{"id":868,"date":"2013-11-20T06:31:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T14:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/?p=868"},"modified":"2014-03-15T07:33:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T14:33:49","slug":"bt-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/2013\/11\/20\/bt-t\/","title":{"rendered":"BT-7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>BT is the abbreviation of the Russian term for \u201cfast tank\u201d, with the BT-7 being the last in a line of Soviet fast tanks designed during the 1930\u2019s.\u00a0 Each tank in the series incorporated the Christie type suspension \u2013 as designed by J. Walter Christie.\u00a0 The BT series of tanks where also know as convertibles in that they could be driven either on tracks or on their road wheels, carrying their tracks with them.\u00a0 The rear set of road wheels where powered while the front set was steerable.\u00a0 In practical term, however, the removal and replacing of the tracks proved to be a laborious and time-consuming process, thus this option was often ignored by its crews.<\/p>\n

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During the Spanish Civil war the BT-5 tanks proved successful against the opposing light German and Italian armor used by the Nationalist.\u00a0 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 \u2013 the BT-7 was critically obsolete.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d bet that I am one of the few armor modelers who have yet to build a Tiger, a Panther, or even a Sherman!\u00a0 Nothing against these vehicles, mind you, but my taste tend to wander toward the lighter tanks and vehicles.\u00a0 So, when Tamiya announced the BT-7 my heart quickened and my fingers danced across the keyboard as I attempted to obtain one of these new kits.\u00a0 Once again help came from MMI editor David Grummitt who magically (ok\u2026he pulled some strings) was able to obtain this sample kit.\u00a0 I think that it is important for me to mention upfront that the kit that I was provided was truly a sample kit; meaning that not all of the kit parts where included nor where the instructions complete.\u00a0\u00a0 There are certain times where I was required to scratch build parts or only assume a part placement.\u00a0 Ok, enough of the introductions \u2013 let\u2019s get to building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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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.\u00a0 Internally, a support frame is provided to help keep everything square and tight.\u00a0 Although this sounds complicated it all fits together quite easily and quickly the vehicle begins to take shape.\u00a0 The kit also provides a handy little jig for use when installing the suspension to ensure that the arms are properly aligned.\u00a0 Speaking of which, the suspension arms are designed to be attached in fixed positions with the use of pins, although it wouldn\u2019t be difficult to show the suspension articulated if one wished to do so.<\/p>\n

In keeping with some of their recent releases, Tamiya has chosen to provide link-n-length tracks for the BT-7 as well.\u00a0 The tracks have nice detail on both the outer and inner areas.\u00a0 A shorter length is given for the bottom run while a longer section takes care of the upper.\u00a0 Short, three track pad lengths bridge the gaps between the end road wheels and the drive\/idler wheels while a single link sections are used to wrap around the ends. \u00a0Once completed the tracks give a fine representation of the real vehicle complete with the slight sag in the upper run. One word of caution; the tracks are connected with definite male and female connection point which may lead to alignment issues if not observed.\u00a0 Of course, the fixed nature of the link-n-length tracks would prohibit articulating the suspension unless suitable substitutes were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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The upper hull is a single part showing nice surface detail which also includes the engine louvers set in place; a nice feature.\u00a0 \u00a0Unfortunately, my early release kit did not include any of the photo etched parts required for the engine intake vents or exhausts, though the instructions clearly indicate that they will be included for the production kits. \u00a0Looking though my odds-n-ends box I found some very fine mesh screen that I used for the intake vents on the mid-section of the engine deck.\u00a0 I must say that this kit is very builder friendly.\u00a0 Included in the kit is another very handy jig designed to be used as a forming template for etched radiator cover.\u00a0 I was able to use this same jig to me help form and shape the scratch built part for the missing kit part.\u00a0 The remainder of the exhaust cover was made from bits of plastic strip glued into place over the mesh.<\/p>\n

With the hull completed the final order of construction business is the turret.\u00a0 The 45 mm gun and coaxial 7.62mm machine gun are well done and include just enough basic details to give the viewer the hint of an interior.\u00a0 The excellent views of the interior will surely reward the ambitious modeler who decides to add interior details. The turret itself is constructed from a left and right half joined at the front and rear secured by the single piece roof and on the roof is added the periscope, lifting rings and vents.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s Russian then it must be green\u2026.well, not exactly.\u00a0 One evening while looking on the internet for references I came across a color plate showing wonderfully striped vehicle belonging to the 24th<\/sup> Tank Brigade operating near Lvov, Poland during the Soviet invasion in 1939.\u00a0 Perfect; I had my vehicle reference and now it was time for paint.\u00a0\u00a0 As usual I begin by applying an overall primer layer to give surfaces a nice, even finish for the steps that follow.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In each case the Tamiya paints are thinned using Tamiya lacquer thinner to the mix.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

The subject of \u201cchipping\u201d always provokes a lively discussion among modelers with valid arguments to be made from every camp.\u00a0 From my point I believe that these marks are important to add interest and help tell the story of the vehicle; where it\u2019s been, how hard it has been used, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 In doing my small marks, however, I try to observe the \u201cless is more\u201d principal. \u00a0With this in mind I applied a limited number of chips, scuffs and scratches to the vehicle using Vallejo German Camo Black Brown, USA Uniform Green and a fine tipped brush.\u00a0 I follow this with a wash of heavily diluted Vallejo paints, in this case German Camo Bright Green and Dark Sand, to unify the chips and camouflage colors.\u00a0 This acrylic wash begins the weathering process by unifying the colors and subtly introducing a bit of fading.\u00a0 A light misting of Johnson\u2019s Future polish is used to seal the base in preparation of the finishing steps which follow.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 And then with a soft brush I feathered the paint and removed any heavy, unnatural accumulations.\u00a0 Although a somewhat subtle effect, I feel that this is an important step in creating a certain weight and depth to the final presentation.\u00a0 You may notice from the accompanying photos that I first put a dab of the paints on a piece of cardboard before using them.\u00a0 The cardboard \"\"<\/a>serves to leach out the linseed oils found within the paints resulting in quicker drying times along with a dead-flat finish.\u00a0 I follow the \u201cshadow\u201d colors again using MIG Productions artist\u2019s oils, this time working dots of green colors over the green surface colors, yellow colors over the yellow stripes and so forth.\u00a0 The results are subtle variations among the surface colors adding additional visual interest to the model.\u00a0 Once this has dried I turned to MIG Productions Washes and Filters, this time concentrating only on the smaller lines and details applying the Washes and Filters as pin washes.\u00a0 Weathering for me is not a linear process so I often will return to adding more dots, then more pin washes until I have achieve an appearance that I am satisfied with appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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When it came time to apply the pigments I wanted to explore a new (to me) application technique.\u00a0 The idea is simple enough; apply dry pigments onto areas of wet artist\u2019s oils.\u00a0 The oils serve a duel role as both a color foundation and a bonding agent for the pigments. On the BT-7 I used a mix of MIG Productions Light Mud and Basic Earth thinned with turpentine which I dabbed somewhat randomly onto the surfaces.\u00a0 A second brush loaded with pigment was used to add the pigments directly onto the moist paint.\u00a0 As one would expect the paints and the pigment colors mix together resulting in very pleasing effects.\u00a0 Once dried these color patches are permanent and provide an excellent foundation.\u00a0 I continued using the pigments using my familiar application method of applying the pigments wet using a small brush; the pigments \"\"<\/a>having been first dissolved in turpentine.\u00a0 I enjoy using the wet method as it offers a lot of control over the placement of the pigments.\u00a0 From time to time I will use a soft, dry brush to soften and edge or remove excess accumulations.\u00a0 Of course mud and dirt are not a precise science so I do in order to achieve a natural in appearance the modeler must capture the messy, random nature of mud and dirt.\u00a0 As a final step I used a brush and my finger to flick small droplets and splashes to the appropriate areas of the vehicle where such accumulations would naturally occur. As in all of these steps numerous thin applications are used to create the effects.\u00a0\u00a0I am also very mindful to continually vary the color mix in order to enhance visual interest.<\/p>\n

Do you remember the \u201cgood old days\u201d when kits fell together and looked great?\u00a0 Well, building this BT-7 brought back many of those fond memories for me.\u00a0 Tamiya has done another outstanding job of engineering a builder friendly kit that looks great straight from the box.\u00a0\u00a0 This kit is the perfect companion to my collection of smaller tanks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BT is the abbreviation of the Russian term for \u201cfast tank\u201d, with the BT-7 being the last in a line of Soviet fast tanks designed during the 1930\u2019s.\u00a0 Each tank in the series incorporated the Christie type suspension \u2013 as designed by J. Walter Christie.\u00a0 The BT series of tanks where also know as convertibles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,7,6,51,24],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rick-lawer-propaganda","tag-bt-7","tag-propaganda","tag-rick-lawler","tag-russian-tanks","tag-tamiya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ricklawler-propaganda.com\/propaganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}