„A grave for two brothers” – the T-60 in 1:72

[KRK4m]

The concept of a tankette with a rotating turret, and also a floating one, can be considered a Soviet spécialité de la maison of the WW2 period. The idea - like most AFVs until the mid 1930s - was born in Britain as a brainchild of Sir John Carden and Captain Vivian Loyd. However, bought by Vickers, it did not arouse recognition of the British army, but thanks to marketing efforts, it met the tastes of the Soviet RKKA (workers and peasants' Red Army).

 

 

The Russians first produced 2,600 of the 3-ton T-37As, then 1,400 of the 4-ton T-38 with a slightly higher hull and 900+ of the (still higher) 5-ton T-40 - the latter after the WW2 outbreak. But the experience of the 1939 campaigns in Poland and Finland (where over a thousand T-37A and T-38 were used) showed moderate usefulness of this type of AFV.

 

 

And the T-40 manufacturing cost has long exceeded the T-26 and dangerously approached the T-34 level. Therefore, it was decided that a simplified variant is needed - without the ability to float, which will allow for a smaller size and better armour.

 

 

And this is how the T-60 was created - a two-man tankette, armed with a 20mm aviation cannon coupled with a 0.3" MG.

Powered by a 6-cylinder inline 70hp GAZ engine (nee Dodge), it weighed a bit less than 6 tons. In 1941-42 some 5,700 were manufactured.

 

 

In that most difficult for Russia period of the German superiority, even such a poorly armed and lightly armoured tank was worth its weight in gold.

Despite the fact that in the opinion of Soviet commanders "to have a T-60" was only slightly better than "to have no AFV at all", and for the nickname "grave for two brothers" given by soldiers, it fully deserved.

 

 

The 2014-tool ACE kit is the best T-60 kit in Braille scale. The #72540 boxing contains 126 styrene parts, two rubber tracks and a PE fret with 14 details.

Quite a lot for a package 57mm long.

 

 

The model was built OOB. Only the camouflage scheme for the September ‘42 Caucasus warrior was taken from tanks-encyclopedia.com.

The tactical number 32 on the turret comes from the Mirage T-26 kit.

 

 

The paints are (as always) Humbrol enamels: 226 for the 1941-43 period 4BO and 186 for the 6K cinnamon brown - 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 March 13, 2022 by KRK4m

[sardaukar]

Nice job and nice write up.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Your excellent monograph is far bigger than the tiny little tank! Well done for both!