I bought the Tamiya T34/76 kit today and first thing I began to notice was that the wheels don’t match up with any of my reference photos, I wish I could post pics but my camara isn’t working right. Instead of having the thick rubber on the wheels they seem to me molded to represent wheels without rubber. It also came with 4 wheels that do look correct, so I figured that it wasn’t just a poorly molded kit, I know very little about T34s, does anyone know if these wheels are correct?
Hi crazygerman! The kit is mostly correct. It was very common during that time for T34/76s to have all-steel wheels. This was due to a shortage of rubber. However, rubber wheels were often used on the first and last axle to reduce wear&tear and to improve the ride. The 4 rubber roadwheels in the kit should be used in those positions, the rest are the all-steel wheels.
they started putting all metal wheels on the 34s due to shortage. some time later, it became common to put the rubber rimmed ones as the first and last roadwheel and all metal in between. also, there were so many tanks and so many places building them with their own little quirks and sub-designs and so many field repairs, that pretty much any variation imaginable probably did come up at some point.
actually considering that you’re building the old tamiya kit, i wouldn’t worry about the roadwheel as far as accuracy. from what i heard, that kit’s not what you’d call “accurate” in any way shape or form. weren’t the hull sides of that thing set at the wrong angle? point is, i say just build what’s in there and have fun. [:)]
Don’t worry, everything is as it should be. There are several different styles of wheels for the T-34. The Model 1943 commonly had the rubber-rimmed wheels at the first and last station, with the all-steel wheels taking up the middle three locations, as seen on this vehicle from Kubinka;
This arrangement varied with time and from factory to factory, sometimes all steel, sometimes mixed, sometimes all rubber, depending on the supply of rubber and when/where it was produced.
Beat me to the post GM. [swg]
thanks goat monkey, i figured the kit wasn’t very accurate since its so old, i keep buying the tamiya kits because my LHS is stocked full of them with very little selection of anything else [banghead], theyre very overpriced considering the quality, now that you mention it the upper hull sides do seem off compared to photos, but it should be a fun build anyway, if nothing else it’ll be a good project to gain some painting and weathering experiance
I could be wrong, but I believe this Tamiya kit is the only 1/35 kit on the market with the '43 hexagonal turret. If so, it still has value for those who want to build a T-34/76 model 1943 without resorting to scratchbuilding or buying an AM replacement turret. Although it has accuracy issues and lacks detail and features it can still be built into a pretty decent T-34.
there’s also the zvezda kit:
http://greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=ZVE3525
i have this thing and even though i haven’t tried building it yet, from the brief glance i took at it, i don’t know that it’d be all that much better than the tamiya one. this kit also comes with the mine sweeper parts.
i guess if you’re going to scratch build parts to make a kit more accurate, you’d probably be better off with the zvezda kit. it’s cheaper for one thing.
Thanks for the info, i bought the kit to be OOB to kill time while i’m waiting for some reference books i ordered for other projects, but i just can’t let this kit go, does anyone think the armor slope is off so bad that it needs correcting, (if at all) it just looks a bit too sloped to me but i could be wrong
here’s a page with some rough blueprints:
http://www.wargaming.net/tanks/MODELS/t3476_2.htm
why don’t you measure the angle of the hull sides in the pictures and compare it to the model and see for yourelf. let us know, i’d love to know how accurate/inaccurate the tamiya kit is.
i still think you should just build the tamiya kit as is and not worry about it. put tons of storage and some infantry on the tank to hide the inaccuracies or something. if you want to build an actually accurate '43, you’ll probably have to get a dragon kit and replace the turret, wheels, fenders, fuel storage, vent grills, etc depending on which '43 you’re going for.
Thanks for the blueprints, i’ll let you know how off the kit is asap, i know i should just let it go but I have a problem with detail, which is probably why it takes me so long to get a model done, plus i have 3 projects i’m in the middle of…i need to find some focus…i’ll probably start sticking my money into the dragon kits soon because all the mods i have to make to the tamiya kits slow me down too much and destract me from scratchbuilding the interiors which is my main project. I’ll l’ll let you know about accuracy as soon as i do some drawings
what, kinda like this? [:D]
haha, exactly, i have 3 kits sitting on my bench that look just like that, molded in vents cut out, hatches opened up, etc.
Ok, so according to some quick measurments and some doodles i did the tamiya kit isn’t off by much at all, at most 1/2 degree…assuming those drawings were accurate, so i’m not even going to bother to fix something that small, i didn’t check the front or back armor slopes, just the sides, but i think i’ll just go with the kit and save myself some trouble, then get the dragon kit later
if you feel like it, find some PHOTOS of real tanks and compare the armor slopes on that. now i’m sort of suspicious of those blueprints.
anyone know what the deal is with the tamiya t-34 hull inaccuracies?
yeah, it was the photos that gave me the impression the slopes were off, idk about those drawings, i’m looking for more from another source now