Poetic Armour

Historical Background

During the Interwar period, the Red Army fielded the large but cumbersome (not to mention mechanically unreliable) T-35 multi-turreted heavy tank. The T-35 conformed to the 'heavy penetration tank' portion of contemporary Red Army doctrine of 'deep battle' where the heavy tank (also known as 'siege tanks') would be used at key tactical positions to draw and concentrate enemy fire or destroy enemy fortifications while supporting the infantry. Therefore the heavy tank emphasized on very heavy armour and firepower at the cost of mobility. Disappointment with the T-35 caused the Red Army to draw up a requirement for a new heavy tank in 1937. The TsKB-2 design bureau led by its chief engineer Zh. Kotin designed the tandem-turreted SMK (Sergey Mironovich Kirov). At the same time, the team also designed the smaller KV (named after Defence Comissar Kliment Voroshilov) tank, essentially a single turret SMK. Although actually not designed for production, the KV was given approval by Stalin.

The SMK and KV, together with the rival T-100 were presented to the General Staff in September 1939. The tanks were tested at the Kubinka Testing Grounds near Moscow and soon the war against Finland allowed the prototypes to be tested under combat conditions. While all three candidates showed their resilience against enemy anti-tank weaponry, the SMK and the T-100 showed very poor mobility and reliability. The SMK was disabled by an anti-tank mine on 19 December 1939 and had to be abandoned until it was recovered in February 1940, The KV however performed well and subsequently  50 pre-production vehicles were ordered. Also, during the Winter War with Finland, the Red Army found it difficult to deal with the Finnish concrete bunkers and ordered a heavy turreted howitzer mounted onto the KV tank chassis. Initially, the 76.2mm armed KV tank was known as the Little Turret and the 152mm howitzer-armed tank was known as Big Turret; they were later redesignated as KV-1 Heavy Tank and KV-2 Heavy Artillery Tank respectively.

The KV-1 weighed 45 tons in its initial 1939 model, with a fairly long hull at 6.75 meters. The suspension is of the torsion bar system with six twin roadwheel bogies. The caterpillar tracks are wide, lowering the pressure footprint and allows better traction in snow and mud. Because of the weight of the tank, the designers had to use a 20-year old Caterpillar transmission which was sturdy but unreliable and the tank need to stop to shift gears (it was also known that a hammer was used to shift the gears), making the KV tricky to handle. The weight also reduces the top speed and limiting its ability to cross bridges. When combat experience resulted in more armour and other improvements without an increase in engine power, the later models have more trouble keeping up with the medium tanks and with difficult terrain. The armour however was unheard at the time, with up to 90mm thick on the glacis and turret face; only the British Matilda II and the French B1 can rival the KV's armour. Subsequent variants received more armour, in the shape of thickened hide or applique armour, but without an increase in engine power, their mobility suffered further. The KV-1 was initially armed with the L-11 76.2mm gun. It was later armed with a F-32 or F-34 gun of the same caliber and finally the Zis-5 anti-tank gun. Three to four 7.62mm DT machine guns round-up the armament.

On 22 June 1941, the Red Army had 508 KVs on strength. They made first contact with the German panzers a day later at Raseiniai when the KVs of the Soviet 2nd Tank Division attacked and overran the German 6th Panzer Division near Skaudville. The 37mm PAK 36 anti-tank guns and the Panzerkampfwagen 35(t) were ineffective against the KVs. Although out of ammunition, the KVs, using their invincibility, literally ran over the anti-tank guns. On the next day, a single KV-2 blocked the Germans' advance, shrugging all attempts to knock it out. On 18 August 1941, the German 8th Panzer Division was approaching the town of Krasnokvardeysk, near Leningrad when it was ambushed by five well-hidden KV-1s led by Lieutenant Zinobiy Kolobanov. His unit destroyed 43 German panzers and AFVs in a single half-hour action. Lt Kolobanov was awarded the Order Of Lenin for his actions. The appearance of the KVs (and T-34s) came as a surprise because of faulty German intelligence. The Germans, shocked by these tanks, studied any captured examples and came up with their response later in the war, in the shape of the Tiger and Panther tanks. Nevertheless many KV-1s were lost, being destroyed by air attacks, 88mm Flak and field artillery and anti-tank infantry squads. Many were also abandoned through lack of fuel, breakdowns and general confusion of war. The KV was used throughout the great battles of 1942 and 1943 although it found itself unable to keep pace with the faster and more maneuverable T-34s. The armour was also becoming obsolete in the face of better German tank and anti-tank guns. By 1944, only the interim KV-85 sub-type were still in service, although a regiment of KV-1s saw action in Manchuria during August 1945. 5,219 KV tanks (all variants, including prototypes) were built. 

The Kit

Trumpeter Kit No. 00358 was that company's fifth KV tank in their catalogue after KV 'Big Turret', KV-2, KV-1 Model 1941/KV 'Small Turret and KV-1's (sic) Ekhranami. The kit depicted a KV-1 Model 1942 with a 'simplified' welded turret and ribbed steel road wheels. The kit contains 237 parts spread among 9 light gray and 1 clear sprue. Two types of track is provided - continuous 'rubber band' style and link-and-length. The latter incorporates the sag for the upper run while the former is flexible enough for a modeler to use his/her favourite technique in order to replicate the sags. The kit can also be built into a KV-8 flamethrower tank as it include parts for the flame and the 45mm guns - although no clear indication is  made of the KV-8 - just an optional step in the instructions. No PE is included, not even for the engine deck grilles. Online reviews of this kit (and every other Trumpeter KVs) speak of great accuracy and I take their word for it. Of course there are some minor glitches, but they can either be safely ignored or require minor corrections. Only one marking option was provided - 'Besposhadniy' of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade.

Construction

The lower hull consists of the usual tub with separate rear plate. The tub is however made up of a basic structure (with no details) and applique plates which need to be glued to the former. Once the basic structure has been completed, the detail parts (axle bump stop, final drive housings and return roller mounts) were added onto it. This was followed by the two- (four if you count the additional armour plate on the glacis and the turret ring armour) piece upper hull. Then the suspension parts (road wheel axles and track tensioning mounts, for the time being) were cemented onto the hull. The axles have hexagonal locating stubs which correspond to the similarly shaped holes in the hull sides which ensure correct positioning. Part A22 of the track tensioning arm were left unglued. At this time I'm not sure whether this would help in the track assembly, but better safe than sorry.

The detail parts for the upper hull then cemented onto their places. This include the solid, but with petite raised details, engine grilles. These unfortunately hides the reasonably detailed engine vanes moulded onto the rear upper hull and are best replaced with aftermarket ones. The V-shaped bullet splash protector was cemented after dry-fitting it to the hull, looking for the best location and I think there are indentations underneath the upper hull but Trumpeter did not indicate those in their instructions. The roadwheels, idlers and sprocket wheels were then assembled. The first mentioned have a poly cap inserted between the halves to ensure snug fit and also allows some movement, easing the painting process. The wheels were left off and I moved on to the turret.

The square welded turret (hence the title 'simplified turret') came in one-piece main shell and the turret bottom (with a separate turret ring attached to the hull). The weld seam on the turret looks well done - showing all the subtlety of Russian wartime craftsmanship. The various fittings were then cemented onto the turret. These include a reasonably detailed turret hatch inner face, which allows it to be posed in the open position. Nevertheless a modeler might want to add a figure inside the hatch or add their own turret interior as it was totally empty inside the turret, not even a rudimentary gun breech. The business end of the turret was made up six parts, including a single-piece plastic barrel. And as mentioned before, alternative parts were included if one wishes to build a KV-8 flame-throwing tank. The machine gun barrel at the back of the turret was however left off to avoid breakages.

Afterwards, I returned to the hull. The wheels were first attached to the hull. The idler and drive sprocket remain free to allow adjustments when fitting the tracks. I however add a small amount of cement on the locator stubs to allow some friction. For the tracks, I decided to use the link-and-length plastic track as it has the sags pre-formed. There are ejector pin marks on them, but they were easily scraped off using hobby knife. When the glue has dried, the tracks were removed, along with the wheels for painting. One last step to do before commencing the painting stage was attaching the track guards/fender. The fender supports are of the solid and hollow types I have to keep an eye on the instructions. There is some gap but the excess cement covered them up. A storage box is fitted on the left-hand fender but there is no mention of drilling holes to accept the locator tabs - I just cut off the tabs and fit the box between two fender supports as indicated.

Painting and Decaling

Trumpeter provides just one marking option for this kit. Like many of my Soviet AFV kits before this, the KV was also painted in my interpretation of the Russian 4BO Green. The tracks were painted metallic grey and once dry, was washed with AK Interactive's Track Wash liquid. A 2B pencil was used to add a metallic sheen to the contact surface of the wheels, simulating wear. The same effect was applied onto the the tracks by dry-brushing Mr Color Silver. The decal sheet provides markings for 'Besposhadniy', a KV-1 Model 1942 presented to the 6th Guards Tank Brigade by seven Stalin Prize art laureates. The sponsors (four artists and three writers) named the tank Besposhadniy (merciless) with a cartoon of a tank blowing Hitler to pieces and a poem, when translated to English:

Through the blazing fire we go
In our heavy tank
On to the rear of the enemy
Where we smash him in the flanks
Your tank's crew is fearless
Our eyes never close
As we carry out
Stalin's combat orders!

Besposhadniy was presented to the brigade during a ceremony held in Moscow on 25 May 1942. The tank was commanded by one Lt Pavel Khoroshilov and cut a swath of destruction between the end of May 1942 and March 1943. After 700 kilometers and destroying 27 tanks, 7 armoured cars, 4 self-propelled guns, 9 mortar emplacements, 10 artillery pieces, 17 machine gun nests, 10 trucks, a staff vehicle, 5 motorcycles and a supply dump, it was knocked out near the village of Ashkovo, killing the commander and wounding the driver. It was however recovered and presumably preserved at the Museum of Armoured Vehicle Technology at Kubinka, outside of Moscow. The decals are reasonably thin and reacted positively against setting solutions. The decal sheet includes Besposhadniy's kill tally in the shape of stars, triangles and circles towards the rear of the turret. The decal sheet however omitted the poem's title on the driver's front plate. I thought of hand-writing it but decided not to as the actual inscription was more of the 'print' type. The model was then subjected to the usual wash process.

Finishing

The track assembly together with all the wheels are now permanently fixed onto the model. There isn't much else cemented onto the model except for two pairs of spare track links on the track guards and a pair of tow cables. Trumpeter supplies a length of braided wire which was cut into the specified length onto which the plastic end shackles were superglued. The cables were painted XF-56 Metallic Grey and washed with AK Interactive Track Wash (the latter can also be used for this purpose). One end of each cable was slipped into the towing eye and the latter was then attached to its position uncemented. The other end was slipped onto the hook on the hull side. The machine gun barrels were then painted and cemented onto their places, finishing the basic build. To weather the vehicle. I started off by applying heavily diluted XF-57 Buff on all the horizontal surface of the model. The same was applied on the vertical surfaces but in vertical streaks, creating the so-called 'rain marks'. The lower hull, wheels and tracks were then liberally dabbed with Mig Productions' African Earth pigment in enamel thinner. Once dry the excess was removed using stiff brush. For crew figure, another one from the excellent MiniArt Soviet Tank Crew At Rest set was used.

Conclusion

Tamiya has a serious contender in kit engineering with the emergence of Trumpeter, well, at least for the KV tanks. The Trumpeter kit is fairly easy to build without sacrificing the details which the old Tamiya kit lacks. Sure, it needs some help with aftermarket goodies to make it even more outstanding. Despite being much newer, the Trumpeter kit is not much more expensive than the Tamiya kit (or everybody else's for that matter).  I however think that better value for money could be had by us modelers if Trumpeter adds just another couple of markings for variety.