Ted Hayward takes a first look at the new T-34/85 with full interior by AFV Club in 1/35.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Thanks Ted, this is one I will definitely have to get!

...and here I am thinking I can skip the 1/35 T-34s... it's a must-buy.
It's great that they made a scaled-up version of the Hobby Boss kit


(On a more serious note, a question: how comes this kit is so reasonably priced? It certainly has a lot of plastic, so the price of oil, as it is claimed, should be a factor. It is very well designed, so it, too, should be something that puts the price over the "ordinary" kits. And it's new, and shipped from Asia. In the middle of a recession, and the dollar is pretty low. It's cheaper than the new DML, even Trumpeter offerings -and it kind of proves that the reasons people cite for the high prices are not the right ones.)

Ted-
I appreciate this review. I ordered one of these and I am looking forward to getting it.

I have a couple of questions about your review?

I see in pic 30 of 34 the 85mm ammo boxes- then in another shot (31 of 34) the 76mm ammo boxes.

In 33 of 34 I see dished fighting compartment interior walls numbered 4 and 5. (Correct parts for a T-34/85)
Then in pic 7 of 34 Step 1 of the instruction sheet shows dished parts for the fighting compartment walls- while Step 2 shows the T-34/76 flat sided walls.
Step 1 calls out sidewall part #'s D30 and D29.??

I draw two conclusions from this:

1. The instruction sheet Step 1 may be Wrong. Looks like AFV Club is using the T-34/76 part numbers D29 & D30 (flat sidewalls) vs. 4 & 5 (the correct dished sidewalls).

2. The T-34/85 kit uses most of the sprues from the T-34/76 factory 112 kit plus a few more that are specific to the T-34/85.

Is there a lot of overlap between the two kits? Not in the clear parts but in terms of the interior sprues- are we going to end up with a lot of spares from the T-34/85 kit?

Steve

Hey Ted

Skyhawk in Tainan has a bunch of these in stock. I'm tempted to get one. Am into the T-34s like a bee on honey right now.

has anyone compared this to Dragon's bedspring T-34-85? I had screwed up by gluing the hull pieces together before I got the Verlinden interior set and am tempted to just say screw it, harvest the detail parts, and stop chiseling the pieces out of the Dragon Hull to fit the interior.

Matt

With the exception of the interior DML's kits are much more accurate in all but a very few respects.
(I appreciate how Trumpeter/Hobby Boss, and make no mistake this is the linage of the AFV Club kits, mastered the engine deck. It's not completely correct but give's a fair feel for how the real item was made.)

Mark

Ted made one small error in his concluding paragraph; no production version of the T-34-76 was ever fitted with a three man turret. Both the "flat" (early) and "hex" turrets had two man crews.

Mark

Can you elaborate on that please Mark? I haven't got the kit yet but it's on the way.

I'd like to but that would take a couple of pages to do it any justice, but here's a readers digest version:
From my point of view it's a question of the "quality of detail" more than anything, by which I mean how well each detail part is rendered.
The drive and ideler are too flat and details poorly proportioned, the tracks are better in the DML kits, though some might like the rubber band tracks better, the clear hull and turret can't really be seen through, but if you paint it it's missing weld beads and texture, the engine deck details (screens, etc., especially the side screens) are fairly poor (though I like the fact that the made some attempt to represent it "true to form"), the list goes on and on.
And, for me at least, the fighting compartment interior leaves something to be desired, fixable but annoying.
The engine/transmission compartment and turret details are pretty nice, though.
The AFVC kit biggest advantages are its lower hull and suspension, less the drives and idlers, and it's comparatively low retail price.

The DML kits, though nothing like "perfect, are overall better rendered.

Mark

Great pics!

Can you tell us if the commander's cupola is conical or cilindrical? It's hard to see.