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Good day, colleagues and sympathizers. On the eve of the anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, I try to make a model "in the theme". This time the choice fell on a heavy KV tank. The prototype was chosen a long time ago, even when I first studied the photographic materials on the tank. KV with its own name "For Stalin", a tank of the 145th separate tank brigade. What are we on plastic? Initially, a repack of the Eastern Express from ARK (set 35020) and the remains of the Trumpet KV with a German cannon (just the mask and the barrel of the Zis-5). In the process, however, the tower was taken from a much earlier assembled KV-1 from the same trumpeter (the tower from the EE went to the trumpeter's body, but this is a completely different story) What has been done? Bolts has been completely replaced, missing ones have been delivered. The bottom of the tank is completely made. Welds, traces of metal cutting. Remade sloths (taken sloth from Trumpeter, put a cover from VE) Miniarm Support Rollers Replacement of the MTO hatch Photo etching from Microdesign. Gun barrel from RB, machine guns from Zedval. Tracks from MSD Self-made fasteners for additional tanks Reinforcing corners are made under the wings. Well, of course there are a few gophers. Crawler belt tension mechanism, for example) Tankman - assembled from spare parts) Coloring is an invariable AKAN (the jar is big, it won't end soon ...) Metalics - Tamiya, Hansa. Marking - stencil, self-made. Thank you for your attention, enjoy watching.

Like the lozenge-shaped "landship" for the Britons 20 years earlier, the KV-1 was the Russians’ first indigenous heavy tank, manufactured in the thousands. The chuckle of history is the fact that in a supposedly perfectly bureaucratic and police state like Soviet Russia, the KV has even existed. When in 1938 the Russians decided to create a successor to the ill-fated 5-turret T-35 (60 built), two Leningrad factories built prototypes of two-turret tanks. Kotin's prototype was named SMK, and Barykov's prototype - T-100. Each of them, with a hull length of almost 9 m, weighed 55 tons. And here something unimaginable in Soviet conditions appears – a private venture. Kotin built a second prototype, shortening the SMK by 2 meters and removing the lower (forward) turret with a 45mm gun. And during trials in a real war with Finland in December 1939, this smaller and - despite thicker armour - 10 tons lighter single-turret tank turned out to be better than both twin-turret mastodons. It’s armour was invulnerable for any tank gun in the world. Immediately put into production, it became the first "modern" heavy tank, a year ahead of Churchill, two years ahead of Tiger and 4 years ahead of Pershing. KV are the initials of Kliment Voroshilov - the then Soviet defence minister, after his defeat in the war with Finland... promoted to the prime minister of the USSR. The KV tank was produced until 1943 in four basic versions: 3,260 KV-1 with a 76mm gun 200 KV-2 with a 152mm howitzer 1,120 KV-1S with a new, lower turret and weight reduced by 6 tons 150 KV-85, i.e. the KV-1S with an 85mm gun The designations KV-1A, -1B, -1C, repeated after the German war publications, do not make sense, because the Russian alphabet has a different order of letters (a, b, v, g, e ...). These subsequent variants, differing only in the turret technology and shape, were distinguished in Russia as the 1940, 1941 and 1942 models. The best KVs in Braille scale are Trumpeter kits, introduced in 2007. Mine, built from box #7231, presents the most numerous variant - m.42 (called KV-1C by the Germans), weighing 47 tons. Crewed by 5 men, the m.42 was armed with a 76mm gun and two 7.6mm MGs. It was powered by the 600hp Kharkiv (nee Hispano-Suiza) diesel V-12 engine (the same as in the 20 tons lighter T-34). The set includes 73 styrene parts, two vinyl tracks and 4 towing ropes - after choosing the right eyelet pattern, the second pair is left in the drawer. I wanted it in an improvised winter paint, typical for the Kalinin-Rzhev area (200 km west of Moscow) in February 1943. Such a kit is offered by Trumpeter in 1:35 and by Hobby Boss in 1:48 - unfortunately, in 1: 72 I had to deal with myself. First of all, the photos showed that these KVs were equipped with additional fuel tanks - the spares from the Unimodels T-34 kit fit perfectly. Second, the Chinese misinterpreted the white and olive green areas on the sides and rear of the tank. The list of changes was closed with the drilling of the gun barrel and exhaust pipes. The paints are (as always) Humbrol enamels: 226 for the 1941-43 period 4BO and 34 for the temporary whitewash - painted with Italeri brushes. The yellow tactical number is somewhat retouched serial number from some USAAF fighter, probably a P-39 or P-47. Afterwards the Vallejo acrylic matt varnish was brush-applied overall. The antenna made of 0.3 mm Aber steel wire appears thick in the photo, but be aware that the image on the 15” screen is about twice the size of an actual 1/72 model. The photos are taken with an LG smartphone. Comments are welcome Cheers Michael

Here's my finished scene depicting a Soviet counter attack around Mozhaisk in October after the first snows have fallen and so called General Winter comes to the aid Russian defenders, helped by the 1/48 KV-IE of course! I really enjoyed building this and plenty of new things tried. The shed and the fence was made from good old coffee stirrers, with the thatch being made from toy fur brushed through with pva. Ground work was done with airdrying clay which was then textured with dried soil mixed with pva. First time making a tree and again pretty pleased with, well pleased enough to want to try it again on a future build! Wire twisted together and then covered in airdrying clay before a final bit of sculpting/texturing (meant to be a beech, so not too much texture). The fine branches were made from a piece of lichen which i carefully teased apart and glued onto the end of the wire branches. All painted and then scatted real leaves ground up in the coffee grinder fixed with hairspray. I'm not sure how this natural material will last over time before it starts to crumble and discolour. I guess I made it hard for myself trying to depict a tree in Oct, looking pretty bare. Everything with given a good spray of hairspray and then a dusting of bicarbonate soda for the first snow of winter- hence no winter snow suits on the figures yet! Figures from Tamiya's 1/48 infantry set which was another new experience. I've struggled to paint 1/35 figures in the past so 1/48 was pretty tortuous (I'm only happy with one of the faces) and will have to go back to the youtube tutorials for the next attempt! Anyway onto some pictures: Left you with my favourite picture from the bunch. Thanks for stopping by!

Hi all Just a few pics from my latest build- the 1/48 HobbyBoss KV-1E I love the look of the KV-1 but like it even more with the bolted on armour, a real beast! A simple build with some nice details and a few bits of PE and even a metal wire tow cable and for about half the price of the Tamiya kit, so what's not to like? OoB apart from the tarp and painted with MRP 4BO and pretty much a straight copy of the techniques shown by Nightshift's build on youtube, I make no apologies! This is the first 1/48th armour I've built and this is the way I'm going- my first 3 were all 1/35th but I realised pretty quickly that if I wanted to do any late war tanks then the bases have to be pretty big. By going 1/48 I can have bigger scenes which is probably the main reason I build armour. I've nearly finished the small diorama to go with this which I'll post once I've tackled the figures- I struggled in 1/35th so what 1/48 figures are going to be like only time will tell. No spoilers on this post but I'm made up with the base so far, loads of new things tried and I can't stop looking at it. Hopefully finished in the next week or so if I can stop tinkering with bits. Added the picture of the final base, more pictures in the diorama section here under 'The arrival of General Winter' And that's all, hope you like. Any tips for future builds much appreciated.

Hi, This is a 1:35 model, the KV-1 russian heavy tank. This is Tamiya KIT no. 35066. I made it as movable model. Additional parts are the Friulmodel tracks, towing cables, engine grill, saw. At the bottom I added a short video how does the model ride. Constructive criticism is encouraged

As PST KVs are very hard to find I'm left with the question as featured in the topic. Which kit should I buy to build a better 1/72 model of 1941 or 1942 KV-1C - one of the Trumpeter new tools or the old ESCI/Italeri one? There are very few reviews over the web and all three tools (even the PST one) are mostly appraised. So what are your opinions about the abovementioned kits ? Cheers Michael

Hi folks, long time no see, I mean, post... First of all, pardon me for the fictitious marking on the turret, It's totally incorrect, both historically and politically. The base also doubles as storage. Critics and suggestions are welcome, Cheers!

Season's Greetings one and all. I seem to be on a bit of a streak at the moment, not quite two weeks following my Panzer IV, I've managed to turn out another piece of classic Tamiya armour. If I can keep it up, I should be able to get another two models finished before the year is out. Today I present the 1/35 KV-1 Model.1942. Enjoy... Another fine piece of Tamiya engineering. From first to last instruction step was the total of an evenings work. This model was a second-hand kit from my local hobby shop. The only addition I made was to replace the gun barrel with a metal one from Aber. Much to my surprise, its former owner had thrown away the single piece tracks and replaced them with a set of Fruilmodel metal tracks. The tracks took a total of two evenings' work to assemble. A rather relaxing task if I do say so myself. Weld seams were replicated with a bead of Vallejo Plastic Putty (in the tube) run around top of the turret and around the added-on armour. The model was pre-shaded with Tamiya Black Green, Olive Green and NATO Green which were all blended together with a light coat of IJA Green. After both decals were on and sealed, the tank received an overall filter/wash of yellow-green to warm up the colour and give the white decals a bit of an aged look. The tracks were painted Dark Iron and dirtied up with MIG Dry Mud and Dark Mud pigments as was the lower hull and wheels. The wheel rims were painted with Humbrol Metalcote Gunmetal and polished to a high sheen as these would be constantly worn on the tracks. The spare tracks were treated with Blacken It and Dark Mud (does double duty for dirt and rust) for a rustier, disused look. The machine guns were replaced with brass tube and painted accordingly. The radio antenna was sourced from an old g-string... a guitar g-string that is. Overall, I kept this one relatively simple as far as armour goes. Thanks for looking Regards, ANS

Hello, I'd like to introduce you one really old model I just finished recently. I've added aluminium barrel and Eastern Express tracks. Was really struggling with the tracks. They were falling apart pretty much every couple minutes while working on the rest. I'm not happy with them, but still better than rubber crap inlcuded in the kit. I've also had problems with decals. I think it was due to the age of the kit (42 years old!) and they haven't come off the decal sheet even after good 10 minutes spent in water. Finally I've managed to put on the small one instead of "For Stalin", which I wanted to put on. Plus it silvered a bit. Anyways, there's the result: Thanks for any advices and such. Bart.

Built for the "Less than a tenner" group build. Build thread.

Build 1 & 2 Because the only difference in the kits are the turrets, I'm combining two builds into one thread. I know I've already built them in the photos, but don't worry, that's just to show that they're meant to be snap together kits. There's still a lot of work to do even if the part count is quite low =D Price: £2.99 each from Antics.