Review
I was browsing through the stock at Dorking Models the other day, and I spotted this 1/72 resin kit of the Russian T-28. Now, I normally stick to 1/76 scale, but I must confess that I have a weakness for the 1930s multi-turretted tanks, so when I saw this one, I just had to buy it,even though the price was high at £21.00. And a very tanky tank it proved to be! The casting was excellent, although, of course I had to remove the usual resin excesses. This was fairly straighforward with a scalpel and a razor saw. The tracks had to be carefully heat formed from flat castings with a hair dryer. I fabricated the machine guns from copper wire, added my own twisted wire hawsers and also fitted a frame antenna around the turret, which I made from tinned copper wire, soldered to the correct pattern.
I decided that I wanted to paint this vehicle in winter camouflage, so I started by painting all the difficult to get at recesses, trackwork etc., rust colour and then overpainted all the appropriate surfaces with white, not worrying too much about showthrough, especially around the suspension covers and mud chutes. I then set to with weathering using pharmaceutical grade red iron oxide powder for rust (you can grind your own from genuine rust), and sifted garden soil and ash from our wood-burning stove for general dirt, mud etc. Ash has the advantage that it is very fine.
I make up these weathering substances by first sifting the earth and ashes through a 200 micron sieve and then mixing the powder with water and just a small amount of office gum. This paste can then be applied as required. In the case of rust made from red iron oxide powder, a watery suspension with a trace of gum and some detergent will track along seams and mould marks making quite convincing rust runs.
By the way, the box artwork shows a T-28 in a rather fetching blue striped colour scheme, but unfortunately the T-28 is a later model than the one in the box which is in fact the first production model.
I was very pleased with the finished vehicle, and recommend this model, even at the high price. You can find Molelkrak's listings at www.jadar.com.pl.
