Editor’s Note:
We at Die Cast X naturally tend to think of the diecast industry in terms of models made in America, as well as many produced for Asia and Western Europe. But the love of precision replicas knows no borders, so British author Richard Young has collaborated with Russian model expert Dmitriy Lisin to show a selection of models of Soviet-era Red Army trucks manufactured by the LOMO company in Russia.
The LOMO company (Leningrad Optical Mechanical Obyedinenie) is mainly concerned with the manufacture of optical lenses and optics-related instruments for a wide variety of applications. Founded in 1914, in what is now Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), LOMO optical products are exported worldwide. However, during the turmoil of the USSR’s collapse, LOMO found itself struggling with reduced demand for its optical products. In 1991, Alexander Shemarinov, a prominent Russian model expert, convinced the company that there was money to be made in manufacturing diecast replicas. They began producing high-quality 1:43 scale models of vehicles based on ZIS, ZIL, and GAZ chassis from the 1930s through the 1960s, few of which have ever been seen in the West. In recent years the output of models from LOMO has been greatly reduced, presumably because the company’s optical business takes precedence, but small quantities of models
