Carrera Revell World of Tanks T-26 Light Tank (03505) 1:35

[Mike]

World of Tanks T-26 Light Tank (03505)

1:35 Carrera Revell

 

 

The T-26 was a Soviet light tank that was based upon the British Vickers Light Tank, and was used in many guises in the interwar years and during the early part of WWII, although it was already outclassed by the invading German tanks during the beating they received at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.  Almost 11,000 were made of the various different types up until development ceased in 1940, which was a tacit admission that there was no future for it going forward.

 

 

World of Tanks

Many of you will have heard of the game World of Tanks (WoT), and some are likely to have played it because it is Free-to-Play for the PC and major consoles that allows players to take the role of a tank commander of any of the major combatants almost anywhere in huge play areas set in WWII.  You have to grind to work your way up the tree to monsters such as King Tigers, the Maus and other top-flight tanks, but you’ll get plenty of experience in light tanks like the T-26 on the way unless you have deep pockets and can afford to become a ‘whale’ and pay-to-win.

 

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of a 2010 tooling from Zvezda of this little tank, and it is a product of its time with a little bit of flash making an appearance here and there, plus some sink marks, which are mostly hidden.  The kit arrives in a WoT themed box and inside are six sprues in grey styrene, an instruction booklet, a common decal sheet for the series, a special bonus code and three invite codes for for players on the PC that you can give to friends to introduce them to the game and give you some squad mates to play with.  These two gifts mean the following to the PC version player:

 

Bonus Code

• 2 x +50% Experience for 2 hours
• 2 x +50% Credits for 2 hours
• 2 x 200% Crew experience for 2 hours

 

Invite Code

• T2 Light Tank
• Garage Slot
• 7 World of Tanks Premium plus days
• 1000 Gold

 

I don’t profess to know what all that means, but the info is there for you players to see.  There are long alpha-numeric codes and a URL for the website to redeem your codes, so good luck with that!

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the lower hull, which is made up from four parts and is joined by the upper hull, engine deck and glacis plate to make up the bodywork, then the radiator exhaust box and 16 sets of wheels are made up with twin return rollers also added.  The road wheels are made up in pairs, then are paired onto a small bogey, and paired again into a larger bogey with leaf suspension, held in place by a pair of pins.  The exhaust, and a bunch of tie-down lugs are added to the hull while the idler and drive sprocket pairs are made up.  These have a number of individual track links wrapped around them while the glue is still setting, then the rest of the link-and-length track parts are shown in an exploded diagram around the running gear.  The fenders fit onto the sides with triangular support brackets, then it’s a case of fitting stowage and pioneer tools, then on to the turret.

 

This variant of the T-26 had just the one turret, which is made up with a multi-part mantlet fitting inside the four-part turret, which then has twin hatches on the roof plus mushroom vent and other details, and of course the under-gunned barrel with support.  This turret also has a wrap-around radio antenna in armoured tube on upstands, and at the front a headlight is glued into place under the old-style horn under the turret.  There aren’t any clear parts in the kit, so you can either paint the lens silver, or get some self-adhesive cabochon rhinestones of an appropriate size to give it more realism.

 

 

Markings

There is just one colour option and that’s Russian Green, which is shown in a five-view set of profiles of what looks like renderings from the game.  The decals are generic and representative of the way the game allocates players to groups.  There are eighty clan symbols in various styles and colours, plus four each of German, Soviet, US and US roundel markings if you decide to depict your model as a more realistic combatant.

 

 

 

The decals are printed by Cartograf in Italy, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

 

Conclusion

A great way for the PC gamer to get into modelling or vice versa, although some may be a little terrified by the flash that's actually pretty easy to remove, but most probably won’t even notice in the excitement.

 

Highly recommended.

 

Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations, but there are many shops stocking their products where you can pick up the kits either in the flesh or online.

 

 

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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