Hot on the back of our recent Soviet T-70 Light Tank release, scratch builder extraordinaire Jakob Lotz returns with an upgrade for the smaller and earlier T-26 the T-26-4…
Jakob: The T-26-4 was basically a T-26 tank with an enlarged turret armed with the 76.2 mm KT tank gun mod. 1927/32 (some modern sources mention this tank as T-26A, A standing for artilleriysky or “artillery”).
The T-26-4 with the KT tank gun passed tests successfully and five vehicles were built in 1933–1934 as a pilot batch. All five experimental T-26-4 artillery tanks were tested during military exercises near Leningrad in September 1934, before the scheduled series production of 50 such vehicles were to begin in 1935.
The tank was however never put into full scale production. The T-26-4’s turret design instead being used in the series-produced BT-7A artillery tank.
How to make your own T-26-4
What you need
- One T-26
- One BT-7A
- A pin-vice drill, wire cutters, Brass rod (or equivalent, I used part of a standard paper clip just cut to length, however be sure to use appropriate wire cutters since the hobby variants are usually only designed to handle the softer ”metal” that miniatures are made of and as such will become deformed (and useless) if you try and cut harder materials with them), some magnets and some glue.
As always clean the parts in warm soapy water.
Then it is just a matter of swapping out the T-26 turret for the BT-7A turret. Now the only glitch here is that the hole on the T-26 chassis that the turret fits into is bigger than the hole on the BT-7A. What this means is that the turret will not keep in place on it’s own. I solved this by adding som magnets to the turret and chassis. I also added a pin to the turret and drilled a matching hole in the chassis to really secure the turret. As shown in the picture below. But there are probably a number of other ways to deal with this issue.
Then it’s just a matter of spraying and painting the tank and you’re done.
The text says Ishak/Yshak, which means donkey or Jackass.
The T-26-4 In Bolt Action
When it comes to the T-26-4 there aren’t any specific rules published, however as long as your opponent agrees you can always either use the rules for the BT-7A which you’ll find on page 43 in the Armies of the Soviet Union book or the rules for the Type 4 Ke-Nu Light Tank found on page 32 in the Armies of Imperial Japan book (just remember that the forward facing mmg is co-axial and not hull mounted)
Tanks used in this article
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon