I am currently building a diorama with a Trumpeter KV-1 and was wondering when the KV-1 was moved out of service so that I can build a historically correct diorama.

Thanks,
Yank

they never really moved them out of service per se, they just modified the design and gave them a slicker more brown-nosier name, ie the JS instead of KV. i think they stopped making the KV's some time in late 1943 but i doubt they retired the existing ones. also kv-85's were produced a bit longer than the KV and seemed to have overlapped with JS production. there's a decent article on the KV-1 at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KV-1.

Depends on the version you are building. The KV-1 in it's various forms served alongside T-34s until October 1942 when they were reorganized into separate armor brigades for assault/infantry support roles and stayed in front line service in this capacity through 1943 and into late 1944 in East Prussia according to "Russian Tanks of World War II: Stalin's Armored Might" by Tim Bean and Will Fowler. The e-book copy I have doesn't mention the publisher but the ISBN is 0-7110-2898-2 and is an excellent read on the Soviet tank forces IMHO.

You could try and check this site
http://www.battlefield.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=50&lang=en

Trumpeter's KVs are (at the moment) earlier versions and were IIRC (mostly) gone before Kursk. The ones seen later in the war are mainly KV-1s with the sloping engine deck or KV-85s.

Thanks for the replies,
It helps a lot on deciding which veichles I should place along side of the KV-1 in the diorama.