Ostmodels NI Odessa Tank

Introduction

The NI (Na Ispug - Terror Tank) was an improvised design built in 1941, during the siege of Odessa. The factory took Soviet agricultural tractors, added armored plate and a variety of armament, and rumbled off to fight the Romanians. The Tank Museum of the Red Army in Kubinka exhibits a replica of one of these oddities.

There – that is about all we know about the NI, at least from online sources. My paper library contained nothing at all regarding this vehicle.

The Kit

Despite the NI’s obscurity, Ostmodels of Australia produces a 1/76 resin model of the wee beastie. For about 10 bucks, you get a small plastic bag containing five light green parts – hull, turret, two suspension/tracks, and a nice machine gun barrel. My copy exhibited average casting quality. Small air bubbles were abundant, edges and planes were not quite exact, and both suspension/track units were mildly warped. The resin was reasonably smooth and homogenous. Not much to be said about accuracy. The kit does not resemble the Kubinka replica very much, but it is a moot point since there were many NI variants. The Ostmodels line is carried by Mighty Military Miniatures.

The Build

Modeler’s block hits many of us, on occasion, and a time- tested remedy is to do a quick, low stress build of a simple kit. With five parts and virtually no references, the NI seemed like a good candidate for such a build.

The surface texture was first, with a thin layer of white putty to fill in those air bubbles. It started out with a patch here and there, but the bubbles were numerous enough that most of the hull and much of the turret ended up white. Sanding this down took care and delicacy – the resin was very soft under file or sandpaper, and oversanding risked uncovering more bubbles. Great care was required to keep edges crisp – I did not want to end up with a model that looked like it had been carved out of soap. Sanding or filing produced a nasty organic solvent smell, and I kept the hobby room ventilation fan running for this stage. A thick, hand-brushed layer of Model Master Primer was next – carefully sanding this produced parts that were ready for assembly – a quick task with the traditional Superglue as the adhesive.

Ostmodels provides few details with the kit, but the Kubinka replica photos show plenty. Using those photos as a guide, I added a hatch in the hull, vision ports on the front, lifting rings and many wire grab handles. Gloppy applications of Superglue were used to attach these parts, representing the crude welding often visible on Soviet armor. For a topcoat, I wanted a color that would look at home on an agricultural tractor –Model Master RLM 82 was my pick. The spares box was raided for fuel cans and pioneer tools, and a tissue paper tarp was constructed. The model was finished off with rust and black washes, a spritzing of dust, and some graphite powder applied with a cotton bud.

Conclusion

With its tall, boxy silhouette, the NI looks more like a caricature than the hulking Soviet armor we are used to. Nobody knows what the thing is and everyone thinks it is cute. Once the parts were cleaned up and the many bubbles filled, the NI was an easy build, and its simple shapes make it a good choice for a first resin kit. The lack of references makes this a bit of a design-it-yourself project - those who seek accuracy should look elsewhere. For me, these factors added up to a fast, easy and very fun project.