Soviet BT-5

[dashmole]

Very, very nice. Love it

[jee]

looks awesome Mike

[maker1966]

whoo this is so nice....heavy metal...
nice workspace to build to this standard....and the skillset.. so nice ..

[MikeN]

I got a bit carried away with working on the turret so ive gone back to do some more work on the top deck of the hull:

[HERMAN BIX]

Those exhaust pipes would be fitting on the rear of an E-type Jag !!
Or do they act as fake cannons !!
Wow of a job your doing mate, craftsmanship on display .

[tankme]

Very nice, it's really coming a long now.

[MikeN]

Thanks!
Next job is to sort out the suspension and set the ride height.

[ColemanCollector]

Dang! Photoshop in a factory floor backdrop and I'd think I was looking at the real thing being built up.

Поздравляю с фантастической постройкой!

("Congratulations on a fantastic build!", slaughtered by google translate I'm sure...)

Mike.

[MikeN]

Ive been assembling the suspension, but unfortunately the springs are too weak and the tank settles on its belly when the turret and other parts are fitted.
New springs on order now.
I turned the headlamp bowls from round steel bar on my lathe.
lenses are turned from .75mm thick polycarb sheet. The vertical lines are made with a scriber and steel rule. Note, I have no idea what the glass lenses actually looked like . These are purely conjectural. I used to have a 1927 Morris car which had plain frosted glass headlamps which was typical of this era. So they could have been like that maybe.
Reflectors are turned stainless steel discs pressed into a conical shape.

[tankme]

If you have any issues getting stiff enough springs, I've used "die springs" on my large tanks. These are the springs used in tool and die operations. They are small, but VERY stiff and meant for repeated use on die punching machines. The come in various loads and sizes. Places like McMaster carry them, but they can be found cheaper other places. They also don't sag as much as normal springs when just sitting static - as in they don't pre-load as much due to the stiffness.