SCRATCHMOD - THE ART OF DESTRUCTION

Destroyed KV I

After finally finding some good ref photos of completely destroyed KV II's I decided to finally take down the Trumpeter KV I kit and give it a go. There will not be much left to the inside of the KV and the sides will be blown out, as well as the turret.

After some chopping up of the kit hull and turret, I started adding some nuts and bolts, along with the welding and bolt down strips. Here is what I've come up with so far.

I still have a few things to add to the interior and then will get back to the gun in the turret.

I decided to tackle the turret next seeing that it will have more parts in it than the hull which was blown to bits. I added only what would have survived the blast. I used what little reference material I had to replicate the remains of the interior. Nuts and bolts in various diameters were used for added detail.

I replaced the kit barrel with a 76mm barrel for a T-34, and also the gun breach. These came from the spares box and add to the otherwise empty turret interior built from the box.

Other little details such as snapped bolts were done with stretched sprue inserted into pre drilled holes. I also decided since the this vehicle was around in 1943 before the Panther and Tigers were around in full force, to add some pock marks from smaller caliber tank guns. I also drilled holes and inserted plastic rod to simulate rounds that penetrated the armor.

At this point I think the turret is basically done and I can go back to the hull remains. I wanted to add the torsion bars to the hull sides as seen in most photos of blown apart KV II's. This turned out to take much longer to scratch build than I had thought it would. This is mainly due to having to make eleven identical parts, of each part. I also made two extras so I can use them as masters for casting in resin.

Here is what I came up with. I still need to add a few parts but it's basically done.