T-26 – an incarnation of the British most-influential tank ever

[KRK4m]

We all know that the first tanks built in hundreds and the first ones used in combat were the British ones. But we must also all agree that it was the French Renault FT - the first with a gun placed in a rotating turret on the top of the hull - that became the progenitor of all later tanks, both the T-34 and the Patton. The Renault FT, spread all over the world (used even in Japan and Brazil, manufactured in Italy and Soviet Russia), was used still during WW2 in the numbers exceeding 2,000.

 

 

But it was not the most numerous tank of the interwar period. For that was - almost forgotten in its original form - British Vickers E. Designed by Carden and Loyd in 1928, it did not attract the interest of the British army - the 150 vehicles built were sold to Finland, Turkey, Thailand, China, Poland and Soviet Russia. The last two of these countries also acquired a manufacturing licence - in Poland, 130 diesel-engined 7TP tanks were built, but the Russians built as many as 11,370 (named T-26) with original petrol engine. No British tank - before or after - has spread around the world in such numbers.

 

 

Like the Vickers and the Polish 7TP, the T-26 was initially produced with twin turrets. However, the operational experience of all users around the world showed a decisive advantage of single-turret tanks, so from 1933 all T-26s (9,740 units) were built with single turret. Crewed by 3 and armed with a 45mm cannon and 1 MG, the single-turret T-26 m.1933 weighed 9 tons.

 

 

It was powered by the 90hp inline 4-cylinder Siddeley engine. At this point, it is worth dealing with the urban legend that this engine was a 4-cylinder version of the Siddeley Puma from the DH.9 bomber. The “aviation” Puma cylinder dimensions were 145x190mm, and the tank ones - 120x146mm. In addition, the tank engine was twice as heavy. So Siddeley - yes, but Puma - definitely not.

 

 

The Polish 2002-tool Mirage kit (debuting as 7TP, then Vickers and T-26) is the best Braille scale “Vickers-E family” kit on the market. Not less than 21 boxings are available and #72609 I used contains 198 styrene parts and two vinyl tracks. If they were of link and length type, the number of parts would easily exceed 220. In a package some 63mm long – a massacre!

The model was made OOB except for drilling the exhaust pipe. Only the vinyl tracks had to be shortened by 6mm each.

 

 

I was tempted to build the T-26 from the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. At that time, they accounted for more than half of the 4,700 tanks thrown by Stalin (and 2,700 by Hitler) against 900 fielded by Poland ... But - perhaps due to the danger of being misidentified with almost identical (but camouflaged) Polish Vickers’ and 7TPs - Soviet T-26s in 1939 were in boring 4BO green overall. The 6K chestnut brown blotches did not appear on them until 1941.

 

 

Despite huge losses during Operation Barbarossa, hundreds of T-26s continued to fight the Germans in 1942 in the Caucasus and near Stalingrad. The last combat use of the Soviet T-26s was the 1945 operation August Storm in Manchuria. My model shows a tank from an unidentified unit that fought in January 1943 near Voronezh (midway between Moscow and Stalingrad).

 

 

It has a two-color (4BO + 6K) camouflage with white areas of temporary winter camo. The paints are (as always) Humbrol enamels: 86 for the pre-1941 4BO, 186 for the 6K and 130 for the temporary whitewash - painted with Italeri brushes. Finally the Vallejo acrylic matt varnish was brush-applied overall.

The photos are taken with an LG smartphone.

Comments are welcome

Cheers

Michael

Edited January 18, 2022 by KRK4m

[badger]

Cool build and very informative write up. 

 

Thanks for sharing

 

All the best

Ben

[KRK4m]

Thank you, Ben.

Whenever I build a model (of an aircraft, a tank, a ship), I try to learn as much as possible about the prototype and the circumstances in which it happened to exist.

That is why I write so much about these miniatures of mine - not everyone likes it 😕.

And that's why I'm glad that you appreciate it, because I always value the opinion of an expert like you very high.

Cheers

Michael

[sardaukar]

Nice little model, I like your write ups, quite informative. I knew lot of these early pre ww2 designs were either licensed copies, blatant copies, evolutions of or inspired by etc.

 

You inspired a trip to wiki and the tank encyclopaedia for me to learn more, and now there is a couple more models on the wish list.

[KRK4m]

So I felt relieved...

Glad to hear anyone reading these my scribbles.

And the more that thanks to them someone will build another model (or two 😉)

Cheers

Michael