Hi. Headed up to my local hobby store to be sure and tell them that Squadron is listing the Trumpeter 1/16 T-34 as being in stock. Wanted to be sure they wouldn't forget to pick me up one.

So as I go in the door there sat one on the counter in the back. So I pointed to it and told the guy I wanted him to order me one just like that it, and he tells me that this one was it! Happy days!!!!

The box iteslf I do believe is bigger than the box that their K5 railway gun came in. It more the size of a suit case rather than a model box. And once again like the Trumpeter K5, it's just stacked totally full of parts. Totally. I've got to hand it to these boys at Trumpeter, they really do know how to pack parts in a box, very, very well.

We went ahead and inspected all of it right then and there and I think that the PMMS site has this one pegged pretty good. In fact I think maybe PMMS may have under-rated it a tad bit. Or this may be just me. The only flaw I can tell right off the bat is that they should have provided more of a variety of decals for it. Maybe a Guards emblem and such. Oh well. Such is life.

And I picked it up for $126 plus tax. So that's not too bad of a deal I think.

After working with Dragon's T-34s the last couple of weeks and then looking at the scale of this thing, it tends to blow a person's mind. Really. The upper turret of this model is bigger than the whole Dragon T34 model itself. The massiveness of scale is truly amazing. In fact I think I could just about sit the Dragon model down inside this model's upturned turret, almost. Wow, I may not have to use the magifier light for this one!

Hope you other folks who have one on order get your really soon. I don't think you're going to be disappointed. At least I'm not. Just hope I can do it justice. And just think, there's 3 more kits of this vehicle coming here later on this summer/fall!

Now where the ^%*&(*& am I going to put it!!!!!!

Take care, Sgrity

Hi Sgrity,

I have 16 days to wait for the beast to arrive in Europe!!
It's very nice to hear the kit is as good, or even better, then the PMMS review! Good to hear someone elses opinion as well on a new kit....

16 more days of waiting....John.

Hi DRAGONWAGON, Lots and lots and lots of sub-assemlbies I'm thinking here. Which is a good thing. Too many details to try and assemble, install, and then paint. at least for my modeling skills. All the steering levers, wiring etc. in the driver's area and such. Loads of storage racks for the mg. ammo. All in PE.

This thing even has the steering brake pad assemblies represented in PE as well, to some extent!

I think there's wiring on top of that engine too. But that doesn't seem to be shown.

It will be interesting to see some of these kits built up by what I consider the 'craftsmen' in this hobby to get some more ideas about certain little things here and there. Also an article and build up from the folks as MMiR as well/

Take care, Sgirty

Hio Sgirty...

Can you do me a favor please??
Measure the hight of the turret in mm's, and please the size in mm's again of the decals!
You see, I'm trying to get customised decals, so I can make one particular version of my T34?76 mod. 1943.

Thanks a lot in advance, John.

yes i saw this at my hobby shop.
its box is huge its a pretty cool looking tank.
i would buy it but i dont have room for something that
big lol

Miami Valley?

Is Steve Baker still on TV covering Miami County? That man gets to every car crash there is!

Steve

Hi Dragonwagon. Now take into account that math has never been one of my strong subjects, and conversions.......

So here goes, Decals: The first two letters are a '3A' and are quite a bit taller than the rest. These are 23/32 inch, or 18.256mm. The decal itself sort of jogs downward a tad bit in the middle and then back up again, I guess taking in consideration the angles of the turret. But as I said, the '3A' are the tallest and the rest are basically 13/32 or 10.318mm tall. The length of the whote decal is 4 3/32 inches, or 102.381mm.

The turret: This is rought because of the top and bottom fit, which needs cleaned up just a tad with the spure pieces and all.. It's I and 22/32 inches, or 43.862mm. Now the front third of the turret has a lip that sort of jogs downward at a straight angle from the top as compared to the back 2/3s of the turret length, which is a little rounded, and it's 1 24/32 inches or 44.450mm.

Hope this is close is all I can say. I won't gauarantee anything when it comes to me figuring things like this up. Ha! Now I have a headache!

Did take the time to snap-fit the tracks together on this baby today, just couldn't resist doing 'something' somewhere. Took all of 10 to 15 mins. to do the 36 pairs of links, and they fit like a dream. Quite literally. Plus there is 6 extra full links provided as well.The other model makers could sure take some lessons from this type of track molding. The rest isn't going to be quite this easy as there lots and lots of thinking ahead and planning as how to best paint what and when. But the more I look at the parts and the instructions the more impressed I am with it. Really nice model, and did I mention kind of BIG?

This is most defintely the kit of the year, or at least one of them.

Take care, sgirty

Hi sniper. Don't know about Steve Baker,but we do have a few trillion cicadas now. Be happy to share them with anybody. Ha, ha!

Take care, sgirty

Hi Larry...

Thanks for your reply, and sorry I caused you a headache...LOL.
I can't wait to lay my hands on my T34, BTW which version you have, I've ordered the T34/76mod.1943.
It's very good to hear you're so enthousiastic about the kit....Keep me informed

Greetz, John.

HI, After looking through Squadron/signal's "T-34 in Action" I do believe this kit represents the Model 1943 'hardedge' turret model. which is Trumpeter's #00903 kit. According to the side of one of the boxes, there's going to be two /85 kits, a #00902 and #00904. But couldn't tell by these small pictures exxactly what the difference between them is. Maybe gas stowage drums or one may be a OT-34 (flame thrower), or simple a difference in the factory, much like Dragon's UTZ 1944 model. There's also a picture of #00905, which looks to be a 1942 model T-34.

So with these 4 kits, people who build tanks, esp. the Russian ones, are going to be quite busy in the coming days for the rest of the year and on into the next.

Personally, if all goes well on this one, I would like to have one of the /85 models just because of the different turret design. Always liked those rather large turrets on these later models. I think it most likely will depend on how successful this first kit turns out to be as to whether this company will be making all 4 of these kits to sell. Although I imagine the only differences between all of them is more or less the turrets and a few extras on the body sides.

Like you, I'm hoping for some 1/16 scale extras like weapons, ammo boxes, separate shells, maybe figures (although painting figures is something I have yet not had the time to get into).

Have seen a few artist's drawings of camo T-34s in some of the books too. This ususally consists of large brown 'stripes' applied over the factory Russian green color. And that would be an interesting variation on a model of this size.

The treads on this kit even have a 'cast' texture to them as well. As the body, but this 'cast' on the body doesn't seem to 'stand out' like it does on the tracks and road wheels as much. Maybe this is as it should be though. Can't say.

Personally I think this particular kit(s) is going to hit the armor model segment of this hobby like a literal 'ton-of-bricks.'I would dearly love to see either these folks or others do 1/16 scale vehicles of the Sherman, Panzer IIII, IV, KV, IS, Churchill, Stuart, 251 halftrack...... in the future.

By the way, if anybody out there has an urge to start their own little cicada 'circus' now would be the time to get over here to southwestern Ohio and pick you up a truck load of them. Don't think anybody here would care of you would 'steal' a few thousand, or hundred thousand of them. Ha, ha!

Good luck an take care.

I have just ordered the model 42 from a shop in Germany at the very attractive price of 99,- euro.

Now i just cant wait!

I have recently finished my 1:16 Tamiya Kübelwagen, and must admit that largescale kits are addictive....

I choose the ´42 because of the large turrethatchs, it will really allow a good view to the interiour.

I know that not only Tamiya but also SOL of Korea makes a Sherman i 1:16 and Cromwell makes a Hetzer and a pzII Luchs. I think a pz 35t is availeble also.

Then there is the Tamiya range, with the Pershing, Tiger I + II and the sherman, all i static og rc-version.

Don´t forget the desert- and european kübels from Tamiya - very nice builds with lots for details. Highly recommended!

Eduard is working on a 1:16 schwimmwagen - propably it´l be quite expensive.

Verlinden makes a Panther, a Pz III, jeep and a brencarrier - reviews ain´t to happy about the quality, and the prices.

Bandai is said to rerelease there 1:15 serie of Hummel, stug IV, Pz IV and Tiger I - i don´t know the prices, but from what i can see the detaling is generic and they call for a lot of scratbuilding to make them look good. They can all be converted to RC, and its the only Pz IV out there...

So there is no doubt, that when we are talking "value for money" - Trumpeteer takes the price!

Recently i have seen a T-34 converted til RC running with Tamiya hardware!

One of my dreams is reworking a Tamiya Sherman into a M10 ….