Zvezda 6104 1/72 (Snap-Fit) Soviet Machine Gun Maxim with Crew 1941-1943

This is a plastic snap fit model kit, which comes unassembled and unpainted. So model paints and other basic modelling tools are additionally required. This "snap fit" model can be assembled without glue.

This kit includes four plastic model Soviet soldiers and two plastic model machineguns on wheeled carriages.

Invented in 1884, the Maxim gun was the first recoil-powered machinegun in the world. This efficient mechanism allowed a higher rate of fire than earlier Gatling-style guns. This high rate of fire built up enormous heat, however, so the Maxim gun used a heavy water cooling system to prevent the barrel from melting under heavy use. This made it difficult to manoeuvre into position. To make the weapon more manoeuvrable, Colonel Sokolov developed a low, small-wheeled carriage in 1910.

The Maxim gun was used extensively during World War I, and was fielded by both sides during the Russian Civil War in 1917. The Soviet army continued to use it as one of its primary heavy machineguns throughout World War II. They even modified the water-cooling system after 1940 to allow snow and ice to be used in place of water.

The Maxim gun weighed more than 23 kilograms and measured over a meter in length. It could fire nearly 600 rounds per minute from 250-round belts.