This Handmade MS-1 Tank Is an Awesome Recreation of Vintage Soviet Design

There's nothing quite like early Soviet engineering.

There's plenty of folks who restore and maintain vintage military equipment, from getting ancient Japanese Zero fighters back in the air to showing off an M3 Stuart with a working flamethrower turret. But fabricating a working 1:1 model the very first mass-produced Soviet tank from scratch? That's a whole other level of impressive.

The Soviet MS-1 (or, as it was known in the West, the T-18) was in production from from 1928 to 1931. It was largely considered a failure: In combat trials, it struggled to get over trenches wider that 2 meters or deeper than 1.2 meters—something considered vital during an era when all the major powers were still reeling from the lessons of trench warfare. Despite those flaws, it was sent into mass production, which created its own headaches—ball bearings and carburetors had to be imported, and only 96 of the promised 133 MS-1s were every produced.  The MS-1 saw combat only briefly, with an experimental unit sent out during the Sino-Soviet conflict in 1929. Beyond that, the T-18 was mainly used for training. Today, it's mainly a historical curiosity, with about 20 still in existence, many in bad disrepair.

Over at the UFO Garage, they decided to recreate this bit of Soviet history from the ground up. First, they had to figure out how to build working treads—every surviving model of the MS-1 was immobilized. 

Then they figured out the actual measurements of the MS-1, using a model at Vadim Zadorozhny's Museum of Equipment in outside of Moscow, and built a 3D model from that. Up next came building out a chassis that could support their historical recreation, as well as creating small details on the tank via cast aluminum. Sheet plastic as used to simulate the metal armor, and the whole thing was given a good paint job to give it that heavy metallic look. Finally, a turret was built and and a faux 37 mm Hotchkiss gun was installed.

At the end? You have a very convincing replica of an 80-year-old tank. While the MS-1 may have been a failure, we'd say UFO Garage's recreation is a resounding success.

Source: UFO Garage via Sploid

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