Bolt Action! Trenchworx tank review part 1

 I recently received three 1/56 scale resin tanks from Trenchworx, a relatively new company that has recently started producing WW2 tanks that are great to use in Bolt Action. The WW2 offerings at their website  focus on the more obscure tanks, like the Russian BT-7, the Russian T-28 and the Finnish Anti Tank Gun BT-42 that I am reviewing here today.

First a shot of a BT-42 in action during the Finnish-Russian War. The vehicle saw action for the first time in 1943 but it didn't have a good trackrecord, and it stood no realistic chance against Russian armor.

The vehicle was actually a 'kitbash' between captured Russian BT-7 light tanks and British 4.5 inch Howitzers that the Finnish got donated in 1918. Only eighteen of these vehicles were ever made and ten saw action! I think that the romantification of the Finnish effort in WW2 lead Warlord and other companies to not forget this obscure and poorly made vehicle and added it to the Finnish army book. If I were playing a Finnish army, I would certainly field one these cool little vehicles!

OK on to the Trenchworx model. The designers create their models on the computer and print it with a 3D printer. After that the models are cast in resin. Since 2014 TW has been posting updates on the facebook page Bolt Action and finally this year went ahead and started offering their models to the greater public.
The model comes in a little box with nicely designed label. Inside are the parts and a guide on how to put the model together, which I think is great.



The main body is solid resin and it has good detail. The wheels and tracks have excellent detail and the engine grill looks great as well.

 

Straight out of the box there is flash to clean up but it's not out of the ordinary:


Onto the build. The track assembly is has little pegs sticking out that fit snugly into receiving holes on the body:


The front axel had a minor fitting problem on one side, so i had to expand the fitting spot a bit, on the other side it fit perfectly.

Here's the finished tank! The design is strong and crisp and even unpainted, the model really shows off its quality, plenty of detail to work with.


Nice details on the back of the turret with crisp lines and sharp edges. I love details like hinges for little back doors in the turret and very crisp tracks, it all helps once you start the paintjob!

I opted for the Finnish tricolor camo pattern: grey/brown/green and I tried to keep the paintjob natural, without too much drybrushing.

and the finished model:





A really cool detail: Trenchworx supplies two rare earth magnets with precast slots for them so you can easily magnetize turret and body:



After a really enjoyable build I have some advice for Trenchworx:

1. provide a sheet with decals. Painting a finnish swastika was hard! Also, the numbers you see on the front bottom were actually from a 1/72 scale american plane and I had to muddy them up to make it believable.
2. if you can add worksheet with the how-to, maybe add a sheet with the color patterns that were used during the war, in this case a fully green model or a tri-color one. That would really fin(n)ish off an excellent kit.

The kit retails for 29 bucks and you can find it here. Trenchworx did an excellent job making an obscure (=FUN) tank for our beloved Bolt Action game that show great detail, looks realistic and is easy to play with. The model really shows off the love the designers have for making detailed WW2 tanks. I love a small, independent company who creates models they love and are uncommon.

Warlord also sells a BT-42, made to order, that one is three dollars more and has metal and resin parts. I did not have one of those on hand to do a comparison.

This is part one of a three part review series on Trenchworx tanks for Bolt Action. Next week Cornumortem will review a Russian BT-7!

SC Mike