I have a real interest in WWII Soviet heavies and oddballs based on the KV chassis. One of the proposals that caught my eye was the KV-7. It was another unusual attempt to mount more firepower to the KV chassis to increase bunker-busting capabilities. The original iteration of the KV-7 U-13 had two 45mm and one 76mm gun mounted on the same gun mount. The 45mm was ineffective in trials so the prototype was modified to fit twin Zis 5 76mm guns. The plan called for 1/5 of KV production to be a KV-7. These never made it past prototype stage but the concept paved the way for the SU-152.



I started with Trumpeters KV-7 #09504. If you want to build an an accurate KV-7 I highly recommend you run far away from this kit. It is littered with errors and several times I was ready to shoot it, burn it, and bury it on the back yard.

Trumpeter's kit adds a couple of new sprues to its basic KV-1 kit. The new parts aren't particularly impressive and the old parts are starting to show tool wear with some pitting and excess flash and still those damn ejector pin marks in the tracks. The base kit assembled quickly but it was only after I posted images on FB that the myriad of accuracy issues with the kit were pointed out. Trumpeter really dropped the ball on this one. I think they must have used World Of Tanks YouTube highlight reel as their technical guide.

Incorrect roof layout
Incorrect acorn periscopes
Gun mantle is the wrong shape
Gun shield is too thin and missing many details
Casemate is placed in the wrong location - too far back
Upright hull armor plates are wrong size and location
Nose edge armor plate is missing weld details
Uses incorrect armored periscope guards
Wrong transmission deck
Incorrect road wheels
Incorrect return rollers
Missing gunner's sight armored cover
Incorrect shape on appliqué armor plate
Incorrect fender configuration
Incorrect gun barrel shape
No hooks for tow cable on side of casemate

After I found this out, I set the kit aside for a while. Over the following months, I would work on it for a little while and then box it up again.

OK... to make a potentially long thread shorter, I eventually reworked what I cared to do - mostly the roof and gun mantle and added a few more errors to the kit with the addition of the armored MG copula which was a spare from the KV-220 build. I sent shapeways a 3D file to print new armored periscope guards for the copula. I used an Eduard PE set for the screens and added some misc stowage from the spares.

Here is the base kit prior to paint. This photo shows periscope guards that were from the spares- these were eventually replaced. I used the newer unused tracks from the KV-220 where possible but still had a crap ton of ejector pin marks to clean up.







Now with 3D printed guards. Periscopes are set aside until later.



Basic paint was applied.



And a brown camo pattern. Numbers are airbrushed using a set of Montex masks. First round of washes, filters and oil paint work have been applied.




If you want to know more about the KV-7 check here:: http://tankarchives.blogspot.com/2016/04/kv-7-lock-stock-and-three-smoking.html

The steps involved in the first post covered about 8 months of working on the kit, getting frustrated and putting it back in the box. Once i got the basic paint applied, the rest went quickly.

The naval world had learned decades earlier that when dealing with armored/protected targets (and a bunker qualifies) that one big shell does more serious damage than two smaller shells. So it's odd that this went very far even as a design exercise, unless they just had a lot of surplus AT guns available and this might have been a way to use them.

The model looks fantastic BTW, the tracks look so real I can almost hear them. I wouldn't have the patience to deal with such a flawed kit requiring such a level of correction, hats off to you for suffering through such a build. Well done.

It's an odd one for sure and looks cool next to the KV U-19 I finished earlier this year.

Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. I prefer to use metal tracks but just couldn't justify it for such a flawed kit.