Kv-5 Heavy Tank

[Mig Eater]

This is Takom's 1/35 scale model kit of the Soviet Kv-5 Heavy Tank, the design of the tank was finished in 1941 & preparation for constructing a prototype was started but the siege of Leningrad put an end to it's development. You can find more information & photos of the kits's sprues in Mike's review here.

 

 

I started making this several months ago while house/pet sitting for a friend & wanted a simple low part project to keep me busy while I was there. It turned out it was a bit to simple for my liking though & after constructing the basic hull & turret I spent most of my time rescribing all the weld seams, along with adding several missing ones. I also added flame cut marks along the edges of the armour plates to help bring some life to the textureless kit. Speaking of texture that brings us to today where I though I'd grab this back out of the box & stipple on some thinned down Mr.Surfacer to add a mottled armour texture to the large flat vertical surfaces of the hull & turret.

 

 

Another change I made to the kit was the two large rectangular hatches on the engine deck, they originally extended all the way to the edge of the deck. I carefully scraped the ends of the hatches off so they are a more accurate size & then scribed a missing panel line along the edge.

 

 

Someone didn't know when to stop

 

 

The kits many wheels have also been cleaned up & put together ready for instillation. Before that though I need to finish redoing all the weld seams on the hull & turret.

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Mig Eater

[Mig Eater]

I managed to finally drag myself to the workbench & finishing adding the weld seams. This was done with Green Stuff two part putty, which was rolled up into strips, laid into previously scribed panel line & embossed with a welding bead pattern. While not that hard or time consuming to do I always end up procrastinating over this step of a build the most for some reason 😔 Now that it's done though I can start adding the rest of the parts to the hull & turret. 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Mig Eater

[Mig Eater]

I've made a lot of progress with the build...

 

I added a heavy cast steel texture to the two mini turrets to add some more textural contrast. I also replaced the plastic ladders on the side of the turret with metal wire.

 

 

 

The kit doesn't include any parts for the driver's view ports, instead it just has large rectangular holes. To fix this I used some Revell Contact Clear glue which has the perfect surface tension to fill gaps like this & drys to a nice glossy transparent finish. Just need to carefully apply some liquid mask over them before painting.

 

 

I removed the lid from one of the storage boxes, which I'll fill with some tools & a tarp to add an extra area of interest. The plastic on these parts was very thick & it took awhile to slowly sand the interior walls down to a reasonable level.   

 

 

The kit comes with a rather nice metal barrel for the 107mm main gun, however I feel that the gun looks a bit small when compared to the rest of this huge tank. So I decided to give it an upgrade with a plastic 152mm barrel left over from a Takom Object 279 kit (This is a what-if build of an unbuilt project so historical accuracy be dammed 😋). The 107mm metal barrel will go in the spare box for now & will eventually find a home on a Kv-2/107, Kv-3 or a Kv-4.

 

 

Last part of the build is to assemble the indy link tracks (saved the best to last 😅). I also plan to add some stowage; tools, tarps, spare tracks, tow rope & ditching log to add some more life to the tank, but I'll have to see what I can find in the spares box etc.

[echen]

Very nice. Like the weld seams and the texturing. All coming on well.

[LeeM]

Very nice work. A simple build taken to the next level.

[Bullbasket]

It does look like a beast of a vehicle. Nice work with the casting and the weld beads.

 

John.

[Mig Eater]

Yep it sure is a big beast 😛 here is a comparison next to a Kv-9 (Kv-1 with a 122mm gun) that I grabbed from the self of doom, which might make an appearance in the KUTA GB.

 

 

I'm nearly finished cleaning up the tracks & I've found a bunch of spare parts that I can add as stowage. I have to try & restrain myself though or I might end up burying it under a load of junk 😅

[Mig Eater]

I had a bit a of break from this build over the holidays but it's now finished & ready for paint.

 

The individual link tracks were as usual tedious to clean up & then a pain to fit, but that was really my own fault as I should have made them before I added the fenders to the hull as the instructions recommended, instead of having to squeeze them in at the end😅 For the stowage I designed & 3D printed some 152mm ammo & storage boxes, as well as a pair of wooden crates & the brackets to hold the log. I also found a 3D model of a PPsh machine gun online so I 3D printed 2 of them with some extra magazines to fill one of the wooden crates. The spare wheel & long storage box on the engine deck along with the tow rope parts came from the previously mentioned Kv-9 kit. I also found some random tools left over from a Dragon Pz.IV kit & added some tarps made from tissue paper soaked in diluted glue with masking tape for straps. The log was sourced from the garden & the bucket is from a Tamiya set.

 

 

 

 

 

Everything disassembled & ready for primer.

[Geo1966]

Great work. Looks even better with the stowage added.

 

George

[Mig Eater]

As this is such a large tank I thought the usual Soviet monochromatic 4BO paint job would be a bit dull, so I'm going to instead apply a tricolor summer camouflage scheme.

 

I'm having trouble deciding in what order to to apply the different colours tho, mainly because I want to add some colour modulation to all three colours. The usual method would be to cover the hole tank with green, then add the brown & tan freehand with the airbrush. This would be the quickest & most efficient but I'd risk having lots of over spray everywhere from the modulation. Inversely I could paint the whole tank brown mask the parts I want, then paint the tan colour, add more masks & lastly paint the green. This will take a lot of time & waste a lot of paint but I'd get nice clean edges with the modulation. So quick & risky or slow & wasteful...

 

[Stef N.]

Slow and, if you use that camouflage putty, not that wasteful.😀

[Mig Eater]

Prime time! 😁 I used Mr Surfacer 1500 black as the base coat & then added pre-shaded panel highlights with white. Nearly all of these highlights will be lost under all the subsequent layers of paint but I always like to start my painting with this step though as it might have been 6-12 months since I last used my airbrush & this is a good way to practice & get a feel for it again without fear of messing anything up because it will all be covered up anyway 😅

 

 

The tracks were painted with AK's "track primer" as the base colour, they will be darkened with some dark grey paint & metallic paints.

 

The next step is some is to add some 4BO green, which I have an AK modulation set for. I also have an Ammo paint set which I'll use for the camouflage colours, I'll mix up some lighter & darker versions of the brown & tan colours so I can add some colour modulation with them too.

[robw_uk]

thats a great build of a big ugly vehicle.... love the texturing, I am doing the same on my M46 Patton from Takom - has some texture just not enough for my liking 😉

 

Looking forward to seeing this painted

[Mig Eater]

The 4BO green is done, there are still a few highlights to add but I'll do that with a paint brush after I've added the other two camouflage colours. Which I decided to do freehand with the airbrush in the end, just the thought of having to mask & paint three different layers was tiring me 😅

 

 

 

[Mig Eater]

I've added the Soviet summer camouflage colours, I'm not the biggest fan of this scheme but its different & helps to visually break up this big box of a tank 😄

 

This was probably one of the most frustrating painting sessions I've ever had, I'm not sure if it's the combination of thinner, retarder & transparator that I used but the paint was very inconsistent. It would randomly switch from flowing perfectly to clogging up my airbrush. Then after awhile the paint would start to separate into different layers too, requiring me to stir the paint in the airbrush cup or I'd end up spraying just thinner/transparator with hardly any paint!

 

I might give the camouflage another coat but this time using the paint straight from the bottle to see if I can get a more consistent & smoother result.  

 

 

 

 

The fit of the mini turrets on the hull & turret roof was very tight & damaged the paint when I added them to the model. To stop this from happening again I cut off the securing tabs & replaced them with a strip of plastic card, it does the same job of holding the turrets in place but doesn't force the parts to scrape against each other when the turret turns. I did the same for the main turret too, but I just cut off the tabs & didn't add new ones, so it now just fits loosely in the turret ring.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Mig Eater

[LankyPanky]

That tri colour scheme certainly helps break up the monotony!

[Mig Eater]

Update, I cleaned up the camouflage a bit & added some shading in a few places. I highlighted all the raised edges & bolt heads with lighter colours, most of it is on the suspension tho & wont be visible once I add the wheels & some mud 😄 I used the decals that came with the kit (the text translates to destroyer/exterminator), they went down well with some micro set/sol to smooth them out. They looked very clean & unformed though, so I painted some white over them to add some colour variation & added some "paint dribbles" to make it look more like it had been hand painted by the crew instead of a inkjet printer 😛 Lastly the stowage was painted dark brown to clean them up from all the over spray & will also act as a base colour for painting them in the future.

 

 

 

The tracks were painted with a dark grey, but before that I painted the inside of the tracks steel & masked off the ares were the wheels would polish the metal.

 

 

 

The wheels/sprockets have been painted the same way as the hull/turret, I still need to add steel & rubber rims but I do that after adding paint chips. Which is the next task on the to-do list.

 

[Mig Eater]

I put this build to the side for awhile as life & other projects occupied my time. I've dragged it back to my workbench though to try & finish it off before it starts to gather to much dust on the self of doom 😅

 

I painted some basic light paint chips using the sponge technique & then added some more refined chips using a small brush. lastly dark rusty spots were added to the center of the larger paint chips. I've painted most of the stowage too but I'm not happy with some of the colours, the blue bed roll on the turret needs to be toned down a bit etc.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Mig Eater

[Mig Eater]

I've made some good progress with the build, I grabbed my collection of enamel paints of the shelf & applied a dark brown pin wash over all the panel lines/welds & small details. Adding washes to a build is always my favorite part of painting as it really brings to the tank to life 😀 I also added some rust wash to some of the larger paint chips & also some glossy brown fuel stains on the engine deck. The tracks received a reddish brown wash/filter, it instantly gave the dark grey base colour a heavy iron look. I tried to avoid going over the shiny polished areas but I'll need to fix it in a few places.  

 

I finished painting the rest of the stowage & added most of it to the model (just a need to put the last few bits in the wooden crate on the engine deck), I added some string to hold the stowage on the engine deck down too. IMO it always looks weird when there isn't some rope or strap holding stowage in place, it looks like it will fly of the tank as soon as it starts moving 😅

 

Last thing left to do is add some mud & dust, I normally like to keep my models relatively clean but for this big beast I thought it could do with some heavier weathering.

 

 

[Milan Mynar]

Looks excellent built and painted.

[Keeff]

Very nice! 👌 

 

 

Keith 😁 

[FrancisGL]

Hi Mig Eater,

An impressive beast, with really good work on it

Cheers

Francis,👍

[Mig Eater]

I gathered up some mud products from Vallejo & also dug up some dirt from my garden.

 

I used the Vallejo Russian mud for the lower hull & running gear, I also thinned down the mud paste & speckled it on to the lower hull. Even thinned down it was still very thick & difficult to work with, in hindsight it would have been better to mix a normal paint to match the colour instead. The real dirt was applied on the upper hull & turret in corners & around hatches etc, it was then fixed in place with sand & gravel glue. This was my first time trying this technique & I'm very happy with the results & look forward to using it more in the future. The ground were I live is very sandy & I also collected it from around my wood shed so it had lots of tiny wood flakes mixed in too, both are just the right scale for this. To help blend it all together I mixed a very thin grey green colour similar to the Vallejo mud & applied it as a dust layer. I applied a layer of chipping fluid before the dust colour but the paint was so thin I couldn't tell if it was chipping or not 😅 Lastly I added a few miniature leaves in random places, I used real leaves from my garden, made with a punch from RP tools. I actually originaly made the leaves 6 years ago for a different build & they still surprisingly look fine after all this time. 

 

With that I'm calling it finished, I'll post some more photos in the ready for inspection forum later today & post a link here.

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Mig Eater