Hobby Boss Soviet T-60 Light Tank (84555) 1:35

[Mike]

Soviet T-60 Light Tank (84555)

1:35 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd

 

 

Just prior to WWII, the Soviets were casting around for a light tank to replace their ageing fleet, and true to Soviet form, a totally non-confusing situation occurred with two prototypes developed that went on to receive different marks.  The amphibious version became the T-40, while the dry-land only T-60 was often referred to as the T-60 Scout Tank to avoid confusion with another similarly named tank.  The T-60 was fitted with heavier armour and a 20mm cannon, keeping the original 12.7mm machine gun, but as its coaxial mount.  It was under armed and armoured, and wasn’t very well liked apart from the Germans, who loved knocking them out.  There were changes made after the initial batch, substituting the spoked wheels with solid dished ones to help with mud-clearing and preventing the drivetrain from freezing in the harsh winter months.  The armour was upgraded too, and after considering the 37mm cannon, a larger 45mm gun was chosen instead, mainly because they could find ammo for the larger gun!  Even in its updated form it was uno-longer suited to front-line service by 1942 and was withdrawn to other tasks, such as a carrier for Katyusha rocket launching racks.  A number were pressed into service by the Germans after capturing them, and even they weren’t very fond of them from the inside.

 

 

The Kit

This is a new tool from Hobby Boss, with more variants including the TACAM T-60 to be expected any minute.  It represents the earlier version, although that’s not clear from the box, which incidentally is one of their usual top-opening ones.  Inside the box are four sprues and a lower hull part in sand coloured styrene, seven more in brown, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) and an even smaller sheet of decals.  The instruction booklet is printed in black and white with a separate colour painting guide printed on both sides of glossy A4 paper.  It’s a diminutive tank, so there’s not a huge quantity of plastic in the box, but that’s only to be expected at this scale.  Detail is good throughout, and this is an exterior kit with individual track links on the brown sprues.

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with that wee lower hull, which gets a number of holes drilled out and some filled in, then final drive housing, towing hooks, suspension swing-arms, and return rollers are all glued in place, closely followed by the road wheels and drive sprockets.  That brings us post-haste to the tracks, which as already mentioned are individual links in brown styrene with 26 per sprue. Each side has 81 links, and they are best glued with liquid glue and wrapped around the road wheels before the glue has set, then set to the correct sag by packing or weighting them appropriately.  Each link has three sprue gates and are surprisingly small but perfectly formed with two hollow-moulded guide horns on each one.  Clean-up should be easy too, as the attachment points are on the curved edges between the links, so will respond well to a fine sanding stick.  I slapped a few together to test them on my MasterTools track jig (highly recommended BTW), and they go together nice and easily.  One they’re glued, just snug them up together and count to 81.  Just remember that you have zero spare links in reserve, so be careful not to lose any during construction.

 

 

With the tracks complete, the fenders slot their tabs into holes in the sides of the hull with stowage boxes and stiffening webs from the PE sheet added along the length.  The upper hull has the driver’s area separate with a dual fold hatch, some raised bits (a technical term) and a large PE mesh panel to fit over the big cooling louvers on the engine deck, plus a raised box on the deck with PE mesh on the sides.  Another PE strip is applied to the ledge below the driver’s hatch as a bullet-splash shield, and another bracket is fitted to the left side of the hump to which the lights are fitted, while the driver’s flip-up vision port is slipped between two hinge-points above the slot.  Gluing the top hull to the bottom is followed by the addition of the exhaust, which sprouts from a port on the mid-deck, and ends with a muffler on the rear bulkhead with the help of a 90^o bend.  A scrap diagram shows the finished assembly to assist with positioning.  At the front, a pair of stiffening plates are fixed between the fenders and glacis plate, one styrene, one PE, and again there’s a helpful scrap diagram to show how they are installed.

 

I always find the turret fun, so prepare for some fun!  The turret is of angular construction, and arrives with most of the facets moulded in-place.  The protruding front area around the mantlet is separate and made up with a lower plate, then it is glued into place in the front with the mantlet, held in place by the end-caps that have pegs moulded-in that slot into the pivot points on the outside of the turret.  The 12.7mm coax slides through the mantlet from the inside, but the main gun is assembled from the outside, with a two-part rectangular sleeve, and a single piece gun tube that has a slide-moulded hollow muzzle for your convenience.  There is a hatch in the top with a tiny stand-up button on the outside, then a pair of PE rainwater deflectors are glued to the two small vision/pistol ports on the turret sides.  The turret slots into the hull and secures with a pair of bayonet lugs so you don’t lose it if you go to inspect the underside.

 

 

Markings

As usual with Hobby Boss kits, there’s very little about the decal subjects, of which there are two.  They’re both Russian Green and differ only in their markings, which to be fair are quite different, as option 1 has a striking white triangle motif with a red star painted on the turret roof.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

 

 

The decals are printed in China and up to the task in hand, with good register and sharp printing, even though it’s a small sheet with only a few colours.

 

 

Conclusion

This is a nicely detailed model of this dinky little tank that wasn’t particularly well-liked by anyone that didn’t have them in their cross-hairs.  A simple build should leave plenty of time for the painting and weathering.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of