Hi all Iam about to start the 1/35 Tamiya kit and having searched the web, am not much wiser. I plan to model a tank from the 1st Czech Tank Brigade as they had some JS-2 towards the end of the war. I think these came from the red army secondhand , but I cant find any pics. Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks
Charlie

IIRC, 1st Czechoslovak Independent Tank Brigade did not get any IS-2s until the very end of the war (April 1945). I think they did not see any fighting, but they were shown during the victory parade in Prague later on.



Note that the caption on site above is wrong, there was no Soviet or other Allied armor in Prague in April 1945. This apparently comes from Concord's #7012 Stalin's Heavy Tanks 1941-45, page 53, which has the same picture and states that those were delivered in April to the brigade.

Page 54 shows another Czech IS-2, but similarly to the first one only national insignia is visible, no turret number.


HTH

-A-

Hi

Ill try to give a czech view on the issue

After the end of the war czechoslovakia received 8 tanks IS-2 (wrongly spelled JS-2) that were formed into the 1st armored brigade.
They were paraded in the May 1945 victory parade in Prague.
They saw active service patroling the polish border untill 7/1945 and then they were trnasfered to the "Peace units".
In 2/1947 they were stored as reserve tanks, but only 7 of them, the fate of the 8th tank is not known.
They were stored untill 8/1958, were only 4 tanks are registered on the army register ,the fate of the other tanks is not knwon (probably scrapped).
The remants were used as monuments in Prague, Trutnov, Prelouc.(the monuments are not in place anymore)

One of the tanks is stored today at the Lesany tank museum, near prague and is the famous "Pink tank".


Regarding the tamiya kit you have to watch out for the czech national insignia that are provided THE COLORS ARE INVERTED






Probably the images can be seen in firefox and opera , sorry for the explorer users , but otherwise would be to complicated for me

hope it helps

Cheers Dan

Here is a recent pic of the pink tank

Hi Guys many thanks for all your help, I have something to go on now.
Best wishes
Charlie