Counting myself as a „normal“ modeller, accustomed to scales like 1:72nd, 1:48th or 1:32nd the scale „28mm“ (=1:56) at first glance sounds strange to me;
our wargaming brethren on the other hand are well acquainted with this scale: A lot of figure-sets were released in the last years and wargamers nowadays do also get a lot of accessories and, most important, a whole range of vehicles in 28mm.
Those kits do have to be easy to assemble and sturdy to withstand rough handling during the wargaming but on the other hand should be well detailled.
I would like to review one such modell from the modeller´s point of view …
(Die deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findet man hier)
Inside the box you will find three sprues in grey styrene – all seperately wrapped in their bags, an instruction manual and a decal-sheet:
The back of the box reveals some cursory information about the real thing plus the mentioning of the two Vallejo-colours to be used – 70.894 Russian Green and 70.862 Black Grey:
The three sprues for one T-34 with the 76mm gun in detail:
Rubicon did a more than convincing job (at least from a wargamers point of view!) with the one-piece hull:
The engine deck with it´s cooling mesh:
The hull´s backplates with two different access-hatches:
And -of course- two different turret versions:
As well as two different gun-mantlets:
The driver does have the choice between two access-hatches – one from the front …
… and one from the inside:
The hull machine-gun leaves much to be desired – personally I would recommend a replacement:
The running gear is a simple and easy-to-construct one-piece affair with seperate inner roadwheels.
You do get either the steel roadwheels …
… or the rubber-rimmed roadwheels:
The backside of these one-piece gears:
Unfortunately the tracks are devoid of any detail on the insides and do feature a totally wrong pattern on the outsides!
Frankly spoken, these tracks are the main drawback of the kit – with some detail and a more accurate pattern the running gear would have become a „Number one“-affair. So the only solution I can think of is to smudge it with a lot of mud so that the non-existent/wrong detail won´t be too visible!
The instructions are perfectly drawn and sharp printed with just the right amount of contrast:
The decals, although looking a little bit fuzzy in the scan, are in perfect register with nice and sharp edges and you even do get some slogans for your „Patriotic Fighter for Mother Russia“:
The eagle-eyed among our readers might have noticed it – there are some Polish eagles on the decal sheet: So we are even able to decorate Polish T-34´s !
My conclusion before the build-process actually started: A nice kit of one of the „workhorses of war“, easy to assemble, sturdy to withstand rough handling an reasonably detailled. If only those tracks would have better detail …
Nevertheless I would recommend this kit for all wargamers and for beginners in scale modelling alike. Even „experts“ might find these kits a pleasure to build in-between two more demanding projects.
And with a little scratch-built detailling you might even make a beauty out of it!
So: „Go out and buy one“! Available in all good wargaming webshops – mine came from the German shop Miniaturicum.de.