T-34/85

Manufacturer: EasternExpress (Kit #72055)

by Augusto Versiani

Some years ago was almostimpossible to get a decent T-34 in 1/72 scale. The only optionswere the elusive Alby and out of production ESCI. Fortunatelytoday we have the opposite problem. Nowadays Is hard to choosewhich T-34 to build from the many offers: Italeri (former ESCI)Eastern Express, Revell, AER and others announced to come.

I received the sample as agift from a old friend from Samara (Tanks Ivan Podgornov); so Istarted my first 1/72 T-34.

I must to know about thesoft plastic characteristic from western injected kits (PST kitspast experience), but as you can see from the photos, I had someproblems when I removed the upper hull from the sprues. The upperhull and the under side have some misalignment, so I had tocorrect this problem with some styrene strips. The attachingpoint for the wheels were another problem. Being only shallowholes the joint is week and could also cause some misalignmentamong them. I had to open the holes on the front idler wheel asthey are molded close.

The problem that I was notexpecting was the track assembly. On the sprue they look great;so I thought that I could be careless with them. I was wrong.Although they are really nice, you must spend some time cleaningand aligning them in order to achieve a good result. I must admitthat the result was poor. So I must take extra care on my nexttry on T-34 waiting on my closet. Part of the problem was causedby myself. I usually use white glue to attach hard plastictracks, which give me pretty much time to correct errors. Thistime I used plastic cement to save time and it did not work well.

You must pay attention tothe gun assembly too, as the gun barrel must pass trough themantelet from behind. I usually only put the barrel on the finalsteps of the assembly, so it is easy to forget it.

I added the molding markson the turret using cotton thread and white glue, but I thinkthat the result was slightly out of scale. I must find anotherway to do that.

The rear grills deservedsome photeched replacement, but I am not prepared to buy anexpensive fret only for the grills (if some cleaver manufacturerlaunched a set called: grills for Tiger, Panthers and T-34 with,let me say, five grills of each, I will buy it). So I used someblack oil wash to improve them.

The braces where made ofstaples, steel wire, copper wire and even the plastic ones thatcome with the kit. I gained some experience here.

The only parts of theoriginal kit that must be substituted are the external fueltanks, due to their lack of detail. I substituted them with theones that came from the PST KV-1 which, with some work, looknice. The fuel tanks ended assembled too far from the rear deck.Then I opted to remove them leaving only one. The finalappearance was surprisingly better even with the poorly detailedsupports.

The kit was finished withTamiya acrylics (XF-27) and some pastel chalks. The decals comefrom the AER T34/85 kit. The slogan depicts the name BogdanHmelnitskiy, a national Ukraine hero of XVII century (tanks againto Ivan for the translation).

Conclusion: Easy to build,resulting in a nice T 34/85. Recommended for every one.

Ps. Many tanks to myfriend Ricardo Haddad for helping me with the grammar and forsuggestions to improve the text.