Hey Gang,
For those of you following The Tanks in Manchuria Kickstarter, you may be asking about Trenchworx, the company running the project. We at Boltaction.net have watched Trenchworx start out as a 3D printing hobby project on our forums and evolve over time into the maker of some truly beautiful resin kits. A little while ago I got my paws on their new T28 kit and it has taken me a little time to get it done and I am glad to share my thoughts about this glorious monster of a tank.
For those of you not familiar with the behemoth that is the Soviet (and Finnish) land battleship, the T-28, I highly recommend that you check out
this historical and game play write up by Jud. It will fill you in on all the info you need to know about these tanks and their history.
The kit itself is huge! It is almost twice as long as two of my Soviet trucks (the 6 wheeled Warlord ones). What most surprised me most when I opened the box is how few parts the kit had. The hull is one giant piece of resin. The turrets (all three of them) are separate pieces and the tracks are separate as well. So in essence the kit is 6 major pieces.
The guns come separate from the turrets and the kit comes with extra machine guns in case one gets broken in transit (which I thought was really cool).
In addition, the light howitzer mounted in the main turret comes with magnets and multiple guns! Sure they are all light howitzers but it allows you change the gun depending on which year or variant of the tank you want to play with. Rules wise it makes no difference but it is another excellent little detail that was clearly thought out before I ever opened the box.
The resin casting of this tank was excellent. If you look carefully at the front of the tank you can see the ONE tiny resin mold line along the front edge of the tank. It took me literally 60 seconds to clean flash from this model. It was amazing!
The edges are sharp and clean. The resin had no pock marks and the tracks were immaculate (often a trouble area with resin vehicles).
The resin was also smooth. Sometimes with vehicles have been 3D printed and then recast in resin the surface can be weirdly textured. Not the cast here. You can see the smooth panels from the pictures of when I dry fit the kit.
I knew this kit had a lot of crisp detailing along its hull and turrets but I did not realise how MUCH detailing it had until I went to paint it! I do have a fairly cartoony style of painting that relies on edge highlighting any break from a flat surface. This kit has about a million rivets, panel clasps, and hatches. While this meant that the T28 took a long time for me to paint, I am glad that the detail is there. I could not be happier with the end result. The detailing just makes the whole thing "Pop" on the tabletop.
At $38 US dollars this baby is a steal! I can only imagine how much it costs to cast this beast given its size.
For more information on this fantastic kit I highly recommend you check out the
Trenchworx website. They make a great range of resin and 3D printed models for artillery and vehicles often not found in other places (The Type 92 Tankette, American Chemical Mortars and German one shot flame throwers for example).
Trenchworx also has a Kickstarter finishing up in the next couple of days. It is already funded so if you are looking for a good deal on WW2 tanks and tankettes, I highly recommend you pop over and check it out. You can find their Kickstarter
HERE.
Til next time gang...
