Post by rbaer on Nov 29, 2018 11:19:07 GMT -5
Yup, it's Dierk's fault. The trio of KV builds looked fun, and I have (or had) several in the stash that were languishing, no mojo. So, I built the Trumpy slab-sided turret KV a few years ago, added nothing but Friuls, and enjoyed the excellent fit and general good engineering of the kit. In the stash, I had most of a "heavy cast turret" kit, a KV1S/85 which I understand was a one-off, no room for the gun, and a real gem, the Eastern Express KV-85, bought for beer money. The EE kit is a rat, no doubt, but it has a decent basic turret, and the Trumpy kits have most of what I needed otherwise. I'll be cutting the guide tooth off of half a bag of Friul KV tracks, and doing some other mods, but I expect to have a boat-load of fun.
One thing I ran into right away was the road wheels. None of the kits above had the "lightest" version of wheel, so I tried making something from the Trump KV wheels, as the EE wheels were really rough, just drilling my own holes to get a similar wheel as seen in one of the three pics of the actual tank I have. I also scared up an old magazine build of a kit bash like this using the Zvezda IS-2 turret, and a Trump hull. So, first off was to get the turret ring in the right place, hacking and wahcking and adding some white stuff. I have some bolt heads to replace, but lacking any pics of the actual thing, I'm assuming the engine cover was just remade in a longer version, and the hull top in front of the turret ring was simply redone as well, omitting the driver's hatch ("Don't worry Comrade Driver, you'll never need to get out in a hurry, with glorious Soviet steel protecting you!"). Conveniently, Trump kitted several versions of this tank, and the hull tops interchange between kits, and are modulat to boot, all the better for me. And in another burst of luck, the Trump turret ring race, a nice separate part, fits the EE turret, lovely.
This will not be an exercise in accuracy, but in sheer fun. I have one magazine article on a similar conversion, and three or so pics from the Zaloga/Concord book "Stalin's Heavies", so I'm not going to worry my pretty little head with the small stuff, only make a big ugly piece of Soviet hackery, possibly just like Comrade Tank Designer did in the first place, just in 1/35 instead of 1/1.
Pics after about two hours of work:
IMG_1475 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1476 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
These Trump KV kits go together so well, some parts almost being snap-together. The "fun" start when I get into the EE kit. I used the turret ring extenders from that kit, and thankfully they actually worked pretty well, after carving them out of the flash. Another thing: I compared some basic dimensions between the two maker's kits, and they're remarkably close, surprisingly enough. The upper and lower hull lengths and widths are almost exactly the same.
One thing I ran into right away was the road wheels. None of the kits above had the "lightest" version of wheel, so I tried making something from the Trump KV wheels, as the EE wheels were really rough, just drilling my own holes to get a similar wheel as seen in one of the three pics of the actual tank I have. I also scared up an old magazine build of a kit bash like this using the Zvezda IS-2 turret, and a Trump hull. So, first off was to get the turret ring in the right place, hacking and wahcking and adding some white stuff. I have some bolt heads to replace, but lacking any pics of the actual thing, I'm assuming the engine cover was just remade in a longer version, and the hull top in front of the turret ring was simply redone as well, omitting the driver's hatch ("Don't worry Comrade Driver, you'll never need to get out in a hurry, with glorious Soviet steel protecting you!"). Conveniently, Trump kitted several versions of this tank, and the hull tops interchange between kits, and are modulat to boot, all the better for me. And in another burst of luck, the Trump turret ring race, a nice separate part, fits the EE turret, lovely.
This will not be an exercise in accuracy, but in sheer fun. I have one magazine article on a similar conversion, and three or so pics from the Zaloga/Concord book "Stalin's Heavies", so I'm not going to worry my pretty little head with the small stuff, only make a big ugly piece of Soviet hackery, possibly just like Comrade Tank Designer did in the first place, just in 1/35 instead of 1/1.
Pics after about two hours of work:
IMG_1475 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
IMG_1476 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
These Trump KV kits go together so well, some parts almost being snap-together. The "fun" start when I get into the EE kit. I used the turret ring extenders from that kit, and thankfully they actually worked pretty well, after carving them out of the flash. Another thing: I compared some basic dimensions between the two maker's kits, and they're remarkably close, surprisingly enough. The upper and lower hull lengths and widths are almost exactly the same.