I just got the DML T34/85 1944 model Has anyone built it before? How many links per side,and how accurate is the kit I'll probably buy a metal barrel for it Not sure if I'll use the kit tracks or get friulmodel ones

It is by far the most accurate T34 on the market today...builds into a nice replica straight from the box ,why they molded the back screen in plastic ,I don't know ,but some good painting can even hide that pretty well...The tracks look very usable and seem to hold together without glue which is a plus with this type of track while trying to get them on your kit ...(don't keep falling apart while the glue sets)...Now dragon bring on them 76mm T34's !!

Richard

DML pretty much has it taped for anyone wanting to build a late war Model 1944.
The rear deck needs a replacement mesh, I go for Airwaves sheet number AFV35039 which has the mesh, cooling gills, glassis pull handles, casting numbers etc, all for a reasonable 4.99 GBP
By all means go for the Fruil tracks - they are just about the best out there. They are certainly less work than the kit ones - but don't throw them out, as they are about the only source of winter ice grousers as seen strapped to the sides of most late war T-34s.
My choice of gun barrel would be the Jordi Rubio - *don't* do what I did and buy the TG-09 one as that's for the Model 1943 only. Oh well - might as well get one of those from Italeri, and use the Dragon tracks for it
Osprey books have a good reference in the Osprey Modelling Manual which covers both /76 and 85 in great depth and shows how to get the best from kits that are relativly easy to get hold of. Best of luck and send me some photos for the website :-)

Have the same tank but in the North Vietnamese version. In fact it's an early 1945 Nizhny Tagil build T-34-85 (plant № 183). The 1944 model had two-pieced comander's hatch, a little bit different comander's cuppola (some 720-750 mm in diameter instead 800 mm at 1945 models). But they have the 1944-style glacis plates connection -- not the direct one (like at the latest 1945 types) but with the welded-in front beam (at the early 1944 model it had the rounded front). The road wheels of "1944 model" are not wery good for that variant -- it's the wery late version and are normal for the post-war machines. The only battles that tanks took a part are the Berlin battle and Chechoslovak liberation (ok, also the Far Eastern battle vs Japan). It's better to replace them/ For my early 1944 T-34-85 I used the wheels from the Tamiya's T-34-76 -- they have only 4 such a things in each kit so it was a long chain of exchanges between our modelling club people... I'm not shure -- maybe there are some aftermarket wheels in trade. It's also necessary to say -- the Nizhny Tagil build tanks newer had dished-style roadwheels -- only the cast spoked ones.

The gun barrel seems to me a little bit thinner and shorter than necessary (the constant "disease" of Dragon's ones -- I don't know, maybe they didnt feed them enough? ).

The kit's tracks are the best out-of-the-box T-34 tracks I ever seen before. But they lack the character "hollows" at the front sides of the "ridged" ones (at that cast tracks the "ridge" have the hollow inside). But normally in use it's full of mud and dirt and practically impossible to be seen. I didn't saw the Fruil's tracks so can't give you any comments about.

Best regards and happy modelling!
Lis