¹⁄35

From 'Backyard Toy' to Soviet T34-85

The Turret

As I intended to have a firing main armament I removed the cupola, the gun and the mantle with its mounting. 

For those readers not in the United Kingdom you may not be aware that it is now a criminal offence for a private person to possess a handgun. Having been around firearms all my life it is a little strange that crimes with firearms have not reduced since the ban, they have in fact increased some four fold I am informed. My reason for stating this is that as I have already said I intend to have a firing main armament. In view of the neurosis that now prevails here in the UK, I thought it best to consult my County Police Firearms officer as to the legality of what I proposed doing. Having given a lengthy explanation and described the engineering to prevent a projectile being discharged, I was informed that my design and intentions were totally legal! I had demonstrated that I did not intend to modify the blank firing replica gun from the original purpose that it was designed for, to fire blank ammunition and further, that it would be rendered incapable of discharging a solid projectile. I was both surprised and pleased that I could move forward.

I obtained an 8-mm 7 shot blank firing replica gun. With a high carbon content 6 mm drill I drilled out the hardened steel insert that is cast into the barrel to prevent misuse! This was very hard to do and at $35 US per drill, I only broke 1! The existing vent that is designed to direct the blast upwards was tapped and a grub screw MIG welded in. The foresight was filed off and a 5-mm hole drilled all the way through the slide, the frame and the barrel. A piece of turned brass was then fitted into the barrel and joined to the gun by way of a 5 mm cap head screw that went through the slide, the barrel, the brass insert, the barrel again and the frame. These were MIG welded together thus providing a non-removable obstruction in the barrel. (To try to get it out by grinding or heat would cause the gun incapable of working or to melt!)

The actual gun recoiled fiercely on firing and I wished to reproduce this. I obtained some steel and brass and made a new gun housing with the brass moving inside a closed steel collar. The return action is by a spring and I have calculated (but not yet proven) that the action of firing the gun will alone be sufficient to make the gun recoil. There will be the need for some adjustment to the spring for a slow return but this should be fairly simple.
Before all of the non-scale turret detail was sanded off the loader’s hatch, the ventilators and the periscope housings removed. The model as supplied has the 1945-46 2 single split ventilators. The 1944 version has a twin joined ventilator at the rear of the turret. As I intended to have a firing mg sound also coming from the turret, the 2 ventilators were joined, a cast effect given, detailed and mounted at the rear over a hole in the turret roof below which is the mg speaker.

The barrel of the model T34 is of f/g. This on its own will in time suffer damage through blast and heat. I made an internal barrel from 10 mm aluminium tube through which I MIG welded 2 steel pins (a further demonstration of the guns inability to fire a projectile) and with another piece of turned brass, mated the gun to the barrel. 

The opening cupola (designed to be removable to facilitate the removal of the 8 shot magazine to replenish it), the opening loader’s hatch (turret on/off switch and charging jacks) and the periscope guards and periscopes were all remade to scale. A 2mm piece of plasticard was cut to shape and fitted to the turret top as the top armour. The mantle was remade to scale with holes drilled through for the gunner’s sight and the co-axial mg (an mg barrel was made to slightly protrude through the mantle, the mg being hollow to allow an LED via a fibre optic cable to simulate the firing of the gun in time with the electronic mg sound). The cast metal effect was applied, all welding simulated and the barrel and gun offered up to the mantle.