SoftScience Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 I don't regularly post WIPs on this site, outside of the group build context. But I'm so excited about this kit, that I thought I'd share. The T-44 was developed during World War Two, and was intended as a replacement for the 76mm armed T-34. The T-44 featured an 85 mm gun, frontal armor that could withstand a hit from the German 88mm guns. The tank was lighter and slightly faster than the T-34, and the low profile was the wave of future armor development. Nevertheless, the second generation of 85mm gun armed T-34 was favored for production, and only about 2,000 T-44s were built between 1944 and 1947. In September of 1944, three tank brigades trained on the T-44, but were re-equipped with T-34/85 tanks when they were sent into combat. The war in Europe ended before the T-44 made it to frontline units, but many of the tanks were sent to units fighting the Japanese in Manchuria during the closing days of the War in August 1945. The Soviets generally kept a lid on this tank after the war, and few T-44s were photographed. In the early 1950s several T-44s were sent to Poland to train tank crews, and in 1956 the tanks took part in the invasion of Hungary. However, by the mid-1950s the T-44 was becoming obsolescent, as newer T-54 and T-55 tanks were becoming the primary Soviet MBT. I love the low slung look of the T-44! In its lines, you can see the origins of design elements that would later be seen on the T-54, T-55, T-62, and even T-72. The low hull profile, the flat square rear hull with slatted engine deck, the smooth, shallow slope of the front armor capped with a driver's hatch, and the wide fenders with tool boxes and fuel tanks. At the same time, elements of the T-34 are also clearly visible in the suspension, and turret design. It is true a link between WW II and Cold War Soviet tank design. Miniart's kit looks awesome! This is not labeled as one of their interior kits, but you get a very complete turret interior, the portions of the hull directly beneath the turret, and even part of the engine. Exterior details look exquisite. There many; no, MANY, parts! After tearing open the bags, I had a hard time fitting all of the sprues back into the generously sized box. I don't really get the whole tank interior thing, because I often build my tanks all buttoned up, or with crew figures, but it might be fun to build just for the fun of construction, and not worry about painting. Doing the engine access hatches opened and part of the engine showing, might look kind of neat too. I'll see. There are several interesting markings options, including two tanks from the Hungarian invasion. and this neat looking 5th Guards Army tank from post-war Belarus, The slogan on the front reads znamyenskiy, which sounds like a surname, but I don't get the reference. This tank also has a unit badge and a Guards emblem on the turret sides. I'll likely build this one. There are also a few fictional nazi captured options, because some modelers evidently can't sleep without slapping a balkenkreuz on everything 🙄 So yeah, stay tuned. I hope I can document this project in an entertaining way. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 44 minutes ago, SoftScience said: I love the low slung look of the T-44! So do I, will be following along with great interest Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Looks really interesting , looking forward to seeing this one progress Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 27, 2021 Author Share Posted February 27, 2021 Off to an inauspicious start. I thought I'd play around with some of the interior parts and began assembling the gun breach. If you ever built a high end short run kit (think recent Special Hobby), you'll feel right at home. The plastic is slightly soft, and sprue gates are slightly thick. Fit isn't great but the clever engineering hides some poor fitting areas. Still, fit is dodgy on a few components, and made assembling these few parts less pleasant than it could have been. I'm going to move to the bigger pieces to see how those are. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pig of the Week Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 Interesting..Not a tank that I was aware of, be good to see it's progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaastav Posted February 27, 2021 Share Posted February 27, 2021 I'm currently using the T44 in War Thunder, and it's a great workhorse. Znamensky means warrior, by the way. Mind if I follow? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 23 hours ago, Vaastav said: I'm currently using the T44 in War Thunder, and it's a great workhorse. Znamensky means warrior, by the way. Mind if I follow? Ahhh. Thanks for that! Do you speak Russian? I've been trying to learn the language, but just can't get the hang of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 Last night I really dug into the kit. This kit has that "why use one part, if you can do it with 10" design philosophy. As an example here is one of the torsion bar assemblies You do that six times. As you can see the fit is a little sloppy, but since all that will be hidden I didn't bother to fix it. Here is the complete floor pan. At that point I committed to not spending the time on assembling the partial interior and closed up the front hull. Fit of the major components was very good. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vaastav Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 38 minutes ago, SoftScience said: Ahhh. Thanks for that! Do you speak Russian? I've been trying to learn the language, but just can't get the hang of it. I don't speak Russian, but it is a decal in War Thunder, where the translation is given so.... I'm learning it too. I've got a hang of the alphabet now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 nice work.... and didn't know the kit had so much of the interior without being full interior (of which I have the 3 ;-)). The Pz III Ausf D equivalent of this kit just has the (wrong) turret interior.... looking forward to more of the build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 1 hour ago, robw_uk said: nice work.... and didn't know the kit had so much of the interior without being full interior (of which I have the 3 ;-)) It surprised me as well. I kind of don't get the full interior thing. I mean o kind of do. Sometimes see a kit that has a full interior and i think, "oooh, so many cool parts", but then I open the box and realize "oh god! So many parts!" 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 36 minutes ago, SoftScience said: It surprised me as well. I kind of don't get the full interior thing. I mean o kind of do. Sometimes see a kit that has a full interior and i think, "oooh, so many cool parts", but then I open the box and realize "oh god! So many parts!" Welcome to Miniart, they do as you say use so many parts when perhaps they could have done it with a lot less fewer, but having said that I personally love Miniart kits as they do very unusual kits, but that's me, I know it's not for every one. The work that you have done so far is really good, stick with it and I'm sure you will end up with a really cool model. I'm looking forward to seeing you do more and will watch with interest... Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 2 hours ago, edjbartos said: I personally love Miniart kits as they do very unusual kits, but that's me, I know it's not for every one. I like them too. At least the T-54/55 series, as I haven't tried the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 After checking how much of the engine will be visible through the open hatches, I decided to build it. Unlike the small cannon breach pieces, these fit pretty nicely. And the whole assembly fits nicely into the hull (not glued in yet). And the parts that will be visible. Pretty cool!!! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 2 hours ago, edjbartos said: Welcome to Miniart ^^ This The engine looks really nice, and you're getting a lot of interior for the money Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 That engine looks familiar, the detail on it is really great. Hopefully you should be able to have the engine cover removable to show the lovely detailed engine, assuming that's what you wish to do... Good work on assembling the engine, looks nice and clean. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbasket Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 IMO, The T44 was one of the best looking tanks of the war. Great start, and I know what you mean about the number of parts in Miniart kits. John. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 Let's build some wheels tonight, I thought. It won't take too long, I thought. So here is the one wheel I finished...mmmkay? I'm not entirely sure what Minicraft's designer had in mind with the wheels. If you look at the inner faces, you can see a "male" and "female" half that go together. There's even a neat little tab to line them up. Cool! Nice super tight fit. But wait! We need an axle. When you insert said axle into the female half, it takes up the entire depression and the male half can no longer fit. Behold! The obvious solution is to bris the flange on the male half and join the halves together. That is what I did with the first wheel shown above. But I'm not sure if that is what Miniart intended me to do. The axle is supposed to remain unglued so the wheel can spin. Yeah, fat chance! Even if I could avoid getting glue all over the inner hub while attempting the end to end join, look at the itty-bitty end of the axle that fits into the swing arm. Just the tip... (Oh goodness 🤣) This is how far the wheel rests from the arm. Even with the weight distributed over 10 wheels, I don't know this will be enough contact surface to support the model, let alone withstand handling of the model after the wheels go on. To those who have been down this road before; am I doing something wrong? In the meantime, while I await responses, activity at the Softscience Zavod 37H turns to something a bit simpler. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edjbartos Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 No I don't think you are doing anything wrong, I had the same issues firstly with their Panzer III and then with the T-55A. As much as I love Miniart kits I hate the way they approach this. They have gone a bit too far in trying to make everything movable but at the cost of solidity. When all of these wheels are glued and fit into place they just feel fragile, which they actually are. If I was doing this again I would try and fit a pin into the hub and drill a corresponding hole into the wheel and fit that way and forget about moving parts, it's just not worth it. all the best Ed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 16 hours ago, edjbartos said: If I was doing this again I would try and fit a pin into the hub I totally agree yes, I would try and get a metal pin in there somewhere to strengthen things. Miniart have gone crazy, why didn't they just put the axle on the end of the suspension arm like everyone else does, then put a cap in the wheel? Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted March 4, 2021 Author Share Posted March 4, 2021 19 minutes ago, Cerberus said: I totally agree yes, I would try and get a metal pin in there somewhere to strengthen things. Miniart have gone crazy, why didn't they just put the axle on the end of the suspension arm like everyone else does, then put a cap in the wheel? Matt It almost seems like the suspension arms and the wheels were designed by two different people who weren't talking to one another. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Hallo SoftScience Well done! You should see the MiniArt kit of a GAZ, a Russian truck;! The wheels! MiniArt, Takom and RyeField are the best, I think. I like them all 3 of them. Actually I built only aircraft for 25 years. Now I build both. Aircraft & Tanks. After the first run of several simple kits, I switched. Interior tank kits from this 3 companies. This is joy! Happy modelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoftScience Posted March 5, 2021 Author Share Posted March 5, 2021 11 hours ago, dov said: Hallo SoftScience Well done! You should see the MiniArt kit of a GAZ, a Russian truck;! The wheels! MiniArt, Takom and RyeField are the best, I think. I like them all 3 of them. Actually I built only aircraft for 25 years. Now I build both. Aircraft & Tanks. After the first run of several simple kits, I switched. Interior tank kits from this 3 companies. This is joy! Happy modelling I do love Takom and RFM! Modern AFV kits are incredible! That said, I did manage to break off my first mounting arm today. It fell to the floor and instantly vanished! I think there are extras in the box, but i expect more breakage before this project is done. On a positive note, I have finished seven of the ten roadwheels. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robw_uk Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 nice work... yeah MiniArt and wheels (have built the LAP-7 that has 6 wheels each tyre made up of 7 slices!!!! and the Pz III Asuf D that has very thin and small mounting points like you have here) - this is by far their weakest area I think. Not looking forward to the weels on T-60 Tacam Su-122 T-54 (all full interior) but will do them as I am a glutton for punishment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
echen Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 5 hours ago, SoftScience said: It fell to the floor and instantly vanished! The carpet monster - modellers mortal foe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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