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Soviet T-18 Light Tank Mod 1927 1:35 HobbyBoss At the end of the Great War the French FT-17 light tank was well-regarded, as it was the first true tank with a fully rotating turret and reasonable manoeuvrability, which were two things that the British tanks didn't have. The Americans used the design, as did Japan into the 1930s, and this Soviet light tank is also based on the same basic chassis, but with improved suspensions and a redesigned upper hull to mount a larger turret, which resulted in an enlarged upper deck that overhangs the tracks. The design went through some changes to counter the initial lacklustre performance of the original T-16 design, although the out-dated 37mm gun was retained, which although it wasn't capable enough to target and penetrate other armoured targets, could be loaded with shrapnel rounds that were quite effective against soft targets. It stayed in service until the early 30s as a training vehicle, as it was found to be unsatisfactory in frontline use. The Kit We have been treated to FT-17 kits in 1:35 of late, and HobbyBoss are slowly working their way through the more esoteric Russian early armour, so the T-18 turning up was just a matter of time. It is a new tooling, and comes in a small top-opening box with a card divider inside to protect the delicate hull parts. Cocooned within individual bags, some of which are further protected by a thin foam sheet, there are four sprues in a sand coloured styrene, plus three individual parts in the same colour, two in brown styrene for the tracks, plus a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE), instruction booklet and a separate glossy painting guide. The kit seems nicely detailed, uses a smattering of slide-moulding to improve detail further, and parts breakdown is sensible, so should go together well with few issues. Construction begins with the road wheel bogies, which have the revised vertical travel suspension arms grouped in two sets of two, and one of three with the longer one at the front, that has an additional strut attached, reducing the initial deflection on hitting an obstacle. A set of return rollers that were added to keep the track from strumming are fitted over the road wheels, with the larger front idler wheel and drive sprocket at the rear completing the running gear work, until the installation of the tracks later on. The lower hull is tiny, so the addition of the rounded casemate below the turret gives it a rather top heavy look that is partially reduced by the fenders added to the sides. These mate neatly with the lower hull, and the front deck is completed with doors for the driver that form the larger part of the small glacis. The rear bulkhead has a row of holes drilled in its rear for engine cooling, which turned out to be insufficient in practice. This is replicated by a PE panel that is bent over the underlying plastic part, and it would be a good idea to anneal the PE in a flame to soften it before applying, and considering removing the styrene behind the holes for a more realistic look. The FT-17's unditching skid at the rear is carried over almost unchanged, and is made up from the skid surface plus a slightly simplified supporting framework. The hull is completed with some louvres on the rear deck, pioneer tools and a vision hatch for the driver, after which the tracks can be added. The tracks are held on the two brown sprues, and you will need 51 individual links per side, which have three sprue gates per link, but no ejector pin marks, making clean-up quite straight forward. Simply glue the links with liquid glue against a straight-edge, and then wrap the still soft track run around the wheels, dialling in the correct sag by packing the links to hold them in place. The detail on the outer surface of the links is excellent, and they should look good once painted up and weathered. Only the turret remains to build, and this is a fairly straight forward affair, as it has no internal detail to complicate matters. The upper section is dressed with the mantlet insert fitting into one facet of the front, receiving the hollow muzzled 37mm barrel, while the other facet has two machine gun barrels inserted in a small mount, both of which could do with their barrels drilling out to add realism. They also aren't shown on the box art, which instead shows a single, more Hotchkiss-like gun in a ball mount. A small raised "mushroom" cupola fits into the hole in the top, and the turret just drop-fits into the hull. Markings There aren't any! You can paint it Russian Green though, and the glossy guide shows you that it goes everywhere on the hull and roadhweels. I guess that because it was barely used, there aren't that many photos of any markings, so they erred on the cautious side and saved a few Yuan. Conclusion It's an interesting little project in itself, and if you have an FT-17 in your cabinet, it will look good as a show of progression that might generate the occasional question as to why a French tank (if you put some markings of your own on it) is in Russian colours. Shame there were no decals though, but it's quite keenly priced, so you can forgive them that. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of