PART 1/35 Photo-Etched & Resin T-27 Tankette By Bob Pearson

Introduction

During the 1920s, small, lightly armed and armoured 'tankettes' were in vogue among the various nations of the world. The idea was that these vehicles could carry an infantryman and his machine gun in relative safety from one point to another across open country. Another use was that in times of peace they could be untilized as farm tractors !!! John Carden of Lloyd's Garage designed what was to be the quintessential tankette, the Carden-Lloyd. This was then produced by Vickers and sold to other nations around the world including the Soviet Uniion, who then copied it and called it the T-27.

One of the fastest risers in the after-market field right now would have to be the Polish firm PART. As can be seen in recent reviews in these pages, they have produced some of the finest photoetched detail sets available anywhere. Now they take the leap into complete kits, albeit still utilizing PE as the main ingredient.

The Kit

Opening the box, one is confronted by five frets of Photo-etch as well as three wafers of resin. The PE is in various thicknesses depending on what the pieces are designed for. Pretty well everything except the road wheels and the hull sides are constructed from PE. The PE is etched on both sides and includes recessed rivets where required. The tracks are in two sections of four pieces each. Photos of the built model show these to be especially realistic when constructed.

The instructions are on two pages. One of which has a five-view drawing, while the other has a complete parts list showing the numbers as called out in the 18 step instructions. All steps are well illustrated and it appears the option is given to have the various hatches open and close with working hinges - good luck there !!!!.

The machine gun will need to be scratchbuilt, or come from the spares box. The same goes for the various axles for the running gear and hinge pins. Other than that, the kit is complete

Regarding finishing, there are no notes on this included, however the enclosed photos show an overall green colour. Myself, I'm tempted to leave it in brass to show itas a little metal sculpture.

Conclusion

The PART T-27 looks to be a most interesting build, I'm not sure if it is intended to be done using CA or solder, but either or perhaps both will be in order. I have been sent some shots of the built up model that I am including to show what is possible.

My thanks to PART for the review sample. It is available from Jadar . .. almost forgot, it is also available in 1/72 scale