Tanks for the Spanish Civil War

I am currently consolidating my projects, among them Bolt Action. The problem in that case aren't the vehicles, but the amount of miniatures you quickly end up with. Especially with the plastic kits (and then adding sprues from the sales), 30 something paratroopers, and 30 something grenadiers, and 30 something ... you get the picture.

For that reason I decided to go with Winter Germans for late war, Afrikakorps for mid / special theme and have the Spanish Civil War as a early war German list. The Spanish Civil War is often described as a prelude to World War 2. Communist fought against Nationalists, supported by larger powers like the Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the Soviet Union, who were testing their gear for an (possible) upcoming greater war.

The russian armory supplied the republican faction with tanks, among them the T-26 in several variants. Rubicon offers the kit with 10 variants, for those built between 1931 until 1939. But why is that interesting for me, with my Nationalist forces? Equipment, vehicles and tanks were captured by both sides, and T-26s were not a rare sight within Nationalist armies. And I got a soft spot for captured vehicles.

As a light vehicle, this is rather on the small side. Vickers size, pretty much exactly. Why? It is a license built of the Vicker 6-ton / Mark E, but later modified with different turrets, like the single turret of the BT-5. It is a small kit, so the three included sprues come a bit as a surprise. But it is rubicon kit, so beyond the 10 different variants, incl. the turrets (from the twin turrets, and two different single turret. BUT, Rubicon wouldn't be Rubicon if they didn't have a bit more in mind. Due to the templates of the russian tanks, they share a lot of development across different vehicles, as these turrets were partially used on armoured cars like the BA-6 or -10. So with those shared items, there is a sprue with a lot of tires, that will be used shared / again in an upcoming BA-10 kit.

Casting is good, a lot of parts, so make sure you only cut the parts you actually need / read the instructions carefully. As Rubicon uses ABS plastic for their sprues, you need a different glue to bond those pieces. Tamiya ABS cement is recommended, I used it in a couple of earlier builds and reviews, but to be honest was a bit annoyed by the application, as the brush is to large for my taste, especially if you're building kits in 1:56 / 28mm. But to top that off, the whole container went bad and it turned into some yelly.

I ordered replacement, not by Tamiya but from Pattex, they have a special model kit glue that was listed to bond ABS as well. I'll let you know how that went, as I have another GMC truck on the work bench, along with the 8,8 FlaK for my DAK.

I already have a BA-6 by Warlord Games, it is a resin kit. It is okay and does its job, so I'm not really have a huge need for the BA-6/10 plastic kit. But just to give you an idea of the size, here they are next to each other. I am missing with the T-26 the M1936 variant of the turret, where a round hatch was fitted along with a MG. I went with the variant that was closest.

Fit was okay, the track section was a bit of a problem, as the connecting didn't work that smooth. Something that was handled better in other kits. For my SCW list a couple of further vehicles would be interesting, for example a Krupp Protze (that is on the to-do list by Rubicon) as a tow for a PaK 36 (that I already have) and I'd like to replace the Panzer II with a plastic or at least newer kit, as the track section of the rather old resin kit is a bit of a mess.

So what is still missing, as mentioned above I'd like to replace the Panzer II, the Krupp Protze is on my wish list, I have the Hispano Suiza truck, and maybe some truck to carry / transport troops would be a nice addition. There would be the option to go with a CV-33, but I am not a big fan of the design or tankettes, so I might skip on that. But adding the cavalry unit from Empress is still on the table.