1/50 T-34/76 (1st Armoured Brigade "Heroes of Westerplatte", Studzianki 1944)

[PacificWind]

In July 1944, Soviet and Polish forces crossed the Bug River. The first units were transferred across the Vistula River on August 1, 1944. Ultimately, the outpost was established on the Pilica and Radomka lines, reaching within 4 days a width of 18 km and a depth of 15 km. The Germans initially underestimated the importance of the bridgehead and did not attempt to eliminate it until August 9. For this task, the Germans called in elements of the 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division Hermann Göring (140 tanks and 90 armoured vehicles) and the 19th Panzer Division (90 tanks and 40 assault guns).
In defensive battles, along with the Soviets also fought units of the First Polish Army, including the 1st Armoured Brigade "Heroes of Westerplatte", which at that time had about 2200 soldiers and 86 tanks (including 71 T-34), and the 3rd Infantry Division "Romuald Traugutt". The German attack broke down at Studzianki, where the Wehrmacht suffered heavy losses as a result of the counterattack of the 1st Armoured Brigade "Heroes of Westerplatte". As a result of the fighting, the Germans lost several hundred soldiers and 40 vehicles, while the Polish losses were 94 killed, 200 wounded and 27 tanks. On August 14, Polish tankers and Soviet infantry captured Studzianki towering over the area.

That was a bit of history to start with as the model I built is a T-34/76 of 1st Armoured Brigade "Heroes of Westerplatte" from the battle of Studzianki, 1944.
This project took me 5 days - 1 day for repainting and redesigning, 4 days for assembling. The original model is by Box Studio (Japan) and is in scale 1/72.
Parts fitted perfect or nearly perfect. However, this T-34 requires a little more attention when you work on certain elements. These are gun mantlet, small details like horn or headlight, and tracks. I highly recommend making and shaping the tracks not on the tank. Box Studio provides an outline for the running gear so it's wise to glue it on thick cardboard, cut out, and use as a tool/form. Tracks can be then easily slided into their place.
What I changed in the model is the camouflage and markings (original were Russian, now they are Polish) and the turret (original has an early Mod. 1943, now it's late Mod. 1943 with commander cupola).

Scale 1/50

[Vermin_King]

Very nicely done, sir

[Butelczynski]

Welcome back Kacper!

Great model. I tried building BT-42 (also upsized a bit) from Boxstudio some time ago but failed miserably. You have much better eye for armor. Bestpapermodels also did both T-34/76 and /85 with Polish eagles on turrets but those are in HO scale and really simple. Perfect for diorama.

Btw-1st Armoured Brigade "Heroes of Westerplatte" also had a number of Universal Carriers and M3 Halftracks if you ever feel like giving that T-34 company lol.

Take care

[PacificWind]

Thanks Vermin King and Karol.
I've seen those T-34 by Bestpapermodels and yes, they are very simple models. Bestpapermodels also has a T-34/76 in 1/35 but this one is on the other hand a bit too overdetailed for resizing to 1/50. Usually I resize smaller scale models to 1/50 and redesign, upgrade them the way I like. WoT makes nice tanks but they are quite bad for repainting. If it's possible, I always take tracks from their designs for my projects. This Polish T-34/76 also has tracks from WoT model, although I had to reduce their width by 1mm(approximately).
I've made some room for new models and now I'm thinking about Polish Ford GPA or Finnish Stug III... There are many interesting options.

I also forgot to take this one picture.

[Vinalssergio155]

Great job Kacper!! Glad to see you here again.