Dear fellow Plastic Addicts,

Recently, teaking advantage of octobers monthly special I've bought new resin T29 model from Commander Models. This blog will record the build with construction notes I may have along the way.

I will be totally biased, as I'm really stoked to be able to build this beast of a tank, even though most superficial first comparision with walkaround photos on SVSM site and here on Armorama show that numerous details will have to be amended, enhanced, or replaced with AM, spares from other kits and scratchbuilding.

Walkaround links:
Matt Flegal's walaround series on Armorama

T29 Walkaround gallery on SVSM

So far most of the changes I've made were based on just comparing resin parts with photos using my mk.1 eyball tool. Eventually I plan on scaling up scanned drawings from Hunnicut's Firepower book to get some hard confirmation on the changes I planned.


Box contents:
Kit comes with some Bronco T84E1 (AB3566) tracks which are unfortunately incorrect for T29 family of tanks. It needs the all steel T80E1 links (Bronco AB 3565) which I've bought separately.



Kit comes with simple PE fret containing parts for tool box handles, light guards, 'basket' under the rear hull overhang and spare track holders.



Turret main parts:


Unevenly placed bolts on the side of the mantlet are visible here together with loaders hatches that are placed at wrong angle and bulge over the gun mechanisms that is too tall and angled. Ventilator housing has no air intake.




Upper hull has grossly underscaled bow MG housing bulge:



Rear hull shows numerous details to be updated/changed:

- inspection flaps are simplified with overscaled bolts (they should also be flush with surface in round undercuts)
- rear lights are simplified without round brush guards

- final gear housing bolts are overscale and will need to be replaced




Engine Deck:


Fenders and stowage boxes:



I started with removal of the bow MG details (ball armour to be reused on rebuilt bulge)



So much for the lo(n)g-ish introduction, I already put together the main hull and turret parts and started the butchering, will post the results soon.

Feel free to add your observations and comments throughout this build, I can only hope the amount of changes will not overwhelm me and I will not lose interest too quick.

Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Greg

I'm going to be following this one carefully as this looks to be a Christmas purchase for me. Somewhat disappointing that the details, especially the bolts, are mediocre but since I really like the tank it's a price I'll pay.

I'm definitely going to be watching this one. Watching and waiting for me on the T29. I'm waiting for the T29E3 to appear on the market before I see what to do. That or I wait for to be made in plastic. Unfortunately that probably won't happen for a long time... Longer than your introduction here lol. All kidding aside, this does look quite interesting.

Will be watching with a bit of jealousy. One of my all time favourit machines, but i just cant afford a resin model, need to wait for some standard company to release it. Good luck with your build mate

If it's ever made it in plastic it will be in a Black Plague box. Still looking forward to Commander's E3, though.

Looking forward to watching your build, Grzegorz

Sadly, based on history, the fact that there is a resin kit out means the likelyhood of a Black Label release has just gone up.

I am fascinated by both of the T29's and the T30, 32 and the T34.

Now to erase a few off my wish list and add this one!




Jeff

Hello Gentlemen,
Thank you for your replies!

Matt, its the same for me, Christmass present that is (that, and a bit of compensation for not having any real holiday to speak of this year). I can tell you like the tank because most available walkarounds of T29 family come from you, kudos and thanks for that, very usefull! Have you taken any detail measurements while shooting your photos, bolts or sth like that?

Michal, yeah the kit is pricey, but it was their monthly special so I at least saved some 20$ for shiping to EU. That plus at my current rate I can finish maybe one 1:35 model per year, that means I can buy one more expensive kit instead of 3-4 plastic ones with normal price, same budget, less overpopulated stash...

Meanwhile I did some work on the kit.

I've enlarged mantlet's cover chin downwards and added a chin under the mantlet (it was straight section in the kit but it should be rounded and continue the profile from the sides of the turret, same treatment should be applied under the bustle at the rear). I have also cut down and reshaped casting scars on the turret sides. In reality the base for trunions is one casting with the rest of the turret, with just the top part being bolted on with slotted screws, more on this later.








Right now I'm narrowing down the mantle on the right as the inverted 'V' armored cover should be more symmetrical. Mantlet armored cover is in the right place and of right width I think, the resulting space around right trunnion will be used to model more round and "3d" shape of the trunnion support casting.



Here are the photos of the turret with drawings from Hunnicutt's book overlaid on them. Overall shape seems more or less correct but some details will have to be moved or redone.





Cheers,
Greg

I used to have measurements but they disappeared in a move. I do seem to recall that some of the Hunnicutt drawing details were off (hull front and intake housing?) and others were simplified so I really do wish that I had them still. I was blessed that a Patton Museum volunteer took me all over the post to photograph every single one of the existing T29/T30/T34 family. Interesting how much painted over Duct tape there is on those tanks. . .

Well hopefully their standard increases by the time they get around to this tank. It does seem that they are increasing slightly in their quality, albeit nowhere near where they should be, so hopefully they might make a reasonable kit...

Mike-- this may be heresy, but I have now built two of the Black Label products...the M-6 and the T-28 OOB. I thought they were somewhat complicated but look nice on the shelf. I have the M-103 which I am anxious to start. I appreciate these models fall short of say Tamiya, but they are unique and I am quite pleased with the end product. I'd buy a T-29 if they make one.
My two cents
DJ

Too bad about the measurements Matt, I only just need about 3 to keep my sanity during this build, will have to guestimate along. I belive the duct tape is there to prevent elements from entering the tank, judging from the photos, which would be a a plus.

DJ, T28 and M103 have substantial dimensional and shape errors I envy that you can be happy with those, I couldn't.

Back to the build, I continue re-shaping and re-detailing the hull and turret. I bought two old Eduard PE sets for Italeri and Tamiya sherman to get some generic parts like periscopes, tool straps, M2HB accesories, commanders crosshair etc.

I re-detailed the inspection hatches with sunken bolts and added a recess in the middle of the rear overhang, this area still needs weld marks and reinforcements added plus smaller details and tail lights.


Here you can see corrected armor plates layout, lower rear plate was narrowed and side plates filled with styrene.



Left profile with added bump stops (some were cobbled up from 2 items and required to have nuts replaced due to bad castings or air bubbles, I complained with Commander models about the quality of some casts and got the replacements withour delay, only problem is that the replacements repeated the problems of bad parts I got in the first place)



Left fender glued on, on the front part I had to cut of the reinforcement (bad shape, on the model bolted to the fender, in reality welded) and redo the connection of fenders first segment (on the model bolted with additional strip of metal, in reality just bolts with a groove).

Hull hatches are just dry fitted. I redid their openings and reshaped UFP upper outward corners (lowered). I'm still not 100% happy with them but it'll have to do.

The middle part of the mantlet cover was thickened and coaxial MG's sleeves were drilled out for better scale appearance.

New bow MG housing was scratchbuild, still needs weld beads around canvas cover sleeve, and final hemispherical armor plus MG barrel.






I had to remove the turret vent cover alltogether (new one is already laser cut and just needs to be assembled). I also redid the entire area around gunners periscope.







Collars around antenna housings were reshaped.
I have rebuilt the mantlet, removed 2mm from the right side and added 1mm on the left, which is still 1mm shorter than right, but I belive should be symmetrical. I also removed 1mm from the top of the mantlet and added new piece of armor scratchbuild from styrene over the kit parts.



Mantlet armor sides were thickened on the inside, per photos and per narrower mantlet part.





Some additional fillings underside the bustle:




Monty had paid us a friendly visit to check out what his allies has been up to (and to provide scale for the T29's beasty appearance)



All in all, there is still A LOT of work ahead, I will be scratchbuilding engine deck structure, but will use kits louvers.

The sprockets provided are incorrect, I already designed replacements in 3d and will be printing them shortly, but probably together with new tow rings and hinged tow hooks (still have to design these).

Cheers,
Greg

Excellent work, Greg!

It's a shame that after all these years the Commander's casting quality hasn't improved to match industry standards and that their pattern maker still makes fundamental errors in shape and size. The Hunnicutt drawings are not hard to come by so many of thes errors have no real excuse.

Paul

Thank you Paul, indeed it's a shame about the commanders quality, it is especially evident in some details like the bolt heads in the side of mantlet armor, they are not even in straight line, so in addition to being plain wrong guesswork throught most of the kit, they are extremely sloppy. Too bad I wasn't aware of this before the purchase, I'd do myself better present buying for example one of RealModels M54 guntrucks which I was also considering (they are also cheaper).

I've been busy with turret details, also fitted both fenders to the hull and toolboxes on top of them. I had to sand off most of the details from the fenders as they were all wrong, what is left, will have to go too... just later.

Toolboxes were too flat, I had to add 0.75 mm plastic shim to their bottom and blended their top with collar armour around turret ring. To do this the collar on the other hand had to be sanded down. In reality boxes were welded to the upper hull casting and provided mounting for the fenders which were bolted to upper hull and tool boxes. I thickened the casting around drivers hatch hinge via styrene strip (still this area is off, but I cant just put my finger on how to make it better it so I won't bother



I was finally happy with the turret vent in its third iteration and could dry-fit it to the turret. unfortuantely hatch openings are at a wrong angle, they should be more paralel to the turret's symmetry line. I was going to leave it the way it was, going 'who is gonna notice apart from me and do I want to bother with reworking turret roof?' but as I plan on adding some crew to the hatches, it became obvious that I will not be able to fully open the loaders hatch as it collides with the vent...



you can also see here how sparsely detailed and just wrong are the insides of loader's hatches. I will try to build replacement parts based on part from tasca sherman.


I've drawn new hatch openings together with pieces of turret roof for positioning in AutoCAD, and laser cut them out of 0.75 styrene. Also detailed commanders cupola with PE periscope from old Eduard set for sherman and a few styrene bits, it's hinge is also movable. The lip around the cupola will be blended with the rest of the casting, which shape was also changed to match the photos. IRL the cupola sits in a recess with a lip around it and what seems to be water drain in that lip at the back, not as depicted in commanders model on a flat ring...
Also visible here is the added bullet splash in front of shell ejection port hinge (to be blended with the rest of the casting)





Loaders hatch should now clear the vent by about 2 mm (still only dry fit because I have to blend the roof grafts before I can attach the vent permanently)





To sum this up so far, there is so much detail missing or just plain wrong, that even at half the price this kit would be a rip-off.

But I still haven't given up, so stay tuned...

Cheers,
Greg

That is looking very nice indeed. And it is truly unfortunate that so much work needs to be done as this is such an impressive tank and deserves a good rendition in 1/35.

Thanks Matt,
Indeed it must be impressive, I can only wish I will be able to see one in person someday.

That said i found an interesting page while googling reference pictures and thought I'll share:

http://www.militaryfactory.com/imageviewer/ar/gallery-ar.asp?armor_id=353 It shows T 30 heavy tank, it's a pity the b&w photos are of a bad quality, they show the roof top from a good perspective. In addition it seems there are at least three preserved T30 tanks, previously I thought there were only two: at ft. Knox and Aberdeen. The tank in the photos is now located at ft. Jackson, so this gives us 6 preserved tanks of this family: T29, T29E3, T30x3, T34.

Cheers,
Greg

I am truly warring with myself at this point, as Commanders is having a 25% of sale of their kits and while it's obvious there will be a lot of reworking involved, I've heard no rumors of anyone releasing a plastic kit of the beast. This thread is a good guide on how to tackle the thing.

Hey Grzegorz, any updates on the build?