ICM 1/35
T-28 WWII Soviet Medium Tank

Background

The T-28 was the first Soviet medium tank to enter mass production. Designed between 1931 – 1932. It’s principal battlefield role was to support infantry and other ground troops against enemy strong points. The armament was housed in three turrets, following the then prevailing views amongst tank designers of the time, which favored the multi-turret concept. The main turret was armed with the KT-28 (76.2 mm) gun, which was specifically designed for this tank to devastate enemy strong points and armor. The two remaining small turrets were each armed with a DT (7.62 mm) machine-gun which was used mainly against infantry and light-armor.

The production line was located in the Kirov factory, Leningrad and the tank was produced in several series from 1938 onwards. The new L-10 (76.2 mm) long barrel gun became the standard armament later. All in all, a total of 503 tanks were built between 1938 – 1940.

The T-28 passed its first baptism of fire during the Winter War, between the USSR and Finland. It was also used on all fronts during the first two years of WWII. In the Soviet Union, its last reported action was in helping to break the blockade of Leningrad during the winter of 1943 –1944.

The Kit

ICM is a model company based in the Ukraine. They were a newcomer to the model making industry in the late 1990’s.

The kit comes in a lid and tray type box. The boxart shows a T-28 in a snow covered clearing in a woods. In the background is a burning T-26. The tank sports a worn winter white-wash covering and no markings. It is armed with the short barrel gun in the main turret. A side panel shows 4 full-color boxarts for other AFV kits by ICM: a Soviet T-35, a Soviet IT-28 (bridgelayer), a British Cromwell and a British Comet. No kit numbers are shown for these other kits. Next to these illustrations is the remark that the kit is for modelers of 10 years of age on up and ICM’s street address in the Ukraine. The other side panel has the history of the T-28 in short paragraphs in 4 languages, including English.

Upon opening the box, you see that it is cram packed in all directions. There are 3 sealed cello bags that hold 10 olive drab parts trees, 2 individual olive drab parts and 4 chalk white trees. The decal sheet and instructions complete the kit’s contents.

The instructions consist of a stapled booklet of 12 pages in 8” x 12 1/8” size page format.

Page one begins with a black and white repeat of the boxart, followed by the history of the T-28 in Ukrainian, Russian, English and German.

Pages two and three have the parts trees illustrations. At the bottom of each of these pages are international assembly symbols and what they mean.

Pages four through ten give a total of 15 assembly steps.

In steps 6 and 7 you opt for either the long or short barreled main weapon.

Page eleven has 4 painting and marking schemes, shown as side views only.

1. A T-28 at the Red Square military parade, Moscow, fall of 1930’s. There is a scrap illustration of the top of the main turret, showing a large red star there. The tank is in overall matt forest green. It has a red star on the sides of the main turret that has a white portrait of somebody’s face on it. On the sides of a locker on the fenders is a red rectangle with the white lettering KNPOB (the N being backwards) a tiny yellow star with a red circle in the center is just above this lettering and there is a hammer and circle in yellow in the circle. A yellow, red, yellow stripe surrounds the sides of the main turret at the top. The vehicle is armed with the short barrel main gun.
2. A T-28 in captured Finish markings. On the decal sheet are Finish swastikas, to go on the turret sides, in black. These are printed as 2 separate arms that you have to apply over each other to make the swastikas. On the instruction illustration, the mark is shown like a German cross (strange). The vehicle is in overall matt grass green. The caption says Finish Army, 1942. It has the long barreled gun.
3. A T-28 of the 20th Soviet Heavy Tank Brigade, Karelia, winter 1939-40.
   It is the boxart subject in the winter white wash, with no markings. It has the long barreled gun.
4. A T-28 of the 4th Soviet Heavy Tank Brigade, Kiev Separate Military Region, 1939. It is in overall matt forest green. A solid red stripe with a dotted white stripe below adorns the sides of the main turret at the top.
5. There is a white square with a black number 2 in the center of it on the storage bins on the fenders. On the decal sheet is additional squares in black and red that could alternately be used and black numbers 1 through 5 that could be alternately used also. I assume these variations denote platoons or squadrons within the brigade? This tank has the short barreled gun.

Olive drab letter A parts tree holds: the main turret cupola and hatches, the flexible anti-aircraft machine-gun that mounts on the main turret’s roof, the main turret’s interior floor, ammo racks as carousels that go under crew seats in the main turret and ammo rounds for the main gun, the main turret side walls, it’s crew seats and the machine-gun and it’s mount that goes in the rear of the main turret. Also a coaxial machine-gun that goes in this turret’s front.
(41 parts)

Olive drab letter B parts tree holds: the parts for the two alternate barrel lengths main guns (including breech parts), banister aerial parts, pole type aerial parts, the main turret’s roof and periscopes and it’s turret floor support beams etc. (31 parts)

Olive drab letter C parts tree holds: shift levers, the driver’s and crew seats, small turret parts and their machine-guns, tools, headlight, horn, engine cooling fan and it’s compartment housing part. (37 parts).

Olive drab letter D parts tree holds: engine parts, transmission parts etc. (one part is shaded out on the parts trees illustration as being excess and not needed to complete the kit) (27 parts)

Olive drab letter E parts tree holds: one side sponson part, gears, engine deck hatch lid with separate domed part, exhaust pipe and it’s shields, door handles, tow cable and it’s ends and tie downs for it, rear hull panel. (25 parts).

There is no letter F parts tree.

Olive drab letter G parts tree holds: the other side sponson part and some small detail parts that go on it, an hull interior wall, hull side panels, fender bins, side air intake screens and tow rings etc. (20 parts).

Olive drab letter H parts tree holds: one hull side panel, the hull bottom panel, hull rear panels, transmission round housings, driver’s armoured vision plate and it’s flap and roof hatch lid, side air intake housings etc. (22 parts)

There are no letter I or J parts trees.

Olive drab letter K parts tree holds: the other hull side panel, suspension arms, cooling fan round housing, engine deck hatch lid, louvered doors for this housing, engine cooling fan compartment parts, tow cable etc. (17 parts)

There are 2 identical olive drab letter L parts trees. They hold: road wheels, drive sprockets, idler wheels, return rollers, suspension arms etc. (48 parts per tree)

Tree lettering now jumps to the chalk white letter P parts trees. There are 4 identical ones of these. The hold the individual track links. (60 links per tree)

There are two final, individual, large olive drab parts. They are the top and bottom hull panels.

The decal is next. I have already described what is on it above.

The instruction booklet completes the kit’s contents.

Conclusions

This is a very detailed kit. I recommend it only to experienced modelers because of the part count. It is definitely not a weekend project. I heard some rumors, back when I first bought it that some of the parts need extra tweeking to get them to fit good. The turrets were mentioned as needing some work with loose fits. I purchased my kit, years ago, at my local hobby shop.

It is now out of production with ICM, but I think that the Alanger brand 1/35th scale kit of it is one in the same mold. I may be wrong. That kit is available at Great models. At the time that I bought this T-28 kit, I also purchased their IT-28 Bridglayer version. I have that one started and hope to do a build review of it in an upcoming Cybermodeler article. This version is also produced by Alanger. The kit no. for the T-28 is ALA35001 and for the IT-28 it is ALA35003. Eduard makes a PE set for a AER kit of the T-28. Makes me wonder if that brand also did not have the ICM molds at one time?? This set is at Great Models also. Friulmodel has a track set for it, as set no. FRIATL 91, again at Great Models. There is a Jordi Rubio gun turned metal gun barrel for the main gun. I donno if it is the short or long barrel. Kit no. JRU54 at Great Models. Finally, Model Kasten also makes individual tracks for the T-28 as set no. MKSSK46…yep…at Great Models. So, the T-28 can really be extra detailed. Too bad there was no clear headlight lens in the kit or any crew figures though.