I'm building a T-34/76 model 1942, my kit looks like this tank:


And I'm talking about overall details. The periscope for this tank is this:



It looks like it has a lid that can be opened or removed and stored, who knows? Now, AFV Club T-34's looks like this:



It seems to have an armored cover. Now, I want to build my tank on the move, that means turret hatch closed, driver periscopes opened and the turret's as well. Anyone has pictures of the turret periscope opened? Or maybe I can scratchbuild one like AFV Club's and use it instead. Thanks a lot in advance.

The original type of PTK periscope had a hinged cover that flipped back to reveal the periscope head, which was just a small, triangular prism. This version is available in several Dragon T-34 kits.

The AFV Club kit periscope is the second type of PTK periscope mount, which was drilled for the periscope aperture, and nothing needed to be opened--the bell-shaped armored housing protected the prism. It was also seen on the 1942-43 hex turret. There were actually three different bell-shaped housings used on T-34s, probably just reflecting different vendors for the part, and they have slightly different shapes.

These periscopes suffered from a narrow field of view, and later in the war, the Mk-4 periscope, a direct copy of the British Mk. 4 , replaced them.

Good info, thanks a lot ^^ Best regards.

José.

Jose, it's important to note that for "flat" turret tanks (as in your photos) ONLY Factory 112 used the armored housing. For all others the earlier type with the flip open cover would be used.





(Drawing copyrights are mine)

The only kit representing the Factory 183 version in your photo is from Tamiya. DML has earlier versions on the "Model '41" hull and of course the Krasnoye Sormovo type and AFVC has only the Sormovo version.

On the "detail" side of things the earlier type of periscope (actually part of the gun sighting system and NOT simply for observation) would have been the PT-4-7. Later, the PTK-5 would have been the standard.
It's a bit of a misnomer that the type of periscope used can be identified by the housing since the PT-4-7 continued to be fitted well after the introduction of the armored version.

The Mk-4 never replaced the PTK-5 in T-34-76 production since it couldn't be connected to the main gun sight but command version of the T-34 did provide the loader with a version of the periscope in a housing generally identical to the one used for the commanders sight. Late in hex turret production the loaders observation device was replaced with the Mk-4 since, as mentioned, it had a wider field of view and, as I understand it, was much less expensive to produce. It had the advantage also of being lower profile and harder to see from a distance (ever wonder why the Soviets provided dummy housings on the loader's side of many hex turrets? It was to make command tanks harder to differentiate from "standard" T-34s).

Excellent info!!!, Thanks a lot. Best regards.

José.