BT tanks in resin.

The next topic of kitography was the family of Soviet pre-war BT light tanks. As always, I start from Scalemates, which contains a lot of information on models of all eras, scales and directions. The only thing is that he does not give quite complete information, there are many blank spots. We have already established mutually beneficial cooperation – he provides the outline and direction, I return the fully completed section to him. At the end of the work, as before in others, I will demonstrate the “before” and “after” states.

Clicking on the link in the name of the set redirects to the manufacturer’s website, clicking on the box art picture – to the catalog.

Resin kits

The pioneer in this area is the American company Lunar Models, which existed in the period 1986 – 2008. Basically, she, in accordance with the name, specialized in all kinds of space affairs, but at the beginning of her activity she released the BT-7 model, which I will start with,

011 BT-7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A review of the set was published in the March and April 1990 issues of Military Modeler magazine.

 

The quality of the kit, according to Michael Bedard “This was a horrible kit. Lots of air bubbles, brittle resin, dimensions off by quite a lot and missing detail.” , while their later products appeared to be decent enough, I’m inclined to date this set to 1987.

Next in the chronological line of Scalemates is the product of the Japanese Fairy Kikaku and I am inclined to agree with this, but move the release dates 10 years earlier: not “199*”, but “198*”. In this, I will help the only temporary reference to the Japanese modelist TF Manliko, which in his blog it writes: “フェアリー 企画 と いう メーカー メーカー は ご存じ ない 方 も と と 思い ます が, 1980 年代 に に 11/35 の レジン キット 何 何 種類か出していたようです。このＢＴ７（通常型砲塔と傾斜型砲塔の２種）… [As many of you may not know, Fairy Planning seems to have released several types of 5 resin 1/3 sets in the 1980s. This is BT7 (two types, normal turret and tilted turret)…]

Well, the “small” omission of Scalemates is that there was not one resin set, but four, namely:

3 BT-5

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 BT 42

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 BT-7 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 BT-7 1 Finish Defence Force

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another resin kit manufacturer listed by Scalemates is the Scottish-based Accurate Armour Ltd with a product

K42L BT7 M1937 Late Pattern Model 1937 Turret

 

 

 

 

 

that’s just the twin of this set is not listed on the site

K42E BT7 M1937 Early Pattern Model 1935 Turret

 

 

 

 

 

At the same time, these are some kind of Siamese twins because they have one instruction for two.

 

the release date is correct, as confirmed by an article in Model Military magazine from March 2013. This is also confirmed by comrade Scenarist on the pages of Panzer35, where he questions the scale of the model: “Модель не поподает в 35тый маштаб, она заметно меньше(есле ее увиличить в 35 раз то она будет меньше прототипа на 38 саантиметров!),для сравнения сфоткал с бт-7а в 35маштабе. [The model does not fit into the 35th scale, it is noticeably smaller (if it is enlarged 35 times, it will be 38 cm smaller than the prototype!), For comparison, I took a picture with bt-7a in 35 scale.]”

The Spanish KMR also has one resin set on the topic

RT-020 Carro Medio BT-5 TU

 

 

 

 

 

The set is not dated. Personally, based on the feeling and dating of other products of this company, I am inclined to attribute it to 1992.

So the resin sets on Scalemates ran out. But since my text continues, it means I have something else to show.

I’ll start with the oldest, in my opinion, resin set from the German Karo-As Modellbau

 KA/EP-35.15 BT-5 / BT-7

 

 

 

 

 

Under the name of the company, one can also consider the name of the country – W. Germany, and since 1990 such a country has disappeared. So I date on the verge of 1989. As always, apart from box art, there is nothing else.

It is very interesting why the work of the American MB Models is missing?

MB-1073 Soviet BT-7 Fast Tank Model 1935

 

 

 

MB-1089 Soviet BT-7 Fast Tank Model 1937

 

 

 

These can be safely pushed back to 1994.

And that’s why there is no information about the products of the Ural Sokol on Scalemates is just clear.

БТ-42

 

 

 

 

 

 

БТ-7А

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who would have known about them there!

I have already said that the main material of these sets is not metal, as expected in appearance, but resin with silver added. I think it would be appropriate to attribute them to 1993. It may not be entirely accurate, but they are certainly from that era.

There are several more prefabricated models from an unusual material in this scale – paper. In general, there are enough paper models, but they are on a different scale and are not interesting to me. The only thing that does not allow me to include them in the catalog is the note that they are assembled without glue, on some latches.

There is an even more exotic model – entirely made of bronze

 

“Only” $300 and it’s yours!

Since this thing is certainly not a team, I definitely won’t add it to the catalog.

PS I would be grateful for any additions, pictures of the kits shown, or items that I have missed on the topic covered.

To be continued…