Scale models for every taste. The last article about large-scale models in the USSR ended in 1987 for a reason. This year, the Minsk publishing house "Polymya" finally (5 years after writing!) Published my first book "Out of everything at hand" with a circulation of 87 thousand copies. And it was sold out in two weeks. There was also about the model, but the main thing is not this, but the fact that after that letters from all over the country were sent to me. There was no Internet, so people expressed their opinions on sheets of paper. Someone wrote that both could be done, that the volume of the book is small. And many who noticed that almost all homemade products in this book are "ready-made sets of prefabricated models", so they wrote directly to me that "you are obliged (!) To bring the matter to their release for our children!" That's even how! "Write to the ministry …" He even sent me one list of ships of the Russian fleet for production at the Ogonyok plant. This is for me to go there and "implement". Naive! After all, there was a rule: "Why make new models when new children grow up every year!" However, I began to ride. In parallel with his postgraduate studies. And to go to different offices, in Zagorsk I was in the Research Institute of Toys, met with different "commanding people". And I realized that no one needed my initiative. There is a plan, there are decisions from above … And if they and your desires coincide, then everything is ok. If not, then who needs you so smart! Everything, as Arkady Raikin said: "Personal peace is above everything!"
But it was lucky at least that now books could be baked like pancakes: 1989, Polymya - When the lessons are done, 1990, Enlightenment - For those who love tinkering. But, perhaps, the main thing is that, knowing already in 1986 that a book on homemade products and models would come out for me, I pushed the book "Tankodrome on the table" to the DOSAAF publishing house. And there the idea of the book was supported! Before that, there had already been published a book "about airplanes" - "Airfield on the table." It was logical to continue it with tanks. And while on a regular business trip in Moscow with the aim of working in the archives of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (collecting materials on the party leadership of the NIRS and NTTM), I also obtained permission from DOSAAF to work in the special storage of the library. IN AND. Lenin with foreign books "about tanks". Before that, I had permission only for "special literature", and then there were tanks !!! So I just haven't slept in the library. The first to come and the last to leave. But the photocopies gained a lot. And again, returning to his place in Kuibyshev, he sat down at the models: in the morning - a dissertation, in the evening, when the mind goes beyond the mind - models.
Then, already in 1989, I finally realized that if our models are sent "there," then everything should be different with the models. And since "perestroika" had already gone quite far, I wrote to the PR department of the British Embassy to give me the address of some British society of modelers so that I could contact him. They gave me the address, I wrote them there, and they answered me. They answered from MAFVA - the British Association for Large-Scale Modeling, and they did not just answer, but sent a bunch of model magazines - the English Military Modeling, the American Fine Scale Modeler, the Japanese Model Grafix and their small and very “home” magazine “Tanchette” … Moreover, after looking at the photos of my tanks from the Tekhnika-Youth magazine, they were amazed (T-35 on a scale of 1:30 from zero) and offered … membership in their association. “Membership fees, 25 pounds a year, we will pay for you, you just send us photos of your models and write us articles about models and modeling in the USSR. It is very interesting for us”.
I looked through everything that was sent, and, to be honest, a strong anger took me. Why do they have all this, but we have - "you fig … an Indian hut!" But what about the slogan: "All the best for children", beautiful words about the development of the creative principle of our people, about the "new historical society - the Soviet people", the bearer of all conceivable virtues, for which the party works day and night and satisfying all its needs … Not only is there a joke about “a long green one and smells of sausage” (a train from Moscow to the regions closest to it), but even such a trifle as plastic models is impossible for people to buy.
But since you were then a "person of the system", then … so that you did not think about it, and you should not have spoken about it out loud. Although it was quite possible to criticize some of its shortcomings and indicate ways to overcome them. So I wrote an article in the magazine "Rationalizer-Inventor" about what models we need, and that "not every toy is a model, but any model is a toy." And what if we want effective vocational guidance for young people (another slogan then fashionable in the USSR), then we need children's toys "Animal Farm" and "Poultry Farm", toy combines for harvesting grain, tractors with plows, and not only cranes and fire trucks (there were these toys!), but also concrete mixers, milk tankers, dolls the size of a bed and cribs the size of dolls (but there were serious problems with that!), and also furniture, houses, and for military-patriotic education … a whole fleet - not only Potemkin and Aurora, but also Slava, Varyag, Koreets, Pamyat Azov, destroyers Scary and Guarding, as well as battleship Marat and many other legendary ships our Russian and Soviet fleet. That we need not only IL-2 and MiG-15 aircraft models, but also Stal-3, UT-1 and UT-2, K-7, TB-3 and Pe-8, Ercobra and Kittyhawk …
And that the models of ships should be done with the expectation of impatient people and children from already painted parts, that is, colored plastic, so that the paint does not stink at home. And to divide the models of ships in half, and the bottom separately, and the top separately, and between these parts there is already painted waterline of a given thickness as a "stiffener".
Again, of course, this did not end with anything. And it could not have had a positive decision in those conditions. This opportunity came only after 1991 …
Here, finally, everything is truly possible! Firstly, my magazine "Tankomaster" began to appear, and the fear - "whatever might happen" before the collapsed "scoop" was so great among people that the first issue came out in handwritten! Yes, you can ask on the Web. Nobody agreed to type and print text about tanks, even models! That is, to print the magazine itself - please, but to type in any. And the artist Igor Zeynalov had to write the entire issue with a pen by hand. And they also tell me that there was no “bloody hebny”. Again, at that time, it probably did not exist. But what, then, were they all so afraid of?
But one issue came out, then the second. A circle of like-minded people arose and firms began to appear in Penza, producing models of armored vehicles, like mushrooms after a rain. For example, the "Province of Russia" company (which sold cheap wines from the sunny Anapa in Penza!) Created a small "garage" production of models made of epoxy resin, which included such rare BA samples as the German "Erhard" and the Italian "Lancia" of the First Period. World War II, as well as the famous again German tank A7V. I found a site on the Web that tells in detail how the author of the model presented here in the photograph collected it, well, you can look at it here and there. All this was packed in cardboard home-made boxes, with photo-printed "pictures" in the graphics, again by I. Zeynalov.
There was a separate private company "Major-Models" by Y. Pivkin, specializing in armored vehicles of the First World War, starting with "Russo-Balt" and ending … oh, which was not on his list."Tankomaster" also acquired a small "production" of its own: a conversion model of the T-60A tank based on the AEP model from Moldova, an armored car "Ford-T" - the first Polish armored car, and a set of figures "Rebels of Pancho Villa". To them in the kit could be ordered BA Pancho Villa and a set of cacti.
Firm "Neptune" released the game "Battle of Kursk" with miniature "tigers" and T-34 on a scale of 1: 144, and even such a large enterprise as the Research Institute of Physical Measurements, which provides instruments for our entire rocket industry, and then opened a workshop where they began to produce models of Odessa tanks … "Ni" and "Ni-2". Both models were simply wildly popular in the West, especially in sets with figurines of sailors from the "Zvezda" company. We sold them for $ 40, and there they went for $ 80!
But the PTS company began to produce figurines 1:35 from "white metal", depicting the Penza governor, the bannerman, the archers, in a word, it relied on the "local flavor". And although she did not sell a single set in the city, the benefits from their release were great. All the city authorities, going on business, took these figures as a souvenir to give to the right people. " The Americans have arrived on matters of adoption - “Are you collecting figurines of soldiers? - We collect! - In PTS them! " Well, it is clear that the "joy" was mutual from this. However, we were not the only ones who did this. The Interros company (one of the largest private investment companies in Russia) has even published two gold-edged gift books on the history of the pre-revolutionary Russian army and the Red Army. Not only were the paper and prints simply gorgeous, but also a figurine made of "white metal" was relied on for each: a hussar of 1812 for the first and a "red commander" for the second, plus a set of paints, a brush and a colorful instruction booklet. A good gift for the “right person”, isn't it ?! Well, all this was developed and molded by our craftsmen in Penza.
By the way, our Penza had a chance to become a leader in the production of polystyrene models. To begin with, it was supposed to be T-24, T-26 mod. 1937 and 1939 with a conical tower. But it was not possible to establish the production of plastic models of tanks here. Not at the Penza GPZ-24, not at the toy factory. The first thought it was expensive to order molds from the Dragon firm, but at the factory … the wages of the workers of the area rented by Muscovites were spread over … the entire enterprise. Well, what kind of quality could you talk about after that? Here is the deal and did not take place.
But in Moscow everything was different. In 1989, the history of the Zvezda company began here - at first, only a small site on the basis of the Moscow Plant of Grinding Machines. But already in 1990 the company turned into a separate legal entity, and its first products were sets of soldiers - figurines of the Red Army at the beginning of the Second World War. In 1992, Zvezda won an investment competition and acquired the Lobno plastic toy factory (Lobnya, Moscow region) at its disposal, where it launched a large-scale production. It was based on the production of prefabricated scale models of military equipment, which was initiated by the founder of the company, Konstantin Krivenko.
"He shouldn't have gone alone." The plot of the diorama is very simple: the war in the Libyan Desert. A British raider from SAS units (and they often rode camels through the desert, portraying the Bedouins) and a patrol in the Bran Carrier lay in wait for the German liaison delegate on the Kübelvagen and killed him. And now they have arrived, watch him lie on the seat of his car, and exchange impressions. I personally especially liked the dust on the glass and the traces of the windscreen wiper, as well as the artistic "holes" in it from bullets. I managed to pick up a camel from a set, right on a scale of 1:35, "Kuebelvagen" and "Bran-Carrier" - from sets from the "Tamiya" company, as well as weapons ("Bran" machine gun and "Boyes" anti-tank rifle) and helmets of British soldiers. But the figures are all conversion or not like everyone else. For example, a standing tankman is a figurine made of "white metal" from the "Ice-Trail" company, a fighter on a camel made of everything that is at hand. The tanker sitting on the bulkhead also underwent alteration, and in his butt he had a steel rod. So this diorama could well have been submitted to the international competition of conversion models and dioramas. Unfortunately, this is the only photo I have, the last that remains of a collection of 100 BTT models of "all times and peoples".
Well, then, then the matter went on by itself. I held an exhibition of 100 BTT models in Penza, and in 1998 I successfully sold all of it, because my loved ones no longer wanted to live in a “tank warehouse”. It turned out that it is much more profitable to write about tanks than to collect them, especially in our apartments, which are not suitable for such collections. Many Penza firms were redesigned, and some went bankrupt. The head of the PTS company closed his business and became a traveler, driving a car around Europe. The firm "Provinces of Russia" is now called Dera and produces beautiful wooden doors. And only Mr. Yuri Pivkin still makes models of very high quality! He does not collect, but makes crafts on a large scale by orders of various reputable institutions. This is how it happens with models and … with people.
