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Trumpeter 1:72 T-34/76 WIP


Another quick build.

Frankly, I'm surprised at Trumpeter. The kit has really nice pieces inside the drab, uninspiring packaging. The box art is "meh..." but the sprues have some lovely detailed parts. I really like how the road wheels look with the crisp detailing and the nice tow cable rope.



The plastic is fragile though and the wheels are not meant to roll freely but are instead glued on. Be careful with these because the pegs are quite fragile. I accidentally broke one when I was dry fitting one of the wheels.

Hull details look a bit soft but with the driver's hatch and the machine gun attached, it starts to look ok. The antenna holder seems a bit oversized, but when attached, again it seems okay. The headlight is very basic and I may subsitute something form the parts box soon. The large hooks look nice and robust.


The turret came in two vertical halves and the top part as a separate piece. The hatch is molded on and the periscope looks out of scale... it's too big! A quick check with the Dragon kit reveals that they seem to share the same periscope size. I'll have to correct this before painting. Have a look at the 1/35 version I made earlier here.

I may have misunderstood the instructions regarding the main gun but it seems that it will have to be glued in place and can't be made to move. I also damaged part of the mantlet when I cut too close with my sprue cutter. A little sanding kinda evened out the part but a little putty might be needed. I'll hold that off until I get to painting this little girl.


I left off attaching the grab rails on the turret as well as the hull because I'm still looking into the option of changing them with metal ones. Much like what I did with my 1:35 T-34/76 from Tamiya.



Some of the grill detail is a bit soft and I'm not sure if the stowage boxes are of the right scale. eyeballing them, I feel they're a tad too small and thin. I'll have to check this with my references. I couldn't be bothered to do it now though because I only had a few minutes before bedtime to make this out-of-the-box:) Li'l ol me needs his beauty sleep dontcha know...



The spacing of the rear exhausts seem a bit too far apart too but then again, I'll have to check with my references before anything official is noted, hehe.


Anyway, the result is a fast, no-frills, no-nonsense enjoyable build. For a time, modelmaking for me had turned into a scary, stressful endeavor, with too many real and imagined considerations spoiling the enjoyment of building a model. Having built this one with no pressure to "get things right" means that the money i plunked down for this toy was well spent and chalked up as "leisure time benefits." And I only had one glass of iced tea during the whole build!


'Nuff said and until paint is sprayed on this baby -- model on!
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