Model Forum / General / Models / March 2008

Kit Review: cyber-hobby.com 1/35 scale Kit No. 04 (Dragon Models
Limited 1/35 scale '39-'45 series Kit No. 6452);  T-34 /76 No. 112
Factory "Krasnoe Sormovo" Early Production 3-in-1 Kit; 781 parts (578
in grey styrene, 180 "Magic Track" links, 119 etched brass, 2 clear
styrene, 1 twisted steel wire, 1 turned aluminum barrel); price US
$39.95 via Dragon USA Online

Advantages: much better research on this kit that the STZ Model 1942;
plentiful options and choices; nicely done "slide molded" turret

Disadvantages: some quirks in their research; "three in one" is
deceptive in the case of this vehicle!

Rating: Highly Recommended

Recommendation: for all Soviet and "34" fans

    The Soviets always tried to come up with the lowest common
denominator for mass production: pick one good design, and then put
them into mass production at two or more factories. As a result, they
rarely had a singularly outstanding weapons system, but they had very
good ones and a lot of them. Such was the case with the T-34, which
had been picked just prior to WWII to be the standard medium tank.

    The "home" or lead factory was Factory No. 183 in Kharkov, and it was
to be followed by Factory No. 112 - "Krasnoye Sormovo" - and then the
Stalingrad Tractor Factory (STZ) in getting the tank into mass
production of more than 2,000 tanks per year.After the war began, on
25 August 1941 Factory No. 183 sent five knocked-down T-34 Model 1941
tanks to Factory No. 112 along with nine machine tool jigs and five
"kontovateli" - a very large barrel-hoop shaped rotating jig for
welding the hull components together. As Factory No. 112 had been
working on partially knocked-down T-34s for some time, they were
prepared and had two of the hulls finished by 1 September. In that
month they received another 35 knock-downs from the armor factory at
Mariupol' and made 48 more on their own.

    Due to the fact that the armor plate they were manufacturing was
quite hard and edge welding was not as reliable as needed, they
switched to a "notched" construction design to fit the glacis plate to
the hull sides. Prototypes were finished by 25 October and then full
scale production commenced. Documentation was provided to the STZ;
they later adopted a similar style but used it for both the glacis and
upper stern plate.

    Other than the "notched" assembly at the front, the hull "signatures"
of Factory No. 112 tanks were the large hinges at the rear for both
the air exhaust grille and the entire upper plate. The upper rear
plate also introduced a round access hatch held in place by four
bolts; later this was modified to a larger one held in place by seven
bolts but offset slightly to the right. The turrets generally matched
the Factory No. 183 designs (e.g. with or without the rear bolted
hatch for gun barrel replacement access; without it the turret had to
lifted by a crane and tilted forward to get to the barrel) but with
some minor changes in form and shape.

    The other item that distinguished Factory No. 112 tanks from the
rest of the T-34s were the fact they sported more handrails for
"tankoviy desant" riders than any others - up to four on the turret
and 14 on the hull!

    Factory No. 112 built this design well into early 1943 before they
changed to the six-sided "Gayka" turret design. I haven't found the
changeover point yet but there were probably more than 2,900 of these
tanks built.

    So far cyber-hobby.com has been hit or miss with their "boutique"
versions of the T-34 series tanks; their STZ Model 1941 was nicely
done but the STZ Model 1942 was riddled with simple and annoying
errors, most of which related to the hull. Happily, this kit is mostly
a "hit" as they got much more right with it.

    The kit adds two new sprues to the tried and true DML T-34 Model 1941
molds - a new sprue with two stern plates and two sets of rear air
exhaust grilles - and a new turret sprue with a lovely new one-piece
turret shell for the cast turret. They also provide the very early
model T-34 Model 1940 tracks on sprues but then happily add the "Magic
Track" links from their premium T-34-85 kits. Since many Russian
sources attribute this design to Krasnoye Sormovo, and it was the one
used on nearly all of their tanks, it is more accurate for any of the
tanks produced after October 1941, which this kit represents.

    The old parts provided with this kit are tried and true, and have
generally been well received by modelers. Suffice it to say there are
still the usual quirks that must be dealt with, such as the late-model
double bump stop on the lower hull molding; as it can't really be seen
when the model is assembled, it is not right but pretty much a "so
what" correction. The front glacis plate for this kit (P-1) has the
"notches" molded in place (unlike the STZ 42 hull which had them
molded in place on it) and as such care will have to be taken in
installing it to the hull body. The kit also provides the "bars" that
were welded to the hull to protect the turret race.

    Both of the Factory No. 112 hull stern plates and access hatches are
included, but only the later one has the wide hinges on the air
exhaust grille. The hatch is missing the top bolt, but that should be
easy to replace from one of the other two stern plates (one of which
is not used at all). Note that there is no verifiable data on what
constitutes a "gasser" or M-17T powered T-34. The early grille which
cyber-hobby.com calls the "gasoline" grille is really the pre-June
1941 design which had a taillight ensconced in the notch; later ones
either did not use one or provided only a wire and fitting for a
detachable one.

    The turret is a nicely done new sprue (T) which includes a one-piece
shell (thanks to "slide molding" for the Factory No. 112 type
castings. Note that the bead around the front of the shell is weld
bead and NOT a seam to remove! Also note that the turret comes with
two hatches, of which the second one (T-3) is the more common hatch
for this tank according to the "Top to Bottom" books. The model comes
with an early type PT periscopic sight/viewer without the more popular
"acorn" shaped cover found on T-34s. The modeler has a choice of three
barrels for the F-34 gun: two-piece, one-piece with hollow bore from
"slide" molding, and a turned aluminum one. A gun breech and partial
interior to the turret are provided as with all of the DML T-34 kits.

    All 16 hand rails for the tank are included as well as at least two
spares or alternate ones.

    This project is listed as supervised by Hirohisa Takada, with
drawings from Minoru Igarashi and the Dragon design team; technical
assistance was provided by Nick Cortese.

    The model doesn't really come with specific finishing directions
other than to paint the tank Soviet armor green (shade 4BO to the
Soviets) and only provides specific info for one tank, "From the
Workers of Kazakhstan" with a "number jungle" to create specific
vehicles. Use of two or three digit numbers at this stage of the war
was common, but most of the latter only started with 1, 2, 3 or
occasionally 4 and the rest never went much above 22 or so as tank
companies were only 7 to 10 tanks in size and battalions 22 to 31. The
sheet is from Cartograf and provides three different styles of
numbers.

    Overall, this is a much better kit than the STZ 42 and possibly the
best of the DML T-34s so far.

    Thanks to Freddie Leung for the review sample.

Cookie Sewell