Work in Progress

Fujimi 1/76 KV-2

Posted by huib on 27 Jan 2022, 15:02

KV-2 Soviet heavy assault gun

During the Winter War in 1939-1940 the Soviet advance was continuously halted by fierce Finnish resistance in the Mannerheim line. Soviet Stavka decided the army needed a heavy assault gun with enough firepower to destroy bunkers and strongpoints, enough armour to safely approach enemy fortifications, and enough cross country mobilty to move off road in the densely forested Karelia.

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The result of this demand was a huge assault gun, combining the proven 152mm army howitzer with the heavily armoured and wide tracked hull of the brand new KV tank. To accommodate the howitzer a very high turret was needed, as the turret ring of the KV was too small for this. The first tests of this vehicle were succesful and in 1940 a first series of 20 vehicles was taken into production. To distinguish this vehicle from the KV heavy tank it was called 'KV with big turret' by the Soviets. Due to German nomenclature it became known in the West as the KV-2 tank, altough strictly spoken it is not a tank.

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Later in 1941 a second series of KV-2's was ordered. This seeries distiguishes itsself from the earlier version by a new simplified turret, that was both shorter and roomier, thanks to the new vertical front plate. This is the most produced version of the KV-2. More than 180 have been built.

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Although effective as a bunker buster, the KV-2 was unreliable, unmanagable and not suitable as a tank. Due to the heavy turret and gun, the vehicle was underpowered and prone to breakdown. The turret was so heavy, it could not turn if the tank was not fully horizontal. And the gun and sighting optics were not fit for tank to tank battle. More KV-2's broke down from mechanical failure, than from enemy fire. As a result production was not continued after the transfer of Soviet heavy industry to the Ural's from the autumn of 1941 on.

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Nevertheless some heroic stories are known from single KV-2's halting the progress of a full German division for hours, due to it's impregnable armour and devastating firepower. As the vehicle has an impressive size, bigger than anything the Germans owned themeselves in 1941, the vehicle is often photographed by curious, impressed and proud Germans.
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by huib on 27 Jan 2022, 15:17

Fujimi 1/76 KV-II Late Type
To build my KV-2 I'll use an old kit from Fujimi:

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A nice old kit from 1971, when Fujimi counted as a top branch in this scale. The nice boxart is incorrect as there are no pictures of KV-2's known with patriottic slogans painted on the turret like this one: Za Rodiny!=For the Motherland! This was a Soviet habit only later in the war.

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The contents of the box: a sprue with hullparts....

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.....a sprue with the hullsides and turretparts....

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....a sprue with a variety of small parts......

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....and a sprue with lots of wheels.

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And to finalise some course looking rubber band tracks, and a decalsheet with turretnumbers and patriottic slogans that can go to the sparebox directly. KV-2's normally had no markings at all!

First impression: lots of parts are a bit coursely moulded and lack detail. There are many extractor pin marks on conspicious places. So lots of lovely work coming on! Let's start!
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by huib on 27 Jan 2022, 15:27

Start of the build: the hull
As usual I start with the hull.

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Upper hull and mudguards.

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Three hatches are opened up by drilling and filing. The massive mudguardsupports are cut off.

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The hull constructed. Without the fenders you can see it is infact just a simple box.

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Improved the included hatch, and scratched three new hatches.

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In the middle of the ventilation grilles were very prominent extractor pin marks, making them useless. So I replaced them by homemades one from mesh. Looks even better!

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The mudguards were cut up and partly replaced by torn apart ones. New mudguard supports were scratched. Hatches and ventilation grilles glued in place as are all other small parts.

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Some filler was needed to remove sinkmarks and extractor pin marks on the exhausts and tolboxes.
I think the hull is ready now. Let's continue with the turret.
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by Peter on 28 Jan 2022, 19:24

Following Huib! Nice model again! :thumbup:
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by Minuteman on 28 Jan 2022, 20:12

I built one of these a while ago. They were 'rare beasts' at the front, even if their suspect mechanical characteristics allowed them to move that far, and my early 1941 Russian army could only justify one such model. From recollection the plastic was somewhat brittle, and the model was therefore a little tricky to construct...but I managed to make it 'work'. Good luck with your construction project!
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Minuteman  United Kingdom
 
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Posted by Wiking on 29 Jan 2022, 09:07

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"Two Friz! For that Monster we need two."
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Wiking  Germany
 
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Posted by huib on 31 Jan 2022, 13:58

I´m afraid your 75mm Pak 40 is a bit anachronistic, Erik.
You need:

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A brave and cold blooded infantryman.....

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....to stick a hollow charge on my KV-2.

But maybe I can help you out in the near future with my nect project:

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Enabling a safer long distance kill.
:mrgreen:
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by huib on 31 Jan 2022, 15:15

Building the turret
I continued with the huge turret.

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The seperate parts.

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The turret roof is plastered with ejector pin marks that have to be removed. On the turret sides the holes for the ladders were too large. So styreen rod was glued in.

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Turret sides glued together. Some filler was needed on the seams.

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The turret fully constructed and detailed: steps from iron wire, a ring around the muzzle, vision slits and pistol ports moved.

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The backdoor is opened, periscopelenses melted open, machinegun barrels replaced.

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Made two grenade hits on the turret side by drilling and melting.

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Turret and hull united.

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And now for some paint.
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by JueHue on 31 Jan 2022, 17:02

Ich kann ihre Probleme mit den unzulänglichkeiten der Modellfirmen verstehen. Ich leide auch darunter.selten kann ich ein Model OOB bauen. immer gibt es was zu scratchen. Alles toll gemacht.

I can understand your problems with the shortcomings of the model companies. I suffer from it too. Rarely can I build a model OOB. there is always something to scratch. Everything done great.

stay healty
Jürgen
Last edited by Peter on 01 Feb 2022, 09:30, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Translated from German
JueHue  Germany
 
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Posted by Peter on 01 Feb 2022, 09:31

Erik two grenates came on I see! :mrgreen:

Go on Huib! :thumbup:
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by huib on 01 Feb 2022, 20:50

Thanks, Jürgen and Peter!

Jürgen, to be honest I like these old imperfect and sometimes ill fitting kits. I prefer them above modern state-of-the-art ones. Not because the old ones are cheaper, but because there is more to model and more challenge, more creativity and more imagination. And for nostalgic reasons! Many of these kits are older than me.
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by huib on 01 Feb 2022, 20:57

Green and....green
Well, painting was not so complicated. A KV-2 is mainly.....green.

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I forgot to make a picture of the black primer. After that two layers of olive green.

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To bring some more life into this mass of green I painted all the hatches white on the inside, although in reality they would more likely have been green too. (Artistic freedom ;-) ) Furthermore black machineguns and exhausts. That's all the colour on this one.

But the good thing of monochrome vehicles is that they are very receptive for weathering, the next step.
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by Peter on 02 Feb 2022, 14:31

Go on young Huib! :-D
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Posted by MABO on 06 Feb 2022, 10:21

Minuteman wrote:I built one of these a while ago. They were 'rare beasts' at the front, even if their suspect mechanical characteristics allowed them to move that far, and my early 1941 Russian army could only justify one such model. From recollection the plastic was somewhat brittle, and the model was therefore a little tricky to construct...but I managed to make it 'work'. Good luck with your construction project!


Please show us!! :thumbup:
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MABO  Europe
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Posted by MABO on 06 Feb 2022, 10:30

I think I did not asked in the past, or I forgot the answer: What do you use as a filler? I had tried several diffrent options and I am more or less convinced. But on the other hand I painted the already mentioned "more advanced sets" which did not need so much work to super the surplus plastic. And I don't have that much idea about all the details either. So I hope the modelling companies do a reasonably good job. In general, for me, every new vehicle or aircraft, if I ever build one, is always an attempt to find a good way to a decent result. That's why you are a real hero of details for me and your projects are so interesting.
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Posted by huib on 08 Feb 2022, 12:45

Thank you, guys!

MABO wrote:I think I did not asked in the past, or I forgot the answer: What do you use as a filler? I .

Hi MABO, I use normal modelling filler, for example from Revell or Humbrol. And recently I bought a big but relatively much cheaper tube of filler for cars at my local DIY shop. It works perfect too.
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by huib on 08 Feb 2022, 13:31

Weathering
The best phase in building tanks in my opinion.

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After two layers of gloss varnish, I sloshed a filter of sand coloured oilpaint over the model. I hope this will suggest a dirty and dusty look.

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When the filter was dry I added a lot of mud in three shades of light brown and khaki on the bottom and around the wheels and mudguards.

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The filter and the mud were covered with an extra layer of gloss cote. Then a pointwash, using dark brown oilpaint was added.

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The next step was drybrushing using light green and light sand colours.

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The underside after all these treatments.

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The huge turret sides are very receptive for rainstreaks. First a few dots of white oilpaint.

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The white oilpaint faded into streaking, using a wide flat brush.

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A dot of red brown oilpaint for rust.

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And made into streaks of rust.

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The model finished with matt vernish.

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The turret is on for the looks.

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And now on with the wheels!
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huib  Netherlands
 
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Posted by Peter on 08 Feb 2022, 19:12

Real nice progress Huib! :thumbup:

And now on the road! (wheels!) ;-)
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Peter  Belgium

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Posted by MABO on 08 Feb 2022, 21:02

Thanks for this wip!
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Posted by dombom on 08 Feb 2022, 21:26

Ah, that's another great tank project I gonna follow with interest.
Always have been a big fan of the KV1 and KV2 tanks.
Waiting for the final results :-)
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