COBI M142 Himars Set 2626

COBI's M142 HIMARS is a 1:35 model built from 604 blocks, 20.5 cm long, with an artillery crew figure and printed bricks offering a choice of Polish, American or Ukrainian markings.

Half an MLRS on wheels

HIMARS is not a new weapon. It is the launcher from the tracked M270 MLRS — the American rocket artillery system of the 1980s — cut down from twelve rockets to six and bolted onto the back of a five-tonne truck.

That sounds like a downgrade, and in firepower it is. What it buys is a vehicle light enough to fit inside a C-130, which means it can be flown to a theatre rather than shipped, and which can drive on ordinary roads at ordinary speeds instead of needing a tank transporter.

The tactic that follows is called shoot and scoot. The launcher stops, fires its six rockets in under a minute, and is moving again before the enemy's counter-battery radar has finished plotting where the rockets came from. Against an opponent whose artillery cannot reach as far, it is close to unanswerable — which is what the war in Ukraine demonstrated to an audience that had not been paying attention.

Specifications

Pieces: 604 · Figures: 1 artilleryman · Scale: 1:35 · Three marking options
Model dimensions: 20.5 × 8 cm (8.1 × 3.1 in)