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The development of Russian armour is a fascinating, if somewhat complex, topic which I could not do justice in a few sentences here. When Peter suggested the idea for a Russian GB I knew I was going to have to make some tough decisions about what I chose to make. Thanks to Sgt.Sqaurehead I developed an interest, initially, in German WW2 Armour but subsequently have become interested in other country's AFVs as well. Having made three Russian tanks over the past year or so I have also collected a variety of Soviet tank kits from various periods and am itching to build them all! I have, however, got to make a start somewhere so I have chosen to make three of the WW2 Tamiya kits I have but do them in a bit of a scene. The first of the three I have chosen is a T-34/76 Model 1941 with cast turret: When first encountered on the battlefield the T-34s were described by German Tank General Von Kleist as 'the finest tank in the world'. It was, at the time, far better than contemporary German tanks. It was as a result of these tanks that the Germans developed the Panther and Tiger tanks and it was only as the war war went on that the T-34 variants lost their superiority. The T-34 was fitted with 76.2mm gun which was also pretty impressive at the time. Another thing to note was the fact that the cast turret had several handrails which could be used by Russian soldiers who were transported on these tanks - this was one of the first tanks to be used in this way. The T-34 and its variants went on to be one of the most produced tanks of all time and a few are still in use today in some countries. The second I am making is a KV-1 Heavy Tank with Appliqué Armour: The KV series of tanks were named after Kliment Voroshilov who was a Soviet politician and defence commissar. Early in the war these tanks were known for their heavy armour and, like the T-34s, the German tanks of the time did not prove much of a threat. The initial KV-1 design went through several development stages and in 1940 this included bolting on additional or ’Appliqué' armour. This version had a powerful 76.2mm gun. The third kit I am planning on making is the SU-122 Tank Destroyer: The SU-122 was an assault gun that was actually built on the hull design of the T-34 and it first saw production in late 1942. It was fitted with a M-30S 122mm Howitzer. The SU-122 proved to be good at it's role of providing direct fire on strongholds but it could, apparently, blow the turret off a Tiger 1 if a direct hit was achieved. So the plan is to build them all at roughly the same time and pretty much OOB. I have some figures from the set below which I will use as part of the scene: I also have this rather lovely Zvezda Yak-3 kit which I may include as part of the diorama or in a build of it's own: My original plan was to have it in flight over the tanks but when I saw the lovely detail included on the engine I felt it would be a shame to not to have it on show. I will see how I'm doing for time. Ideally I would like to build a more modern Russian Tank for this GB as well but there's also going to be the Made in Britain GB running alongside this one and I have some plans for that one too. Looking forward to getting started in a couple of weeks. I still need to wash the sprues so I'll post some photos of them when I do. Kind regards, Stix