1/35 BT-42 Jatkosota
Tamiya 1/35 BT-42

And Finished! Tamiya 1/35 BT-42, built as the vehicle used by Jatkosota school in the anime "Girls und Panzer".

The BT-42 was a Finnish modification of the BT-7 light tank. The Finns captured several BT series vehicles from the USSR, and decided to modify them to try and increase their effectiveness. The BT-42 was one such modification. The Finns built a new turret for the vehicle, and fitted it with a British made 4.5' (114.3mm) howitzer, a weapon they had received from the UK prior to the Second World War. As the primary ammunition for this was high explosive, the vehicle lacked effectiveness against enemy tanks, and as such the Finns bought a 10.5cm HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) shell design from the Germans, and set about scaling it up to 114.3mm. The penetration of this shell was estimated as 115mm against armour sloped at 60 degrees. However as they copied the fuse of the 10.5cm shell, which had a different velocity and rotation rate to the larger 114mm shell, the fuse usually failed to arm, resulting in an ineffective shell. In fact in one incident, a BT-42 hit an approaching T-34 18 times, and failed to even disable it.

In addition to this, the larger turret slightly overstressed the BT chassis, and it had such thin rear armour than standard infantry rifles could pierce it. Due to these flaws, the vehicles began to be phased out as soon as the Finns recieved more effective StuG assault guns from the Germans.


In Girls und Panzer, the BT-42 is the main tank fielded by Jatkosota High School, a Finnish themed school. It makes its debut in "Girls und Panzer: Der Film" where it shows up to join the Oarai Alliance in their battle against the All Stars University Team. Contrary to its real life performance, the BT-42 proves a highly effective vehicle, knocking out several M26 Pershing tanks and providing an opening for the rest of Acorn Platoon to disable the University team's Karl Gerat siege mortar, before finally being disabled. It's famously known for its "convertible" Christie suspension, which allows it to run on wheels OR tracks, an ability used to great effect in the battle.



The kit was honestly flawless, the usual stunning Tamiya quality. Anyone who has built a Tamiya kit will know they practically fall together out of the box. The only difficulty was the fact that this kit included photo etch parts, some of which needed bending. But Tamiya thoughtfully include a jig to aid with this, allowing the engine grille to be shaped perfectly.

I painted the kit using Vallejo Model Air paints. It was rather different colour matching the paint to the vehicle as it appears in the anime. I did my best, but it has ended up a little too blue, so I apologise for that. The paint I ended up going with was "Leicheblau" a German pale blue paint. I also used a variety of other colours such as black primer for the rubber wheel rims, and metallic black for the tracks and muzzle break.

The decals I was able to find on eBay, and went on pretty well with the exception of the turret decals, which sadly were torn slightly by the firing ports. I should probably have sanded those down a bit. I used Pledge Floor Gloss as a gloss coat, and Vallejo Acrylic Matt Varnish was a final Matt coat.


In the end, I can highly recommend this kit to anyone, both for its accuracy and ease of construction. Building this kit was actually rather enjoyable, and didn't take too long. In the future if I were to make it again, I would try to get the paint colour a little closer to the colour seen in the anime.

Happy building!

~Katya