K.O. T-34
1/35 #RW 35-018
Review by Terry Ashley
The set contains 95 resin parts in a mixture of light cream, light green and light grey resin but the different colour doesn’t affect the excellent quality of the castings some of which are very small and thin while others are large and easy to handle.
Some of the parts are cast with the usual casting blocks while others are cast on a flat sheet with a full backing film that needs to be removed by sanding the parts on a flat surface, this can be a bit of a challenge with the smaller items as they are fairly fragile when trying to hold them.
The larger parts such as the two lower sidewalls, floor plate and glacis have
excellent details on both sides (except the floor with detail on the top only
for obvious reasons). The lower sidewalls have the suspension channels, wiring
and other details included while the glacis have very nice details and weld
seams on the hull machine gun fairing as well as on the separate driver’s
hatch.
The floor casting has very fine details for the control linkages and fittings
as well as the escape hatch, care will be need when removing the lower casting
resin film as details are quite fragile.
There are also the two upper hull side plates, the sponson bottom plates and front section of the top plate with the basic details the parts have on the real vehicle as well as exterior detail parts like the front towing shackles and nose armour fillet between the lower and glacis plates.
When removing the casting blocks there are some minor air holes exposed and some other excess resin to be removed, all this doesn’t distract from the parts and in facts seems to add to the damaged feel.
The suspension is made up of separate axles that can be set at any angle and ten damaged and burnt out wheels from the Mig set RW 35-053 T-34 Burn Out Wheels, only eight of these are used on the actual hull so there are a couple of spares to place about your diorama, there is also the front idler wheels cast in inner and outer parts with good detail definition and there are twelve track links for a short section of track to use as you see fit.
On the interior there are many smaller items such as the transmission parts, brakes, driver’s levers and other bits and pieces which can be added to give a nice cluttered look, the good thing is you don’t have to be too precise in locating the parts as they have after all been subjected to a violent internal explosion and could be anywhere.
The instructions are in the form of a small full colour sheet with the numbered
resin parts laid out and small construction sequence photos with the parts
called out by corresponding number, there are fairly small and not that clear
so some knowledge of where the parts should go will help.
The inside pages have 21 smallish photos following the painting and weathering
process, the is no text with these photos but they follow the usual Mig painting
techniques described in other publications and there is also a full construction
and painting article on this kit in Issue 2 of Extreme Modelling
Magazine which
will be more than useful if building this kit.
At the end of the day this is a nicely detailed kit but the end result will
very much depend on your painting skills and in some respects can be used as
a vehicle (excuse the pun) to test and develop these skills.
As mentioned this kit is not for the inexperienced modeller and some previous
experience in working with resin will also come in handy.
If you want something different to serve as a centre piece of a diorama or
as a “filler” for a larger diorama then this set could be just
the thing.
Recommended.
Page created 15 February 2004