If you pose the hatches open, you need an interior. Unless you model the vehicle parked in the motor pool, abandoned, or under fire, one or more hatches will be open, hence you need some form of interior. One of my pet peeves is a commander figure sticking out of his hatch, rolling down the road, with the driver's hatches all buttoned up. They should be open, with at least a partial driver's compartment visible and the drivers sticking their heads out for better visibility. I'm not saying full interiors, but at least something to give the impression of an interior of an open hatch beyond the empty space beneath, but not requiring every small detail would be fine in most cases. Some manufacturers have done that with an impression of the main gun in turrets, but very few do the drivers compartment. If manufacturers would supply the basic figure of the crew, that would be great too!
VR, Russ

For me it is a novelty only. I have the large hatch T 34 76 from AFV because of the interior which is in full display when the hatch is open. However with most tanks a crewman will fill the hatch and no interior will be visible.

As for accuracy, that is the reason we have museums.

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As for accuracy, that is the reason we have museums.

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They are not a complete solution. If you look at a museum tank, you will see empty holders and fasteners, inside and out. You can check lots of WW2 photos and find the contents of the outside ones. The inside ones may never be known.

David

If you pose the hatches open, you need an interior. Unless you model the vehicle parked in the motor pool, abandoned, or under fire, one or more hatches will be open, hence you need some form of interior. One of my pet peeves is a commander figure sticking out of his hatch, rolling down the road, with the driver's hatches all buttoned up. They should be open, with at least a partial driver's compartment visible and the drivers sticking their heads out for better visibility. I'm not saying full interiors, but at least something to give the impression of an interior of an open hatch beyond the empty space beneath, but not requiring every small detail would be fine in most cases. Some manufacturers have done that with an impression of the main gun in turrets, but very few do the drivers compartment. If manufacturers would supply the basic figure of the crew, that would be great too!
VR, Russ

Could you not cross-check, with service manuals? Germany was very good, at writing everything down.

It has been a recent trend for some companies to add in interior in their kit, to fill in the void inside the tank. What are your opinions?

Personally I quite like to see interiors provided - it's always interesting to see what's inside a tank.

I like the Min-Art approach, make two versions one with interior one without, so the modeller can choose. Basic interior that can be seen through open hatches is fine, always considering that if you put figures in there you can barely see anything. As I don't make maintenance or wrecked armour dioramas I never use engines (unless they are actually visible from outside). So give the modeller the choice, one with, one without (and those of us on budget will be happy too).