Christie T3 tank 1/72 UMT 403

Christie T3 tank 
1/72scale plastic model kit
 UMT403

Manufacturer: UMmt (Ukraine)
Scale: 1/72
Material: Plastic
Condition: New in Box

Th T3 Tornado and other Christie tanks are the ancestors to the famous Soviet BT series of tanks and thus also influenced the design of the T-34. This model is the M1931 (1931 Model) and was also referred to as the T3. This tank was derived from the earlier M1928. The M1931 was two tons heavier, better armored and mounted a turret sporting a 37mm gun. 

The Christie and various other vehicles are in the warehouse for storage or restoration. The US bought three of the Christie T3 tanks and the Soviets bought two. The US didn't proceed further with this design, but the Soviets did basing the BT tanks almost directly on the Christie. Take a look at the Russian T-34 tanks and you'll notice that they both have large road wheels, for instance, even though the tanks are eight-nine years apart in design.Christie advocated the use of lightweight tanks with long range and high speed, designed to penetrate enemy lines and attack their infrastructure and logistics capabilities. His earlier designs in the 1920s were hampered by poor cross-country performance due to limited suspension capability. In the late 1920s he devised a better solution. The major problem he faced was the limited vertical space for springs to move in: for a 25 cm movement it might need 50 or 75 cm of vertical space for the spring and strut, and his small designs did not offer such space.

The solution was the addition of a bellcrank, which changed the direction of motion from vertical to horizontal. The road wheels were individually mounted on a pipe that could move vertically only, at the top of which the bell crank rotated the direction of motion to the rear. Springs were mounted on the end of the crank, and could be as long as needed, lying along the inside of the hull. The result was a substantial increase in range of motion, from only some 10 cm in his original designs, to 25 cm on the M1928, 35 cm on the M1930, and 60 cm on the M1932. The most famous Christie-based tanks, the Soviet BT tank series and the T-34, used coil springs mounted vertically (on the BT) or at a slight angle from vertical (the T-34).

Another feature of Christie's designs was the "convertible" drive: the ability to remove the tracks for road travel, allowing for higher speeds and better range, and reducing wear on the fragile caterpillar track systems of the 1930s. In one public test 1931 in Linden, NJ, Army officials clocked a Christie tank going 104 mph, making it the fastest tank in the world: A record many believe it still holds. To allow this, Christie used large rubber-rimmed road wheels, with no return rollers for the tracks, although wartime shortages often led to the use of steel wheels, which gave an uncomfortable ride. As with many track designs with center guide teeth, dual wheels were used, allowing the guide teeth to run between them. By 1939, the Soviets found that the BT tank's convertible drive was an unnecessary complication which occupied valuable space in the tank, and the feature was dropped in the T-34.