T-34/76Model 1942/43, OT-34 & PT-34

Manufacturer: EasternExpress

T-34/76 Model 1942 Kit #72050; T-34/76 Model 1943 Kit # 72051; OT-34 Kit # 72052; PT-34Kit # 72053

These four kits areidentical, and are differentiated only by different boxes, decalsand instruction sheets. All the necessary parts for all versionsare included in each kit, thus they are treated to a combinedPreview. The exception is the PT-34, which was just recentlyreleased. This kit comes with the PT-3 mineroller, which is not included in the other three kits. I do not yet own the PT-34 kit,so I will add a scan of the mineroller parts when I get one.

Most of the parts are thesame as were included in the earlier SU-85/122 kits. All of theEastern Express (Samara) kits share the same lower hulls andtracks, and the rear portion of the upper hulls are the samealso. This means that they all pretty much have the samestrengths and weaknesses.

The Model 1942 kit doesnot follow the "Zaloga" naming system, but rather thesystem used by Ledwoch, i.e. it is a hexagonal turret without thecommander's cupola. The Model 1943 includes the cupola. The OT-34box shows the cupola being used, but you are free to use it ornot, as both versions could be fitted with the flame nozzle.

The kit represents the"soft-edge" style of the hexaganal turret. The loweredge of the turret has the rounded edge of the soft-edge version,but it should probably be rounded a little bit more. With alittle sheet styrene and putty, it should be fairly easy toconvert it to the "sharp-sdge" version.

The common sprue shared byeach of the T-34 kits includes all the optional parts needed forany version, so you can build any version from any one of theboxed kits. The flame nozzle is the only part unique to theOT-34, and can be used on practially any of the T-34 kits whichcan be found in the market today. The commander's cupola isincluded as a separate part, but the commander's hatch is moldedshut on the turret roof. The plastic is thinner in that area, andon the turret underside the spot is marked where you should cut ahole in the roof to accomodate the cupola. The cupola hatch isalso closed, but the cupola is not a solid lump of plastic, so itwould be possible to open this hatch, without having to constructan entirely new cupola from scratch. The periscope and hingedetail on the cupola hatch is really very good.

These kits are extremelyfinely molded, and are some of the best small scale modelsmarketed today. The detail is exceptionally well done, althoughthere are a few points about the kits I don't like. For example,all of the hatches are molded shut, with the exception of thedriver's view hatch. I imagine that someday soon, we will betreated to T-34 engines and interior detail sets from anafter-market company, but it will be difficult to open up thesemodels to show the interiors. According to the reference materiallisted in the T-34 article, these kits scale out very well to1/72nd. The hull width is spot-on, and the length is a tad bitshort, by about 1.5mm. Although if you line them up immediatelyadjacent to an ESCI or AER kit you can see a small difference inlength, it won't be noticeable if they are not right next to eachother.

The wheel axles are moldedonto the hull sides, like all T-34 kits, and are a little flat,but at least the spacing is correct. The spare fuel drum are bestreplaced with scratch-built or after-market items. All of theother details are very well done, such as the gun mantles,mufflers, siren and headlight. The driver's hatch has detailmolded onto the inside which is nice, but there is no interiordetail to the hull. The spare track links for on the hull frontlook fantastic, and are a nice touch, but unfortunately, you needto use them for the track runs around the wheels, becauseotherwise the tracks won't be long enough.

The wheels are the early,sold disk, rubber tire style, and although the hubs are notpronounced enough, I feel that these are better wheels than thoseincluded in the ESCI T-34/76 Model 1942 kit. They have very goodbolt detail around the rims, and the perforated rubber tires arevery good.

The tracks are the hardplastic, link and length style, and represent the finest T-34tracks available. The detail is magnificent, inside and out,although the hinges between each separate link need to be cleanedup a bit to make them fit with one another, a task which can bevery tedious. As I mentioned above, there are not enough tracklinks to make the track run long enough to fit around the wheels.I haven't counted the number of links included, because I don'tknow how many were on the real thing, so I don't know if it's amatter of simply not having enough links, or if the links are abit too narrow. Regardless, as I said above, you'll have toscavenge the spare links which are meant for the hull, to add tothe track runs to make them long enough.

The various decals sheetsare very comprehensive, each giving several different markingoptions. They are printed in single colors for the most part, soregistration is not a problem, and although the carrier film isspread over most of the sheet, it is very thin and with a mattesurface texture. They look like they should be pretty decentdecals, although I haven't tried them yet.

These are most excellentmodels, and I highly recommend them.