The finished article |
After a quick Google, it was evident that this is quite a popular subject for scale modellers, its unique look certainly breaks up the monotony of T34's. These kits often involve etched Brass, a fiddly, delicate and time consuming solution that looks great on a scale model, but would fall apart in seconds in a game...
New plastic blister |
Front and Back of a sprue |
Although all the pictures I could find were of T34/85's with the Armour, the ultimate assault tank in my eyes is the T-34/76. With its wide tracks, its much more at home ploughing into infantry in woods, add that with tank escorts and you've got 10 swings at Vet (assuming they all get in!), and now with an improved 4+ Faust save!
With that said, The T34/76's Turret is slightly smaller than the 85's, meaning I couldn't get two single panels side by side as per the 85. I settled for one centrally mounted, however as I don't want all my tanks looking the same, I'll move these on the rest of the platoon (and may well try squeezing two on for a particularly paranoid commander!).
I found the Turret Top plate would only fit with the closed Cupola hatch, as it fouled the open one. Its a tight squeeze, but I think it looks cool (and mirrors the historical pictures I could find)
I was worried about the tool box and tools that are moulded onto the T34 hull, and didn't want to have to cut them off - as it is, by trimming the mounting peg off the plates lay smoothly.
With 'standard' fuel tanks |
Without fuel tanks |
I painted the plates as per the guide on Battlefronts website, as I guess they would have been plain mild steel - this would have quickly rusted, giving the nice contrast in colours. Due to the vagaries of digital photography, these are a tad more orange in the 'flesh' so to speak. I should mention that I spray under coated the plates on the sprue, then applied the base coat brown. Its every easy to fill the holes with paint, so less is more is the way to go. Once glued on, I then touched up the ends and finished the rust effect. I wouldn't recommend glueing these on before painting the tank, as it would be a real pain to cover the tank underneath the plates!
All that armour and he still sticks his head out! |
Boooiinnngggg! No faust for you Jerry! |
When buying the armour, don't forget that you can 'gun tank' on-to (and away from) bed-spring armoured tanks - don't leave your Company/platoon commander as an easy kill by having him equipped differently!!
Thanks for reading,
Fez
Great write up but I think Ill pass - respectfully, this looks horribly out of scale.
ReplyDeleteTroy
Yeah, I want some on my tanks, but this implementation looks awful. Hopefully some clever aftermarket maker will come out with something better. Even solid pewter plates with a pattern on it like the German mesh schurtzen on the PzIVJ would look better I suspect.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I agree its rather 'Chunky' I'm not convinced there is a reasonable alternative - Do bear in mind these pictures are rather 'close' to enable you to see the detail, I'll have whole platoon pictures at a more natural distance later. I suppose its rather like the 'heroic' proportions of their figures - a rubbish scale representation but a godsend to paint and use!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting!
Fez