Now as promised - changes done to the main turret. Did it with the help of
yrq_ekb. Without him I would miss lots of stuff.I recomend to visit his site. As I mentioned above he recently took some pictures of actual T-35.
So, here it goes:
1) Spring made from a thin wire.
2) The mount of the anti-aircraft machine gun. At first I made it from Eduard PE (set for T-35), but later replaced it with one from Verlinden (set for KV). Scale is under big question in both of them, but I think, Verlinden is closer, and quality is outstanding. You can compare them in this next pic.
3) These are reinforcements for the roof. Eduard provides only the one shaped like a star, but it is not a big deal. The other two are easy to make. Alanger kit has them already in a kit. ICM doesn't.
4) This thing (whatever it called in English
) has a purpose to secure the handle of a machine gun, so it does not bounce on the roof. Scratchbuilt. Below is a pic of what it looked like and how it worked.
5) This handle was used (in my understanding) to turn the whole "ring" (machine gun+hatch) around. Scratchbuilt from a photo taken by
yrq_ekb. You can see it better on the 5-th pic from the top in my first post.
6) Antenna was made new from a scratch because I had to move supports (16). Spots where supports are connected to antenna are marked. After moving supports the spots were off, so I replaced the whole thing. Why did I move I will explain below.
7) Barrel from J. Rubio.
8) PE from Eduard. More detail that was left out in the kit.
9) Side reinforcements. This planks were welded on, not riveted like in the kit. Also: kit has one of them on each side. On a real tank there was two on each side plus two under the gun mantlet. And speaking of the gun, if you want to make it raised up, there are some details that are not in the kit.
10) Plugs for gun ports. These gun ports had plugs to close them, and not little "doors", as it made in the kit.
11) That was pretty much just a "door stop" for a hatch. Kit has it like some box. PE got it simple enough. I just added slice of sprue on top to imitate a rubber.
12) Periscopes. I took them from T-28 kit. Ddidn't like the way original were molded. But I think it should be easy to build them from scratch.
13) This is the communication hatch for those little flags. (Scratchbuilt) This hatch could be opened or closed from inside only, not from outside like it made in the kit. It was also located in the wrong spot - right where the roof reinforcement should be. The kit from Alanger has it right on the reinforcement and should be moved too.
14) Gun port for a rear machine gun. As far as I know only first several T-35 had this part as in the kit (if any at all). The rest of them had this little hatch opening outside. Apparently, this machine gun was the one also used as an anti-aircraft.
15) This is the plates to which supports for antenna were welded on. From the photos of actual tanks you can see they were way bigger and thicker than in the kit.
16) Supports for antenna were moved. In the kit they are located symmetrical, but if you look at the photos of actual tanks you can see that they were located assymmetrical. To find where to place them is not too hard using ref. photos.
17) Whatever this thing called surrounding the connector for antenna. Eduard PE has it. As for connector itself I made the new one. You can also add a little "touch" by placing "a screw" where it connects to the ball. But did it after I took this pic.
18) Second hatch. Eduard PE.
Besides all that I would recomend (going to do it myself) to replace machine gun barrels. The guns from the kit are pretty crappy. Shouldn't be too hard to make new. They seem pretty simple,
P.S. English is not my first or even the second language, so be patient with me
I will appreciate, if, when you notice some cruel language screw up, you will let me know by PM. I will fix it, and try to learn for a next time.
