Quite a few things to address here:
NHoggard, the paint scheme was chosen to reflect the model of JS-2. The only variants that are known to have sported the famous Berlin-type paint scheme with the recognition stripes was the 1944 version (often mislabeled the JS-2M). I tried and tried to find a early version JS-2 with that paint scheme, but I never could. I went with the more historically accurate scheme instead, albeit the less interesting one. This is actually a pretty common complaint of people modeling the early JS-2 is that they are pretty darn boring!
I do plan on building another one though as parts become available (I'll detail which parts in a sec Der Kommandant
). The next one will be converted to a the 1944 version with the wider mantlet, updated periscopes, sloped hull front, etc etc. It will be more work, but I do want to see a Berlin version myself.
The king tiger was a purchase I made on ebay about a month or so ago. It was from everyone's favorite 21st Century ebay seller Iluvnfl. She often sells rare one of a kind 21st century pieces, including the infamous 1/18 king tiger, and this one caught my eye in that it was not your run of the mill 21st century KT. I didn'y pay out the nose for it either, $37 IIRC, which is definitely a steal for a really well painted custom KT, when compared to one painted by me (material costs) or paying anyone else to do it for me. I also picked up a custom DAK sdkfz 7
The king tiger is supposed the represent a tiger from the ss.s.pz.abt 501 during the BoB. It is different from the standard 21st century version in that the paint is much better, and the turret number is different.
Der Kommandant, are you interested in making your own? Well if you are prepare for some scavenger hunting because the ingredients for this beast aren't exactly common. Back in the 70s a company out of St. Petersberg, USSR (back then at least) made these "1/30" scale model kits. The company was called Russian Ogenok. To my knowledge they made 5 "1/30" model kits: a JS-3, ISU-122, ISU-152, KV-85, and a T-34/85. NOw I learned of these fairly recently and decided to do some research. I found my first one on ebay, a KV-85, and once I received it in the mail I decided to compare it to my FOV KV-1. Well it lets just say it seemed a bit small to be "1/30" after comparing it and they were seemingly the same size. Then I went into custom mode. I broke out the George Bradford Russian AFVs book, with scale drawings of 1/35 scale tanks, found the KV-85, converted to 1/32, and measured. Sure enough, this Russian Ogenok kit was 1/32 scale, not 1/30. After that it was a mad dash to try and get as many of these things as possible, which was not easy saying that they've been OOP for 40 years. During the acquisition phase I came up with the plan to revisit the idea of making a 1/32 JS-2 that I had had a few years back. For those of you who may not be familiar with the KV and JS series, their development was pretty intertwined, especially at the end of the former's life and the beginning of the latter's. THe KV-85 was for all intents and purposes the last production variant of the KV series. It had a new turret to mount the larger 85mm gun(traditionally it carried the 76.2mm). THis interim solution was done because the first production hulls of the JS-1 would not be ready in time for the necessity of these weapons at the front. It was soon decided by the Russian ordinance department that the heavy Russian tanks needed to mount a larger gun, one with a record of stopping German heavies. So the decision was made to mount the A-19 122mm gun in the new turret. Some minor modifications were made and the new gun proved to be the weapon they wanted so it was put in the new turret (same kind of turret as the KV-85) and mounted on the JS-1 body to give us the earliest version of the JS-2.
-If you have lost me that was a description of how the turret that came with the KV-85 kit could be used at the turret of a JS-2 (with modifications of course).
Now, the chassis. This was a more obvious solution. The ISU assault guns used the same chassis as the JS series tank, so I sacrificed the ISU-122 kit I had (I was least excited about the ISU-122 to be honest, and used its gun and chassis. I had to cut off the box-like superstructure and fabricate the front hull, but that was not too difficult.
To summarize, you will need the following:
Turret from KV-85:
Chassis and gun from ISU-122:
Styrene products to fabricate the front hull; I used evergreen stuff:
Fitzy, thanks for the compliment, I feel like sometimes this forum is letting the 1/32 stuff go the way of the Dodo Bird, and is only the home to 1/18 customs. I am trying to keep it alive and I hope that maybe I can inspire others to do the same.
Wow, long post, anyway, back to my relaxing Sunday.
-Kevin
, I'm sure after weathering it will be fantastic.
Is the "Roma Hotel" still open and what is the HSA Compound used for now?
