Stalin's Steamroller

Historical Background

In 1937, the Red Army assigned engineer Mikhail Koshkin to design a replacement for the BT-series tanks at the Kharkov Komintern Locomotive Plant (KhPZ, later Zavod No.183). The specification include 20mm of armour, a 45mm gun and powered by a diesel-fuelled V-12 engine while using the same Christie-type suspension while incorporating sloped armour plates. Following the Red Army experience in the border clashes with the Japanese Army at the Battles of Lake Khasan and Khalkin Gol, in which the Soviet T-26, BT-5 and BT-7 tanks were easily destroyed by Japanese anti-tank teams armed with Molotov Cocktails and also by the Type 95 Ha-Go's 37 mm gun, Mikhail Koshkin sought the permission from Stalin to develop a  second prototype, named A-32. It was armed with a 76.2 mm L-10 gun, protected by 32 mm of armour whilst using the same engine.

A heavier version of the A-32, with 45 mm of armour and armed with an L-11 76.2 mm gun was approved for production as the T-34. The T-34 however faced initial resistance from the military with regards to its higher cost. However concerns about the performance of the Red Army tanks in the Finnish-Soviet Winter War coupled with the performance of the German tanks in Western Europe ended such resistance. The first T-34s entered service in September 1940. T-34s were built at State-owned factories: Kharkov Locomotive Factory No. 183 (KhPZ) at Kharkov (later evacuated to Nizhniy Tagil and combined with Dzerzhinsky Ural Railroad Car Works), Stalingrad Tractor Factory (STZ) at Stalingrad and Krasnoye Sormovo No.112 Factory at Gorky plus factories at Leningrad which were later transferred to Chelyabinsk (Tankograd) and at Ural Heavy Machinery Plant (UZTM) at Sverdlovsk. The L-11 gun were however inferior and was later replaced with the more powerful F-34.

The sloped armour of T-34 was effective in deflecting AP rounds, especially the 37mm rounds used by the Germans early in the war. The F-34 gun, firing APCR shells can pierce 92 mm of armour at 500 meters (to put it in perspective, the German Panzers III and IV have frontal armour of 50 to 60 mm). The wide tracks and Christie suspension gave good mobility, especially in the muddy and snowy battlefields of the Eastern Front. The T-34 however had some design deficiencies. The sloped armour, while causing headaches to the Germans, have overall build quality problem especially at the plate joints and welding.The F-34 gun lost its effectiveness when the Germans introduced their Panther and Tiger tanks. The main deficiency however was concerned with the two-man turret, a trait it shared with many tanks of the same time frame. This arrangement forced the tank commander to act as gunner, aiming and firing the gun, while at the same time having to command his own tank and coordinating with other tanks. The workload get heavier if he was a platoon commander or higher. The forward-opening turret hatch and lack of turret cupola also hinder the commander's job who only had a single viewing slit and a traversable periscope to view the battlefield. The gun's reduced performance against heavy German tanks was rectified by upgunning the T-34 with a 85mm gun in the T-34/85 variant. The visibility problem was rectified in August 1942 by replacing the single-piece hatch with separate hatches for the commander and loader and later still, a cupola. The commander workload problem was only rectified with the T-34/85 when the T-34 was fitted with a three-man turret.

The T-34 were a complete shock to the invading Germans when the latter launched Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941. The Soviets had 967 T-34s at the start of the hostilities and in one instance a single tank managed to cut a 14-kilometer trail of destruction before it was stopped by a 105mm howitzer at close range. The PaK 36 37 mm anti-tank gun was completely useless against it, forcing the usage of 105 mm howitzers or 88 mm Flak 36/37 in the direct fire role to counter it. Despite that, the Soviets lost large numbers of them, at least half were caused by mechanical failures or reasons other than enemy actions. With the Germans receiving more 75mm Pak 40 anti-tank guns and more 88s were used in the anti-tank role, the T-34s were also upgraded incrementally, receiving thicker armour and better transmission. T-34s are the second most manufactured tank in the world (the first place goes to the T-54/55 family): 34,780 76mm gun-armed and 22,559 85mm gun-armed models were built during the war.

The Kit

Dragon Kit #6479 follows a line of new-mold T-34/76 series from Dragon starting with the T-34/76 Model 1940 in 2003. The new 34s from Dragon are among the best of their product. In true Dragon tradition the box was packed with parts - 19 sprues, a set of Magic Track links, a rather sizeable (for Dragon's 'Smart Kit' concept) PE sheet and a turned aluminium barrel. Included are Factory 112 specific parts such as the turret. The are three versions of the gun, turned aluminium, plastic single piece and a two-part one. The breech and partial interior of the turret were also included.

Markings were provided for five tanks (technically four as one of the options is totally devoid of any markings!) :
- Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1943
- Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1943 (white 41/05)
- Unidentified Unit, Eastern Front 1943 (white 64)
- Polish 1st Tank Regiment, Oka River, Russia July 1943 (white Polish Eagle)
- 8th Estonian Infantry Corps, Eastern Front 1943 ('For Soviet Estonia!' in Russian and Estonian) 

Construction

As usual, construction starts with the lower hull. I follow the construction steps to the letter (almost). As per online reference material, I shaved off the row of bolts moulded on the forward lower hull as they were not present in this variant. The suspension were first glued in place. Then the running gears (idler and drive wheels) were added, but not yet glued to the chassis. This was followed by the road wheels but I left off the outside wheels at this time, to facilitate assembling the tracks. Since the T-34 used the Christie suspension with large road wheels and with no return rollers, assembly was quick, unlike assembling the 32 road wheels of a Panzer IV...maybe I should thank Mikhail Koshkin for choosing the Christie suspension! Also to facilitate painting, the completed lower hull was painted at this time. The next construction step deals with the upper hull. The plastic rear fender was cut off and were replaced with the PE substitute. For the engine deck, one can actually choose a solid plastic mesh or a better detailed one with PE components. In this case, the locating pin underneath the engine hatch had to be removed, as it interfered with the engine louvre locating tabs.

The rows of bolts on the engine deck also needed to be removed to ensure good fit. I however neglected to paint the engine louvres, thinking that the grille mesh can hide them...how wrong I were! And speaking of the grill mesh, it was located on the curve of the rear deck. To help the metal part conform to the slope, I annealeate the relevant PE parts before gluing them. Easy! As for the intake grills, two styles were provided but internet sources suggest using Parts G20/21 as it was more appropriate. Afterwards came the almost surgical-like precision when building this model - attaching the scores of PE track grouser tie downs and grab handles. To make it harder for modelers, there is no positive locators for them and I had to resort to visual estimation based on the drawings. Going to the front, the hull machine gun was assembled, less the machine gun barrel. The driver's hatch was assembled in fully closed position and I left the vision blocks off as it can only be fitted in the open position. The headlight has an alternative PE post, which I used. This however mean that I have to putty over the hole for the plastic one.

On to the turret. Before assembling it, I decided to paint the interior parts first. There is no colour call-out for the turret interior so I had to guess, based on photos on the internet. I decided to use Tamiya XF-71 Japanese Interior Green. The gun shield and housing feature nice details while there were three options for the gun barrel - turned aluminium, single-piece plastic and two-part plastic. I chose the former because of its better shape plus there is no need to clean out the seams. There is also option (sort of) for the turret roof as Dragon included the turret roof from the earlier T-34/76 Model 1941 Cast Turret. The instructions however show that the proper part would be the new Part U14. The single Part R sprue held the turret hatch and one can retain the moulded-on details or remove them and add the PE parts. I decided to have the hatch open, so I added the PE parts. While test-fitting the hatch, I found that the bracket holding the hatch in the open position interfered with the fit so some trimming had to be done.

Going back to the lower hull, it's time to assemble the tracks. Dragon provided their tried and trusted Magic Track links. The track links were not 'handed' like the Magic Track track links for the German AFVs, just plain and toothed links, to be linked alternately. I did not count how many were needed to make one track run but suffice to say that there were enough of them (plus some spare). They were cemented using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement and once near-dry, they were wrapped around the wheels. Once properly cured they were removed and set aside. Before painting, I decided to add the tankoviy desant handrails - 4 on the turret and 10 on the upper hull. The instructions however swapped the positions for the turret handrails, causing awkward-looking rails, which was fortunately realized early. I pulled them off and reposition them at their actual locations.

Painting and decaling

Basic painting of Soviet tanks of World War 2 is relatively easy - green overall. There were various formulas and mixtures for the Russian green (also known as 4BO Green) but I clung to a mixture I found years ago on the Internet - six parts XF-61 Dark Green (I used XF-13 for this build however), 3 parts XF-2 Flat White and one part XF-3 Flat Yellow plus 20% white for scale effect. But before painting, the model was subjected to a coat of Tamiya Surface Primer. Once the primer had dried, I checked for any (major only) imperfections. Finding none (or minor enough to be unnoticed) I proceeded with the green. Once the paint has cured, I added chips and scratches to the paint using XF-62 Olive Drab and HB pencil. The exhaust pipe was painted XF-64 Red Brown and was later enhanced using Tamiya Weathering Master Rust.

I decided to use the decals for the 8th Estonian Infantry Corps with its 'For Soviet Estonia!' slogan. There were actually extra decals on the sheet - a pair of Guards badge and a slogan (something about Kazakhstan) but there were no colour scheme which uses them, I guess they were a carryover from an earlier release. The decals were printed by Cartograf and were agreeably thin and opaque. They went on without a problem and there is no need to use decal solutions on them. I then painted the tracks using XF-64 and dry-brushed the guide teeth silver.  The track face received some 'polished metal' effect, using HB pencil.

Finishing

The  tracks can now be permanently fixed to the hull. The outer road wheel and the drive and idler wheel neatly trapped the track in place ( I glued the tracks to the upper surface of the road wheels anyway).To place the track grousers on the sponson, the PE straps were threaded through the tie-down brackets first. The track grousers were then put into place and the loose ends of the straps were mated - it should work like putting on a belt although I only managed to do that for a couple of straps only. The rest were simply superimposed or left untied. The tow cable, consisting of plastic eyes and braided steel wire was assembled, painted and placed on the right sponson. I also added a wooden box, taken from my earlier (waay earlier) Tamiya T-34/76 Model 1943. For further weathering, I decided to apply MiG Productions Rubble Dust. Mixed with tap water, the pigment was applied liberally to the lower hull, tracks and wheels. Once dry, excess pigment were removed using an old, stiff brush. I then add a bit more of the pigments, this time 'dry' randomly on the wheels and on the lower hull. It was then fixed in place (more or less) using Tamiya Enamel Thinner. Finally, using Tamiya X-19 Smoke, I added some oily residue on the exhausts and the area directly underneath them.

To illustrate the size of the vehicle, I added a crew figure from Miniart's Soviet Tank Crew At Rest set.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Dragon is one of the leading (if not actually the leader of) manufacturers of fine armour kits. They constantly come out with amazing kits of various combat vehicles of World War 2 and the T-34/76 'Krasnoye Sormovo' Late kit was merely one of them. The kit builds up fairly easy and the 'Smart Kit' concept helped in reducing the number of PE parts as compared to the 'Premium Edition' kits. Whilst it may not be every one's cup of tea, the Magic track links also helped considerably in easing the build. This kit is highly recommended.