Trumpeter 1/16th T-34/76 By Kent Kirkpatrick

History

The Soviet T34/76 was arguably the most effective tank design during World War II. Its simple design made it easy to mass-produce in large numbers. From its first combat experience in the summer of 1941 until the end of the war it served its army remarkably well. It took the Germans to develop the Panther to counter the T34. The Germans paid dearly for their technically complex designs versus the small robust simplicity of its Russian rival. The T34 owes a lot of its basic design to the BT family of tanks, which utilized the American Christie suspension. The chassis of the T34 went on to serve as the basis for other variants of this successful tank design.

The Kit

As an armor modeler who builds primarily in 1/72 scale, to say this kit is big is an understatement. Its HUGE!! Colorful artwork covers the suitcase-sized box. It makes a good painting reference. Inside the box is a twenty (20) page instruction booklet (Chinese/English), color template poster, seven (7) sealed bags with two (2) part sprues each and three boxes of differing size containing upper/lower hull, road wheels/tires, and track links. This kit also includes two sprues of photo-etch, metal suspension springs, poly caps, brass wire and a head light lense.

The sprues are molded in olive green or light gray soft styrene. This actually makes it easier to search for interior parts, as they are light gray. There are so many parts that is apparent Trumpeter did their homework when they kitted this subject. This is a case study for the factory assembly of a complete T34/76. The sub-assembly diagrams in the instruction booklet are very easy to read and the graphics are very good. A legend of symbols for filing, gluing, cutting, etc. guides you through assembly. Individual track links are molded in black styrene. The eight (8) road wheel tires are made of a vinyl rubber similar to the tires in car kits. Most of the photo-etch parts are for the MG magazines and look somewhat complex to assemble. Overall detail is very good and accurate but then again it should be in this scale. There are parts with casted and rolled steel texture that a builder would want to dry brush to enhance the detail of the finished model.

Flash and sink marks are very minimal. The decals are thin but there are only two (2) of them, slogans. Sorry, there is no translation for these. Due to the size of this model there are some pronounced injector pin indentations but fortunately they don't appear to interfere visually with the finished model.

Several things puzzle me about this kit. Why isn't the turret roof separate from the turret so the builder can show off the interior? Why are the cable ends molded in two (2) halves not one whole piece? No other markings on the decal sheet, how about a red star?

Conclusion

I applaud Trumpeter's molding technology. The overall quality of this kit is excellent and highly recommended. Due to the amount of parts I would suggest an experienced modeler would find this an enjoyable challenge to build. From a visual inspection, I give this kit two thumbs up from scale-effect molding. Stay tuned for a 'tag team' build of this T34/76 by me and a couple of my esteemed colleagues. I would like to thank Trumpeter for the review kit.