28mm Finnish T-26 M1932 / M1938

This is the 1:56 scale Rubicon T-26 plastic kit. The kit comes with the ability to be built as any variant of the T-26. I chose to model the quite plentiful T-26 M1932. A side benefit of this is the kit's multiple variants allow for a reasonable proxy of the M1938 variant by using that turret on the nearly identical M1932 chassis. Close enough for our gaming group at least. I'd guess most of the time I'll be using it at a M1932 though. 

 

Here is the reverse profile with the M1938 turret on it.  I've chosen the more coarse Finnish 3-color camouflage scheme based on this museum example in Finland as well as this historical photo. There are plenty of historical photos of these in action in plain Russian green paint schemes with only Finnish markings on them, but I have leaned on that crutch a lot in this army and for this tank I wanted to do a bit more. I'm glad I did as the effort was worth it.

 

At this photo appears to ride off into the sunset, I'm reminded that this 'completes' my Finnish WWII army. Sure armies are never really 'done', and I'm likely to add more in the future, but for now, the Finnish army is done. I have no more unpainted figures or vehicles to paint for this army. 

 

Upon researching the Lapland war, I did however find out that the Germans used a lot of leftover captured French tanks all the way to the end of the war in Finland, so there's some opportunities to add a tank or two to my German army. I also have picked up a couple units of Gebirgsjäger which my German army needs to truly represent a proper Lapland war force. There's always more to to. 

This adds a single 28mm vehicle to this year's painting totals.