BT5 … why would you?

Well, you wouldn’t.

BT5 Fast Tank

Build this BT5 conversion, I mean.

Now that Zvezda do a BT5.

I would, because I have a long running project reworking QRF’s attractive but inaccurate BT7 models.

As BT5s were hard to get hold of (QC in the states do them, but there are no photos on the website, and my last 2 QC orders got impounded …) … the QRF model was to be my donor vehicle for both 7s and 5s.  So I set myself the task of fixing the QRF model’s faults.

The main underlying problems with the QRF model are

1.  The gun is wrongly mounted in the turret (it is offset when it should be central)And 2.  the wheels are too big and are evenly spaced out (whereas they should be smaller with 2 closely paired under the engine, the forward ones spaced out for steering on roads)So ….… more like the Zvezda running gear (green plastic) than the QRF original running gear (white metal).

On an earlier model (converting the BT7 to a BT8 using a spare BF turret) the difference is obvious …The appearance to the right is correct, the appearance to the left (almost like a Czech 38T) is wrong.

Now, converting a 7 to a 5 is good honest labour (you are doing the work to get what you want) … correcting an inaccurate model is more frustrating (as all your effort is just to correct bad work by the designer).

That said, repositioning the gun is not too much trouble.   Correcting the running gear is much more difficult and is actually quite a headache.   The easiest solution?  Now?  Shelling out £2.50 for the running gear in the Zvezda model (which incidentally has got the gun in the correct position, too).

Problem solved.

I will probably ‘kitbash’ my QRFs together with the Zvezda components to get a hybrid … but ultimately the Zvezda kit has made this (and quite a few other) QRF models redundant.  You might pay more for metal or resin if it is more accurate, or if it’s all you can get.   But watch out QRF … when the metal is inaccurate, not what you really want and twice the price?   I can’t see you wanting to buy it at all.

Rear detail … BT8, and, right, WIP BT5

As a PS Note: BA6 armoured cars, T26 and BT tanks shared a common turret, as do their QRF equivalents.   So all the QRF models with that turret are affected not just the BT.   And the BT range share the same track components, so none of the BT tanks is acceptable either – even if it doesn’t have the affected turret.

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Soviet BA64

Battlefront, Axis & Allies, Peter Pig

Following the current theme of looking at some of the low-cost softer plastic alternatives, I recently acquired some Axis and Allies pieces.

The BA64 looks pretty tight to the 1:100 to me.  Most people’s 64s are a bit big (it was built on a jeep chassis, basically …)…

It is a nice little model – all I have done is replace the MG and fix the head and shoulders of a FoW Soviet tank commander in the top.  In removing the original gun, I chopped the front of the turret clean off in order to just profile it off to a shape more accurate to the original (but not in any scientific way … just a ‘glue, blob and that looks more like it‘ quick restyle) …

I’ve based it up, painted in some of the tool shafts and dry brushed it.  Most of the paint is how the model comes.  I paid £1 for it.   That looks like good value to me.

Axis & Allies BA64 based and dry brushed

In the group pictures it sits between a Battlefront BA6 (actually a BF hull with a QRF turret), and the PP jeep I featured in an earlier post.   Size and style wise, I think the BA64 looks fine alongside them.    Chris Kemp has had a look at some of the other models (NQM Suka) …

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