Preview: Back to the source - the T29 Heavy Tank from Takom in 1/35th scale.
T29 Heavy Tank
From Takom
1/35th scale
Kit No #2143
2 styles of mantlet included (canvas dust cover included)
Link & length tracks included
Clear parts & Photo Etch included
Three marking choices included in the box.
The Subject: T29 Heavy Tank:
During the later stages of WWII, the Allies found themselves facing increasingly heavier tanks on the battlefields in Europe. The introduction of the 50 ton Tiger and Panther tanks resulted in the US Army developing the near equally heavy T26 Pershing tank to counter them. However, by the time the Pershing made it into the battle, the Germans had already introduced the nearly 70 ton King Tiger & Jagdtiger to the battlefield. In response, the US Army began the development of a series of pilot vehicles for production of a new 78-ton heavy tank. However, before these heavy tanks were produced, the war in Europe had ended and the Army cancelled all future plans for production. Nevertheless, several pilot tanks were ultimately completed, and were used extensively after the war for evaluating numerous experimental components. The T29 is one of those tanks.The first T29 pilot finished at Milford Proving Ground in July 1945
The T29 was required to gain significant armour protection over the T26E3 Pershing. It was meant to be protected against the threat posed by the German high-velocity cannons, notably the 8.8 cm Kw.K.43 high-velocity cannon of the Tiger II. The hull armour was a welded assembly of the cast and rolled plates. The upper front glacis retained the 102 mm armour thickness from the Pershing, but with an increased inclination to 54° to improve the basis armour thickness up to 228 mm. A 7.62 mm machine gun port was stationed on the right side of the hull. The lower front plate was 2.7 inches (70 mm) thick and angled at 58° at the centre of the plate. The roof armour was .9 inches (25 mm) around the turret and half an inch (13 mm) above the engine deck.
The variable armour thickness of the turret started at 6.2 inches (158 mm) at the front, to 5 inches (127 mm) to the side of the loaders hatches, and 4 inches (102 mm) around the commander’s cupola and the rear of the turret. The turret roof armour consisted of 1.4 inches (38 mm) on the front and .9 inch (25 mm) on the rear. A massive cast turret was welded on a 78 inch (2 metre) wide turret ring and mounted a large gun mantlet at the front, covering a large portion of it.
In order to develop a tank with the firepower to assault enemy fortifications and heavily armoured combat vehicles, it was important to mount a gun able to fulfil these multiple roles. As such, the 105mm T5E1 was developed for the current U.S. heavy tank projects, T95 GMC and T29, with M6A2E1 becoming a test subject for the feasibility of mounting the gun into a turreted tank design. The 105mm T5E1 was a 65 calibre long, high-velocity multipurpose cannon based on the 105 mm T4 anti-aircraft gun, with a muzzle velocity of 914 m/s. The main cannon was complemented with two coaxial 12.7 mm M2HB machine guns, and a dual power telescope T143E1 in T154 telescope mount, adjustable from 4x to 8x of magnification. It was based on the T122/M83 telescope used for the 90 mm cannon. Gun elevation/depression was +20/–10, and the turret was rotatable to 360° with an effective turret rotation of 18°/second.
The T29 was powered by the Ford GAC, a 12–cylinder petrol engine producing 750 hp at 2,800rpm, it had a displacement of 27 litres. This gave the 64-ton heavy tank a power-to-weight ratio of 11.68 hp/t. The top speed of the T29 was 35 km/h with a maximum cruising range of 160 km. It could climb 30° of sloped terrain, cross a trench up to 2.4 meters wide, ford depths up to 1.2 meters, climb steps up to 1 meter, and was capable of pivot steering by pushing the driver’s wobble stick to the left or right in a neutral position, increasing the ability of the tank to exit from difficult terrain.
The suspension system was retained from the T26E3 Pershing, with 8 double road wheels with rubber tires connected to torsion bars and 7 return rollers per side. The drive sprockets were placed at the rear, as well as the transmission and the engine powering them, while the idler wheels settled at the front to keep the track tension. The T29 used as many as 102 links of T80E3 tracks on each side, a combination of 584 mm wide T80E1 rubber-backed, steel chevron tracks fitted with 127 mm wide Duckbill extended end connectors.
The first T29 was finished in late July 1945 before the production was transferred to Detroit Arsenal. The first production T29 arrived at Aberdeen Proving Ground in October 1947. By this time, there was no longer any requirement for the production of these heavy tanks and the test program was limited to evaluating the various power train components for application to new tank designs. The T29 project was discontinued in late 1950 in favour of a new heavy tank development based on the 120 mm cannon of the T34 in a new tank design, designated as T43 heavy tank, and standardized as 120 mm Gun Tank M103 in 1956.
The model continues on from where the earlier T29A3 and T30/34 kits left us last year. Weird that this is the preceding model, but at least we now have it.
2 styles of mantlet included (canvas dust cover included)
Link & length tracks included
Clear parts & Photo Etch included
Three marking choices included in the box.
The kit is due for release in May.
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