Syrian Army GAZ-69 in the 1973 Yom Kippur War "Bronco" 1/35th scale GAZ-69-M (4X4)

The Gaz-69 (M) 4 x 4 utility truck is a 1950s era Russian manufactured vehicle which appeared in every war-zone of the Middle-East and Asia throughout the last 50 years.  This little work-horse was the Soviet equivalent of the American "Jeep" during the cold war years.   Client  countries including most of the Arabs which received Soviet arms during this time period were equipped with various versions of this very useful vehicle.   The base model truck was used for troop transport, communications and armed reconnaisance.  One version of the GAZ-69 was modified to launch AT-1 "Snapper" Anti-tank rockets in a quadruple missile assembly on the rear of the vehicle.  Referred to sometimes as the "baby carriage" for it's peculiar resemblance ,this version appeared with Egyptian forces in the Sinai desert during the 1967 Six-Day war. The Israelis captured some of them in 67 and integrated these into their own reconnaissance forces.  At least a few were seen in Israeli war-paint during the Yom Kippur war.  This post will display one particular GAZ-69 radio truck that I had the opportunity to check out on the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.  I built it bare without the radio masts,  but may continue working on it in future to bring it up to photo accuracy.  The two photos below were unfortunately the only ones that I snapped that day but it shows to good effect the camouflage scheme and colors and also my friend Etan, when he was very young.  We are both now in our late fifties and he was glad to hear from me (after so many years), to tell him I was publishing his photo. 

The following photos show other Syrian GAZ-69 vehicles of the same type during the 1973 war.

The Model: Bronco GAZ-69 (M) in 1/35th scale. This little gem of a model is very delicate and complete. It comes with a full engine compartment (with engine of course) undercarriage & chassis assembly.

The photo-etch is minute and requires a surgeons touch to manipulate into position.

The following photos show off the model, after assembly and paint and to the best of my ability (at the time) weathering. I built this model to eventually appear in a multi-vehicle diorama so expect to see it again some time soon.