Building the ICM T-35 By Brent Theobald

Historical Data

The T-35 was a unique heavy tank in the sense that it was the only five-turreted tank to enter production anywhere in the world. It was designed to penetrate and destroy enemy strong points. Work on the new tank started in 1930 in the design bureau of the "Bolshevik" factory, Leningrad. The first prototype, T-35-1, was built in August 1932 and production commenced at the Kharkov Locomotive factory. Two prototypes and 61 production tanks in several variants were built between 1932-1939.

The main turret of the T-35 was armed with the KT-28 (76.2mm) gun, designed to devastate enemy strong points, and also two DT machine guns. The two medium sized turrets were armed with the anti-tank 45mm 20K gun and contained a coaxial DT machine gun. The two smallest turrets contained a single DT machine gun for use against infantry.

The majority of T-35s were assigned to the Separate Heavy Tank Brigade, which was part of the General Command Reserve. Throughout the 1930s, the behemoth T-35 symbolized the growing strength and power of the Soviet State. The T-35s had mainly been used in military parades. None had seen action prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

At the outbreak of war on June 22, 1941, T-35s were assigned to two tank regiments belonging to the Kiev Separate Military Region. All were lost during the first weeks of battle in the L’vov region of Western Ukraine. Almost all loses were due to mechanical failure rather than enemy action. Only seven tanks were actually lost in combat. Two T-35s saw action during the Battle of Moscow. Two more spent four years in the Kazan tank school.

An undamaged T-35, abandoned by its crew near L’vov, entered service with the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.) This tank was named after OUN leader Stepan Bandera and served during 1941-1942.

Kit Review

The first item is the driver's seat - this goes together easily. The next step is to begin building the drive train. This is a little tricky because there are no alignment pins on this kit, though a patient modeler can overcome this minor difficulty. The only change I made from what the instructions ask was to paint the different engine and transmission components with various metalizer colors. I liked the contrast better than painting everything "silver, matte steel grey" or "gunmetal". Part fit was good, but not great.

The hull is comprised of three long pieces. Mine were warped, but little care and quick drying super glue solved this. I followed up by making fillets with some thick super glue, this lends more strength to the joints. Mark the little rectangles cast into the inside rear of the hull. This is where the engine will mount. Pop the driver's compartment in the hull along with the drive train assembly. You also install a bulkhead at this point, which acted as a spreader on my model.

If you like painting wheels, this is the kit for you. Thirty-two road wheels, fourteen tiny wheels, two sprockets and two idler wheels. I painted mine with the suggested Testors Matte Forest Green (No. 1714) then detailed them with Testors Rubber. The springs should be painted now. I gave them a coat of flat black, then the drybrush treatment with steel, which brings out the spiral pattern very nicely. A super detailer could replace the kit springs with real springs. Paint the bogey housings with the same aforementioned Matte Forest Green.

Next comes the bogey assembly. This is where things became tricky. The housing halves were warped and didn't want to clip around the road wheels. A medium sized binder clamp is perfect for squashing the housing halves together around the road wheels while the glue dries. Time to dry fit the bogey assemblies to the hull. On my kit every pin was oversized, or every hole was undersized. Enlarging these holes was no big deal. When this is finished, the kit really starts looking impressive. Be sure to scrape paint off parts G10 and E6 because the skirts mount to them later on. It is easier to scrape the paint now than later. Give it all a nice dark wash, do a little drybrushing, then set it aside.

Now it is time to build the tracks, link by link. I used the masking tape and straight edge method, which worked well enough. I painted the tracks black and drybrushed steel highlights on them. I didn't go crazy with weathering them because the tank I did was used mostly for parades and kept in good repair. When you wrap the tracks around the wheels, do your best to make them sag over the top. ICM gives you plenty of links - I had a whole fret left over when I was done.

ICM has you start with the smallest turrets. Construction consists of two halves, a top, a front and a hatch. Unfortunately, when it came time to assemble the halves like a clamshell, I found my parts were warped on both turrets. I glued one joint and let it dry sufficiently, then squashed the other side together and glued it with quick drying super glue. Again, I used thick super glue to build up a nice fillet for added strength. This problem is made more difficult by the lack of locating pins, so take care. The remaining parts went together well. I left the machine gun off until final assembly.

The medium sized turrets are next. These also suffered from the same warpage difficulties as the small turrets, and I solved the problem the same way. One item of note is that the instructions have parts E8 and E9 marked incorrectly. These two spacers are drawn correctly in the instructions, but are labeled backwards; E8 should be E9 and vice versa. I also had to enlarge the square hole in the turret front for E19 to fit properly. The rest of the parts fit fine. Again I left off the machine for later.

Now for the coup de grace - the final large turret. Once again it had annoying warpage, which was easy to correct. I was concerned with the top of the turret fitting on the clamshell halves. Luckily it went together nicely. Pay close attention when building the main gun, because it is easy to do it incorrectly. (I tried very hard to build it upside down.) The fit of the remaining parts was very good.

I detailed all the equipment by painting them steel and shading them with a dark wash. I had to trim a pin off the pickaxe due to misalignment. I enlarged the mating holes and the equipment was mounted. I recommend that the driver's hatch be left off until final assembly if the intent is to have it open. If it is glued open now it will be very difficult to install the forward small turret. I used the same method of painting on the air intake screens (part T1) as I used on the bogey springs. I painted the muffler (parts P5 and P6) aluminum and give it a rusty wash. The horn needs to be hollowed out, but I just painted a black circle on it to simulate it being hollow. I installed the headlights in the down position because the kit did not include lenses.

Installing the top deck on the hull was not too difficult, though I had to spread the hull out a little; it snapped together well. Be sure to dry fit very carefully before using cement. Installing the turrets required further carving to enlarge the holes in the deck. I thinned the tabs by 50% in order to get the turrets to rotate on. At this point the tank is really coming together and looks really good. Enjoy all the work you put into the bogeys, since they are about to be covered by the side-skirts. Installing the front fenders and skirts posed little challenge except for the driver's side fender. I had a large gap at the rear; luckily the open driver's hatch covers it up.

Some of the schemes for the T-35 were very simple and bland to me. I picked the parade decorations from 1936. They look nice, but were going to require more work to get the decals to settle down around all the rivets etc. Unfortunately my test decals "shattered" when I tried to apply them to my test model. I used Microscale decal film solution to save them. There was also a red star on the top of the large turret according to one reference I found, which was not included in the kit's decals. I added this from another set. I had to use a lot of setting solution on the turret stripes, but it was worth it.After shooting Testors clear matte finish, I installed the machine guns. I did a final dark wash on everything and called it complete. One remark on the warpage issue: I have spoken with other modelers who have built this kit and did not have any of the warpage problems I did. Hopefully your T-35 will be like theirs.

The kit is difficult, but well worth building. It doesn't just fall together. I suggest that children or beginning modelers choose another kit. It can be built with a little more effort than one usually would spend on a Tamiya or DML kit. The final product is a huge and very impressive kit of an interesting subject. The T-35 from ICM was a bit of a pain at times but the result is very satisfying. I would recommend it to any builder with moderate modeling skills.