Hey Gaoyue, That's great news !! Cheers jjumbo

KV-1S series in tooling[/quote] Thats goos news! How about KV-9??

First of all, excellent news to hear that the KV-1S series is being worked on by Trumpeter. Gaoyue, if there is anything I can do to assist with drawings and photographs, please contact me. As you may know, I have spent the past four years working on a book about the KV series, which is due for publication in the next two months. The artwork - I presume it is a box art drawing - from the KV-1 Model 1939 gives me some pause however. There are a number of 'hybrid' features indicated in the artwork. The road wheels are the second pattern with six cooling vents on the inner discs, introduced in September 1940. They do not belong with the 'rounded' turret which was superceded in July 1940, though of course a rebuilt vehicle might have carried the combination of the two. The return rollers shown are the pressed steel variant introduced in early 1941, rather than the cast steel variant with reinforcing ribs fitted to KVs completed in 1940. Trumpeter includes the cast steel rollers in their 'KV Big Turret' kit. The stowage boxes on the fenders are the revised type with grab handles on the lids, introduced in late January 1941, and again do not belong with the rounded turret. The first 13 vehicles completed with this turret carried the early pattern stowage bins as included in Trumpeter's 'KV Big Turret' kit, and carried two on the left-hand fender, one on the right. The bow machine gun was not fitted until October 1940, several months after the 'rounded' turret was superceded in July. The pistol port, included in Trumpeter's 'KV Small Turret' and 'KV Big Turret' kits, is the correct fitting for an April-July production example. The tow cables shown in the drawing are the late pattern with cast ends, introduced in May 1941, not the early pattern with grommets and sleeved ends. Trumpeter includes the correct pattern in its 'KV Big Turret' kit. Caveat to all these comments of course, is that I'm commenting on artwork and not on a 'real' sample of the kit, so let's wait and see the final kit before bringing out the knives. Cheers, Neil

Neil, Follow the link to see the real deal. Interested to hear your comments on that...

Hi Jaques, thanks for pointing out the link. That'll teach me to read more carefully Before commenting on the photos of the assembled model, a little background information might be useful: The "rounded" turret was introduced on the KV prototype vehicle (later redesignated U-0) and was also fitted to the first 11 series production vehicles completed between April and mid-July 1940. After that, the turret was modified to use a flat rear plate. The initial 11 vehicles originally mounted L-11 guns. However, all 11 were rebuilt at LKZ between January and March 1941 and upgraded to F-32 guns. Their fender stowage configuration was also modified to current standards at that time. Now, to the assembled model. Let me start out by saying that I'm about to point out a number of detail differences between the kit and the initial 11 vehicles as built. These ARE NOT faults with the kit. These 11 vehicles underwent numerous rebuilds and components from at least some of them were later combined with those from other vehicles, so the details got very muddled. The kit appears to accurately represent one particular vehicle seen near Leningrad in the fall of 1941 and, with minor modifications and cross-kitting, can be made to represent other vehicles from the initial 11 at different points in time. Trumpeter appears to have used the running gear from their kit #00356 "KV Small Turret" and not the running gear from kit #00311 which would have been correct for one of the original 11 vehicles as completed. The initial pattern road wheels had 8 cooling vents on the inner discs (the circular depressions). The wheels were revised in September/October 1940 and the number of vents was reduced to 6. It's probable that the original 11 received new wheels when they were rebuilt in early 1941 - there are photos of one vehicle that survived in Leningrad until early 1942 that definitely show the revised wheels - but the vehicles would have mounted F-32 guns at that time, not the L-11 gun as depicted by the kit. This problem can be rectified by using the wheels from the "KV Big Turret" kit. Similarly, the return rollers are the pressed steel rubber-rimmed type introduced in March 1941, rather than the cast type, distinguishable by the six reinforcing ribs inboard of the rim, that were fitted to the original 11 vehicles when completed. Again, this problem can be rectified by using the wheels from the "KV Big Turret" kit. For the truly pedantic, the mud scraper is the later welded pattern rather than the initial pattern distinguishable by two dirty great rivets at the apex of the curved portion where the bracing section meets the main section of the scraper. When the running gear is 'mudded up' however, this will be unnoticable. Trumpeter have correctly molded the 11 filled bolt holes across each face of the nose plate, not the later 8. Nice job on this detail. The driver's plate features a bow machine gun, which was not introduced until October 1940, several months after the initial 11 vehicles were completed. The pistol port, offered in the "KV Big Turret" kit and as an optional part in the "KV Small Turret" kit, is correct for one of the initial 11 vehicles as built. However, at least one photograph exists of a vehicle with the 'rounded' turret and L-11 gun mounted on a post-October 1940 hull, probably a vehicle rebuilt by one of the remzavods in late 1941. The hull and turret episcope covers feature flanges attaching them to the roof plates, as does the turret ventilator cover. The flanges did not appear until March 1941. As built, the initial 11 vehicles had the covers welded directly to the roof plates. Carve off the flanges for accuracy, and simulate the weld beads with putty or styrene rod softened with liquid cement. The engine compartment roof plate is correct for one of the initial 11 vehicles, including the access hatch, radiator intake screens and bolt configuration. Note that the first 4 of the 11 had cowled radiator intakes, similar to those on a T-26 or T-28, but the remainder were as depicted in the kit. The transmission compartment roof plate has four lifting eyes, rather than the correct two. Trumpeter made this same mistake with their other kits. Omit the two rear lifting eyes and fill their holes. The rear hull overhang features the regular curve on its upper section. The initial 11 vehicles had a creased plate with a flat spot on the upper section, following the contour of the hull side plates. You can rectify this by sanding the top of the plate flat to conform to the hull sides, or by substituting the correct part from the "KV Big Turret" kit. The fender brackets have the correct 6 bolts attaching them to the fenders and three bolts attaching them to the hull sides. The brackets are the correct skeletal pattern. The fender stowage boxes are the revised type with reinforced ends on the lids and grab handles, which were introduced in January 1941. They are not correct for the initial 11 vehicles as built. You can substitute the boxes from the "KV Big Turret" kit, which are correct. However, there are photographs showing that at least some of the initial 11 received the revised stowage boxes during rebuilding. The fender stowage boxes are also fitted with two on the right-hand fender and one on the left. The initial configuration, used until January 1941, had two on the left-hand fender and one on the right. Not only should the boxes be swapped in favor of those from the "KV Big Turret" kit, but they should be rearranged as well. As noted above however, all 11 vehicles had the boxes rearranged in early 1941, and some of them received revised stowage boxes, but at that time they were also upgunned with F-32 guns. The cylindrical stowage tube on the right-hand fender is correct for the vehicles as built, and after their rebuild in early 1941. The cross-cut saw and its bracket are absent from the left-hand fender. The saw was there on the initial 11 vehicles when they were built. In January 1941, about the same time that the vehicles were rebuilt, the saw was moved inside the lid of the rearmost stowage box on the right-hand fender. The kit is therefore correct for a rebuilt vehicle after January 1941, but again those vehicles had the F-32 gun, not the L-11 gun as depicted by the kit. The tow cables are the late type with cast ends, introduced in May 1941. The correct type for the initial 11 vehicles, even after rebuilding, is the type with grommets and sleeves on their ends, as provided in Trumpeter's "KV Small Turret" and "KV Big Turret" kits. The rounded turret is nicely done, though you should take care to fill the circular seams around the periscopic sight covers (outside the ring of bolts). Note my earlier comment about the flanges around the episcope and ventilator covers. The turret hatch should not have a socket in its center. Only the hull hatch had that, though KV-2 turret hatches had it. Fill the socket and sand it smooth. As built, the initial 11 vehicles did not include provision for the anti-aircraft MG mount. This was added in January 1941. It is probable that the initial 11 received the mounts when rebuilt in early 1941. The kit includes the base plate for the mount, which is probably correct for a rebuilt vehicle with the F-32 gun, but not for a vehicle with the L-11 gun as depicted in the kit. There were two types of L-11 gun mantlet. The early type, fitted up until September 1940, had an open slot beneath the gun barrel, a conical headed bolt on the sloping upper face and a groove in the right-hand side to accommodate the center attachment bolt on that side. the mantlet was revised in September 1940, eliminating the slot in favor of a circular aperture, removing the bolt on the upper face and elminating both the groove and center attachment bolt on the right-hand side. Trumpeter gives you a mixture of both types, though the kit part is very close to the correct early type. It's a relatively simple matter to extend the gun barrel aperture downward to the bottom of the mantlet. The conical headed bolt looks to be a little squashed but if I recall correctly, Trumpeter include several such bolts on one of the sprues in their "KV Small Turret" kit, so it's likely that they're in this kit too. It would be easy to sand off the 'bump' on the upper face of the mantlet and glue one of those bolts in place. In summary, you have several options with this kit: You can built it out-of-the-box, and get a good representation of the rebuilt vehicle shown in the photograph at the bottom of page 19 in Jochen Vollert's 'KV Early Variants' book. You can cross-kit the hull of the "KV Big Turret" with the turret and gun from this kit to represent one of the initial 11 KV s malenkiy bashniy as they were built, with appropriate turret mods as noted above. You can borrow the F-32 gun from the "KV Small Turret" kit to represent one of the initial 11 vehicles after rebuilding at LKZ in early 1941. In closing this extremely long-winded post, let me stress that I'm not trying to bash the kit or Trumpeter here. I LOVE their KV kits, have multiple copies of all of them, and will buy at least two of this kit, possibly more. The particular details of this kit that I've noted above are NOT inaccuracies, merely details specific to an individual vehicle or a small number of vehicles. In pointing them out here, I'm trying to show how you can modify the kit to represent other vehicles of the initial 11, or vehicles at different times in their service lives. I hope people find this useful. Cheers, Neil

Neil, I cannot wait for your book. Any pre-order options yet? DK

Hi Dmitry, Yes, the book is available for pre-order from the publisher, AirConnection. Unfortunately I don't have pricing information yet. Note however, that the book deals only with real vehicles and does NOT include things like kit reviews, tweaks lists etc. Instead, I've built a web site LINK to hold the modeling-related information. The site is already live and has most, though not yet all, of the content added. Feel free to browse. Cheers, Neil

As always, I'm glad to see Neil's input on anything KV-related. Thanks for all the additional info; it will certainly be put to use when I get my hands on this kit. Personally, I love the Trumpeter KV series, and the kits rank up there in my list of all time favorites. I'm glad to see this release, and to hear that a KV-1S is in the works. -YL

KV-1S series in tooling[/quote] That's great news and dreams come true if late KVseries is started by Trump. Is there any link to image or something else about KV-1S or KV-85 ?