KV-122 Build

[MichaelC]

Hi all,

Thought I might post a quick little build of a KV-122. The chassis will be based on a Taigen KV-1 metal chassis, the turret will be based on the kit from Chirstian Juckenburg's KV-85 resin kit. The plan is to strip the Taigen KV-1 of its "Ehkranami" from the lower hull, convert the electronics to Clark TK-22 KV-1, and then fitting the KV-85 kit with a servo recoil metal 122 mm barrel.

Kit with an 88mm L71 and German style muzzle brake from Asiatam Elephant as potential barrel replacement:

Reference pictures:

I am more of an electronics guy so the focus will be on the Taigen to Clark conversion which is very straight forward, and the servo recoil and possibly servo elevation on the KV-85 turret kit from the TK-22 series board. I am still considering the replacement of the rear deck which I am worry about losing the rigidity of the upper hull, as well as late style road wheels. The Taigen hull is torsion bar based and already comes with excellent early style metal road wheels and would be a waste.....

If anyone has additional picture of this one of tank would be much appreciated. Also experience and tips with the KV-85 kit would be helpful !

Regards,

MichaelC.

[MichaelC]

More reference pictures:

kv122_2.jpg (74.75 KiB) Viewed 4814 times

kv122_1.jpg (54.08 KiB) Viewed 4814 times

[Tankbear]

This is going to be interesting to watch, as I was thinking of changing my metal KV1E to a KV85. Haven't decided whether to try scratch build or buy Juckenburg kit though.

I've a few KV series books so will see what more info I can find for you Michael.

Ian.

[MichaelC]

Ian,

This is my second Juckenburg kit and I am considering a third one, but the challenge with both of them so far has been the barrel. The resin barrel is very fragile, and on my first kit (SU-152) it took me quite the effort to hollow out the 152mm barrel. The 85mm barrel that comes with the kit is not hollowed and I can't imagine the effort to hollow it out so you might need to consider sourcing a 85mm barrel from a WSN T34/85 or a metal version. I was also a little disappointed that the loader's hatch which is molded in one piece including the hinges. The SU-152 has fully operable hinges.

Also, if you metal KV-1E is the Taigen version which has the smoker mounted on the top hull, you would have an issue replacing it with the late version rear deck that is shipped with the KV-85 kit. I am still on the fence as to whether to cut up the upper hull to replace the rear deck and have to deal with relocating the smoker.

So far I can only find the 1st two pics from my Wydawnictwo Militaria collection and the last two from Google images.

MichaelC

[MichaelC]

Started working on this a while ago and I am terrible at keeping track but here is a shot of the converted Clark TK-22 from stock Taigen. It is pretty well a straight swap of the MFU, the main difference being that if you are using stock flash unit you will need to get it hook up via an "extra" small plug onto the TK-22, as well as the IR emitter. This will bring you completely over to TK-22, but of course not taking advantage of the added features yet.

Next picture you will see one of the added feature of the TK-20 series is the fact that you now have directional control on the elevation, even if you are not converting to servo elevation. I have added the 4 pin plug directly onto the stock Taigen 8 pin hull plug to make things simplier and it is highly recommended. Two pins will be connected for the elevation motor and two pins for the stock recoil motor.

This pic also show the relocated smoker, which is now attached to the upper hull. Upon closer inspection I realized that replacing the rear deck on the KV will not actually affect the smoker location, and since Taigen does not use any of the old HL mount points (i.e. the tab mount on the rear side area) taking out the rear deck actually will not affect rigidity or create mounting issue. I might still come back to this at a later date.

[MichaelC]

I am probably not alone in this department but there is an upper limit to how many tanks can be tolerated by the better half in the house, so one of the goal in this project is to actually create two turrets but have them share the hull, in essence getting two tanks out of one ! As I will be modifying the lower hull to match the KV-122 which is a late war model, I will be removing all the extra armour plates from the hull and will do the same to the original KV-1 turret, in essence turning it into a late model welded turret KV. There will be some inconsistence (i.e. Extra large turret ring for the KV-122) when the KV-1 turret is on, but hey, if you close you eyes a little bit it is just fine. I don't expect many swaps but if I do I will be replacing the turret ring mount with nuts and bolts.

Here you will see that I have mod the original HL recoil unit into a servo recoil, as well as updated the IR emitter with the extra small plug that Clark uses. I get my Clarks from Curtis at Immortal Hobby, and he always include two plugs (Flash and IR) with every board (Thanks Curtis !). Since I also use Hammerhead, I have also created some Hammerheads that has the extra small plug at the end for the IR.

[MichaelC]

One of the other major goal in this build is to create a servo recoil for the 122mm. As mentioned before I have a spare Asiatam Elephant 88mm/L71 which has roughly the same shape as the D25 122mm at the back end. Couple of decisions. The German style muzzle brake that came with the 88 is a possible solution (Looking at the reference pics it is actually not very clear whether the muzzle brake is the German style one or the classic JS series muzzle brake). I have also seen pics of early JS1/2s that has the German style muzzle brake as well. However, the tapering of the 88 doesn't really work, and the muzzle brake that was shipped with the kit is HUGE when mounted on the end of the 88. So after some scaling down from 1/35 plans, I cut off basically the taper end of the 88 and fitted the Russian muzzle brake from the kit onto the 88:

As you see in a later picture, it doesn't look to out of place, and I have a softspot for the JS style muzzle brakes so it will be so ! Being a resin kit, I have to basically build a recoil mount for the barrel, as well as some kind of elevation mount which I haven't decided on yet. Here is a larger picture of the recoil mount:

It is basically a direct copy (crappy one at that) of the mount as illustrated on the Clark website. The turret is very cramp and I have to use a mini servo and be very aware of the spacing to make it work. One of the reason I have not decided on elevation options yet is that there might not be room at all and even if I do managed the range of elevation might be so small that it is not worth the effort. TBD.

[MichaelC]

Nothing glue in yet but here is the mock-up so far, just to get a sense of the scaling of the muzzle brake, the length of barrel (Using the Bradford AFV Plans) and the overall look of the final tank.

The muzzle brake in real life doesn't look as imposing as in the pic, but I might still need to do something to make it appear smaller. Next week's to do list would be:

- Remove armour plates
- Add in enlarge turret ring
- New front Glacis arrangement
- Some kind of first coat of paint

MichaelC

[Tankbear]

Hi Michael,

Why not go for two hull tops rather just two turrets, that way should be quicker to swap and no issue of large turret ring for normal KV1 turret. I’ve not seen anyone do a cast turret for a late KV1. Welsh Dragon Models sell the ZIS5 gun (think it’s in the T34 section) to help with that turret.

Regarding the elevation, I would leave it static. As I found the Clark to be too fiddly to change and when in middle of a IR battle field wasted time trying to adjust. Plus when parallel to the ground you know the IR beam is in line with tank targets not pointing into the ground or air effecting your range.

Let us know how difficult it is to remove the lower hull side armour plates, as I will have to do the same.

Ian.

[Tankbear]

Here is my 1941 KV1 build I did last year. Using welded turret on early chassis (HL version)

http://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/forums/v ... =22&t=9918

Ian.