COMRADES IN ARMS

Łukasz Orczyc-Musiałek returns with an ambitious World War II project.

- Łukasz Orczyc-Musiałek

The starting point for this project was Italeri’s 2018 release of a ‘World of Tanks’ T-34/85. Rather than treating this as an out-of-the-box build, I decided to add further elements to give it a unique appearance. Having marvelled at Adam Wilder’s creation, which involved adding ‘Thoma’ Schürzen panels to his T-34 model, I was keen to follow suit (not that I wished to copy his work, but this would be an inspiration for my piece). I also planned to add spaced armour panels to the turret, a feature I had come across in various reference photographs.

Although the kit is adequately detailed, I opted to make further improvements by way of a set of metal tracks from MasterClub (ref. MTL35023), and replacement towing cables from Eureka XXL. The plastic fenders would also be replaced by etched brass versions from Aber. Although intended for the Tamiya kit, they fitted perfectly, and would offer the potential for representing battle damage and distortion. While perhaps seen as an unnecessary luxury, I invested in PanzerArt’s resin turret, complete with turned-metal gun barrel (ref. RE35-460); also from PanzerArt their set of resin road-wheels, which includes captured ‘Panther’ wheels (ref. RE35169). The fender-mounted toolboxes were from Bits Krieg (ref. BK-066), and a final addition, an incomplete mine-plough attachment, leftover from an old Zvezda kit.

Even at this early stage, I was considering how to present the completed model. The conclusion was that this should be on the streets of Berlin, and show signs of extensive combat. Luckily, PanzerArt had recently released some excellent