Soviet Medium Tank T-34/85 - Project CLOSED!

[Rubicon Models]

With our multi-tasking crew on high gear, we have make changes to our T-34/76 and upgraded it into a T-34/85.

A comparison with the T-34/76 and the T-34/85:


An closeup look on the new T-34/85:


New features include:
- A new kit, not a reworked or patched up job!
- A brand new turret with 2 mantlet choices.
- A new road wheel set for the T-34/85, not found on the T-34/76.
- A new hull for the T-34/85.
- Also a 3 sprue kit with the same Rubicon quality!

On the drawing board... Enjoy!

[jamingui]

Looks excellent, nice touch to add the mantlet for the D-5 Gun.

[Rubicon Models]

Here is a closeup view of the new road wheel set found on the T-34/85:




DO YOU KNOW...

One of the reasons why you cannot simply put a T-34/85 turret on top of a T-34/76 hull is because it has a bigger turret "ring"; and because of the bigger radius of this ring, the center of this ring (on the hull) had to be moved forward so that they will fit together during factory assembly.

C&C welcome!

[ripley]

Looks great . Really bummed  that I've got 5 of the BA 85s . Nice to see both the 2 piece and later 1 piece commanders hatch . Are you going to include the early dish rim style road wheels ( found in your T-34 kit ) as many D-5 gunned tanks had those ? Also , how about giving us kit bashers the option by including rounded front fender pieces as again most D-5 tanks had these .

[Rubicon Models]

Looks great . Really bummed  that I've got 5 of the BA 85s . Nice to see both the 2 piece and later 1 piece commanders hatch . Are you going to include the early dish rim style road wheels ( found in your T-34 kit ) as many D-5 gunned tanks had those ? Also , how about giving us kit bashers the option by including rounded front fender pieces as again most D-5 tanks had these .

The 85s won't be available until Q1/15, by that time, your old 85s should retired! 

The 85 will only have the late war wheels as the 76s already had two sets of road wheels (and we assume people who will buy our 85s "would have" bought our 76s )... they are all interchangeable, so not going to put them in this kit; BUT we are going to include some surprises IF there are enough sprue space left!

The round front fender will require some extra work and a whole new hull top... don't think that will happen.  However, as a kit basher, you probably can work your magic out with our 76 & 85 kits!

[Rubicon Models]

Now at the final phase of the eDrawing for the T-34/85 soviet tank...






While flipping through our reference material for the T-34, it seems like there is a "missing link" between our T-34/76 Model 40//41/42 and the T-34/85 Model 43/44... and we've found it!!



The T-34/76 Model 43 turret was left out because of limited sprue space on our T-34/76 Early & Mid War kit.  May be someday when we release a limited edition version will include it in our release...

[Pinky]

The T-34/85 looks great.  I wonder though - given that your initial range of Panzers are all mid to late war, why didn't you release the T-34/76 model 43 instead of the earlier versions?  Your T-34 looks very nice, but surely a mid-war version would have been more popular?  Or you could have included the model 43 turret instead of 2 early turrets.

[Rubicon Models]

The T-34/85 looks great.  I wonder though - given that your initial range of Panzers are all mid to late war, why didn't you release the T-34/76 model 43 instead of the earlier versions?  Your T-34 looks very nice, but surely a mid-war version would have been more popular?  Or you could have included the model 43 turret instead of 2 early turrets.

It was a struggle when we decided to drop the 1943 turret.  Our argument is that if we omitted the one of the earlier 40/41 turrets, there will be no early war representation of the T-34/76.  Surely (history-wise) some early T-34/76s will still be around and survived well into 1943...  We are sure the T-34/76 Model 1943 turret will show up somewhere along our product releases!

[Rubicon Models]

Here is an update on the T-34/85 with the 3D prototype done!

The new hull plus the other parts displayed below...







C&C welcome!

[ripley]

Looks real good . If you had yours out 6 months ago I wouldn't have had to convert a couple of my Warlord T-34 / 85s to the early type .    All I can see you've missed is the vision slit above the loaders pistol port ( right turret side ) . The gunner didn't have one as his periscope  was further back and could turn to fully face the left , the loader with his periscope further forward ,  was sort of jammed in by the gun breach , hence the slit .

[Pinky]

This is looking good!  I think the only issue is some of the detailing on the turret - the ventilation dome was further forward on the earlier version (it may be that the photo is misleading and you've captured this point).  I also think there was only one dome on the 1943 version, not the paired domes depicted, although that's pretty minor.

The 1943 version didn't have squared-off mudguards, but I don't think anyone is going to be too bothered about that either.

[ripley]

Your right Pinky , the dome should almost touch the commander's cupola . I totally missed that . All my books show double fan domes on the 1943 pattern T-34 / 85 . A couple of factories started splitting the domes , one front , one rear on the 1945 model .

[Rubicon Models]

Ripley: “All I can see you've missed is the vision slit above the loaders pistol port (right turret side).  The gunner didn't have one as his periscope was further back and could turn to fully face the left, the loader with his periscope further forward, was sort of jammed in by the gun breach, hence the slit.”

Can you please show us where exactly?  Thanks!

Pinky: “I think the only issue is some of the detailing on the turret - the ventilation dome was further forward on the earlier version (it may be that the photo is misleading and you've captured this point).  I also think there was only one dome on the 1943 version, not the paired domes depicted, although that's pretty minor.  The 1943 version didn't have squared-off mudguards, but I don't think anyone is going to be too bothered about that either.”

Has attached new top view of the two turret tops, we did noticed the some variations, but can you please show us the exact position?  Appreciated that!  BTW, we are using a Model 44 as a base reference, hence the squared-off mudguards.

Ripley: “the dome should almost touch the commander's cupola.  I totally missed that.  All my books show double fan domes on the 1943 pattern T-34/85.  A couple of factories started splitting the domes, one front, one rear on the 1945 model.”

---

Enclosing a top view of the two turret tops for further discussion:


Also a reference drawing of the turret:


We are using references based on a T-34/85 Model 1944, and then add and minus some features to give customers two turret top choices; some of the decisions is also based on machine tooling too!  But if there are some very significant overlook, please point it out.

[Pinky]

I did some more digging, and it seems that the single ventilator probably only appeared on the prototypes.

I understand there is a limit to what you can include in the it, and it makes sense to provide the squared-off mudguards.  The vision slit that Ripley mentioned is probably rather difficult to include, given that you've provided the upper half of the turret in one piece.

Here is a photo of the 1943 version (so-called, although it was produced in early 1944) - it's the clearest one I could find that shows the position of the ventilators.

[Rubicon Models]

I understand there is a limit to what you can include in the it, and it makes sense to provide the squared-off mudguards.  The vision slit that Ripley mentioned is probably rather difficult to include, given that you've provided the upper half of the turret in one piece.

Here is a photo of the 1943 version (so-called, although it was produced in early 1944) - it's the clearest one I could find that shows the position of the ventilators.

We also have checked on the vision slit, some versions of the tank have it and some don't.  On the production side, because it is on top of the pistol port, it is difficult to put one there based on our current design.

We probably will adjust the position of the ventilators on the D5 mantlet based on Ripley and your comments.  Thanks again!