KV-1 model 1940 simplified welded turret (short bustle)

Jean-Christophe Zeus
Tamiya provided an interesting turret in the 1st kit of their rebooted KV tank series. Unfortunately the hull doesn't match it, production-date-wise: it has features from the summer or 1941, whereas the hull dates from late fall / early winter 1941. In this period there have been lots of changes to the tank. So it's best, in my opinion, to combine the turret with a hull from Trumpeter 00359, and use the Tamiya hull for something else.

So it's a good thing that MR Modellbau from Germany released a conversion kit to another interesting vehicle: a model 1940 with simplified welded turret. The details on this turret only surfaced after the release of Neil Stokes' book on the KV tank: it's from a batch of turrets produced ca. September 1941 at LKZ in Leningrad, where at first glance the rear-facing episcopes are moved back as to eliminate a dead spot on earlier turrets. However that is not the case here! Instead, the turret bustle has been shortened, so the dead spot is eliminated whereas the episcopes are still at the same place as before the change.

Additionally, 90mm armoured plates where not yet available in sufficient quantity, so two triangular plates of appliqué armour were added to the existing 75mm plates.

All-steel return rollers appeared at a later date, so the conversion kit provides the correct rubber-rimmed ones. The same applies to the drive sprocket hub cover, which should still have 16 bolts instead of 8.

I saw an interesting picture of such a tank, with the letter Г (G in latin) on the turret and featuring a 4BO green and 6K brown camo. It seems to have had only two stowage bins: one on the number 7 and another on the number 10 position. It has the improvised appliqué armour plates on the hull sides, also included in the MR set.

It probably also had a short armoured strip in front of the driver's hatch, but that can't be seen on the photograph. What can be seen, however, is that it had the two additional armoured strips to protect the turret race from the left and right rear. These two were eliminated when the longer side appliqué armour plates were introduced.

Also included in the MR set is a flat engine access hatch, but it's not clear if it already had the chevron shaped armoured strip or not. The KV book is a little unclear in that regard.