¹⁄35

KV-2

The KV-2 with the big turret, housing a 152 mm howitzer, was produced in very small quantities, mostly because it was a failure. This huge turret hampered its speed and made a bigger target of the tank, and it is commonly admitted that most of the produced tanks were either destroyed before the winter or captured and used by the Germans.

Thus, the winter scheme applied on the model is a bit hypothetical, but it was a testbed for some weathering techniques, and I saw that as a colour profile on the Internet, which prompted me to carry on with it. I bought the kit second hand from a friend, and it was built straight out of the box.

Easy fit and well detailed, with weld seams and a choice of full length vinyl track or pre-sagged plastic links, this was perfect for the newbie armour modeller that I am (I’m usually building aircraft).

The KV being only my second armour build, I wanted to test the hairspray technique on a winter scheme.

I’ve been completing the build in three separate modules: the turret, the hull, and the fenders, these could added and removed almost at will, allowing painting to be consistent on the various modules.

I began painting with Gunze acrylic #302 green and made a few variations with RAF dark green and the #302 lightened with yellow or beige.

Next came the hairspray treatment; hairspray was applied on the various modules, and allowed to dry a bit (around 10 minutes) before a coat of water diluted Tamiya acrylic flat white was sprayed.

The white was water diluted at 70% and sprayed in light coats, again I allowed 10 minutes curing. The various abrasions were then achieved using a wide brush, lightly dipped in water, concentrating on raised elements, fenders, leading edges, weld seams and so on.

The model was then given a coat of Tamiya gloss clear, followed by a wash of Sepia oil paint, diluted with lighter fluid. A coat of flat followed, with a quick session of oil paint pin-pointing, again stretched using a wide brush.

I first elected to use the plastic tracks and began working on them, first painting them gun metal (from a Tamiya spray can) and then working them with various shades of silver and brown/black acrylic inks.

The moveable fenders then came in handy as I began to install the various track portions, but the fit of the various link portions was awful, and the glue (either Tamiya Green or Cyano) refused to maintain the link assembly. I then reverted back to the vinyl tracks, which proved to be easier to handle.

The next - and last - step was pigment work on the tracks and wheels, as well as on the hull, turret, and towing cables. These were set using the Mig pigment fixer.

On the whole, a very instructive build, where I’ve learnt a lot about armour weathering techniques. Some details still need improvements, like adding some mud effects and texture (I still need to find a tutorial somewhere) and a few inaccuracies, which were pointed out by Viper MSK on the Russo-Soviet forum: that the white scheme was probably not applied on the Soviet owned tanks and there were no patriotic slogans on the turret sides (although this is provided in the Trumpeter decal sheet).