"Soviet BT artillery tank" Topic

Self propelled artillery, 1930s style. Made from a QRF tub.

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Nice work

Eye candy indeed! Nice work.

Cool

Nicely done. Any thoughts on how often the things were actually used sans tracks?

Doug

You've done a very nice job, Phil. Interesting how you kit bashed it.

I didn't realize there were BT-5As.

From your article, the QRF BT-5 rear has a sloped plate; I was certain the BT-5 rear was stepped – were there sloped rear plates? I know the BT-7's was, but it also projected further back than the 5.
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Tim

Thanks for the positive responses.

Re running on wheels, Doug, there are photos from military manoeuvres in the late 30s, plus a few from Spain and the Far East … but none that I know from the Great Patriotic War. So I suspect in 'real war' it is unlikely. Saving track wear is maybe something peace-time tank units get more concerned about …

And well spotted, Tim … yes – I have left the rear end that is typical of the 7 rather than the 5. On the BT2 and 5, the exhaust system is in the open, on the 7 and 8, it is under the sloping panel.

(2 QRF BT tubs: left the standard model, and right converted to BT5 appearance with exposed exhaust)

… it is a fairly easy switch to make. I have a well-illustrated Russian book on the BT series which shows a number of transitional production models. Unfortunately I can't find it (I will doubtless have loaned it out at some point) … so I have left the rear unchanged pending a chance to look up what variants there may have been (the real 'challenge' on this project was the driver compartment, road mode and the artillery turret).

For more on BT 5 messing: BT5 … why would you?

On artillery models, Zaloga says ('Soviet Tanks ans combat vehicles …')

'An artillery tank counterpart of the T-26A, the BT-5A was built on the BT-5 chassis. It used a larger turret derived from that on the T-28 with a 76.2mm regimental howitzer, but was more successful than the T-26A and a small production run ensued.'

The more common 7A seems to descend from this, hence my using photos of the later type as a guide in building the model …

As I say, there is one more in the 'in progress', the rocket tank … and then I will up date the TMP link modelling page …

Phil

Re running on wheels, Doug, there are photos from military manoeuvres in the late 30s, plus a few from Spain and the Far East … but none that I know from the Great Patriotic War. So I suspect in 'real war' it is unlikely. Saving track wear is maybe something peace-time tank units get more concerned about …

That's what I had suspected. I always thought that the Christie suspension's ability to run on the road wheels was one of those things that was really neat, but not terribly practical. Just the effort of removing, stowing, schlepping, then re-installing the tracks would seem pretty daunting.

Doug

Agreed.

I also think there's a difference between peace time procurement and war production.

Before the war the Red Army put a lot of development into e.g. amphibious tanks … as soon as they went to war they scrapped all those models and went for maximum output. After the war, they went through the same evaluation and development programme, and introduced a whole series of amphibians again.

I appreciate that's a gross over-simplification … but I do think neat ways to solve problems that arise in 'operational planning' are a feature of peacetime – and sometimes give way to 'build me more of these ..'

(maybe that doesn't apply to Nazi Germany – but then they got out manufactured, didn't they …)…

Of course, better tracks made Christie's idea redundant, anyway … However, going with Christie's design led the Soviets down a path that led to the T34 … so not a bad decision, all in all …