History:

After the introduction of the new T-26 tank into the Red Army inventory, work commenced on adapting the same chassis for other tasks. The result was a number of fortification assault gun variants that were developed: AT-1, SU-1, SU-5, armed with 76.2mm to 122mm guns built in above the chassis. Such guns were optimised for supporting infantry attacks.

A self-propelled gun with larger horizontal movement angle was required for defence. This way a number of vehicles, on the T-26 tank chassis, were armed with Mk 1926 naval 76.2mm guns.

After the German Armies commenced Operation "Barbarosa", the armies of the Northern Front approached the suburbs of the city of Leningrad early in September 1941. During the winter of 1941/42 the city was completely cut off from the rest of Soviet-held territory. Tanks damaged in combat had to be repaired by the meager means in the city. It was decided to use the coastal guns store in the Navy arsenals. The most suitable of these was the 76.2mm guns with its simple operation and low recoil force.

The gun was developed from the Schneider Mk 1916 76.2mm gun. The gun had a long barrel recoil travel, which largely reduced the loads acting on the mount, and the entire assembly was very stable during firing. This way of fitting the gun, on a flat platform with protective armour fixed to the gun allowed fire in a horizontal plane in full angle range. A dozen or so vehicles were modified this way and used in defence of Leningrad.

What's in the box?:

Again, this kit also comes in an end-opening box. Inside there are also two cello bags with six parts trees divided between them. The trees are molded in various shades of gray styrene again too. The well done instruction sheet is 20 assembly steps in length. Humbrol color numbers are again called out. The kit has a lot of common parts trees shared also by the T-26TB kit. However, there are some new trees to provide for the difference in the superstructure. The cannon is very well done with lots of fine detail and you get lots of ammo storage boxes with rounds in them to see in the fighting compartment. This one gets the same ho-hum olive green paint job too. No decals or crew figures are provided. Decals are really not needed as the the real vehicle probably did appear pretty naked. The tracks are the vinyl rubber-band type.

Conclusion

This is another unusual subject in Soviet armor. Being primarily a 1/35th scale armor builder, I would hope that Mirage someday sees their way clear to doing this kit – and the previously reviewed T-26TB - in 1/35th scale too.

I would not recommend this kit to beginners either, for the same reasons stated in the first review. It is also well molded, flash free and has a lot of teeny parts.

Thanks to Squadron (MMD) for the review sample