The T28 was the standard
medium tank in the Soviet Army until 1941. Based on the multi-turreted British
AIEI Independent, it carried a 76.2mm gun in the main turret, and two auxiliary
turrets with 7.62mm mgs. The vehicle was withdrawn from duty early during
the war in the East, as it was hopelessly underarmoured.
The model is made by Red Star models. Detailing is a bit simple and flat, so collectors may want to perform some extra detailing. There was not a lot of excess resin that required filing, but some air bubbles needed filling. Wargamers will find the 1/76 resin model a sturdy addition to their armies.
MODELKRAK from Poland produces this resin and metal kit of the Soviet BT-2 Fast Tank. This vehicle is a direct descendent of the American T3 Christie tank. A novel design feature was the large wheels over which the track lay, so return rollers were not needed. This type of suspension was of course incorporated into the excellent T34 design.
The kit went together nicely after removal of some large resin blocks. The suspension is metal, and the small track sections can be bent into shape around the wheels. This takes a bit of work; the wheels do not have locating pins to accurately position them onto the hull, so a bit of fidgeting to align the wheels is necessary. The end result is worth the work, being superior to one-piece track assemblies. The camo scheme I copied from one once depicted at the distributor "Jadar-Models" website.
Numerically the most important tank in the Soviet arsenal in 1939, the BT-7 "fast tank" was actually developed from the American M-1931 Christie tank. It was in service when operation Barbarossa started in 1941, and was found to be under-armoured and was replaced by the T34.
This is an OSTMODELS production. Soviet armor is their specialty, and the kits are really of high quality and fun to assemble.
The model is another resin 1/76 kit from OSTMODELS. This company actually carries quite a variety of T26 variants. Nowadays SKIF and UNIMODELS are maiking nice plastic kits of the BT and t26 series of tanks.
Inspired by the British "Independent"
and French Char 2C "breakthrough" tanks, the Soviet T35 heavy
tank mounted no less than five turrets; the main turret carried a short
76.2mm gun. Two smaller turrets carried either 37 or 47mm guns, and the
two remaining turrets carried 7.62mm mgs. A total of 61 T35s were produced,
with 48 being operational and the beginning of the war. This behemoth weighed
45-50 tons, was over 11ft. high and almost 32 ft. long, and carried a crew
of 11!
This 1/76 scale resin kit was made by Peter Bunderla of RESIN MASTERS, which is now carried by OSTMODELS. This is a high quality kit with excellent casting, and went together very nicely. I added the struts holding the side skirts and the aerial mounted on the turret. I also added posts to the turrets and drilled holes for them in the hull to allow the turrets to traverse.
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