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KV-7 Double your Pleasure, Double your Guns


BryanKrueger

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The KV-7 was a prototype design that never made it into production. It was an early attempt to increase firepower against light defensive positions. The first iteration was a triplex design with a single 76mm gun flanked by two 45mm guns. This approach performed poorly in trails and it was decided to evaluate twin 76mm guns and drop the 45mm entirely. Trials didn't go to well for the twin mount either and the project was eventually cancelled. The effort wasn't a total loss, the concept eventually evolved into the SU-152.

Trumpeter's kit adds a couple of new sprues to its basic KV-1 kit. The new parts aren't particularly impressive and the old parts are starting to show tool wear with some pitting and excess flash and still those damn ejector pin marks in the tracks. The base kit assembled quickly but it was only after I posted images online that I became aware of the myriad of accuracy issues with the kit. Trumpeter really dropped the ball on this one. I think they must have used World Of Tanks as their technical guide.

The kit has the following errors:

Incorrect roof layout
Incorrect acorn periscopes
Gun mantle is the wrong shape
Gun shield is too thin and missing many details
Casemate is placed in the wrong location - too far back
Hull top armor plates are wrong size and location
Nose edge armor plate is missing weld details
Uses incorrect armored periscope guards
Wrong transmission deck
Incorrect road wheels
Incorrect return rollers
Missing gunner's sight opening and armored cover
Incorrect shape on appliqué armor plate
Incorrect fender configuration
Incorrect gun barrel shape

 

After I found this out, I set the kit aside for a while. Over the following months, I would work on it for a little while and then box it up again. I wanted to smash it with a hammer many times. Eventually I dragged it out and finally made a go at it. I reworked and scribed the roof plate and added missing bolt details. I realized there was far too much work to be done on the model to make it accurate, so I decided to add my own errors to the kit. I added a spare armored MG turret from the KV-220 model and the missing periscope guards sourced from the spares.

 

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I wasn't too happy with the MG copula periscope guards so I designed new ones in CAD and had Shapeways 3d print new ones.

 

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Here it is with a base coat of green:

 

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Currently it has brown camo pattern and awaiting weathering.

 

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Link to KV-7 Development History

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  • 4 weeks later...

Once I got some paint applied to the KV-7, the rest went quickly. The model is weathered with oil paints, enamels, and pigments. I'm pretty pleased with the end result even though the model is not as accurate as I prefer them to be.

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Thanks for hosting this Group Build. it game me the motivation to complete this.

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