Eastern Express BT-7A - 24 Nov (Done)

[RLFoster]

After my nearly full year long previous build, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that a quick, care-free, simple build was next on deck.  With that in mind, this was what I decided to build:

This is the Eastern Express 1:35 scale boxing of the BT-7A 76mm support gun version of the BT-7 fast tank.  The kit is indeed simple:

Inside there are only 5 relatively small sprues, a short instruction sheet, and some very old (likely unusable) decals.  The sprues are 1) all the hull components, 2) all the turret components, 3) & 4) all the running gear, tracks, and other parts mirrored on the left and right sides, and 5) everything else (not much).

As for the plastic, it's a complete mixed-bag.  Some parts are well molded with pretty good details.  Others are terribly molded with soft or non-existent details.  There is a boat-load of flash, mold lines, and ejector pin marks.  Thankfully, the plastic is fairly soft and therefore (up to now) not subject to excessive brittleness or breakage.

The engineering is also all over the place.  For a kit this simple, many parts are way too small and detailed.  Yet other parts have engineering that is crude or poorly designed.  For Example, the front suspension seen two photos below is incredibly over-engineered (my opinion).  On the other hand, the air intake louvers on the top of the hull are left without either molded or separate screens to cover their openings.  This leaves them wide open to the interior (and unfinished) parts of the model.  It also leaves me scratching my head...oh, well.

Anyway, after just one day, one sprue was empty and I had a completed hull:

The hull plates fit together in an acceptable manor, but needed a lot of care to ensure a nice, tight assembly.  There will need to be some putty work to make weld beads on these parts (and many others), but that's something I expected on this build.

Two more days and I had all the wheels and running gear assembled as well as the front suspension:

As I said, this assembly is terribly over-engineered and fiddly.  This will require me to permanently attach the front wheel before painting and weathering the build.  All the other lower parts will remain off until final assembly.  Additionally, in order to have access for weld beads, I'll stop at this point and deviate from the instructions (which are already half done) to assemble the turret seen on the instructions in the photo.  This part will also need quite a few weld beads and I want all the parts ready to do that at one time.

Anyway, that's the first report of the new build.

Until next time...

[bravo1jon]

Cool build. You'll have to forgive my ignorance with tanks but is this Russian? Looks like you got your work cut out for you with the details and such. Looking forward to watching what you do with it. Thanks for sharing it.

[RLFoster]

Thanks for looking in. Yes, it's Russian. However, interesting fact...the suspension system was designed by an American, J. Walter Christie. The U.S. thought his design was too complex for tanks and wouldn't buy it. The Russians did and used it as the base for the BT tanks (like this one) and the T-34 tanks - arguably the best tank of WWII.

Thanks again...

[bravo1jon]

Oct 15, 2021 14:37:47 GMT -6 RLFoster said:

Thanks for looking in. Yes, it's Russian. However, interesting fact...the suspension system was designed by an American, J. Walter Christie. The U.S. thought his design was too complex for tanks and wouldn't buy it. The Russians did and used it as the base for the BT tanks (like this one) and the T-34 tanks - arguably the best tank of WWII.

Thanks again...

Thanks for the info. I recently watched a Russian movie called T-34 on YouTube, Its free right now if you haven't seen it. Lots of great WW2 tanks in action. 

[rustybaer]

Have fun on that kit, it's a bit of a rat.

[RLFoster]

Oct 15, 2021 19:02:17 GMT -6 rustybaer said:

Have fun on that kit, it's a bit of a rat.

LOL, Rusty!

Just call me "The Rat Catcher".

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

I but it also. It. wasn't as easy as it looked. Will you be using the after market Tracks?

[RLFoster]

Oct 16, 2021 11:29:00 GMT -6 dogfish7 (R.I.P.) said:

Will you be using the after market Tracks?

Planning to use the kit tracks, Bruce.

Thanks for looking in.

This is a "No Build Saturday"...college football and beer drinking are the hobbies of the day.

[reserve]

Never heard of Eastern Express before, oughta be interesting to observe this project. I have faith you'll sort it out well

Regards,
Mark

[RLFoster]

Oct 16, 2021 14:59:19 GMT -6 reserve said:

Never heard of Eastern Express before, oughta be interesting to observe this project. I have faith you'll sort it out well

Regards,
Mark

Thanks, Mark. 

EE are basically in the same vein as Zvezda, Maquette, and Mirage...all Eastern European companies that were not known for the highest quality in their early days.  I'm pretty certain most modelers familiar with their kits would say they are all getting better as the years go by.  Unfortunately, this kit dates from 2001...20 years ago.  Enough said!

[rustybaer]

I used an Eastern Express KV-85 kit for the turret a while ago, some decent parts, but the hull was ... not.

[RLFoster]

Thanks, Rusty!

One week of work and I'm almost done with all the construction on this build. While not quite as far along as I thought I'd be, progress has been steady and this week's work was both tedious and quite satisfying.

As I mentioned in the last update, I really thought the build could use some additional details. Chief among these were weld beads. And so I spent two full days adding welds to the model like these, where the front axle hub mates to the hull:



Even more important were the weld beads on the turret. This included welds on the vertical brackets and the weld all the way around the top plate:



With all the welds done, I wanted to add some cast texture to the turret both for variety and visual interest. So, for another two days, I very carefully added a skim coat of glazing compound in small areas (it has very fast drying time) and stippled it with a stiff brush. Once it was completely dry, I hit all the surfaces with a fine sanding stick to knock down the high points and hopefully give it a realistic appearance:



There have also been a lot of little details added and quite a few little spots (mostly sink marks) requiring putty. Even so, there are only a few more parts to add to the build and I might even be able to start painting by next weekend.

Until next time...

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Nice touches, Robert!

[RLFoster]

Thank you, Bruce!

[ARMORGUY]

Superb already Robert.

[RLFoster]

Cheers, AG!

[JCON]

Coming together nicely!

[RLFoster]

Thanks, Joe.

[Robbo]

This is rather nice

[RLFoster]

Thanks, Robbo!