I buitl my first Tamiya T-34 kit in the mid '70s and since then made at least four others. This is number 5. I started this one more than a year ago but the needs of moving home and family
forced me to put the model away until just this last week. What you see here is the result of first hand research on real T-34-76 tanks here in the US (as well as T-34-85s and even an SU-100).



Other work on this particular model include corrected suspension spacing and a largely scratch built turret with its own scratch built interior.

Mark

Very nice Mark. As you may know, some of us here are doing the Trumpeter 1/16 scale T34s. Your scratch looks right on to me. Are you going to do the engine? More pics please.
Chuck

Mark,

Looks great. Does the turret of the T-34 have a basket and is there any ammo storage in the area of the driver or MG gunner?

That is nice work you are doing I to am building a T-34 1/35 scale but have started from the other end on the engine and trans the pics are in my gallery on page 5, maybe we can give each other some help, once again good work looking forward to seeing it completed.

Thanks for the compliments, gents.
To answer some of the questions: I hadn't intended to instal an engine, really you can't see any of it anyway unless you remove the whole engine deck which wasn't part of the plan. Too much work! :-)
Even most of the work I've done in the fighting compartment won't be seen but I did it anyway because I have a lot of information on it and, well, this IS modeling to me. I get a lot of my enjoyment from making and correcting details (within reason! 8-))

No, no turret baskets on T-34s (or any other of the main Soviet tanks that I'm aware of). The commander/gunner and loader had seats connected to the turret race and a conduit connected the turret with the rest of the tank's electrical.
As for ammunition stored with the driver and machine gunner, only 7.62mm rounds in drums for the DT machine guns, no main gun rounds at least on the 76.2mm gunned tanks.

Take care,
Mark

Mark,

What kind of machine tools do have at your disposal?

Cody

I have a Sherline lathe and mill,. These have become my favorite shop tools. Very good quality, a very large number of accessories, and fantastic versatility..
If you can afford them I'd recommend Sherline over any other miniature tools out there with only a couple of (much more expensive) exceptions.


Mark

OK, a couple more photos:
The first , though fuzzy, shows some of the details on the driver's side. Note that the junction box is significantly different than what Trump supplies in their kit (their's being more correct for the -85 than the -76s).


The next shows the model front top. The turret is largely scratch built, the only portion basically unchanged being the front plate which was basically correct in size and angle. The rest of the kits turret was cut apart and the rear half rebuilt. The uppermost bit was kept as a framework on which to build up the correct angles and widths..
The F-34 gun, shield, turret ring and race, and all tbe other details here are my work.

Seriously, sometimes I don't understand how some people make things like this themselves!