T-34C Turbo Mentor

by Robert Fererro

 Czech Model's 1/48 scale T-34C Turbo Mentor  is available online from Squadron.com

Here are several images of my recently completed Czech Models T-34C Turbo Mentor.

As with any limited release kit, there are pros and cons to the boxed kit.

On the plus side both plastic and resin are nicely produced. The manufacturer presents the modeler with styrene main wheels and a one piece nose strut/wheel piece. The resin wheels are nicely detailed but suffer from the dreaded "flat tire" appearance. The difference in detail between the two are like night and day. Despite the low pressure look, I chose to use the resin offering.

The resin interior is nicely detailed. However, because the rear of the resin piece is heavy, I found that much more than the suggested weight needed to be added to the nose to keep the project from becoming a "Tail Sitter".

Again, the wings are nicely scribed, but the real aircraft has very dominant navigation light lenses at each wingtip. Unfortunately, there are no lines to represent this feature on the upper/lower wing pieces. Based on ref photos, I "notched" the area to accept clear plastic lenses. But, because of the wrap around shape, I wasn't able to use a standard clear sprue to fashion the lenses. Being resourceful I solved the problem, but I will eventually have to explain to my wife why the clear plastic salad tongs mysteriously have disappeared.

Czech Models provides two vac-formed canopies. Originally I planned to finish the model with a one piece canopy, but there is a fairing at the rear of the sliding back area that wouldn't fit over the spine of the model. The only way to effectively replicate this hood would've been to paint it. I tried that approach, it just didn't look right. I took the second vac-form and carefully separated the sections to attempt to portray the subject "open". Low and behold, the rear section sat just fine because it was sitting lower on the spine.

The last minor modification to the kit instructions was the positioning of the blades in a feathered posture. This choice was based on most all ref photos showing the blades in this position on the ground.

Oh yeah, the illusive Red-Orange which dominates this airframe. The approximate color was achieved by the use of MM Italian Red toned down a bit with Scale White Tint.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2002 by Robert Fererro
Page Created 21 November, 2002
Last Updated 04 June, 2007

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