During the early part of the German invasion of Russia, 10 Pak 97/38 barrels with shields were experimentally mounted on the Soviet T-26 light tank chassis, resulting in vehicles designated 7,5 сm Pak 97/38(f) auf beute Pz.T-26 (r).
This was a very interesting subject as the gun's themselves were old French WW1 guns captured earlier in the war mounted on a Pak 38 carriage. These were developed as the need arrose for a higher calibre field gun when faced with the thick armour of Russian KV and T34 tanks.
To mount them on the almost obsolete Russian T-26 light tank chassis was to create a basic SPG that was almost entirely made from captured equipment, though from the opposite ends of Europe.
Few pictures or details of this interesting AFV exist, although the most photographed also sports an interesting and unusal camouflage scheme to add to the vehicles already interesting character, seemingly photographed at a display of German armour somewhere during the war:
And here is a colour plate from an unknown source:
With such an interesting subject identified and an old badly-built 1/35 Mirage T-26 sitting at home, the decision was made to have a go at modelling this unique SPG.
James
