BaI-M Armored Car

Finally after three years finished my BaI-M from UM Models. Model was built in three stages, first stage was when I started the conversion from Ba-3 from photos before several Russian language publications printed the drawings for the BaI, and hence the shape was pretty wrong. Once the drawings were published, I redid the hull and fenders, after which I put the model on hold again. Finally once the UM came out with BaI I bought it in the hope that I can use the turret, but it turned out that that hope was wrong. UM in their drive to save money and reuse parts, used the hull from Ba-3 on their model even through Ba-3 hull was much wider in the back to accommodate bigger T-26 turret. So the hull was unusable. And since the hull is much wider in the back, if the turret was of the correct shape, it would have looked wrong, so UM made the turret much wider than the real turret, while keeping the same length, so it is misshapen. The fenders on the model are also wrong, giving you the same smaller Ba-3 fenders, instead of much larger Ba-I ones.

So last month I decided to finally finish the model. Basically everything back from the beginning of the driver's cab is scratchbuilt - hull, fenders and turret. Also all of the small details are scratchbuilt, except for the saw, which was taken from Extratech's T-34 PE kit. Kit wheel hubs were also modified to make them look more right. Suspension was also detailed.

The armored car is painted to represent the vehicle that took part in the 1935 Kiev Maneuvers. I used Model Master Enamels to paint it and pastels to weather it.

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