T28/T95 superheavy

[Mike Wren]

apologies for the poor photo, but just a quick snap to show you what I'm working on (yes, I am still alive and will actually have something else completed to display at Cosford!) it's a 1/72 T28/T95 superheavy which I'm scratchbuilding with a view to using it as a master for resin production... a bit rough at the moment, but a photo of some progress is better than none...

[TsrJoe]

Looking good, my late dad scratchbuilt one in 76 quite a few years ago as a master for a resin company, ill dig it out and take some snaps of it, an impressive beastie in the scale, it sometimes appears on the whiff sig tables alongside other prototype and projected tank models

mmm, id so love to see an injection moulded one in 35th scale tho to counter all those paper panzers

cheers, Joe

[The Wooksta!]

Not my thing but I'd agree.  Fed up with all the Fourth Reich stuff about.

Nice work, Mike.

[NARSES2]

Looking forward to this Mike

[Doc Yo]

  Looking forward to seeing more of this.

[Captain Canada]

Wow....this is gonna be awesome !!

[Glenn]

It is awesome, especially if (like me) you built one in 1/35! With one M4A3E8 and two sets of extra wheels and tracks, for the outer assembly.......wonder how it would have been against a Tiger?
Glenn

[Jacques Deguerre]

Good to see someone doing Allied prototypes to go against all the paper panzers we see on the market nowadays. I never got to see the surviving T95 when it was at the Patton Museum but I hope to visit it at Ft. Benning one day.

I don't mean to steal Mike's thunder but for those of you looking for a 1/35 scale version of this vehicle, Accurate Armour does a resin kit. Of course, being resin, it isn't cheap but the option is out there.
LINK

Scratchbuilders should also make a note when planning a similar project that the T28/T95 uses a modified, somewhat more narrow track. It looks like the standard T80 double pin track but it's not quite as wide.

[Mike Wren]

yes, it's in 1/72, the Accurate Armour one is a bit too expensive for many... although looking at a couple of those 1/35 built up models I've noticed a couple of details aren't quite right.

Jacques, I didn't realise about the tracks, I'd better check the measurements out.

hopefully if I'm not driven mad by this one I'd like to do more unusual armour kits/conversions from late WWII through the Cold War to the present. But that's a little way off at the moment.

cheers
Mike   

[Jacques Deguerre]

hopefully if I'm not driven mad by this one I'd like to do more unusual armour kits/conversions from late WWII through the Cold War to the present. But that's a little way off at the moment.

cheers
Mike   

Mike, that would be great! There are so many cool prototypes developed in the UK and US, as well as by various Western nations in the Cold War, that deserve to be built.

I went to find the information I had on the T28/T95 track width. I thought I had it stored on my desktop but now I'm starting to think it's somewhere in my reference library. THAT could take a while for me to find! 

[coolpop6307]

I wish someone would make a 1/48 t-28
.

[deathjester]

Wonderful!!  Now you have mastered multiple track sets, and scratchbuilding hulls, you know what you must do now: BOLO!!! 

[Mossie]

I like this beast Mike, good to see you tackling it.

[Doc Yo]

 I understand the desire for accuracy, but at this scale, surely the difference in the track width can't be
that pronounced? I may not be able to afford the beast even in the smaller scale, but watching the build
photos might boost my confidence in scratching up one of my own-I've had the Bellona monograph with the
plan view drawings for years...

[Jacques Deguerre]

OK, so far, a check of both R.P. Hunnicutt's Sherman and the AFV Database shows the standard T-80 track is 23 inches wide. However, with my usual "it's the internet" warning, two separate sources cite the track width of the T28/T95 as 12.9 inches! That's both Wikipedia and a site called Military Factory- LINK and LINK. To me, that just sounded WAAAAY off since my Mk.1 eyeball guesstimate would've been approximately 18 inches. I did a bit more snooping and one of the sources the Wiki article cites, Battle Tanks - LINK gives a more realistic measurement of 19.5 inches.

Is it worth the 3 1/2 inch difference per track, 14 inches total track width in 1/72 scale? Meeeeh. I'm kinda inclined to say probably not and/or just cite the "rule of cool" in using the standard tracks. I hope I haven't come across as a rivet-counting killjoy here because that's not in any way my intention.