Mirage Czotg Lekki 7TP By Peter Merrick IPMS QLD

I picked this up as a swap with a fellow modeller in Brisbane as a throw away with another kit when he got a little guilty about the kit I had swapped with him being a little better in quality than what he was swapping with me. Anyway, I was very surprised when I opened the box and found the quality wasn’t all that bad, considering I had never heard of Mirage.

A little bit of History.

According to the blurb on the instructions, the 7TP was designed in 1933 originally based on the twin-turreted Vickers. It too had twin turrets, but only armed with machine guns, which gave it a serious lack of firepower. In addition to a re-strengthened hull, the tank used the first compression-igniting engine of anywhere in the world. In 1937, the twin turrets were replaced by a single turret sporting a modern 37mm BOFORS antitank cannon. Static balance wasn’t all that good, so a balancing recess was placed on the rear of the turret which included all the communications equipment. At the outbreak of war in September 1939, the 7TP was pitted against the might of the German Panzers, and against the PZKPFW I’s and II’s it was found to be a fairly capable match. At the start of was the Polish had approximately 130 7TP’s on hand, but they were severely outnumbered by a numerically superior force. After the fall of Poland, many 7TP’s found their way into German hands and were used mainly as an interior "defence" weapon.

The Kit.

The kit comes in two very thick white plastic, which as I later found is quite tough, and two lengths of black vinyl track with joiners. The detail on the kit is quite good and crisp with very little flash, except for around the drive wheels and a few mould lines that clean up easily. Construction starts with the turret, which is very straight forward. I drilled out the cannon, which is solid, to add a little more realism.

Step 2 takes us to the wheels and this is where most of the work occured. Firstly, the wheels themselves need to be cleaned up and sanded round considerably. All the flash was removed and the wheels tidied up so that they were round again. There are 18 sets of road wheels to make and I pre- painted the centres in dark grey and the wheels straight black. Set these aside to dry and put together the idler and drive wheels. These needed a little clean-up and came out quite nicely. The wheels are sandwiched between two suspension arm halves and this is where it got a little fiddly. The wheels sit in locating holes along with an extra strengthening arm which gives the unit a little more solidness. I glued the wheels and the arms in place and waited a little while they had set slightly. Grabbing the upper half I was able to position it very carefully to get all the locating holes an pins to match. Take this slowly and you’ll find no problems. The seam line in the middle cleans up very nicely.

Next was the hull which went together very nicely and with a bit of patience in the squaring up, I needed absolutely no filler. The drive and idler wheels were added next and glued in place , though the directions recommend you to use the backing plugs and not glue the wheels to the hull. The rest of the kit went as directed, although I left the road wheels and track until after I had painted the kit.

Painting.

The kit gives three painting options, one for the 2nd Polish Battalion , one for the 3rd Battalion and one for the German Wehrmacht 1940. This is depicted on a colour sheet showing each option as a side on view. I don’t read Polish, but the colour table is listed with the colour names (in Polish) and Revell, Humbrol and Tamiya paint numbers, which are coded by letter. I chose to do mine all over XF 63 (Panzergrau) as a captured Werhmacht Vehicle. This was lightly weathered using a dark grey wash and light drybrushing to highlight details. I used artists pastels to vary the colour and break up the monotony of the single colour.
Finishing.

I added a weathered the tracks as the final task and the tracks go together well, but there is a gap where the track goes together. I hid this under a road wheel and it is less noticeable, though it does detract from a good fun kit. I have seen an individual link set for the Russian equivalent which would probably suit this kit quite well. Overall a very enjoyable kit to build and recommended to anyone who builds early war or captured German armour.