T-34/85

Manufacturer: Revell AG.(Kit #03130)

I am not going to delve ingreat detail into this kit, since Stephen Brezinski did soadmirably in his T-34-85 Turret article. I will also soon updatethe T-34 Comparison article to include this kit in theside-by-side comparison scans (check back in a week or so).

As with all of Revell'snewest kits, this one is a superb example of model engineering,with only a few minor deficiencies, those being the closeddriver's hatch and no crew figures. The molding quality isfirst-rate, with no flash or sinkmarks on my sample, and thedetail is very crisply molded. (This paragraph was taken verbatimfrom the Leclerc Preview, which shows how consistent Revell is.)

I am planning a simpleconversion with the Eastern Express T-34-85 kit. The EE kit hasan open hatch for the driver, but closed turret hatches. It willbe a simple matter to swap turrets to build one T-34 completelybuttoned, and the other one opened up with crew figures (notincluded in either kit).

The markings are simple,giving two options, and for once, they are printed in register.Of course, you may ask yourself how could they possibly printsingle color decals out of register, but I was beginning to thinkthat they would find a way.

According to all reports Ihave heard about this model, it builds into a fantastic replicaof this famous tank with little hassle. However, there appears tobe a problem with the tracks being just a little bit too short.Several people reported the same problem, so apparently it is adesign flaw in the kit. There are several etched brass track setsavailable from PART, which would take care of this problem, aswell as numerous other brass detail sets from PART and Extratech.