#84815 Russia KV “Big Turret”

This kit represents one of the 20 series production KV s bolshoiy bashniy completed with the MT-1 turret in July/August 1940. The kit is a 1/48 scale re-rendering of Trumpeter kit #00311, and many comments made for that kit are equally applicable to this kit.

The kit provides an early hull with creased curved rear overhang, though the regular curved rear overhang is also included in the box.  The kit also provides the initial pattern two-part resilient road wheels with eight cooling vents on the inner discs, cast rubber rimmed return rollers with reinforcing ribs and early drive sprockets with sixteen hub retaining bolts, all of which are correct for this variant.

Fender stowage consists of three stowage boxes for the number 7, 8 and 9 positions.  The kit parts are actually the revised boxes introduced in late January 1941 but the instructions direct you to carve or sand away the handles to turn them into the correct earlier pattern boxes.  However, the instructions do not mention that you must also remove the reinforced ends from the lids of the boxes to correctly represent the initial pattern boxes.

The crew hatch and transmission maintenance hatches are of the correct early pattern with curved edges.  The engine access hatch is the correct early domed pattern with a single lifting eye, but has an inspection port molded in the center of the dome, which must be removed since the KV s bolshoiy bashniy did not carry the inspection port, which was not introduced until the end of 1941 when the engine cooling system was revised.

Like its Trumpeter “big brother”, this kit omits the vision port and pistol port covers from the front face of the MT-1 turret.  The apertures are there but the covers are missing.  These can be fabricated from small discs of styrene.

The 152mm gun barrel provided in the kit is too short by approximately 2mm.  Purists will wish to replace the barrel with an after-market item from Hauler, though the discrepancy is difficult to detect with the naked eye.