Hi All,

This is the ICM T-35 Russian pre-WWII heavy tank. I built this kit about 10 years ago. The model was as I recall not an easy build, as it was engineered in the typical style of Eastern European model manufacturers back then. Lots of flat individual panels needing to be squared up and stiffened comprise the hull and turrets. Pesky mold marks and very heavy sprues attached to delicate parts made for exasperating sessions. Each of the seperate track links needed to be cleaned up before they could be snapped together. You can see from the photos there were alot of those babies too.

The commander figure came from the Zvezda WWII Soviet tank crew and helped give some scale to this beast. These photos don't show it, but there is a driver peeking out from the hatch on the glacis plate to the right side of the headlights. Very nice figures that have heavy, almost exagerated detail which helps during the painting.

This is the command tank version and the antennae that wraps around the turret is provided in the kit. Don't bother trying to use the one in the kit, as 9 out of 10 times it will break when removing it from the sprue. I substituted copper wire. Looks about as good as the kit piece.

The paint scheme was sort of subjective as not too many photos in color exist that I am aware of. A pale green drab with a yellowish tint and some weathering gave me the effect that I was looking for. The markings I applied (big fat red stars) are as basic as it gets.

I really liked having this model in my collection as it is sort of "H.G. Wellsian" in a land battleship sort of way. Very cool. So, that's basically it, I've not seen too many of these built up and would like to hear from others that have.

Cheers
Ed Okun

Nice job on that T-35. I built one about five years ago, and I agree with wasn't an easy build. On the other hand it's a pretty impressive model once completed.

T-35s were all assigned ot one unit in 1941 - the 34th Tank Division of the 8th Mechanized Corps. That division had two regiments with T-35s - the 67th and 68th tank regiments. I sort of have this theory that the 67th used red stars and two stripes on the turret, while the 68th used white triangles and no stars.

You did a really good job of the weathering, interesting how dominant styles of weathering change over the years.

I built mine in 1999. I built it as therapy to work a sprained wrist and elbow (bike accident) but despite the pain I didn't have that much problem building it (enjoyed it, really), in fact the tracks were so nicely engineered I blazed both runs on in about three hours. I liked the kit enough to buy another one... but never built it and sold it off this year.

I'd love to see some photos of other T-35 builds here as well, so if you have one on the shelf, take some pics!

Thanks guys for your comments.

Cheers !

ED

I should document it--- I did a fair job myself. I'm still figuring out how to post photos on Armorama. There's a trick I seem to be missing.

It is a nice kit, but unfortunately it is very historically inaccurate. To build it correctly you will need to change (rebuild or add detail) almost 80% of it. Including tracks, which are from T-55 (don't ask... ). IMHO - it is one of those models that should not be done OOB...
BTW, commander's hatch could not be open 180 degrees, and it was not painted white on the inside of it. There was no red star painted on the roof, and so on, and so on...
Still, you did a nice work on it.

i know very little about T-35's, and was considering building one in the future, what exactly are the inaccuracies in this kit?

So, if the original kit tracks are wrong, how´s the Friul trackset? Is that correct or T-55(?) links.

Hi Alex,
Well....I compared the tracks and like you said they are nearly identical to a T-55!! How do you like them 'Russkies' designing tracks for the T-35 and then keeping the spares in storage for 20 years to be used on T-55s !! They sure know how to get more "bang for the buck" (or in this case probably Ruble)..

Seriously though, there is no doubt in my mind that the kit is inaccurate in many ways and even the markings as simple as they are could be wrong. This was one of those builds where I diverged out of the realm of what I would normally be interested in (usually post war Soviet armor and Middle-eastern subjects), so my references were abit lacking. However, in the end I was delighted with the complexity of the kit and finally being able to finish it. The result, although it may be more fictional than fact, is like I said in my previous post "H.G. Wells-ian" which is why I chose to build it to begin with. "Land Battleships" Oh Yeah....You've gotta love the guy who actually thought that would be a great idea to invest in. If I had realized then that it was so inaccurate, I would have painted some wacky hypothetical camo scheme on it to boot!

So what should I do now? I may move it one shelf down to my 'Sci-Fi' subjects just to keep the collection "subjectively" accurate. I'll refer to it as a Soviet "Light Tank" of some parallel universe. Anybody who asks about their 'Heavy Tanks', I'll say "Oh, I've built one of those as well and start walking out to the garage.... Problem solved.

Anyway, Many Thanks for your comments (that was the point of this post to begin with, to hear feedback from those that knows) and I'd love to see your version of this tank if you have one built.

Best Regards,
ED

Nice build Ed. I would love to find that kit and the T-28 kit. Even if there are simplifications in the kit it would be nice to have as a comparesome in the timeline of Russian tank development. These huge muti turreted landships next to a ww2 T-60 ,BT-7, T-34 , IS 2 all the way up to the most modern .

Hi, Ed!
I would not say that object is fictional. It just need lots of corrections. Hey, at least I am not offering to correct armor angles... Kit is old, and like all old kits need lots of work. But again, it depends on the person. Some will build it OOB, and will be happy. It is all comes down to having this monster in your collection.
I started to build my awhile ago, but had to put it aside. Didn't have much info (did lots of things wrong) and skills back then. Planing to restart project (maybe this winter): http://armorama.com/forums/122098#1005933 For me this tank is must have. My main interest is AFV up to 1945. But I like to collect as much info as possible on the subject before I start to build.
And if you need any info about post-war Soviet armor, I may be able to help.
You can also find some info about T-35 here: http://scalemodels.ru/modules/forum/viewtopic_t_6332.html Little British flag in the top right corner will make Google translate it into English. If you will need any other help - let me know.

Love the build! Now that Tamiya has done the BT-7, maybe????

Yeah, I love this baby. It's such a ridiculous concept (why not have just two smaller turrets with a co-axial MG).

If Tamiya, DML or AFV Club released one(or a T-28), I'm sure heaps of modellers would be lining up. Heck, I'd even pre-order an Italeri version, once I was sure they weren't using the ICM molds. But blowed if I'll pay over $100 for an kit that's Alan/Maquette quality.

How do we get a petition started?