I enjoyed building the D-37 railroad car so much (that I recently posted pics of on this forum) that have I decided to have a go at the D-45, its later brother.
This vehicle was developed in 1933, by modernisation of its predecessor the D-37, according to the instructions.
It has the same hull shape as the D-37, but has a T-26 turret, and horseshoe shaped antenna.
If you build it OOB this kit is not much harder than the D-37, but plans and photos of real D-45s indicate this kit needs some modification.
Firstly the horsehoe antennas upport masts supplied with the kit are brass etch, which means they are flat, which is not correct, the real ones were rounded, and look quite different to the etch ones supplied. I'm planning to replace these with varying diameter evergreen plastic rod.
Although the body is the same shape as the D-37, plans, at least one photo show the headlights are mounted inside the hull, so I will need to cut headlight ports into the body to mount the headlights into
And thirdly, the T-26 turret has no rivets on the sides. Only very late model T-26 turrets have few rivets, the early models are all rivetted, as is shown on plans of the rail car.
(According to Steven Zaloga's book "Soviet Tanks & Combat Vehicles of World War Two", when T-26s were used in action in 1934-35 in Mongolia and Manchuria against the japanese, some T-26s were involved in the fighting, it was found that when rivets were struck by bullets, the inner face of the rivet came free and careened around inside the tank.. The problem was so serious that production was stopped till a solution was found, as a result, soviet tank designs began to drop the use of rivetting in favour of welding).
Being an early turret, this needs to be all rivetted (according to plans of this car) so I tackled this first, as it was always going to be the hardest and longest part of this kit.
In all I added 110 rivets to this turret (I think, I'm not recounting them), as per the plans of the real vehicle. There should be two sizes of rivet, and some are a bit oversize in my build, but this was at the limits of my ability to see, even with magnification... at normal viewing distance they can hardly be seen.
anyway below are progress shots, the turret is now finished, next job is to cut the headlight ports into the body, then build the rest of the kit, then scratchbuild the aerial support masts.
I'll update regularly as I proceed with those other aspects of the build
cheers
Korpse
First pic is plain turret, awaiting rivets
Next pic is the start of rivetting
Last pic is all 110 rivets added, and a light coat of undercoat
