BT-7

 

BT is the abbreviation of the Russian term for “fast tank”, with the BT-7 being the last in a line of Soviet fast tanks designed during the 1930’s.  Each tank in the series incorporated the Christie type suspension – as designed by J. Walter Christie. 

 

During the Spanish Civil war the BT-5 tanks proved successful against the opposing light German and Italian armor used by the Nationalist.  In 1939 the BT-5 and BT-7 tanks proved their combat success in border skirmishes with Japan, again outclassing the lighter Japanese tanks. At the outset of World War II the BT-7 was employed with success during against Polish forces during the Soviet invasion of Poland, but by the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 – Operation Barbarossa – the BT-7 was critically obsolete.  As a result, large numbers of the vehicles where either lost in battle or abandoned by their crews during the first year of the campaign with very few surviving service beyond 1942.  

 

 

 

 

 

I recently had the opportunity to build a copy of the soon to be released Tamiya BT-7.  The full article will be featured in the October 2010 issue of Military Modelcraft International.  In the interest of preserving the integrity of the article I wll postpone adding detailed text of the project at this time.  In the meantime please enjoy a few excerpts and photos from the project.

 

Rather than opting for the more traditional single piece tub hull, Tamiya has engineered a double side-wall assembly, along with a separate floor, nose and rear hull.  Internally, a support frame is provided to help keep everything square and tight.  Although this sounds complicated it all fits together quite easily and quickly the vehicle begins to take shape.  The kit also provides a handy little jig for use when installing the suspension to ensure that the arms are properly aligned.  Speaking of which, the suspension arms are designed to be attached in fixed positions with the use of pins, although it wouldn’t be difficult to show the suspension articulated if one wished to do so. 

 

 

If it’s Russian then it must be green….well, not exactly.  One evening while looking on the internet for references I came across a color plate showing wonderfully striped vehicle belonging to the 24^th Tank Brigade operating near Lvov, Poland during the Soviet invasion in 1939.  Perfect; I had my vehicle reference and now it was time for paint. 

 

As usual I begin by applying an overall primer layer to give surfaces a nice, even finish for the steps that follow.  The color layers began with an overall base color of Tamiya XF-11 J.A. Green followed by an application of a lighter shade of green made by adding XF-4 Yellow-Green and XF-57 Buff to the J.A. Green color.  In each case the Tamiya paints are thinned using Tamiya lacquer thinner to the mix.  The lighter colored camouflage stripe was painted using a mix of Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow and Yellow Green while the darker stripe was painted using Tamiya XF-69 Nato Black. 

I began the weathering by applying a mixture of MIG Productions Abteilung 502 Shadow Brown and Light Mud directly into all of the nooks and crannies of the vehicle.  And then with a soft brush I feathered the paint and removed any heavy, unnatural accumulations.  Although a somewhat subtle effect, I feel that this is an important step in creating a certain weight and depth to the final presentation.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Print – Military Modelcraft International, October 2010

 

 

 

   

 

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