Salute 2021 - Rubicon purchases

 There was (excepting the Semovente) a bit of a theme on my Rubicon purchases

I also bought the other Valentine kit but it was in a different bag so did not get photographed.

I did forget to buy the Sherman V, maybe at the next show.

US T1E2 Light Tank

The US Light Tank prototype T1E2 was one of a series of Light Tanks built in the late 'twenties and early 'thirties.

The T1E2 was the third prototype model and had the engine in the front with the turret and the crew compartment at the rear. The turret was armed initially with a short 37mm gun and a coax 0.30" Browning, but was later armed with a long barrel 37mm Browning semi-automatic gun.

The Empress kit comprises a resin hull and turret, and white metal track units and gun barrel.

I managed to irreversibly bend the barrel, so decided to make my own out of brass rod.

 The track units do not have proper fixing points, so I drilled a couple of depressions into the hull and the track unit so the epoxy resin would have a better grip.

The gun barrel, recuperator and coax machine gun were made from 1.5mm diameter brass rod.

A  set of ammunition boxes from the Rubicon Allied Stowage Set was cut in half and fixed to the rear mudguards.

 Once assembled, the tank was given an undercoat of Citadel Chaos Black spray, followed by Humbrol 155 Olive Drab spray. The tracks were painted with a wet blended mix of Vallejo black, Vallejo Black Grey, and Army Painter Chaotic Red.

This was dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green dry brush paint. The track etc was retouched with a similar mix.

 The decals were from the Italeri 28mm scale M3 Stuart kit. I am not convinced about the US flag.

A comparison with the Carden Loyd MG carrier.

It now needs some weathering.

I did have a zoom in on the flag:

That is a fifty star flag, someone did not do their research.

Comets at IWM Duxford

There are two A34 Comet Tanks at IWM Duxford. Both of them show Post War modifications.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank - part three

So the T26 is painted. There is some final weathering to be done, but that will wait until the rest of T26s have been (bought,) painted.

Comparison with the T34/76.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank - part two

Having assembled the tank, started with some minor modifications.

The rear turret machine gun was deleted from the T26 design in January 1939. I cut the moulding down as flat as I could, then filed it further flat. Milliput was then used to smooth the rear surface of the turret. One of the structures on the turret roof does not appear in the illustrations I have found. I removed it with a combination of a sharp scalpel and wet and dry.

What appears to be the commander's periscope has an open top. I drilled it out to 1.5mm then shaped a piece of 1.6mm rod to fit. Holes were drilled on the mudguards and 1.0mm plastic rod added to help secure greenstuff soft stowage.

The tank was undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black. This was then sprayed with Humbrol Dark Green.

Rubicon T26 Soviet Light Tank

Rubicon released the the Soviet T-26 light tank last year. It is an extremely versatile kit, allowing you to build one of ten variants.

It comes in the standard Rubicon box.

There are three sprues. This is the chassis sprue.

This sprue has the mid series turret, plus the wheels for a Soviet heavy armoured car which also uses the same turret.

The final sprue has the twin turrets and the late model turret

There is an extensive instruction booklet and a set of decals.

I decided to build the late model 1939 version.

The turret features the mounting points for the aerial.

It also has the rear ball mounted machine gun.

Now, in January 1939 the machine gun on the back of the turret was deleted.

Warlord Games IS-2 Heavy Tank - basic build

So, the Warlord Games / Italeri IS-2 Heavy tank is now assembled.

As a kit, it has a number of issues. As mentioned earlier, there is one typo in the instructions. The turret assembly lacks reliable support. The joins are too fine for the thickness of the plastic. The mantlet assembly does not align properly.

The four fuel tanks have not been installed yet because they are difficult to align properly. The connections look more like flash than a properly engineered join. The fuel tanks on the Rubicon T34 kits look crude but they do align correctly. Neither of them have the end handles.

Plastic hand rails are provided, however I made them out of 0.7mm brass rod. They are all the same size, and I used the 24 inch handrail part of the 4mm to the foot scale hand rail jig.

 I did lose the turret lift tab from the back of the turret, so I made one out of plastic rod. A dwarf aerial was added in front of the cupola. The cupola is rather crude, a number of features have been simplified. On the real tank, the AA gun and the hatch assembly would appear to be able to rotate. The loader's hatch requires quite a bit of modification to make it fit flat.

The upper and lower hull need to be joined before the rear engine plate can be added. This means my normal technique of keeping the upper and lower hulls separate for painting will not work.