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In-Box Review
135
T34/85

by: DMD [ DMD ]

Blessed with thick armor, a powerful gun and excellent mobility, the Russian T34 was know as an armor masterpiece during the WW2 area. His first appearance at the front was in June 1942 and immediately became a threat to the german forces. This led the germans into improving the capabilities of their existing type III and IV tanks, and to develop the powerfull Tiger and Panther tanks.
After analyzing a captured Tiger 1 tank, the russians recognized that their existing T34 required improvents in order to counter this threat, and started a modification program
Engineer Krylov’s improvements proposal of incorporating a much more powerfull long barreled 85 mm main gun in a new enlarged cast turret that could accommodate 3 men, was adopted and designated the T34/85
This version entered production in january 1944 and assisted, a long with the other allied countries, to the falle of the Third Reich. It went on serve in the Korean and vietnam conflicts as well as the middle east war.
The T34/85 has been used by the majority of Soviet satelites and third world countries after WW2. It was also produced by Poland, Yugoslavia and the former Czechoslovakia. This tank is still service by some nations.

SIC tamiya

 

inbox: model/figures
This tamiya tank is a re-release dated to the stoneage of modelling but with the a new set of 12 russian assault soldiers.
To start with the soldiers in common they are well done, uniform details are sufficient, poses are natural and they have some good facial expressions.
For more information you can read my review about this kit in the figure section.

The T34/85 from tamiya is really easy to bild, only 8 steps are required to finish this nice looking tank. As I told in the introductions this is a re-release so it’s missing a lot of details. In this set you only have 3 big sprues who are dated around 1976 and where used to finish there older T34 series.

While contruction this kit I found not much errors, only a big lack of details and some seem lines from the gaz tanks wich need a lot of sanding.

So is it worth spending your money on this tank ? ? ?

To be honest, the Zvezda and Dml T34/85 are in my opinion more detailled and more up to date. That’s a fact who even I can’t denie. But this tank is not that bad actually and the quality is garanteed. While Zvezda is a good brand but could have some errors in it
The Zvezda tank in common is inexpensiver then the Tamiya one (with figures) while Dml is expensive but with a good quality
I’ve heard that tamiya is also releasing the T34/85 tank without the russian assault infantery set and would be around 18-20 euro.

So it’s a chose you all have to make for yourself

 

Tracks
The tracks where a real dissapointement to me and i'm sure also for starters, the don’t look realisted even with some details, that's there main problem . So if you can buy seperated tracks for a T34/85 , just do it because those plastic tracks are rubbish and they would give you a bad feeling aftherwards.

 

Decals
Tamiya provides us with a wide range of decals wich pin pointed a lot of locations. Expl :
April 1945 Berlin ( 2 sets)
Jan. 1945 eastern Prussia
July 1944 Minsk
Korea 1950

Also some other decals are included with some russian texts on it, wich I can’t locate because of my lack of knowledge of the japanese language

note: the decals are thick old tamiya style decals so beware of it

 

how to paint ?
russian tanks were spray painted Dark green (XF-61 tamiya ) overall as their standard scheme. camouflage painting was seldom seen, but some units did apply a reddish brown on the green base. during the winter period some tanks wore a comouflage of white paint, but did never cover the base color.

SUMMARY
  FIGURES:70%
  TRACKS:40%
  DECALS:60%
Percentage Rating
60%
  Scale: 1:35
  Mfg. ID: 35138
  Suggested Retail: 35 euro
  PUBLISHED: Jul 20, 2003
  NATIONALITY: United States
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 72.67%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 83.24%

About DMD (Dmd)
FROM: OOST-VLAANDEREN, BELGIUM

Copyright ©2021 text by DMD [ DMD ]. All rights reserved.


   
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