Kv-2

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by B-Manic

Took the word right out of my mouth shrike. More than a few tank crews were taken out with no apparent damage to the tank. In fact there were rounds designed specifically to cause spalling.

HESH (High explosive squash head) rounds are a bit later than the KV-2s. I'm not sure how Russian armour plate was made but face hardened armour is pretty resistant to spalling. Judging by the accounts of KV-1s in action in 1941 Wehrmacht tank guns were mostly incapable of penetrating the KV armour. There is an account of KV-1s ambushing Panzers in front of Leningrad where one of the KVs received 135 hits - the KV withdrew under its own power with zero injuries to the crew. The KVs were designed with a so-called "balanced" armour scheme where the rear and sides of the tank were quite heavily armoured.

Regards,

Charlie

[Stev0]

I'm betting that retreating tank crew had next to no hearing for days though.

[shrike]

Well, the siege of Leningrad did have it's own local definition of 'combat effectiveness'<g>

A great advantage of the simplicity of Soviet armour of the time. Probably not a lot of stuff inside the turret that could be shaken loose or broken up by the shocks. I seriously doubt a modern MBT could take that without all of the sophisticated systems giving up the ghost.

I imagine after that the crew was either shocked to an unheard of state or convinced of their own godhood

[CharlieC]

Time for an update....

The turret is pretty much finished - no nasty surprises adding the detail to the turret roof.

The roadwheels were moderately painful to build - lots of work punching out the holes in the wheels. I think the design could have been better in locating the central web of each roadwheel in the center of the tire. The attachment of the roadwheel axle to the swing arms is pretty weak - replaced it with a bamboo skewer axle. The attachment of the swing arm to the hull is a simple card cylinder - replaced this with solid disks. Also drilled and pinned the swing arms with bamboo pins into the hull - the weight of the wheel plus swing arm was enough the delaminate the joint at the hull.

Regards,

Charlie

[alex_horsh]

Hello!
My name is Alex Horsh. I the author of this model. I like your assembly.
Here my assembly lays:
http://www.cardarmy.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1998

[Don Boose]

It looks great, Charlie -- the huge turret makes the road wheels look rather small, especially in the pre-tread installation configuration.

Thanks for showing us your assembly of the model, Alex.

Don

[CharlieC]

The model probably won't look right until the mudguards and the rest of the running gear go on. I checked the roadwheel diameter against a scale drawing and it seems correct.

I figure I must be on the right track so far with this model if the designer is giving it a tick.

Unfortunately there aren't many surviving KVs so it's hard to find images of some of the details.

Regards,

Charlie

[John Griffin]

That looks great Charlie, especially the rear turret door and hinges. The hinges must be pretty large (?) in order for you to form them like that. I can't belive how fast you are at it.

[CharlieC]

The KV-2 rear door was a pretty massive thing - must have weighed something like 200 kg. Comparing my model to the original I think my hinges might be a bit oversize - but I can live with that. The attached image is a detail from a jagdtiger.de image. This image shows the rear door pretty well although the displayed KV-2 has lost the shield over the machine gun and gained a lifting hook on the rear edge of the turret.

Regards,

Charlie

[Don Boose]

Charlie --

I'm sure the model is right on target -- I was just talking about the trick of the eye: the illusion of the huge turret dwarfing what would otherwise be seen as fairly large road wheels.

I'm glad to see the photo of an actual KV-2 turret back end. Massive! Massive!

Don