7TP Polish Light Tank - IBG 1/35
The 7TP is one of those obscure Second World War subjects that not a lot of modellers have ever come across. On the surface 7TP sounds like a pretty odd name, but it literally translates to 7 tonne Polish. Pretty simply really? No weirder than T34 guess, it’s just not a familiar name to most of us. In saying that the name is a little misleading because the actual production version ended up weighing 9 tonne, yet the name retained the ‘7’.
The rise of games such as World of Tanks has introduced a broader audience to some of these lesser-known subjects. Many of us have come across them as we work your way through the lower tier tanks in the hope of something a little more potent.
A Brief History
The 7TP is not commonly known for the simple reason that there was only ever around 130 of them made. The tank was the Polish upgrade of the British Vickers 6 Tonne tank. The Polish offering saw the introduction of a more reliable and powerful diesel engine, a 37mm Anti-Tank Gun as well as upgraded armour, ground breaking optics and the inclusion of a radio system.
The 7TPs saw action during the defence of Poland in 1939, and whilst the tank was technically superior to the offerings of the German Army of the time there were far too few of them to have any real impact on the advance. 20 vehicles were captured and repurposed by the German’s, giving modellers a couple of additional marking options to consider.
The 7TP was initially produced as a twin turret version armed with two 2 Ckm wz.30machine guns. The single turret version had the Bofors wz.37mm gun. After initial tests it became apparent that the twin turret version wouldn’t be sufficient on the battlefield and the design was abandoned for the single turret 37mm version.
FULL BUILD AND PAINT review available in MMI Magazine - Issue 192