ICM Battle of Berlin (April 1945) (DS3506) 1:35 ICM

[Julien]

Battle of Berlin (April 1945) (DS3506)

1:35 ICM

 

 

The battle for Berlin was a bloody one between the advancing Russian Armies and the defending Germans fighting street by street, and sometime room by room. The main tanks for the advancing Russian was the T-34 while the Germans just made do with what ever they had left, these could include the odd King Tiger. While on a one to one basis the T-34 was out classed, the Russian had many more of them then the Germans had King Tigers, and the T-34 was a far more reliable Tank, 

 

Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B King Tiger With Henschel Turret

There has been a proliferation of Tigers and King Tigers of late, and this is ICM's take on this behemoth of WWII.  This was a new tooling back in 2016.  The successor to the much vaunted Tiger heavy tank instilled more terror in the Allied forces due to initial encounters lending an almost invincible air to the design.  It was soon found that although it packed a formidable punch, and could absorb a lot of punishment, it was in fact a flawed design from an engineering point of view.  Stressing the transmission even further than the Tiger I, they suffered terrible attrition due to breakdowns, leading to many examples being captured or scuttled by their crew if these breakdowns occurred under fire. When it worked, it was very difficult to kill, and could seriously outrange almost everything on the battlefield, but as with the Tiger I before it, the Allies worked out a strategy to take them out by cooperative attacks between multiple Allied tanks.  As well as the reliability issues that were never fully addressed due to the state of the war, the complexity of the design was such that they were never available in sufficient quantities to make a difference, and even when they were, Hitler's obsession with micro-managing every aspect of the war led to some poor placement of resources. Many King Tigers were captured by the Allies and taken back for analysis, with a few remaining intact long enough to find their way into museums, such as the one at Bovington.  The Jagdtiger was a development of the King Tiger, using the chassis to mount an even more powerful gun in a casemate, but again very few of these saw action too late in the war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the hull.  There isn't a traditional "tub" for the hull, and you start by building up the sponsons, final drive housing and the torsion bars for the suspension.  The hull floor is a sled to which the lowest parts are added before being partially covered by the torsion bars that extend across the hull floor.  The addition of the sponsons finishes off the lower tub  The King Tiger was designed with overlapping pairs of road wheels, learning from the mistakes of the Tiger I which had interleaved wheels to spread the vehicle's weight, which could result in taking off up to 14 wheels if an inner one needed repair or maintenance.  The all-up weight increased substantially between the two vehicles, so there are a LOT of pairs of wheels on a Königstiger, with nine axles each side, plus the idler and drive sprockets, all of which are assembled from two parts each and fitted to their respective swing-arms.  These are capped off with hubs, and later in the build the tracks are wrapped around them.  

 

The upper hull is supplied as a traditional main part with a hole in the rear for the engine bay, turret aperture and the lift-out front section that encompasses the hull crew hatches.  The radiator vents are moulded-in, giving no opportunity to display a radiator bay without surgery to the hull, which is a minor negative IMHO.  Periscopes are slotted into the front of the hull, hatches are added to the front insert, mushroom vents to the engine insert, and the Kugelblende armoured blister surrounding the bow machinegun is backed with a box to receive the gun stub in preparation for installation, with a small forest of lifting lugs littering the engine deck and lift-out hatches.  Armoured covers are fitted to the periscopes and the vents on the engine deck, which leaves it ready for adding to the lower hull in advance of adding all the various smaller parts such as track and pioneer tools, mudguards, armoured exhausts, towing cables,& shackles.  The turret secures with a bayonet fitting, and an aerial is glued into a socket on the engine deck, completing the build phase.

 

Markings

There are four decal options included in the box, with enough variation in finish from white distemper through Dunkelgelb to two Ambush schemes, that will please most folks without resorting to aftermarket decals.  From the box you can build one of the following (which strangely enough none are from Berlin?)

 

• Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B, Tank black 300 Feldhernhalle Winter distemper over Dunklegelb , Hungary 1945
• Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B, Dunklegelb overall ,Pz.Abt. 503 Danzig March 1945
• Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B, Tank blue 332 Pz.Abt. 501  3 tone camo Ardennes Dec 1944
• Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B, Tank Red 008  Pz.Abt. 501, 3 tone camo Ardennes Dec 1944

 

This is an AFV, so the decal sheet is modest in size, with only a few markings on the sheet.  The registration is perfect the sample, as is the colour density and sharpness, 

 

 

 

 

T-34

Here ICM have re-boxed their 2015 new tool T-34.  It arrives in their usual box with the extra flap over the lower tray.  Inside are six sprues and two hull halves in green styrene, tracks and towing cables in flexible black styrene, decal sheet and the instruction booklet, which is printed in colour and has profiles at the rear for painting and markings.  From the description above, you'll note that these are rubber-band tracks, which suits some and not others, and if you're a fan of metal or individual link styrene tracks, you've probably got your favourite brands already.  The detail is nice with a little room for improving the detail with some etched grilles etc., but for most of us the detail is pretty good out of the box, and even though this is an exterior only kit, you get an almost complete breech if you want to pose the turret hatches open, plus a driver's position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a change the build begins with the upper hull, detailing it with bow machine gun installation with a movable ball, the armoured vents and filling in the other cut-outs on the engine deck, plus the driver's large hatch at the front, which is best left closed unless you're planning on scratching a full interior to back up the seats!  The rear bulkhead, armoured exhaust spats and the pipes themselves are all added at the back, and it is then put to the side while the lower hull is prepared with some holes that need drilling, the suspension boxes gluing in behind the hull sides, and the fender extensions added at the rear.  After saying there's no interior, there is a pair of control levers and two comfy seats to fit inside the lower hull, but unless you're crowding the area with some beefy figures, there's still a big gap behind them that might be seen.  The axles with their swing-arms are all fitted to the hull after the two halves are joined, with two attachment points, the final-drive housing is built up at the rear, and the idler axle slots into the front in preparation for the road wheels, which are supplied individually to make into pairs before they are glued onto the axles.  The same happens to the idler and drive sprockets on both sides, then some light detail is applied to the hull in the shape of towing shackles, tie-down bars, and the tracks are joined, then installed.  The tracks are in two parts each, which link together seamlessly, but don't react to liquid cement at all, so use super glue (CA), although the instructions are mute on the subject.  Aligning the joins at the centre of the track run should hide any visible seams, especially if you're going to paint and weather them with some mud and grit. There is a simple round plug with a built in hatch to replace turret.  The hull is then finished off with additional fuel tanks and tarp rolls, plus two tow cables.

 

 

 

 

Markings

Again with the T-34 there are no Berlin specific markings. You get 4 options, the colour is any you want as long as it Russian green  

 

1. Tank 242 7th Guards Tank Corps, Germany 1945

2. Tank 201 7th Guards Mechanised Corps, Germany Spring 1945 

3. Tank 315 4th Guards Tank Army, Germany Spring 1945

4  Tank 5, unknown Unit, Germany 1945

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

It is good to see ICM bringing us a double boxing like this. Highly recommended.

 

Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd.

 

Review sample courtesy of