Finished: Project VII/17

T-35 "APTEP"

Specification

The T-35 itself was of model 1938 and in nature it weighed 45 tonnes. It was 9.72 meters long, 3.43 meters high and its armour plates were 10-30 mm thick, which couldn't have been worth much even back in the day. With its V12 engine this ugly beast went tops 30 km/h for a maximum distance of 150km, I'm boldly assuming that was only under optimal conditions. This beast required a crew of 11. For its 76.2mm main gun there was a set of 96 grenades, for its 45mm guns a total of 220 grenades and the 7.62mm LMGs had 10 080 rounds (about two thousand per piece of hardware).

Engineeriness

I had mumbled about the idea and the background of the tank before I actually started on it, so I'll spare you from that bit of repetition. Instead, let me present you some numbers!

Over the duration of the project I published 23 session posts, each containing 45 minutes of doings on average. A huge amount of those minutes, as I have mumbled before, was spent on context switching, also known as getting started and winding down, in addition to some random interruptions by the project assistants. So: 23 * 45min = 1035min / 60min = 17,25h which turns into... phew... Over two full workdays without lunch or coffee breaks.

Despite the monotonic tank colour and the total lack of camouflage the monster ate about a dozen different types of paint and paintlike substances and three types of glue. I meant to use two out of the decal set (the rest were mostly plain white stripes) but as the second red star went into a roll, I threw them both away. Zero percent success there.

I guess I could've laid out some wiring / cables for the lamps, but I went OOB instead. The star-shape on top of the main turret could've been painted somehow, but as I didn't find* a single useful reference photo of it, I let it be. That's the way I handle stress :p

*) not that I spent ages searching, I gave up easily as the tank was obscure and not too many were produced

About the kit itself

All in all Zvezda's T-35 was an interesting kit to build. Somehow the bits demanded a huge amount of cleaning up, which then caused the assemblage to be slower than something like a Tamiya or a Dragon kit.

The bits fit all nicely, there were no serious fitting issues, only the deck of the tank caused some problems, but I fear that as it was the only one, the fault was mine alone. Generally speaking the build was straightforward, the most obscure and stability-wise the most dubious one was the bottom of the main turret, that consisted of odd strips and to my great surprise worked out just fine. The other turrets would've wanted a clamp-like piece to keep them in, but to make my life easier I just ignored those.

Imagery

Following my own silly traditions I have left the usual "all around the model" photos also now as the thing's officially done. During the project I've taken so many dry-fitting pics because the tank's so amusing / odd / weird, that the excitement of seeing it this way may have worn off for the reader.

A meta moment on one Thursday afternoon

When I started taking the photos above my main and first problem was, that I didn't know where to take these damn things. New (to us) home's problems, say. The hardcover Jeff Smith's "Bone" One Volume Edition inspired me to take it up for rereading. Jumping off the topic, I hereby officially give it the readability recommendation of the 'mumblings!