BT-5 Soviet Cruiser Tank

Manufacturer: Modelkrak(Kit No. T001)

Finally we have an exampleof this historically important vehicle in 1/72nd scale. Althoughit is not injection-molded, and not readily available in the US,Modelkrak has done an outstanding job in the production of thiskit. I hope their kits soon find more distribution here in theUS.

The model is made from sixresin and about 40 cast metal parts. The resin parts include themain hull, turret, cannon, exhaust muffler, and two forwardfenders. All of the parts are exceptionally detailed and wellcast. The quality of the resin is top-notch, with no air bubbles,and superbly under-cut detail. There was a large block of resinon the bottom of the hull to be removed, and another on thebottom of the turret. I found it easiest to grind these off witha mototool. The other resin parts had only small attachmentpoints to their pour blocks. All hatches are molded closed; theheadlights are molded onto the forward fenders; there is veryfine rivet detail, and some pioneer tools are molded directly tothe hull. The engine air intake vent is very well represented, asare the forward and rear towhooks, and all other details, too.

The metal parts includethe bogie wheels, tracks and two support axles for the idlerwheels. Each pair of bogie wheels is made from two separatewheels, one with a pin for attaching to holes in the hull, andone needing a hole drilled through it to accept the pin. Theholes in the hull also needed to be cleaned out some and deepenedwith a drill. The tracks are a joy to work with. There are abouta dozen lengths of track, each composed of eight or so links (Iforgot to count them before construction). The links are large,so it is very easy to form the lengths of track into theappropriate shapes for attaching to the wheels and simulatingtrack sag. There are also extra track segments; I glued some ofmy extra links to the rear hull for spares.

I encountered two problemsduring the construction of the kit. First, the holes in the hullfor the bogie wheel pins were too close to one another for thesprocket wheel and the rear-most bogie wheel (on Soviet tanks,the sprocket wheel is in the rear, and the idler wheel in thefront). I had to cut off the pin for the sprocket wheel, andglued the wheel further back on it's axle mounting to allow for asmall gap between the wheels. It was a very weak attachment,without the pin glued into the hole, but the metal tracks,attached with a lot of super glue, add plenty of support.

The second problem I hadwas with the front idler wheel. There are two axle pieces whichmust be glued to the hull, and then the wheels glued to theseaxles. The instructions are very unclear as to the placement ofthe axles. After looking at some somewhat-helpful photographs, Iglued them in what I thought was the correct position. After Iglued on the idler wheel, and then the fenders, I realised thatthere was very little room between the fender and the wheel forthe tracks to fit. After carefully inserting the tracks betweenthe wheel and the fender, the fender is pressed down onto thetracks, which is quite incorrect. Photographs show a substantialgap between the tracks and the fenders.

Aside from those twodifficulties, construction was very easy. I spent a good deal oftime trying to smooth over the line where the front fendersattached to the side fenders, only to notice in photographs(after the fact) that there was supposed to be a pronouncedline/ledge where the two fenders connect. So if you decide toattach the fenders, don't bother trying to make the attachementpoint disappear. I say "if" you use the fenders,because many BT-5's did not have the fenders attached, so theseare optional parts.

With the exception of thesprocket wheels, Modelkrak did a great job in the spacing of thebogie wheels, i.e., there is supposed to be a large gap betweenthe middle sets of wheels, and the two rear-most wheels are veryclose to each other. Also, they correctly included wheels withdifferent hubcaps for the forward-most pair of wheels. Be sure toget these right when attaching the wheels.

There are no decalsincluded with the kit, which is not a major problem consideringthat most pre- and early war Soviet tanks were unmarked. Thereare two marking schemes presented in the instructions: one forthe Finnish Army, 1st Tank Battalion, Carelia 1941, and thesecond for the Republican International Tank Regiment, Teruel,Spain, 1937. The instructions don't state it, but both vehiclesshould be painted green. The Finnish tank has the Finnishmarkings on the side of the turret, and the Spanish tank has theRepublican, three-color stripes on the turret.

Modelkrak packs their kitsin ziplock bags (separate bags for the resin and metal parts),and boxes them in a bubblewrap-lined sturdy cardboard box. Evenwith such good packaging, there were a few broken parts in mykit, mainly fender pieces, which were easy to fix. Thanks forusing the zip-locks, Modelkrak.

The final model is superb.The detail is much nicer than any injection-molded kit I've seen,and accuracy of the kit is perfect, from what I can tell using mylimited references (a small Russian book on BT tanks). I haveseveral other Modelkrak kits, and can't wait to build them too.