The early Dragon T-34s are nice, particularly the ones up to the 1941 models. Trumpeter's KV1 and 2 are generally pretty good too - Neil Stokes's site 4BOgreen.com is very useful for modelling the latter.

No doubt there are others worthy of consideration such as Tamiya's IS-2, although I don't have direct experience of that one.

I have been looking around and I think it might have to be the Dragon T34/85 the one with the bed spring armor.
I looked at Afv Clubs kit with full interior but the tracks put me off,the Zvezda kit is cheap but looks like it lacks a lot of detail.
Tamiyas JS-2 might be a good kit and has both link and length and rubber tracks.

Thanks for your recommendations

Karl

I wouldn't recommend starting to build Soviet AFVs with a T-34.

It is an EXTREMELY complex subject - as T-34s were built at 4 different factories, which not only had their own specifics, but also made significant modifications to the "reference architecture" of a T-34.

Thus, building a "real" T-34 model, and not just "ridiculous something that is at best approximately similar to a T-34" is a very complex exercise that would require several weeks of study & planning before even unpacking the sprues.

And the level of details in the kits is not an indicator at all of their accuracy or match to the name written on the box. Most of the kit manufacturers that ever built a T-34 never bothered to study the details - thus all their kits require significant extra work - and, for example, despite the obvious differences in the level of detail, Zvezda's and Dragon's kits require similar efforts to be corrected to a "true T-34".

Tamiya's T-34 and SU-xxx kits are the furthest from reality - with SO many mistakes (e.g. largely incorrect geometrical sizes and even angles of the hull plates) that, in my opinion, they can't even be considered a model - they could only serve training purposes (e.g. if you need to build something very quickly to practice painting skills) or be a first model for newcomers that need practice with filing, gluing, and overall kit assembly.

What I WOULD recommend is to start building Soviet armor with Trumpeter KV-1 and KV-2 kits - their early KV's (e.g. KV-1 "s ekranami" and 1941 KV-2) almost perfectly match the prototypes and are quite good to build.

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I wouldn't recommend starting to build Soviet AFVs with a T-34.

It is an EXTREMELY complex subject - as T-34s were built at 4 different factories, which not only had their own specifics, but also made significant modifications to the "reference architecture" of a T-34.

Thus, building a "real" T-34 model, and not just "ridiculous something that is at best approximately similar to a T-34" is a very complex exercise that would require several weeks of study & planning before even unpacking the sprues.

And the level of details in the kits is not an indicator at all of their accuracy or match to the name written on the box. Most of the kit manufacturers that ever built a T-34 never bothered to study the details - thus all their kits require significant extra work - and, for example, despite the obvious differences in the level of detail, Zvezda's and Dragon's kits require similar efforts to be corrected to a "true T-34".

Tamiya's T-34 and SU-xxx kits are the furthest from reality - with SO many mistakes (e.g. largely incorrect geometrical sizes and even angles of the hull plates) that, in my opinion, they can't even be considered a model - they could only serve training purposes (e.g. if you need to build something very quickly to practice painting skills) or be a first model for newcomers that need practice with filing, gluing, and overall kit assembly.

What I WOULD recommend is to start building Soviet armor with Trumpeter KV-1 and KV-2 kits - their early KV's (e.g. KV-1 "s ekranami" and 1941 KV-2) almost perfectly match the prototypes and are quite good to build.

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Good points there Phil,I like the 34s for their sleek looking profile plus when I look at some models of the T34 they always look really beat up and well weathered.

Am not much of a rivet counter and I would not know the true measurements of the real vehicle so not too worried about that.
I shall have a look at the KVs as am sure the Trumpeters kits are quite cheap.

Thanks all who have taken their time to post

Karl