DML/Dragon 1/35 T-34/76 Mod. 1940 Kit No. 6092
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HISTORY
Many different weapons have been said to have been "War winners", but few have deserved it as much as the Soviet T-34 tank. It made such an impression on the Germans, in WWII, that they considered building their own version.. Captured T-34s were operated by the Germans for anti-tank training and even in the field.
The T-34's pioneering sloped armor held few shell traps, increasing its effectiveness. Though Soviet wartime tanks were generally very crudely finished, some lacking even any optional equipment and requiring the gun to be laid by eye, they were effective nevertheless. Their wide tracks allowed them to cross snow and soft mud which was impassable for the German tanks with their narrow tracks. Soviet tank losses did not reflect on the quality of their equipment, but rather on the lack of crew training.
The T-34 began its career in August of 1939. The Soviet Main Military Council accepted a design by a team headed by Mikhail Koshkin and Alexsandr Morozov, and assisted by Nikolai Kucherenko - who designed the hull. Koshkin died in September 1940, but Morozov survived to receive the title "Hero of Soviet Science" and to see 39,698 T-34 tanks built up to the end of the war.
The first T-34/76A had a rolled-plate turret and a short 76.2mm gun mounted in a distinctive cast contoured cradle welded to a flush external mantlet. The first 115 produced had a ball-mounted DT machine-gun in the turret rear as well as the hull gun.
The hull was welded throughout with only three different thicknesses of armor plate.
The chief defect in the design was the turret which had a considerable overhang and large hatch. The hatch, which occupied almost the entive rear half of the turret, blocked the commander's view and left an opening big enough through which a cool-headed enemy soldier could throw a grenade. If the hatch was closed an alternative tactic was to climb onto the hull and wedge a Teller mine under the overhang. Both these defects were removed on later models.
The subject of DML's new kit is a very early T-34 model 1940 tank. It has the welded turret, KhPK production type. It also has the early L-11 main gun and mantlet, which did not live up to expectations. This gun was later replaced on subsequent marks. The kit also has the early solid rimmed road wheels with the pierced rubber tires. The rear transmission access plate is square vs the round one used on later marks. There are various other small differences that make this a early model of the T-34.
What's in the box?:
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The kit comes in a tray and lid type box. The first thing one notices is that the box art was done by a fellow named Jameson and not by DML's resident artist Ronald Volstad. The painting is kind of blurry and the crew figures are not well painted at all. Ron does a better overall job of depicting crewmen and vehicles I think. One side panel of the box has four small photos of the finished model. The other side panel shows the box art for DML's soon to be released kit of a Sd.Kfz. 151 Ausf. C German Halftrack (kit no. 6187).
There are eight cello bags in the kit. These contain 10 trees of light gray parts, a hull bottom piece, a clear parts tree of headlight lens parts, the decal sheet, and a length of white nylon string to use for the tow cables.
The large instruction sheet is accordian folded into eight pages. It is DML's new style of doing their instruction sheets. It is full color exploded illustrations of the kit parts printed on glossy paper. You either have to hate or love the instructions this new way. This new format is vs the old way of giving us black and white line drawings on dull paper.
Page 1 of the instructions begins with a full color repeat of the box art. This is followed by parts tree drawings. There is no history of the vehicle provided. That is a shortcoming of a lot of DML armor kits.
Page 2 begins with some CAUTIONS about the kit, in six languages (including English). This is followed by assembly symbol explanations. The bottom of the page gives us the first two assembly steps.
Pages 3 through 7 give us the balance of a total of 21 assembly steps.
Page 8 is the marking and painting illustrations. Two options are shown:
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A T-34 on the Eastern Front 1941. This is shown in over-all green.
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A T-34 of the Moscow Motorized Rifle Division, July 1941. It has a wood brown wave pattern over the basic green.
The decal sheet only gives us two rows of white numerals (numbers 0 through 9). These are shown to be used on the turret sides, in whatever combination (or alone) we prefer. I would have appreciated some slogans. But, there are after-market sheets available to get these.
There are two, small, identical letter "A" parts trees. These hold: suspension arms, final transfer bulged housing covers, idler wheel axles, engine compartment door, and antenna base parts. (12 parts per tree).
Medium sized letter "B" tree holds: the turret roof, headlight housings, a access plate for the bottom of the hull, exhaust pipes, the transmission compartment access panel, some hinges, tow shackles, a storage box, the bow machine-gun, a rear hull plate, and the main gun trunion supports (21 parts).
Medium sized letter "C" tree holds: the hull top, storage boxes, a curved channel for the glacis plate, the main gun trunnion piece, gunner's seats for inside the turret, a turret hatch stop bar, three turret lift rings, the turret roof periscope, and final transfer flat cover plates (18 parts).
There are two medium sized letter "D" trees. These hold the road wheels and their center caps. (15 parts per tree).
Small letter "E" tree holds: upper decking tray-like parts, tie-down fittings, and inside turret hatch parts (18 parts).
There are two identical, medium sized, letter "F" trees. They hold: the drive wheels, idler wheels, tow cable ends, exhaust pipe housings, storage boxes etc. (23 parts per tree).
Large letter "G" tree holds: turret halves, the turret hatch, the bow machine-gun housing, the glacis plate, front hull plate, air intake panels, driver's hatch, turret roof fittings etc. (24 parts).
Medium sized letter "H" tree holds: the turret front, mantle, main gun barrel halves, breech parts, and a shovel etc. (18 parts).
Letter "I" part is the hull bottom piece.
Letter "J" tree is a small tree of clear parts. This holds the two headlight lenses. Nice move DML! I like this better than having to paint the solid lenses in some tank kits silver. That always looks like total crap!
There is no letter "K" tree.
There are three, identical, large letter "L" trees. These hold the individual track links. (63 parts per tree). Unfortunately, the instructions never tell us how many to use on each side of the tank. It will have to be trial and error.
There are two, identical, small letter "M" trees. They hold: tie-downs and some parts are indicated as being EXCESS (not used for this kit) on the instructions. (9 parts per tree).
There are two, identical, small letter "N" trees. These hold long trays with springs molded into them, that fit inside the hull as part of the suspension system. (4 parts per tree).
Letter "S" refers to the white nylon string, that is to be used for making the tow cables.
There are no crew figures provided in the kit. However, This kit and a kit of Soviet tank riders, also by DML, just arrived at my workbench. So the two will be combined later.
Conclusion
I think this is a great kit of the early version of the T-34. I would have prefered to have seen some slogans on the decal sheet and some brass PE screens to go in all the intakes on the rear deck of this tank. DML could also start to put some histories in their kits. I guess they figure "if you bought the kit, you should know all about it." Yeah, right! The parts were all crisply molded and flashfree. Accuracy? I'll leave that to the rivet counters out there, but it looks damn good to me. Highly recommended.
I bought my example at the local shop.
