German KV-1 with Pz. IV tracks - Part 04 -

A short update on my KV-1.

I managed to put some color to the engine compartment. In the final model only the middle section will be seen.
The final weathering and wiring is still missing, I think I will go ahead first and come back once I’m sure about the overall weathering of the vehicle.

Hope you like it,
Manuel

German KV-1 with Pz. IV tracks - Part 03 -

During the last weeks I started to add some color to the interior.
I'm not sure about the result so far, so any suggestions are highly appreciated.

The turret interior will just be visible trough the main hatch, so I tried to work with a lot of contrast.
Still some tweaks needed, I will add some smaller oil stains and even more dirt and some crew belongings to the interior as well.

Here we go:






Here you can see some of the still missing interior parts:




Hope you like it,
expect the next update soon…

Cheers Manuel

German KV-1 with Pz. IV tracks - Part 02 -

Hi guys,

please excuse my long abstinence from modeling.
Lots of thing changed during the last month, I moved to new city and started a new job.

After these busy days I finally got back to my workbench. Here you can see the current status of the KV.

There are still some parts missing, like the wall between the engine and the transmission, and various wires and tubes.
I will add those details after I painted the main modules. This is the first time that I’m painting an engine so I’m really curious if I get all that metal shades right.

But first the parts, here we go:




The green parts are from the Revell KV kit, the bright parts are scratch and the resin ones are from the old Verlinden KV engine set. The transmission and brake parts are from AFV’s T-34. (All details are fixed with Blue-tac).

Here you can see the Verlinden engine with some added details. This detail set was made for the Tamiya kit and has some major issues. The KV and T-34 engines were V 12 engines, Verlinden shows just 10. There are also a lot of things missing, and because you won’t see much of these issues I didn’t correct everything. I should also mention that it doesn’t represent a full engine, as you see in the picture it’s just the upper section, without any real dept. To bring it to right position and still keep it removable I simply glued some plastic tubes at the bottom of the element.





Now it’s time for color.

As my airbrush collected dust over the last two month I picked an old model from my shelf. I build this SU-100 about one year ago but never painted it. Because of the green main color it was the perfect choice to get back into business. The last two days I applied the main color and played around with oils. My main inspiration was a captured SU-100 from the 4.Pz.Div. in 1945.




I tried several new things with this model. It was the first time that I aimed for a rich and colorful base coat and so far I used exclusively oils for the chipping and weathering.




It’s far from being finished and I tried the new techniques only at some spots, like the engine deck.




Till now I had lots of fun with this beast and I will try to finish it during the next construction phase on the KV.


It’s good to smell glue and thinner again.
Thanks for watching!
Manuel

German KV-1 with Pz. IV tracks - Part 01 -

Hi all and welcome to my next project!


When I discovered the picture of this KV-1, I knew I had to build it.
During my research phase I came across two other pictures showing the same tank.

This is the subject:

(For discussion only, found online)

The story behind this tank is somehow unclear.
It's an early KV, captured and used by the Germans, and it seems like the Germans tried to pull it to a new position
after the tank received some serious damage.

There are rumors on some websites that this tank was used as mobile bunker,
I've never heard that tanks were used in such manner, and the flat terrain would also make this tank an easy target.


So let's start gluing some plastic.
As base I grabbed the Trumpeter KV-1 small turret kit, rebuild the weld seams and cleaned the hull (in and outside).

It's really hard to find good interior shots of KV tanks, but my main reference for the interior are the pictures from the Tankograd books,
pictures of destroyed KV found in the internet and some pictures from the vehicle found in the Neva river.

I'm not aiming for a 100% authentic interior, therefore the available reference material is not enough.

Starting with the turret I build several interior details. There are still some things missing, the seats, some electric controls,...

Here you can see the carrier for the DT magazines.
Sorry for the bad pictures, I think I will change the background for the next ones:




I will not go crazy with detailing the hull interior as almost nothing will be seen.
To fill the empty space I rebuild the front fuel tanks and the cross beam which connects the hull sides.




I also started to build some optical instruments, the main gun and mg ball mount:




Still a lot to do, but till now I enjoyed every second. Here an overall shot, the parts are just dry fitted.




Hope you like it, stay tuned!
Cheers
Manuel

Trumpeter KV-1 (Model 1942) Heavy Cast Turret Tank

After a few month break from modeling I wanted a simple kit to get back to business.

Trumpeters KV-1 was almost perfect for this. A quick build and beside Friul tracks, some Aber PE for the meshes and a quick rework of the cast texture on the turret I kept it out of the box. Because I didn't liked the empty motor deck I added a Maxim machine gun from Tank and a tarpaulin made from Magicsculpt.
Here the final tank, primed with Tamiya superfine straight from the can. Also note that I changed the layout of the tarpaulin during the project.Acrylic basecoat and kit Decals added, using Hobby Color FS 34102After that two thin layers of hairspray, followed by Lifecolor matt white. A damp brush, toothpick and an old toothbrush were used to get rid of the white paint. Lifecolor Matte White was also used for the first mapping.Added washes made from oil and MIGs ready to use filters. Different colored pigments were used to build up the mud. I call this one complete, although I could still spend some more hours on tweaking smaller things.

But I want to move on to my next already started project.

Hope you like it,

Manuel