The Warsaw Pact's PT-76 was a post-World War II amphibious light tank used in a scouting role. Trumpeter's release fills a hole in Soviet armor modeling with a kit that includes positional hatches, duct work for the water jets, vinyl one-piece track, and photoetched-metal screens and brush guards. Markings are supplied for two vehicles.
I sanded off the ribs on the rubber portion of the road wheels - they're not on any pictures I've seen of the vehicle. Otherwise, I really liked the detail on the wheels. I painted the duct work Floquil weathered black before assembly.
The hull bottom is nicely detailed if you want to roll this vehicle over for a diorama. I painted the bottom first, then installed the running gear.
I had trouble finding glue that would stick to the vinyl tracks. Gorilla Glue, a urethane adhesive, did the trick. The tracks are too tight to sag properly.
The join of the upper and lower hull has a gap that needs to be filled, along with the hull's back panel. An error in the instructions mislabels the left side extension arm for the splash guard; it should be Part A14. Trumpeter has included forms for the photoetched-metal brush guards, but it was still time-consuming to get them right, especially on the left side. The headlight is a solid piece of plastic; MV Products lenses would give a more realistic look. The tow cables were too long; they should be 100mm instead of 120mm.
The turret went together with no big problems. Trumpeter supplies an illustration I found helpful in bending the copper wire for a handhold that goes around the turret top. The photoetched-metal guard (Part PE-5) for the snorkel could have used a bending form; it was hard to freehand. The notches in the guard didn't help any, as it wanted to kink at the notch. I also found the guard was oversized; I shortened it to fit around the snorkel.
The model is painted overall Gunze green (No. 309 ); the rubber tires are Floquil weathered black. The markings supplied are either for a Soviet tank used during the 1968 Czech uprising or one other nonspecific tank company. I didn't trust the markings guide: In the book
Russian Tanks: Evolution and Development, 1915-1968, by John M. Brereton and Uwe Feist (Aero Publishers), I had seen a picture of tank No. 514, but it did not have recognition stripes from the 1968 Czech uprising. I couldn't locate the other markings to verify what that vehicle looked like. The decals went down fine on the semigloss surface. I weathered the model with Floquil mud and Tamiya pastels.
I enjoyed the 25 hours I spent building this model. With the ease of its construction, I can recommend Trumpeter's kit to intermediate modelers.
Now, I can't wait for the PT-76B to be released.
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