Tuesday, December 18, 2012

T-26 production design

Glad to acknowledge you all that designing of our T-26 light tank is already finished. As new features with regard to the Panzer I Ausf. A we released shortly ago, this our second model enjoys two significant improvements, as you will see through the images below (please click on each one to see it larger):

First of all, a turret hatch can be opened. And secondly, the sprue will include the torso of a tank commander. The figure itself is inspired in several contemporary photos showing Spanish republican tank crews, wherein the vehicle commander used to wear an officer cap. Both turret hatch and crewman features can be understood as our response to feedback received by users.

99GEV005 T-26B front left

99GEV005 T-26B rear right

99GEV005 T-26B parts

Also, following the trend started with our Panzer I Ausf. A, this new model has been designed as to be built either the 45mm gun armed "B" version, or the twin turreted "A" version, as shown below:

99GEV005 T-26A front right

99GEV005 T-26A front left

99GEV005 T-26A parts

Minairons Miniatures' T-26 will have around 10 parts --and these include those optionals needed for the "A" version indeed. This way, our second Spanish Civil War tank clearly follows the path we were committed to --no other than producing accurate scale, fast assembly miniatures, sturdy as well as detailed enough to satisfy wargamers' requirements.

These nice tanks are to be sold in box as well, just as the Panzer I Ausf. A. Also, they're to be complimented by a decalsheet too, including national markings for some of the nations that used it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great concept, and I wish you lots of success - however the success might be even bigger if you would manage to get the tracks and wheels thinner. If technology allows for that, you'd address not only wargamers but also modellers. A constructive criticism only.

A second one: If you'd make the commander as a full figure, it could also be displayed as standing on / near the tank, while those whishing to put it into the hatch could always trim the legs off.

Soldadets said...

Thanks for your appreciations.

About separate tracks: there is an possible inconvenience in what you suggest --a substantial cost increase in mould making.

Nevertheless, I shall prospect such possibility the next time --at least for our 1:56th scale range.

About full body tank crewmen: I also had this in mind. Glad to know I'm not the only one ;)

BlackWidowPilot said...

Senor,

This is an excellent topic! May I strongly suggest for the decal sheet that in addition to the near-mandatory Spanish Republican and Nationalist markings, that you include KMT Chinese markings for the 200th Division, and Finnish markings? Russian service T-26s were often unmarked, so I am of the opinion that there's room on a decal sheet for T-26s used by other nations.


Respectfully,

Leland R. Erickson

Soldadets said...

Hi Leland,

We're trying to produce partially interchangable decal sheets, so that we can globally offer a wider choice of national markings than if simply assigning 'the most common ones' to each tank model.

This way, we had planned to give Turkish and Soviet marking to our T-26 in the confidence that, if willing to build it as Chinese instead, you'd be able to use our Panzer I markings --true that these latter Chinese roundels were slilghtly smaller than those used for T-26, but believed the difference wasn't that important to be noticed...

As for Finnish markings, we had also planned to leave them for an upcoming BT-5, in the confidence again that would be usable for other vehicles.

Otherwise, if including Finnish and Chinese markings in our T-26 set, we would lose the unique opportunity of including Turkish devices, as well as having to drop off either the Soviet or one of both Spanish sides...

As for Panzer I markings, these will be available separately on our website soon, at a convenient price.

Hope this helps you.

Soldadets said...

Good news Leland,

T-26 decal sheets will include Finnish markings too --not only Soviet, Turkish and Spanish.