Kit, Miniart 35025, T-70M Early Production w/Crew

MINIART


Product Specifications.


35025, T-70M Early Production w/Crew. 1/35th-scale styrene kit containing: 357 styrene parts (including four clear), six water-slide decal/marking schemes and eight pages of instructions in five steps. Price: $23.50 USD.


Introduction.

Back in the dark days of the very late 1980s, before the fall of the Soviet Union, there was very little in the way of kits coming from the behind the Iron Curtain. Living in New York, we had the fabled Ace/Gateway Hobbies, where airline pilots used to come in with small quantities of smuggled kits and books from Eastern Europe. While the books and magazines were usually of decent quality, most of the early kits were very crude; but they were the only game in town. As the economic climate improved for the former states of the USSR and the other Warsaw Pact nations, more kits came out of them, with the quality steadily improving. Most recently, Miniart, from the Ukraine, has released a simple, yet fairly well-engineered kit of the Soviet WW2 light tank, the T-70M. This kit shows that times have indeed changed.


Tracks.

The model includes individual link injection-molded tracks that have crisp detail, an accurate pattern and are nicely molded; however, each link has two ejector pin marks on their inner faces. They fit together very well after clean-up of the two sprue attachment points, which are located one on each side of each link. The fit is not “friction tight”, so the links will need to be glued together prior to fitting over the suspension system. It is probably wise to let them “set up” for a time for ease of use; I also find that the process is eased if the final join is done on the drive sprocket with the help of one of the teeth. Personally, I have obtained a set of Friulmodel tracks (T-60/T-70, ATL-55, from Chesapeake Model Designs, www.chesapeakemodels.com) that come with a pair of sprockets, which are readily adapted to this kit. They are also far easier to use in this instance, especially since there are no pin marks to eliminate.


Suspension System.

Individual torsion-bar swing-arms are fitted into openings on the hull side wall; the tabs are “keyed” for proper alignment, but there is a bit of slop, so the modeler must use the “Mk.1 eyeball” to get it right. Likewise, the road-wheels will need a bit of care. The idler wheel axle is not adjustable, so extra care will be needed when closing-up the track links in order to ensure that the final two will meet each other properly. The drive sprockets have the proper lighting holes around the rim and are attached to separate final drive housings, which themselves are detailed on all visible surfaces.


Hull.

One thing that sets this kit apart from nearly every single eastern European kit I have ever seen is the fact that the lower hull tub is a single part incorporating the side walls, belly, lower bow and lower stern plates. The side walls are nicely detailed with panel lines, bolts and an access plate on the starboard side, as well as swing-arm mounts, all from a relatively simple slide-mold. On the lower front and rear plates, separate access plate, “hammerhead” tow shackles and their mounts, as well as finely detailed two-part cable “keepers” are installed. Separate fenders, featuring separate supports, are then mounted to the upper hull side plate. Other separate items fitted to this area are a pair of tool boxes, tools (shovel, axe, sledge-hammer and engine starter crank), twin exhaust muffler/pipe assemblies (with delicate separate brackets) and horn and head-lamp (with separate clear styrene lens). A small rack for spare track links and some very tiny wing-nut assemblies finish the area.


Superstructure.

This part comprises the engine deck, roof plate with an opening for the turret, and an integral glacis plate. Panel lines, access plates and bolt details are nicely rendered. There are separate solid styrene parts representing the screening over the two openings, with solid backings. This is an area where etched brass will certainly be an improvement (see the review here on ToT of Eduard set 35909). Other separate items are the two pipes that lead from the roof to the exhaust mufflers, the two-position driver’s hatch (with clear styrene periscope head) and separate transmission access plate (which includes its own separate lift ring).


Turret.

The turret is the nicest part of the kit, molding- and detail-wise. It has fine texture, weld and trunnion plate detail, some interior detail for the gun (breech, recoil guard and sight), and a separate signal pistol port on the roof. The commander’s hatch is separate and can be modeled opened or closed, and there is a choice of two different rotating plate styles for his clear styrene periscope. A separate end cap for bore of the main gun, a co-axial machine-gun and separate lift hooks are fitted to the mantlet. This would all be very nice indeed if the overall shape of the supposedly “simple” turret was correct. Alas, this is not so according to photographs; the real turret is not symmetrical as the kit would have it (and as all the scale or general arrangement drawings I have access to show). It is “slightly” asymmetric; see the cited Missing Links reference, below. This error is all that keeps this from becoming the BEST kit ever to come from an original Eastern European source.


Furthermore, I have been informed by an individual who can be considered as “highly knowledgeable” on the subject of Soviet AFVs, that there were definitely two factories that produced the T-70/T-70M. Therefore it is not out of the realm of possibility that there were two different turret styles. Think “KV” or “T-34” and you’ll get the idea.


The plot thickens…


Figures.

A total of five full figures are included in the box, depicting Red Army tank crewmen wearing fleece-lined 1941-pattern “Shuba” sheepskin overcoats; although the painting instructions show epaulettes, none are actually molded on the figures (correctly, according to cited references, I might add). All but one are in casual standing poses, while the last is seated, legs spread apart, hands on his knees. These guys are very nicely-animated and are also nicely-molded; they certainly stand up well compared to nearly all but the latest DML Gen2 figures. In particular, the texture of the exposed fleece segments of their coats is nicely done, and the fasteners for the coat’s fronts are crisply-rendered. Heads are separate and are topped by three-piece padded helmets; other separate items include each man’s side-arm as well as a map case. Each figure is made up of five main parts (right and left arms, right and left legs, and torso), which allows for a high degree of detail, but no effort was made to provide an “undercut” for any of the coat-tails; this could have easily been done and would have added to their overall quality and finesse. But really, with resin replacement heads and care in painting, these figures will look quite presentable.


Molding, Fit and Engineering.

As the reader may by now surmise, in my opinion this is probably one of the most well-molded, best-fitting and finely-engineered tank kits to come from an Eastern European nation. Overall, fit is very, very good and there are no visible ejector pin marks or sink marks of any kind. Flash is minimal and there are a number of refinements such as clear parts, crisply-molded detail parts, the one-piece hull and the nicely-rendered figures.


Accuracy.

Visually, this model certainly looks the part, but according to information posted on this web site, the kit’s turret configuration does not agree with photographs; published plans in the cited references do agree with the kit. So, unless there were two slightly different designs, the turret has an accuracy issue.


Instructions.

The instructions are also a giant step above any that have come from Eastern Europe, with the exception of those seen in the recent Eduard 1/35th-scale Jagdpanzer 38 kits (which I rate as the most well-presented in the entire industry). They are printed on heavy, glossy coated stock with clearly-rendered construction steps, as well as full-color profile views of the painting and markings schemes for five tanks (the sixth involves different Tac numbers on the same color scheme, from the same unit). The five crew figures also have full-color painting instructions with a large, clear depiction of each one of them. Colors are keyed to Humbrol, Revell, Testors and Tamiya paints, while the text is bi-lingual (English and Russian/Ukranian). As an aside, the box-top art is also rather attractive and the packaging is well-done and robust.


Decals and Markings Information.

Water-slide decals are supplied for six tanks. They are sharply-printed, perfectly in register and have very good color saturation; carrier film is thin and matte, and surrounds the individual design. The tanks depicted are:


• Red 275 (with alternate 276), 1st Guards mechanized Corps, Don, 1942, winter whitewash over the standard 4BO base color.
• “Tambov Kolchoznik”, 2nd Tank Corps, 1942, winter whitewash over the standard 4BO base color.
• Black 111, Sadovskij’s Tank Brigade, Stalingrad 1942, winter whitewash over the standard 4BO base color.
• White geometric Tac sign, unidentified unit, Spring 1943, overall 4BO olive green.
• White geometric Tac sign, unidentified unit, Spring 1943, overall 4BO olive green.


References in my library can confirm only one of them (“Tambov Kolchoznik”) as being accurate.


Conclusion.

Although this could have been a great kit, its designers have failed to make it so due to what thus far has certainly been shown to be faulty research. With that said, I have no doubt that information will surface that says there were TWO different turret styles! But it is an attractive little bugger and if it is an indication of what we can expect in the future from Miniart (an SU-76M and a US Bantam Jeep have been announced), I think they will do rather well.


Recommended.


Frank V. De Sisto


References consulted for this review included, but were not limited to:


• “Polish Armoured Forces at the Eastern Front 1943-1945”, Pegaz-Bis, by Z. Lalak.
• “Wozy Bojowy LWP”, WMON, by J. Magnuski.
• “Camouflage of the Tanks of the Red Army 1930-1945”, Armada Press, by M. Kolomiyets & I. Moshchanskiy.
• “Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War 2”, Arms & Armour Press, by S. Zaloga & J. Grandsen.
• “The Eastern Front, Armor Camouflage and Markings 1941 to 1945”, Squadron 6102, by S. Zaloga & J. Grandsen.
• “The Red Army of the Great Patriotic War 1941-45”, Osprey Men-at-Arms 216, by S. Zaloga.
• “Russian Tanks 1900-1970”, Galahad Books, by J. Milsom.
• “Plany Modelaskie 23”, Scale plans and detail drawing set edited by J. Magnuski.
• Overhead turret comparison (Perola Museum T-70 and kit parts) on the Missing Links Allied DG, July 2, 2006, by Nick Cortese.
• E-mail correspondence with S. Sewell and S. Zaloga.


Reviewer’s note: Since May of 2005, I have been working on books for Concord Publications, a sister company to DML and Dragon USA. The reader may wish to take this into consideration. For my part, I will attempt to maintain an objective viewpoint when writing these reviews.


Miniart kits are available from retail and mail order shops. In North America, they can also be purchased from: www.dragonusaonline.com.

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