hello everyone, I need to ask an important question. What brand sells the best T-28/T-35s?

With the T-35, there are two options, ICM or Alanger. i am fairly certain that they use the same moulds and are pretty much the same. They both cost an amazing $200 on this page :

http://www.aviapress.com/search.htm?keywords=t-35&boolean=all&where=kits&in_text=yes&Find.x=3&Find.y=18

but also they sell them on the Alanger website, along with the two other tanks I want for alot cheaper.

http://www.alanger.us/Producer-List/Alanger.aspx

Only problem is that they do not appear to ship to Australia.

For the T-28, there is a choice of three brands, for at least a total of 5 different T-28 kits. There is AER, Alanger and a company which i have not been able to find out anything about fittingly called IDK.

From what i have been able to find out, the AER kits are rather rough, and that the Alanger and ICM kits are pretty much the same. What I do need to find out is how the IDK kits compare to the Alanger/ICM. On the Alanger website they are selling all of the tanks I want for reasonable prices, but are not shipping to Australia. I did however find this site:

http://alanger.en.ec21.com/Scale_1_35--413024.html

that appears to be selling T-35s for a very low price. only problem is I have no idea how to use this site.

Also, does anyone know the main differences between the T-28 Models 1938 and 1936? I like the look of the horseshoe antenna on the 1936 model, but other then that they are both look the same, and cost the same.

With the IT-28 there is a choice of the ICM kit or Alanger kit, but the real problem is were I am going to find one that does not cost over a hundred dollars.

I would be very grateful if someone could point me to a place were I could buy these models for a cheap price and which T-28 should I get.

P.S Could anyone tell me if there is a model Char 2C tank anyway?

All of your options are the same kit. All of the IDK kits are poor quality moulds. And Alanger has been known to have poor to nonexistent service, in fact they've been known to take the money and not send the kit.

Ask around on the sale/trade boards if the original ICM kits are for sale.

Ah, so the ICM kits are the way to go? Pity about the Alanger support though, they have all the tanks I need. So it would be totally out of the question if they would ship to australia? Im off to ask on the buy/sell board.

Ted, your best bet lies with eBay. They have several kits on there right now. All kits are well out of production so far as i can see and they were a bit pricey when they were out ....iirc the T-28 went in the $40-$60 range in 2005 or so.

:)

Even ebay is expensive though! those sites I have looked at seem to be selling for a low price but not shipping to australia! Its unfair!

There is one auction selling both the T-28 and T-35, with postage, for $95 total. That is close to what retail was, with delivery. Not bad. Some places may also show it in stock and not have it on hand, or may have charged horrible shipping prices to Australia. I think the kit is just going to run you around $30.00 with shipping no matter what. If I shipped you the kit from the USA the postage would be about $15.00...never mind the cost of the kit.

Thank you all who helped me! I now see on ebay one guy who is selling all three of the tanks I want at reasonable prices (reasonable for Australia because here a small panzer II from Tamiya costs $60 and a BA-3 from Zvevda costs 35)! Of all together $190,but of course the price will be way lower then that because of the combined shipping costs. The good thing is that they are "buy it now" too.

But I have one last (tiny) problem. This guy who is selling them has two types of T-28. A standard Alanger and an ICM kit called "The Winter War 1939-1940". It seems to be an older version of the Alanger kit. This kit comes with three extra figures, but the strange thing is, the price is slightly less then the Alanger one! Strange isnt it? The price is lower by $4. Which one would you guys recommend? The alanger kit or this special edition ICM kit? Also, the ICM kit's T-28 has a horse shoe antenna, which generally looks like pure win on most early soviet tanks.

Also the auction on ebay for both the T-35 and T-28 together seems to be dodgy. He seems to have put up several auctions for the same lot. Also they do not come with decals and they seem to be the older versions of the kits.

I am fairly new to this whole buying things online thing, and building models in general, so i probably sound like a complete noob. I have only built one model kit so far (a Hobbyboss KV-2 in 1/48 I think) so I am saving up these kits for when I become more expierienced. In the meantime I have already ordered a cheap RPM T-26A Model 1932 (dual turreted version). From what I heard, the RPM kits are not the best, but at least it should be good enough for a beginner like me. I am planning on ordering some of the Eastern Express kits from a guy from these forums, a BT-42 Finnish SPG and a KV-1 too.

Again, thank you all for all the help you have given me!

If youa re just getting into red armor, you may want to go with a few easy builds before tackeling some of the smaller, harder builds. I recomend:

1/35 Trumpeter KV series, any of them.
1/35 Tamiya BT-7 - it is worth every $$$

next, DML 1/35 T-34...whatever you can find cheap. It will give you a chance to work on some basic research to see what tweaks need to be done for a particular T-34 you want to do.

after that you should be ready to tackle quite a bit.

Alanger/ICM molds are supposedly the same, but there may be some differences. I have both ICM and Alanger kits...I guess I would recomend ICM over Alanger only on price. Anyone else know a difference?

Thanks for the suggestions.

That shop that was selling around 8 T-28s yesterday is not selling them anymore! they are not there! Same with the 3 T-35s aswell! Just my luck! They are probably sold out. At least there are 2 IT-28s left in stock.

Hi Ted,
Check your inbox, I've sent you a message.
The main difference (apart from price) between ICM and Alanger seems to be that the ICM kits are very liberally coated with releasing compounds and require a lot of cleaning with detergent.
I agree with Jaques, build some nice KVs and/or T-34s to practice on. A lot of the kits produced in Eastern Europe should not be tackled until you have a few builds under your belt.
Read the excellent review section on perthmilitarymodelling.com, to make sure you don't end up with a dog.
There are numerous Far Eastern on-line traders that have very reasonable shipping costs to Australia.
Before you jump in at the deep end, set up watch lists on ebay auctions to give yourself an idea how much your chosen kits normally go for.
I know for a fact that the guy in Czech Rep who sells T-28/35 kits on ebay is not dodgy, as I have successfully bought both kits from him (but his shipping costs are very generously calculated - roughly twice the actual cost of postage in my case)
Hope you find this helpful

Thanks for the pm.

I am already looking at finding some easy kits to build. I am going to go for a Trumpeter KV-2 and KV-1 so far. Also, Zvezda on Amazon is selling a T-26 for a decent amount. How good are thier kits?

Also what can you guys tell me about the Type 97 by Tamiya/ its rather cheap as well.

Hi Ted,
Here's a review of the kit http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/zve/kit_zve_3542.shtml
Early versions of this kit had elastic band type tracks that were too short and required replacing (bumping up the cost...) later versions have link and length tracks. The kit is not an accurate representation of a particular version as it combines aspects of several different ones and the main problem appears to be that the hull is too narrow (between 1.5mm and 2mm, depending on which review you read)
Here's a link to a review of all the kits of Russian light tanks available http://ampsnz.hobbyvista.com/articles/Research/WWII/Russia/Tank/Russian%20Light%20Tank%20Kits%20in%201%2035th%20scale.pdf
And one to a build log http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/article.asp?a=3022
Hope this helps.

Thanks guys!

I am considering buying some of the Trumpeter KV tanks and an awesome Tamiya SU100.

Trumpeter seems to sell alot of different KV tanks, and I need/want to get both a KV-1 and KV-2. which kits are the latest/most accurate?

I have already conjured up a good sized wish list, but still at the top of it are those multi turreted Russian monsters. Pity that store that was selling them on Ebay ran out so quickly in less then 12 hours, and there were 8 T-28s in there altogether.

On another note, are there any other multi turret tank kits available? Such as the Cruiser A9 or German Neubahrfahrzeug (if thats how you spell it)? And did the Cruiser serve on the Eastern Front? I ask because i once saw a bit of a newsreel from a Stuka that was strafing tanks on the ground, and one looked a bit like the Cruiser. Could have been a KV-1 though, their turrets have a similar shape.

Good thing that my sister owes me money, otherwise she wouldnt bother buying me stuff, even if it is with my own money.

My long time goal with modelling is to one day create an impressive diorama of the battle of Khalkhin Ghol, one of the most interesting early war/pre war battles. So I need suggestions from which brands to buy the following from:

BA-20 Armoured Car -There is an rpm one but from what I have heard it is fairly rough
GAZ AA Truck
Japanese Type 89 Tank -I do not think that this model exists
A few T-26s of various flavours
A few BT5s and bt7s of various flavours possibly including BT7A (if it was actually used at Khalkhin Ghol that is)
Various Howitzers such as M-30, A-19, ml-20 possibly one of those massive tracked artillery pieces(!)
37mm AA gun
BA-10 Armoured car
T-37A Amphibious Tankette
GAZ-61 Car

If any of those exist in 1/35 it would be great if someone could help out.

All advice is welcome!

Hi Ted:
BA-20 Armoured Car - rpm, ARK, Maquette I might be wrong, but probably all made with the same moulds, and yes, it's not an easy kit to make a good model from, by all accounts.
GAZ AA Truck - Zvezda/Toko, but out of production now, should still be gettable on ebay (some warpage and fit problems and some chunky detailing. PE set available from Part, wheels from MiniArt)
Japanese Type 89 Tank - there used to be a very nice resin kit, but it's no longer available
A few T-26s of various flavours - see previously posted link to Russian light tanks
A few BT5s ( Zvezda/ Italeri (same moulds)Eastern Express) and bt7s (Tamiya excellent)of various flavours possibly including BT7A (ARK - no personal experience, but from what I've read shuddersome reputation)(if it was actually used at Khalkhin Ghol that is - don't know, might be an idea to research it yourself ;o)
Various Howitzers such as M-30 (Zvezda), A-19 (Dragon only in 1/72 as far as I know), ml-20 (Trumpeter) possibly one of those massive tracked artillery pieces(!) (B4 203mm Trumpeter)
37mm AA gun (Zvezda, but only in 1/72)
BA-10 Armoured car - Zvezda
T-37A Amphibious Tankette - see previously posted link to Russian light tanks
GAZ-61 Car - Plus Model resin kit
Hope your sister owes you lots - you'll need it to cover this lot

Oh, and it's 'Neubaufahrzeug' and yes, the first - mild steel version - is currently available as a limited edition kit from Dragon's sister Co CyberHobby.

Turns out the soviets DID use BT-7As! And a few tracked artillery pieces too!

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/battles/khalkhin_gol/losses.htm

I still need to find out what on earth a SU-12, BT-7RT and a BT-5RT is. I have a feeling that the rts are command tanks. The BA-3,6 and 10 look almost exactly the same.

Strangely and sadly enough, the T-28 does not seem to have participated in this battle! At least a few would have been lost.

I was also hoping that the RBT-5 would have made an appearance, the badass tank with rocket launchers. Unfortunately there is no kit with a 1/35 RBT so it isnt a big loss.

For T-26s I could use the Zvevda one. For the double turreted versions and flamethrower tanks I could use the RPM kits and for the T-26 artillery tank I cound use a hull from Zvezda and swap the turrets around with one of the Eastern express BT-7A turrets.

For Bt-7s I could try getting one BT from Tamiya and the rest from Eastern Express.

Now the real problem is trying to find those obscure artillery pieces!

Ted, I have the RPM T-26 flamethrower tank and it is a pretty basic kit, I don't how it will build up yet and it doesn't really matter for my purposes, as it will be the basis of a "whatif", but I can tell you that dosen't have a llot of fiddly bits. The casting seems decent but overall it is not Tamiya, Dragon, trumpeter or Bronco in quality.

Thanks, I shall look into getting it some day.

AHA! I found out what a SU-12 is! It is basically a truck with a cannon on the back.

Hello Ted!
If you need information about T-35 and T-28, I can give it to you (literature,walks,links,advices). I've just have built T-35. I've have been building it for 2 years. Here is my topic.
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/179029&page=1
Now I'm building T-28.
I'll glad to help you.

That looks amazing! Makes me wish I had gotten into modelling earlier!

YAY!!!

Finally my RPM kit has arrived! To my inexpierienced eyes, the kit looks awesome! I have been putting the wheels together, and other then some broken (easily fixable) parts and some bad sprue designs everything is going together well!