Taigen KV-1E

[tankme]

I was just complaining I had zero tank time with school and all so I took a night off from school to finish the last bits on a tank I've been working on for a few months when I've had the time.

This KV-1E was cobbled together from other builds and piece mail parts. The turret came from the first KV-1E I bought that got converted into the SU-152.

It's using the newer Taigen/Torro KV-1 lower. I custom fit a set of the Heng Long all enclosed CNC machined 1/56 ratio (slow) gearboxes to the Taigen hull. It also got a metal turret ring and metal turret drive motor. Installed a FRS7S Visaton speaker in an off the shelf plastic box and printed a speaker grill from ABS for it. It's being controlled by a Clark TK-50SP board and Flysky FS-I6S radio/FS-iA6B receiver.




I added the turret ring guards, reoriented the saw so it pointed the right direction, added the antenna, added the lifting rings, replaced the engine deck vent mesh with real mesh guards, added weld lines, and added a brass gun cleaning kit to the fender.





Added some weld lines around the towing eyes and some mesh to the engine vent.



That turret was gutted and the innards were replaced with a Clark 3D printed recoil and elevation specifically made for the KV-1 (from DAK RC). IR LED was installed in the front of the turret along with a Taigen high intensity flash unit. Turret is held on with magnets. You can also see I decided to add some more texture to the flat plates not seen in the rest of the photos.



Turret got some weld lines as well, some light Mr. Surfacer texture, added a 3D printed IR receiver mount, added a LegoDEI IR receiver, swapped out the commander's hatch for a metal one, and I de-emphasized all the little circles on the turret. On the real tanks those circles are supposed to be where bolts were installed and then welded over. So for more randomness to their look, some got removed, some got made smaller, and some were made just a tad smaller as they were just too big to look real.





On the front I added weld lines around the add on armor plate, replaced the light with a metal one that looks better, randomized the weld circles on the front nose, made the driver's hatch functional, and added the two cables. The light does look purple as it has a layer of Maskol on it getting ready for paint.



At this point it's basically ready for primer and paint. I have some of the box fuel tanks to got on it after it's painted.

A note on the weld lines. You may have noticed they are three different colors because I experimented with three different materials to make them. The white are Miliput, the black ones are Apoxie Sculpt, and the green ones are Kneadatite (aka: Green Stuff). After using all three I'd have to say my new favorite is Green Stuff.

[tankme]

Got to throw some paint on it...Stynylrez black primer followed by Mig-0019 4BO. Still in the middle of doing some work on the external fuel boxes and tow cables, but it's getting there. I ordered some markings for it so I should be able to wrap this project up next week.

[Raminator]

A nice straightforward build is a good way to make the most of limited time. I'm always impressed with how neat you manage to get the interior layouts.

How do you rate the sealed gearboxes? I've not tried them yet, but they're pretty interesting. Are they any quieter than the standard ones?

[tankme]

Simple is good, simple is easy to maintain...

Oh, yes they are quiet. I don't hear any gear whine from them at all and no ESC whine with the Clark TK40/50/80 boards. I like them because they are also cheaper than the PDGBS/HL dual drive gearboxes. Plenty of power in the slower 1/56 versions. I'm about to install a set in my new HL Pershing as soon as all the Pershing parts get here. I don't think I've installed the faster 1/36 geared version yet although I think I have a set in my stash. Problem with that set is it's a High/Med set and needs a tank with a high rear deck to fit them in.

Only caveat to using them in Taigen hulls is they are designed to be used with HL lowers. Mounting in a Taigen hull takes a little more consideration to make sure the shafts lengths are correct and I had to drill some holes in the Taigen lower to access the mounting screws so the mounting isn't as straight forward.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

What you wizards consider a "straightforward build," I consider mighty impressive. So congratulations on another fine accomplishment. Never having heard of the brand, I checked out Stynylrez primer on the internet. And I read through your build carefully, but I cannot find the source for those added fuel tanks, white against the 4BO. Did you print those yourself?

[tankme]

Stynylrez is made by the Badger company that does air compressors and airbrushes. I like priming in black because if there are hidden or hard to spray areas on the tank, they don't show up as much being black. They look more like shadows if they get missed with the paint.

All the details on the SU and KV series come from this book:

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/ref/ ... kv-1.shtml

The book goes into every detail of the KV series and all it's variants. It is an expensive book, but well worth anyone doing KV builds.

The external fuel/oil tanks can be had from different places. Aber makes a metal one. I built ONE of those and said I would never build another one. That thing was a royal PITA to solder together. I have since improved my PE soldering so maybe it wouldn't be so bad to build another. They are kinda expensive though.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/aber-16 ... nk--236267

I then found the resin ones on MK-Modelbau's site (https://mk-modellbau.de/) so I bought a bunch of them from there for my KV-2 and KV-1 builds so that I could combine shipping for multiple projects. They are a lot less expensive than the PE ones so I got a bunch of them for the KV-1E and KV-2. Some KVs had as many as seven of these external tanks mounted on the fenders in various locations (as determined by the book I mentioned earlier). I have since painted them in 4BO, glued them to the fenders, and fixed some of the defects in the tank castings.

I had also bought some of the Aber KV detail sets (16043) from Artistic Hobbies when they closed down so I got them a little cheaper than retail. Various parts from those kits have been used on my KV-1E, SU-152, and KV-2 builds.

My markings should be here by Wed so I could have this thing wrapped up this week.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Thanks for the prompt and helpful answer. I hope others see it, too. Yesterday I checked on the Badger primer and passed the word on to other modelers today (a regular Tuesday modeler group at my place). I have never used black for primer--just various grays and primer reds. But I see your point about primer helping with "shadows" in tight spots. So I will have to give it a try.

I have so many sites bookmarked for parts, etc., that I cannot keep up. I will check on MK Modellbau a.s.a.p.

[tankme]

Decided that I was just going to use the decal sheets as a guide and paint the markings on. I scanned them on the printer and cut out some templates to lay down the markings. Afterward I removed the masks and hand painted them a little darker. The markings are based on a real KV-1E photo. I also decided to try my hand at some chipping effects. I've never done this before so I think it came out OK. I still have a lot to do and weathering effects to add after the chips are done.

[HERMAN BIX]

Hell of a good job on the chips Mr T, you got that trick right from the get-go

[tankme]

So I may have gone a little overboard on the chipping...it was a learning process. I tried to make it look like soldiers were sliding off the tool boxes after riding into battle. Overall I'm not completely dissatisfied with the outcome.

There are some dust effects I have to add yet, but waiting on some pigments to arrive to do that. The paint still needs to be sealed with a dull coat after that.