This is my 13th Kit and a bit of a change. Again this was won on ebay, its a very old kit (1970`s vintage I think) and the plastic is very hard and not paricularly detailed. Also, this kit was originally intended to be remote controlled and so has large holes to the rear drive sprockets which have to be filled. To make up for the lack of detail, I purchased the Eduard detailing set and a new resin mantlet and aluminum gun from CMK. To round it out I also got some very nice Fruil Modelissimo white metal tracks.
Assembly was very straight forward but some hard work was required to remove the original plastic skirt reinbforcements to replace with accurate etched brass ones ( the originals were solid, without the correct triangular gap). Also with the plastic being old and hard, it showed up even the lightest sanding and filing dreadfully. The radiator grilles also had to be romoved to replace with etched brass, again a bit of a pain. The supplied plastic hawsers were absolutely dreadfully detailed, so I chopped the eyes off them and replaced them with far better looking earthing wire. This tank was very quick to assemble, being so old, it lacks a lot of details and other fiddly bits.
Once all the building was completed, I undercoated the model and the wheels ( which I keep on the sprues till they are painted) in Citadel chaos black spray paint. The model was then airbrushed with thinned tamiya xf61 dark green. Once this was done, a mix of xf61 and xf59 desert yellow/thinner mix (90/10 cut with 30 thinners) was carefully sprayed onto the large panel areas allowing a border of darker xf61 to show through. The whole model and running gear was then sprayed with johnsons Klear liquid floor polish cut with Tamiya thinners. This sealed the model in a lovely satin sheen ready for weathering. First, I dusted the model using mig pigments "european dust" powder mixed with white spirits. This mix was worked into areas where dust could get trapped, then allowed to dry and the excess brushed off. Once dusted, the remaining details to paint were black out with tamiya xf1 matt black and then painted in. The metalic areas were first painted with xf56 metallic grey then highlighted with xf11 chrome silver then rubbed with mig pigments "black smoke" powder. The hawsers were treated with burnt umber oil wash once I had painted them with xf11 chrome silver. The wooden handles of the saw and spade were first painted with xf59 desert yellow then washed with burnt umber oils. The chipping efffects were done by first painting shallow chips onto the hull using xf61 dark green, then using an hb pencil to draw in deeper chip wear on the raised edges and obvious areas of heavy use ( hatches, ladder rungs etc.). the markings were drawn on with pencil using a stencil then hand painted. To finish it off, I painted the supplied figure as a Lieutenant of the Soviet tank corps.
Operationally, the KV2 saw service at the end of the Russo/Finnish war, smashing Finnish bunkers on the Manneheim line with its massive gun. The tank had some very major flaws, although heavily armoured, it was dreadfully slow, twice as slow as german armour of the period. The high turret silhouette made it a sitting duck for anti tank gunners, although its armour was superb for the period and the only german weapon which could touch it with ease was the luftwaffe 88mm AA gun. The turret also weighed so much that it could only be traversed whilst on the level and not on an incline. Many KV2s weer lost in large numbers during the German advance of 1941, mainly to technical failure. One of these monsters managed to hold up an entire German division by occupying a strategic crossroads and rufusing to budge!
After 1941 it was rapidly phased out, but it did lay the foundations for the excellent SU152 assault gun. |
