¹⁄35

From 'Backyard Toy' to Soviet T34-85

Introduction

I originally wanted to build the T34 and only settled on a Panther when it became obvious that it would be many, many months after the date promised that the T34 would appear! For continuity and as some readers may not have read the Panther build notes, some points are repeated from the Panther notes. These points are in italics.

Not now wishing to import through the UK agent, a very good friend in Southern Ireland obtained the T34 for me. On delivery I inspected the tank in detail and took photos straight away, something I regret I did not do with the Panther. I had specified unprimed and unpainted and the tank was received in its green fibre glass state. The tank was ordered without a gearbox as the now modified gearbox from the static Panther was available. This fitted perfectly and only required new final drive shaft that I made. Again my first impression of the tank was its overall crudeness. The construction is mainly in GRP. The overall quality of the mouldings is very strong but was in some areas very, very poorly laid up. The suspension units are of mild steel whose springs reminded me of the bedsprings in our old Army beds.

The tank is in three main parts, turret, deck and hull. The deck is fixed to the hull by two non scale bolts that engage vertically into nuts through the side mud guard. The fixing of the turret to the deck is the same as the Panther using a 3 pulley wheel system. The tank is however very to scale in its dimensions although most detailed items e.g. the driver’s hatch, the cupola etc. are basic and nothing like the original in detail. 

Unlike the Panther there is a real lack of books on the T34-85 giving the quality of detail that is needed. Fortunately I live two hours from both Bovington and The Imperial War Museums Annex at Duxford, Cambridgeshire. Both have a T-34-85. Both are of post war Polish origin, the Bovington tank being captured in Korea and the Duxford tank a gift from the Polish Army. I visited both and took over 200 ‘digi’ photos. I further purchased the few books that are available and in particular, the Osprey Publication of Modelling the T34 was very useful.