Quick question guys. Am currently building the Dragon T-34/76 mod 1941 with cast turret

Can you choose to not mount any of the extra fuel tank cells on the side of the tank? I'm a novice when it comes to PE and I inexplicably broke four of the PE straps for the cells when trying to attach them. So I was thinking if it would be fine to go without the fuel tanks and delete the attachment points on the hull sides as well. Thanks.

Well, anyone have ideas? Tried to look at the osprey books I have but I've only ever seen mod 1941 T-34s with the fuel tanks attached

Nigel,
STZ(Stalingrad Tank Factory) had a production run in late winter- early spring 1942, that lacked external fuel cells-see picture attached.
Hope that helps.

STZ vehicles had various STZ-specific features, did they not? That might make for a bigger project to overcome a small issue.

I've never looked for ones without the tanks because I plan to fit them to mine but you have a couple of options. Panzer Art makes excellent resin tanks with brackets in place. Alternatively, you could just bend up the sections of the brackets that are attached to the hull from bent strip if you want to omit the tanks themselves. Plenty of photos show them absent. I'd make up a simple jig to get them all the same though.

You've probably already spotted this but the tanks could either be fitted with the large face against the hull side or at 90 degrees to that, so the number and design of brackets varied accordingly.

This may be a stupid question but which Dragon kit do you have in mind specifically? I tried to google it but could not find any kit with fuel cells on the sides.

Thanks for the replies so far.

@Lockie - thanks for the info. What's the name of the mini-art fuel cell? Can't seem to find it.

@wotjeck - it's Dragon's T-34/76 mod 1941 Cast Turret #6418

The boxes on the hull sides are for fuel.

Yes, now I know that. I had no idea Russians used non-cylindrical external fuel cells, I always thought these were stowage boxes. So the question was indeed stupid but at least I learned something ;-)

@Nigel - I found this discussion with photos of what looks like the T-34 model 1941 with absent fuel cells. So I guess you can go without fuel cells but attachment points should stay.