I had the little T-37 on my list for a long time and was excited when Hobby Boss annouced it as a new release in November. I noticed on the website of my LHS today, that the kit has already arrived and I wasted no time in getting there to get one. I was lucky because they had the last box. Needless to say the box made it to my bench the moment I came home and I decided to share a few impressions of the new kit with You. The T-37 is a small vehicle, even a bit smaller then the Pz.I and there are not many parts in the box. The detail is nice and crisp. The tracks are moulded as separate links. I anticipate that the completion of the tracks will be the most challenging part od the built. I glued the hull and started to work on the wheels and suspension. There were no issues with the fit so far, but the suspension must be assembled with care to make sure that the alignment os OK. One thing I noticed is that the early examples had a riveted hull, but the kit has a welds on the lower part of the hull instead. I will have to consult more reference material to clarify this. Here are a few pictures for today.

Looks like a nice kit. And nice back drop items for your first picture. I'd not use the rounds with the dents in the cartiridge.

Greg

those track links do not look to be fun.

Thanks for the comments. No worry Greg, the rounds are not live, just for deco. I dont keep live ones around in the livingroom I completed the basic undercarriage today. It took a bit of fitting to get the proper alignment, but no major issues.

I spent two evenings with the track assembly. It was the most challenging part of the built so far. The individual track links are quite nice, but small and difficult to clean. They are not at the level of Dragon Magic Tracks, but with a little care they look realy nice. I was surprised how tough they are, I didnt brake a singe one of them! Due to the nature of the tracks I opted to glue them in place and paint them together with the kit, because once the fenders are in place its not possible to remove the tracks anymore. Here are a few pictures. The last one is showing the size of the T-37A in comparison to a Pz.I.

Very nice job so far !

Thanks Nito, I will try to post as much as I can, but I was away from home, and only came back on Monday. However with the tracks on there is little more to do. The built is nearly finished as can be seen from the pictures. One major issue I came across is the propeller for the movement in water. The shape is not great and the blades are too thick. unfortunately there is no immediate replacement available, since its only a two-blade propeler, why most ships have 3 or more blades.

Looks great....no PE for the engine grate?

Greg

Thanks for the comment Greg. Yes there are PE parts. I finished the construction last week and gave the whole kit a coat of surfacer.

I have really fallen in love with your little tank. Even with me being "Indy Link" phobic I want to give it a try so I'm building more than just little Japanese tanks!


Nice work and thanks for showing it off!




Jeff

With regards to hull I think those from Podolsk Ordzhonikidze Plant had riveted hulls and those from Izhorsky Plant had the welded hulls, still need to do more checking on this.I assume this kit doesn't include the floats, hopefully if they release a "late" version it will?

HTH
Andy

Having looked further into T-37 hulls I think Hobby Boss may have cocked the hull up? As far as I can see hulls with bulges on the upper sides should also have bulges on the lower sides just behind sprockets and between the two suspension units:

http://www.panzernet.net/tankist/fotky/tanky/t37/016.jpg
http://www.panzernet.net/tankist/fotky/tanky/t37/017.jpg

I cant find any with flat lower hulls and upper bulges, only flat lower hulls and flat sides:

http://www.panzernet.net/tankist/fotky/tanky/t37/026.jpg
http://www.panzernet.net/tankist/fotky/tanky/t37/014.jpg

If anyone has a pic showing Hobby Boss arrangement I'd be most interested.

Regards,
Andy

Hm interesting point Andy, I will have to look into this. At the momemet, the kit is shelved because Im working on a Ju88 for the Russell Anderson campaign. But there are a few free days coming up so I hope to get some work done soon on the T-37.

Ok so here are finally some new pictures. I havent found out anything more about the bulges, but I guess if they are realy missing, there is nothing much I can do about that at this stage of the built. The basic painting is done. Usual russian green with some post shading. The colour used is my own mix based on a russian ww2 helmets i have. The tracks were painted by hand. The next step will be the oils and pigments.

Your color looks excellent...

Greg

Well I planned this project as a quick one and the basic assembly was finished within a few days. But as it turned out this is in fact the slowes project this year. It took me another five months to finish the painting and weathering. Not that it would be so difficult, but other projects and things came along and this one had to be put on hold. So here are some final pictures of the little T-37A. There are still one or two small issues to be fixed on the kit, but overall Its basically finished.

I asked the same question when I built the kit when it first came out and there are two different style hulls on the T-37. I've seen photos of the one Hobby boss has done, but they are pretty rare. If you go on Facebook, I run a light and medium soviet armor group there and there are a couple of photos there.

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I asked the same question when I built the kit when it first came out and there are two different style hulls on the T-37. I've seen photos of the one Hobby boss has done, but they are pretty rare. If you go on Facebook, I run a light and medium soviet armor group there and there are a couple of photos there. [/quote]

Thanks, I've asked to join the group.

Andy

Unfortunatelly fixing the bulges would be realy complicated. At least for me. Most people will probably buy the never version with the different upper bulges on mudguards anyway.