Building an accurate T28 Heavy Tank / T95 105mm GMC
Dragon's T28 Super Heavy Tank ranks as perhaps the most disappointing AFV kit from a major manufacturer in recent years. In order to make use of existing Sherman HVSS suspension components Dragon seriously compromised the kit's accuracy. It's a fair bit too long and much too wide. The length discrepancy depends on exactly what you're measuring, but for example, the side skirts should measure 207mm from the front tip to the vertical straight edge at the rear; the kit part measures 219.5mm. The overall width of the real vehicle (with the outer track in place) is 14 ft 5 in, which in 1:35 is 125.5mm, but the Dragon kit is 139.5 mm - an error of about 11%. I've wanted to build a T28 for more years than I can remember, but I strive for accuracy in my models. So, what to do? Well, there's the resin kit from Accurate Armour, which is a massive expense, especially when added to the price of the Dragon it, which I had already bought before I knew about the inaccuracies. Or you could wait for Meng or Trumpeter or Takom or Hobby Boss to release a better one, but who knows if or when that might happen. Or you could just accept that despite the inaccuracy, it still looks like a T28/T95 and build it as is. Nope, not me. I tried to figure out a way to try and correct, as far as possible, the Dragon kit, but in the end I concluded that it wasn't really feasible. So it's going to be a semi-scratchbuild project, using as much of the Dragon kit as I can, but only what I can use while maintaining the goal of building an accurate model. This is going to take a while, and I get distracted easily, so don't be surprised when there are long gaps between updates!