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I built these BT-5s for my People's Republican Army. They're for Spain in Flames, an article published in a Spanish wargaming magazine. Spain in Flames is a set of army lists for Spanish Civil War Republican and Nationalist forces, played using the Flames of War rules.

They're Zvesda BT-5s with Old Glory stowage Peter Pig Soviet tank crew and Battlefront bases. The tank with the crewman has been converted by drilling through the old hatch and attaching a square of plasticard to the roof of the turret.

Nice looking! They almost look a bit too clean, but that may be appropriate to reference art for the Spanish civil war, about which I admittedly know nearly nothing.

nice! I would love to play Spanish Civil War in Flames but I know nobody around here would be up for it.. :(

Thanks guys.

The tanks look dirtier in real life, the mud looks like highlighting in the photos for some reason. It won't hurt to add a little more.

There are three of us at our club with armies for SiF currently playing at 600 point level. Hopefully more of us will get involved. I've planned my army up to 1,500 points.

This is my full 600 point force (minus a 50mm mortar) ready to paint.

Now this is one interesting subject! Do you know is that article coming in freeshare/something like that?

Good to know that at last the zvezdas excellent BT-5s found their way in some "real" wargaming Ill keep my eyes on this project.

Awesome. Keep it coming

Really nice George!

You making one of these?

@ MaahisKuningas: The original article was in Spanish. Our group has been busy translating and updating it for V3. When we're done we'll put it on-line somewhere. If anyone knows of the article/author please let me know.

Zvesda's Gaz 5 Truck is also useful. Their T-26 would be if it had the cylindrical style turret.

@ Big P: Possibly at some point. There are no rules for it in the article but we've been modifying it so no doubt one will turn up somewhere. I'm currently set on doing an Italian CTV (Corpo Truppe Volontarie) force to go up against my People's Republican army so my 'tanks' will all be CV33s.

Superb!!!

Armoured Sewing Machines!!!

Cant beat early war stuff! Its crap but it looks so fun!

I have been toying with the idea of doing an Italian force for the invasion of Ethiopia...

Dont forget the Mad Max trucks...

I should be able to get a bit of mileage out out of CTV miniatures for other colonial and early WWII campaigns. I'll probably have a crack at scratch building some armoured trucks out of the Zvesda Gaz 5 or Katyusha kits and some plasticard.

Most tanks of the period truly are crap. It's a whole different feel to the game when your armour has to beware of concentrated rifle or HMG positions.

George Spiggott wrote:

Zvesda's Gaz 5 Truck is also useful. Their T-26 would be if it had the cylindrical style turret.

Zvezda is publishing 1:100 OT-26 flamethrower variant during next autumn. Take the turret from BT-5 and your having T-26 model 1933. They are also publishing BA-10 in some point, which you propably find useful, as again, in that scale, simple turret swap from BT-5 will do it - not excellent scale model, but decent lookalike, especially in that scale.

I'm currently looking into buying Peter Pig T-26 turrets or possibly casting copies of my Zvesda BT-5 turrets to use on my T-26 and any future BA-10 models I buy.

George Spiggott wrote:I'm currently looking into buying Peter Pig T-26 turrets or possibly casting copies of my Zvesda BT-5 turrets to use on my T-26 and any future BA-10 models I buy.

Note that T-26 m37/39 has different hull than earlier production m33 - hull is sloped, which, thou, is the only major difference in that scale. Some of the (very) older models also lacked the suspension covers, as seen in the battlefronts T-26, allthou these were rare.

MaahisKuningas wrote:Note that T-26 m37/39 has different hull than earlier production m33 - hull is sloped, which, thou, is the only major difference in that scale.

I'm having difficulty spotting the differences on hull design that you mention. Once I've attached a Zvesda BT-5 turret to a Zvesda T-26 it should make a more then adequate model for a SCW period T-26. Certainly close enough for my purposes.

George Spiggott wrote:

MaahisKuningas wrote:Note that T-26 m37/39 has different hull than earlier production m33 - hull is sloped, which, thou, is the only major difference in that scale.

I'm having difficulty spotting the differences on hull design that you mention. Once I've attached a Zvesda BT-5 turret to a Zvesda T-26 it should make a more then adequate model for a SCW period T-26. Certainly close enough for my purposes.

In Zvezdas T-26"M" (model of 1939, propably) the upper part of the hull(crew comparement), correctly, is sloped and extra armoured. In model of 1933, its not. Ironically, on the other way, you could use conical (later model) turret in m33 hull as large number of these were made, and some were "re-used" when the new turret type was adopted.
Other small difference is the protector of engine airtake, not issued until 1937 - even in winter war some of the T-26 lacked this. Zvezdas model does include this, so if you really want to make some difference, you might want to remove it. The protector was used in SCW, but due to the temperature, it was often removed as the power-lacking engine tend to overheat in longer marches.

But yes, true that it is a small difference in that scale, and you propably wont notice the difference if you arent familiar with the subject.

Pics, note (especially) the frontal view;

Model of "1935", as far as I know not officially model, but year of production. This is the vehicle your aiming for, with larger turret and early production hull.
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/T-26/2/blueprints/T_26M35RT_1a.jpg


Later (and zvezdas) model, marked to be 1940. but seems to be pretty much identical with the model of 1939
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries/T-26/3/blueprints/T_26M40_1a.jpg

I've managed to mave the superstructure sides vertical with a knife and some putty and the results are adequate. I think this T-26 is going to end up being a wreck/objective anyhow as there are no T-26s in the lists I'm building.

By far the easiest option would be to simply buy the Command Decision T-26 or BT-6.

George Spiggott wrote:I've managed to mave the superstructure sides vertical with a knife and some putty and the results are adequate. I think this T-26 is going to end up being a wreck/objective anyhow as there are no T-26s in the lists I'm building.

By far the easiest option would be to simply buy the Command Decision T-26 or BT-6.

Propably yes - Im not sure is the Zvezdas "new plastic" program affecting on T-26s yet, as the earlier type is pretty hard to work with due to the fiberish material. I made one smiliar conversion for my continuation war finns but due to the ernomous cleaning progress, I decided to wait zvezdas OT-26 and take the hull from it.

Really awesome army. Could you please drop me a pm when the translation is ready? Our local gaming group heard about these rules, but we couldn't get it anywhere in eastern europe and we don't speak spanish neither, but we want to start SCW in 15mm.

Definitely, there will be much fanfare when we're done.