The e.

The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the 1930s as well as during World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and is widely considered one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s.

It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 manufactured. During the 1930s, the USSR developed a record number of 53 variants of the T-26, including different combat vehicles based on its chassis (flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, armoured carriers). Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models.

Though nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 as well as in the Winter War in 1939–40. The T-26 was the most numerous tank in the Red Army's armored force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 The Soviet T-26 light tanks last saw use in August 1945, during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.

The T-26 was exported and used extensively in the armies of Spain, China and Turkey. In addition, captured T-26 light tanks were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies.

The T-26 was reliable and simple to maintain, and its design was continually modernised between 1931 and 1941. However, no new models of the T-26 were developed after 1940.

There are a lot of armor modelers who like light tanks, and this twin turret one should be a favorite. Typical of the time, the use of machine guns as main armament was a logical idea as they were designed to be used against infantry, and not other tanks. This kit is a curbside with no interior. Most of the parts count goes into making the tracks. The road wheels are designed to be able to rotate and it looks like the suspension itself is designed to move as well.

The tracks are individual links that have pins placed on either side of them to allow them to articulate. These pins are on the end of longer pieces of plastic and those who have built tracks like this have told me how much they like the system. The kit comes with a board on which you can construct the links, keeping things properly aligned. The kit also provides the option of doing at least one of the turrets with a cannon and according tothe instructions, this would be the one on the right.

There are several options available. One is to have a different design engine intake area. These are both provided with etched screens. There are theaforementioned turrets with the cannon turret also able to use a shield, this item also being part of the etched set. Other uses for the photo etch are for fender braces and some grab handles. The two small frets are well done and are used for appropriate items.

Kit instructions are well drawn and typically, provide no color information, that being saved for the full color exterior painting and markings diagrams. There are two tanks shown on the markings diagram, both in green and both of them with no unit information. About the only difference is in the markings on the turrets. In this case, there are four different sets of stripes and lines that can be used. As you can see from the decal sheet, these are well printed and should cause no concerns in application. I have found that Hobby Boss decals work well with standard setting solutions.

Despite its small size, this one has a lot of detail and some nice options as well. The individual track links add quite a bit to this small kit and the end result will be a very nice addition to any light tank collection.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-26_tank

September 2012

Thanks to Squadron Products for the preview kit. You can get this one today at your local hobby shop or on-line retailer.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note toContributors.

Back to the Main Page

Back to the Previews Index Page