I’ve had the week off and after finishing the Wirbelwind and having to wait for the BITW GB to get under way later in Sept, I decided to do something simple as a “filler” project in the mean time.
The chosen victim is Trumpeter’s 1/35 KV-1 in German service as a Pzkpfw 756(r). I’m using left-over stuff in the AM stash to go with it and not doing anything fancy, just a Jordi Rubio aluminum barrel/white metal brake and some click-able Lion Marc resin tracks I had picked up who knows when.
After 4 days of construction, here’s where she sits.
Neat! Always thought that Allied Armor (sometimes) looks best in German colors. Pardon my ignorance, but what’s to separate it from a regular Soviet KV-1?
Aren’t the trump KV’s great kits?.. I love them… they are fun and they are accurate.
I have done 3 of em (one is not yet finished) and have a KV-2 I would have built if Erics GB would have been operation Barbarossa instead of Blitz in the West… (not complaining… I am thrilled the voting went the way it did in retrospect)
I have not done a Beute KV, 'cause I love the Soviet stuff so much just the way it is, but I will say with the new cupola and gun it looks mighty mean !
Klik, the Germans removed the original Russian 76.2mm gun and replaced it with a 7.5cm L/48 gun as seen on Pz IV Ausf G (and later). They also fitted a standard Pz III/IV split-hatch cupola to the turret roof, added a jerry can rack to the fender along with a large tool box. Other than that, it’s a standard KV-1 with a cast turret and hull.
Will, ordinarily the wait wouldn’t be a big deal but since I had the time off, figured I’d make the most of it considering how little time I got at a stretch on my last project. [;)]
Tread, have to agree with you about the Trumpy KVs although this one was the last one they produced in the series and you can tell that the molds were starting to show their age a bit. Lot of flash to watch out for here and there and some of the mold seams were more prominent. I built one of their KV-1s with the welded turret a long time back so knew what to expect.
Bish, thanks! Virtually anything Allied/Soviet that the Germans got their hands on they converted to some use if they could, even if it was just use it until it broke down or ran out of ammo/gas! They especially liked using T34s for rear area security/partisan duty on the Eastern Front for example. The KV-1s didn’t often get captured intact as it usually took an 88 to knock them out so they aren’t as well known in German service as there weren’t that many that underwent the conversion (exact figures aren’t known) that this kit depicts.
I have seen pics of German T-34’s and SU-85’s, the only reason i didn’t put my tamiya Su-85 on E-bay a while back was because i can do it in German markings. But i don’t recall seeing any of captured KV’s, for good reason as you say. I didn’t realise they altered captured Russian tanks beyond paint and markings.
In that case, as a side note, do you know if they did anything to captured Su-85’s or T-34’s.
Yes, too good of a thing to pass up…didn’t want to cheat and start the Pz IV-C build early so this fit the bill. [;)] The track links are sprueless and are resin (unlike Magic tracks)…I don’t recall how much I spent on them way back when, I’ve had them for several years. A quick search online though shows that they are hard to find now and pretty pricey depending…more than a set of MKs or Fruils.
Bill- I am very concerned now. You have signed up at a GB and now you are building an Allied armor. What will be next? It could be that the severe drought is getting you real good…
This is going to be fun to watch! You said any Allied with Germans got their hands… does it means you will build a Sherman with German markings? [:D] I’d love to see that. Cyber-Hobby has a kit for this…
Sending you cases of water… look out for big delivery next week.
Never fear Andy, I haven’t fallen victim to sun-stroke or anything like that. We’ve actually been getting quite a bit of rain the last month (it’s our regular “rainy” season, all relative of course!) so while drought conditions exist in much of Texas, that’s not the case here although we are below our yearly average rainfall in total.
Truth be told the KV-1 is a “left over” kit from when I had actually a sizeable contingent of Allied kits in the stash. At one point I had all of the KV-1 kits that Trumpeter put out but lost my enthusiasm for them and sold them off except for the 1 had already built and this one. I do still have a KV-2 with some AM goodies set aside to go with it but no idea when/if I will ever actually build it. [;)] Now that the Beute KV-1 is getting built, it’s the lone survivor and only Allied kit still in the stash. All the other 69 kits are German. [:D]
Nice one go for it. I have never heard a bad word about these kits and having seen Bill Carls one I was amazed. I’m sure you will do this kit similar justice, good luck on your build.
Thanks Terry. My airbrush trigger finger got a real work-out yesterday and will get another today as I get it painted and the camo applied. More to come later in the day.
Spent the weekend working with the airbrush to get the paint scheme done. First order of business was the application of a primer coat of Testors Model Master enamel Italian Dark Brown. This allowed me to check all the various putty work here and there as well as some of the join seams to make sure everything was set.
Next came the base coat of 50/50 MM enamel Light Gray/Panzer Dunkelgelb.
I let that set overnight as it took quite a bit of time to get to that stage and my airbrush trigger finger needed a rest! The camo pattern was next. The kit guide and box top aren’t much help, so I decided to go with a worm/stripe pattern for the three tone field-applied scheme. I started with the rot-braun first using a 50/50 mix of MM enamel Military Brown/Leather.
The oliv-grun portions came next using MM enamel Khaki.
After some clean-up and fine-tuning with the original base coat colors, I thinned what I had left in the paint cut to a wash consistency and them applied a mist coat from roughly 12 inches to tie the scheme together.
Just to give an idea of how the pattern looks like from overhead, here’s a shot from the rear.
Tomorrow I’ll start work on the tracks and other details.
Thanks Mike and Guney! Should be able to make some more head-way tomorrow with the Labor Day holiday provided I don’t get distracted by “other” labors along the way. [:D]
