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The King that wasn't - The KV-5 heavy tank completed


dutik

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Greetings, comrades and defenders of the Motherland!

 

 

Then and when I feel the need to bolster the stomping power of the Large Scale Groundpower, especially if the winged thingy kits tend to perform less enjoyable...

As a former communist and defender of the Fatherland I have a weak spot for russian tank designs. So I started to build a model of the KV-5 tank a decade ago when I got a russian magazin with line drawings and background infos. Yepp, that is a long-term project, indeed :popcorn: I made a hull and a turred, accumulated runnning gear parts of Eastern Express KV-1 kits (you need a lot, trust me) and two sets of resin tracks... The project stalled when I faced the issue of making rounded parts like the gun fairing and the MG subturrets  :help:

 

Atelier Infinite some time later offered a full resin kit, but you pay for the weight of resin, and this is a large tank. A very large, indeed, so this one was out of the range of my wallet. Last year Takom came to the rescue with an injected styrene model :goodjob: So I grabbed a kit and pulled my own parts out to compare them. Well, they used the same drawings - size was the same of both my effort and Takoms tank. But Takom slipped at some details. The turret front plate is somewhat thin, and the rear weld lines are in the wrong place compared to common construction of the KV tanks. Would the Soviets change something that worked well? I guess not. So I am building "my" KV-5 from Takoms hull and my own turret.

 

 

Oh, you don't know what a KV-5 looks like? WoT players know him - it is the "R2D2 tank" :coolio: For all the other comrades: Think about a large-turret KV-2 on steroids. Longer hull (8 wheels per side), larger turret and longer gun (107 mm, a tank killer), and much more armor. 180mm on the turret front. Sounds like a land battleship? Indeed :speak_cool: but not a slow one - it was to be powered by two turbocharged diesel engines from the T-34. Of course the Soviets didn't start from scratch. They made some special KV prototypes before. The KV-150 with 150mm armor, the KV-3 and KV-220 with even more armor and supercharged diesel engines too. These 3 tanks went into combat in Great Patriotic War to defend the city of Leningrad. They prooved to be nimble, thaks to the supercharger, and impenetrable to anything the Wehrmacht was able to put on the battlefield, even the otherwise deadly 88 guns. 

 

The KV-5 went as close to real live as a "paper tank" could - they made the full blueprints for factory production at the Kirov plant in Leningrad. They were running before a design competition (unheared in Soviet Union) for a new heavy tank named KV-4. This made it never to the drawing board, but they took a careful look at the proposals and selected useful features and design ideas.But the project was cancelled due to the siege of the city and the need to crank out more KV-1 tanks to defend the city and the Motherland. If they had made the KV-5 it had hit the battlefield of Leningrad in 1942. Do you know what other heavy tank had it first combad deployment right at this year and place...? The German Tiger tank! Just imagine a clash of these two behemots on the battlefield :speak_cool:

 

Regards

- dutik

Edited by dutik
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Pics:

 

The hull.

 

kv-50000ghsfh.jpg

 

PE is in the kit. Added some missing weld lines from styrene (the white lines) and some hinges on the engine deck. The white stuff at the MG turret is Mr.Surfacer, applied for a "cast steel" look. Tow cables are from Eureka. Great stuff! The cable fasteners were scratchbuild. The lower hull is a multipiece affair and somewhat flimsy. Suggest to add some styrene strips to keep things together; and to fill in a good amount of superglue to secure the whole construction afther the styrene glue has cured.

 

kv-500168bsto.jpg

 

My own turret (white) with Takoms detail parts, Takoms turret (green), and the drawings. Watch the publication date and how much my turret has yellowed :wicked:

 

Enjoy!

- dutik

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Airbrushed the tracks right on the sprue. A rusty brown, followed by the application of graphit pencil where the tracks touch the wheels when moving.

 

kv-50004nlsog.jpg

 

The KV tracks are the widest track links in the photo. Yes, the small tracks to the left are also in 1/35 scale :thumbsup: and for a Hotchkiss tank of the same time. The medium sized links are from a T-24 tank.

 

Made long runs for the lower track and "sagged" short 7 tracklinks sections to be fitted above between the return rollers.

 

 

Regards

- dutik

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A less known fact is the use of standardized camo paints on soviet pre-war (and GPW) tanks. They were not just "green" or maybe whitewashed in winter. The Red Army adopted a tan and a dark brown color. They tried a lot of patterns just like other nations of that era - thin lines, spots, areas and came to the result that larger areas of camo paint would fit best the purpose.

If you want to replicate this Ammo of Mig comes to the rescue and offers a "Russian WW2 colors set" with just the 3 paints. I painted the hull (using tape masks) and the running gear:

 

kv-50002gfsyj.jpg

 

 

kv-50001whsnw.jpg

 

After thist he model got a wash of "NATO tricolor wash", somewhat less over the ochre areas to avoid too much darkening (NATO colors are black-brown-green, the wash is adjusted to this). I've learned that AoM acryls are able take the enamel wash without melting away, but you should avoid rubbing with a brush or accumulating too much wash in places or paint will chip off there. It's wiser to apply a clear coat before doing the wash. Lesson learned :fight: Added some scratches and worn spots with some dark grey paint.

 

Enjoy

- dutik

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Wheatering done. Added the tracks when Murphy struck me:

 

First I reversed idler wheel and drive sprockets and built the upper tracks backwards. OK, **** happens. Realised this mistake when the other wheel did not fit at the axle. OK, both have polycaps, so not a biggie to pull them off and build the upper track again.

 

Disaster happened when I tried to connect the upper with the lower track run. The roadwheels are not aligned with the return rollers, so upper and lower track runs had a different distance to the hull side. Yep. Very odd. Never faced this when building Italeri, Dragon or Tamiya tanks. Idlers and roadwheels were always aligned just ootb. Well, but Takom did not so  :deadhorse:  The KV-5 roadwheels are too close to the hullside  :doh:  Tried to pull them off but they were glued to last forever  :evil_laugh:  So if you build this kit - leave the roadwheels off until you have the track parts ready to align upper and lower run... OK, I set the track"slope" at the front and rear to connect both runs the best way possible. It's not that visible (thanks God for WIDE tracks) except you look frontal at the lower front or rear end. Done.

 

kv-5001590r52.jpg

 

The running faces of the roadwheels got a treatment with the graphite pencil too. Looks like a tank now :thumbsup:

 

 

Regards

- duitk

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Large tank - large turret. 180mm frontal armor, 107mm longbarreled gun, rotating dual-purpose MG cupola (ground and AA). It even got a commanders cupola - not that common for soviet tank designs of that era and a radio down in the hull. BTW, the hull was just 920mm high except for the engine compartment to keep weight and overall height down. Thats the reason for the two frontal subturrets (driver and wireless/gunner).

 

kv-50018h3s12.jpg

 

kv-50019aasax.jpg

 

I used my own turret instead of Takoms, because I positioned the weld line of the rear plate according to the design praxis of the KV family and used a stronger front plate, not to mention some more prominent weld lines. Green parts and barrel are from the kit. Takom also missed the third close defence gun port. Drilled holes but eft the footsteps off for painting.

 

Enjoy!

- dutik

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The painted turret in all his glory:

 

kv-50020ozs73.jpg

 

 

This is how the completed model will look like:

 

kv-50021zmst0.jpg

 

 

Turret still needs wheatering, the whole model some small details like clear lenses, painted vision devices, tarp and so on. But we are close to the end of the story of the King that wasn't.

 

Regards

- dutik

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Hail to the King (that wasn't)!

 

 

kv-50026ghsio.jpg

 

kv-50023n5szh.jpg

 

kv-50024acsca.jpg

 

kv-50025jrs64.jpg

 

kv-500278gs0o.jpg

 

Added the for a defender of the Motherland mandatory patriotic slogan, leased from a Trumpy KV kit. Reads like "Crush the fascist vermins!" :deadhorse:

 

Of course Trumpeter added the wellknown typos. Copyright has expiered 50 years after the end of Great Patriotic War, so saving license fees is no excuse here :fight:

 

 

Nice kit. Building was a joy (but keep the wheel alignment in mind!). Painting too. And it is really, really BIG! :punk:

 

 

Enjoy!

- dutik

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