Second World War Russian armour in 20mm

Most of my Second World War 20mm collection for the European theatre focusses on the later stages of the war from late 1942 onwards and so that's reflected in the models and figures I own. The Russians are no different and though I do have a few of their earlier tanks, like this BT-7 in the picture below, for this post I'll focus on those that are likely to be seen in the later stages of the war.

In which case I suppose any talk of Russian tanks might as well start with the ubiquitous T-34. If you only ever have one Russian tank in your collection you probably can't go far wrong with one of these. The set from the Plastic Soldier Company includes three models but has two sets of turrets for each body so that you can make up the earlier T-34 with the 76mm gun or the later models with the 85mm gun. This is extremely handy, as in effect the set gives you six possible tank options. With that in mind I made up turrets for both models and can interchange them as I need.

Here's the 76mm version with a crew figure from AB.

While I have seen several of the later T34/85s, the earlier T34/76 are harder to come across. The one below is at the Musee des Blindes in Saumur.

Here is the later T34/85 version. Once again the crew figure is from AB.

What's a T34 without a full load of tankodestaniki riding on the back? This one is from Dragon and has much more detail than the PSC kits, although it is a bit more delicate as a result. Tank riders are from AB Figures.

There are plenty of these to be found in museums given they were still produced after the war and were used in the Arab/Israeli Wars, Korea and Vietnam, amongst others.

This one is in the Military Museum in Beijing.

This one below, a gift from the Soviet Union to Australia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, is in the Army Museum in Bandiana, Australia.

Here's another on display in the Imperial War Museum, London.

And one at the Tank Museum, Bovington in England.

Last, but not least, there is also one in the impressive collection of the Canadian War Museum

I had an unmade kit of the old 1/76 Airfix version of the T34 and thought it would make the good base for a model of a wreck. It could be used as scatter terrain or in a campaign if we replay over a table where a tank has been destroyed. I scratch built the interior and you can follow that build in more detail in this post.

The KV1 was designed and manufactured around the same period as the T-34 and competed to be the main battle tank of the Red Army. Like the T-34 it carried the 76mm gun and had similar armour. It suffered from early mechanical issues and performance, although these were later resolved. The design was eventually dropped when the T-34 proved to be capable of doing all that the KV-1 could do but could be produced faster and cheaper. The KV design was not totally redundant and the chassis went on to be used for the later IS tanks.

This is the version from Pegasus Hobbies and much like the T-34 from PSC the set of two vehicles come with two variants of the turret. As both carry the 76mm gun these simply offer you variations on a theme. The crew figures are all from AB.

The tank museum at Bovington has one in almost perfect condition. It was sent to the UK during the war as an example of Russian tank design and has never seen service.

On the other hand this one at the tank museum at Saumur has seen much better days and the museum has chosen to display it in an appropriate setting.

The Russians used the KV chassis to mount a 152mm artillery gun in a large, slab sided turret to produce the KV2, a striking looking AFV that saw service in the early stages of the war in the East but had ceased manufacture by 1943. This is a plastic kit from Trumpeter. I'm not sure why but there's something I find attractive about the way it looks, perhaps because it is so menacing.

As mentioned, the IS series of tanks were based on the KV chassis and the IS-2 was to play a major role in the later stages of the war. With a powerful 122mm gun it was equipped as much to deal with German armour as it was to blast infantry out of defensive positions. This is a plastic kit from S-models with a crew figures from AB. I'm very impressed with the S-models kits, they strike a good balance between a quick build for gaming with a level of detail you might expect from a display model.

The Russians produced a number of light tanks that were built in automotive factories, the most common being the T-70, a diminutive tank when compared to the others. As the war progressed it suffered from the relatively ineffectual 45mm gun and its small size. In the end the Russians preferred to use lend-lease tanks to fulfil the light tank role rather than focus on developing a version of their own, with the British Valentine being particularly well liked. This T-70 is from the PSC plastic set and has a crew member from AB.

 

I didn't expect to come across a lot of Russian armour when I visited the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, so I was delighted to have my first sighting of a real T-70. 

While the T-70 may not have been a huge success the modifications made to the chassis to lengthen it and add an extra road wheel formed the basis for the SU-76, a self propelled version of the Zis-3 gun that was designed as an infantry regiment support asset. These were produced in very large numbers, second only to the T-34, and provided infantry regiments with considerable additional mobile fire support as the war progressed. This is the plastic kit from UM Models out of Ukraine.

This is another of the Russian vehicles in the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum collection - a running one at that.

The T34 chassis was adapted to house a range of self propelled guns and tank destroyers. The SU-85 mounted the same 85mm gun as the T34/85. This kit is another from S-models.

The closest I've come to seeing a Russian self propelled gun is this SU-100 in Saumur. As with the SU-85 this uses the T34 chassis but in this case it has been adapted to carry the more powerful 100mm gun.

Where as the SU-85 and SU-100 were designed for an anti-tank role, the SU-122 housed a 122mm gun protected by sloped armour enabling it to provide powerful close range HE support or operate in a more stand-off artillery role. This is a plastic kit, also from UM Models, who make an excellent and extremely wide range of Soviet AFVs and vehicles.

The closest I have come to seeing one of these is this 122mm howitzer at the Cambodian War Museum, it's the same gun that was mounted in the the adapted T-34 chassis to make the SU-122. 

As the war in the East progressed the Germans resorted to creating fortress (festung) cities and the Russians were confronted with defenders in reinforced urban positions. That required powerful close range HE support for the infantry calling for self propelled guns that not only carried a heavy gun but with thick enough armour to handle German anti-tank weapons.

The SU-152 used the KV chassis to carry a 152mm howitzer. I can't recall who makes this plastic kit, it might be Pegasus Hobbies.

With the end of production of the KV chassis the design was modified to fit the IS chassis and further improvements were made including increased armour, resulting in the very similar looking ISU-152. While I haven't seen the SU-152 I have been fortunate to seeing a running version of the later ISU-152 at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum.

Last, but not least, I have a BA-64 armoured car. These were produced in large numbers and this is a resin kit from the Milicast range with a crew member from AB.

I’m in the process of putting together a number of kits covering several of the British and US lend lease tanks and vehicles. I’ll combine them in a separate post that will include a few of the early war vehicles in the collection like this BA6 armoured car below from Pegasus Hobbies.