I'm working on a zvezda t-34/85 and I'm not too sure what this box in between the two smoke canisters is, so not too sure how to weather it. It appears to have an exhaust pipe coming from it? See photo attached. Any t-34 experts out there willing to enlighten me? I probably should have figured this out before getting the airbrush out.....got carried away.

It’s a heater. A large hole would be excavated under the vehicle, the box placed inside it and a fire lit inside the box. This then keeps the engine from freezing up and the crew can also keep warm in the trench.

There is a sectional drawing that regularly pops up on the www and in fact I remember last seeing it on a DG a few weeks ago. I drew it up in CAD last year based on a contemporary dimensioned drawing that I came across.

Thanks Robert, that's really interesting. Do you know of any photos of the genuine article knocking about? I don't recall ever seeing these boxes on any other Russian tanks, was it limited to t34/85 only?

There are quite a few photos around. Off the top of my head, the parade of T-34-85 (not T-34/85, although a minor point to some) painted white and marked ‘Dmitriy Donskoi’ has them fitted and I’ve seen quite a few others, although they tend to be scattered across multiple books. I may have seen them on an IS-2 once but equally I may be imagining that.