted to keep the clear plastic windows, so I removed them and sprayed the now disassembled cab and chassis in a nice Russian green before reassembling.

I have to admit I like the look of the new Ural "Lowrider" and I think it will make a nice addition to our games.