Pegasus KV box set - Part 3

You can't get it right all the time and as a modelling 'noob' I guess I was going to make a mistake sooner or later. Well, I made a boo-boo with my Pegasus KV-1 model. It was a pretty elementary mistake really, I didn't do my homework about the subject and rushed straight in as I just wanted to get to the painting experiment I had planned for this model.

I am painting this KV-1 in the scheme of a captured tank which was used by the Finnish army against the Soviets in 1944. I had thought that the tank was a KV-1 model 1940, but it turned out that what I really needed was the applique armoured version that was - coincidentally - available in the Pegasus box set as a build option. So I ended up having to strip back part of the model and build and modify the second KV hull to reflect the changes made by the Finns.

Above: Left is the standard KV hull, right is the modified Finnish KV hull. Note the new shape of the rounded off fenders.

The biggest change was the addition of the turret side armour - an easy job, but I had to sand back the primer - and the modification of the tank's fenders. The Finns changed the shape of the back and front sections of the fenders to a rounded shape (I don't know why), this meant I had to cut off the end sections and make new ones with plasticard. Finally I had to run a thin styrene strip around the fenders.

Other changes were a bit easier and included a small modification to the front applique armour, the leaving out of the external fuel tanks and the addition of some new applique strips on the side of the hull.

I do get a lot of satisfaction from doing this sort of tinkering, but I wasn't really expecting to do it on what I thought would be a 'quicky' model with which to practice a new painting technique. Still, you live and learn, that will teach me to do my research better in future...

On a happier note, the KV-2 from the box set went together very easily (I used the hull from my aborted KV-1 1940 for this so that saved any major waste). The only thing I added ere the very distinctive ladder runs on the side of the turret, but these are dead easy to do.

So there you have it, one step back and one step forward on this project. I feel like it's been a bit of a wasted weekend because I thought I would be further on than this, but I supposed I would have been a lot unhappier if I had completed my Finnish KV-1 and then discovered I had made the completely wrong model of KV.

If you would like to see some photos of the Finnish KV that I'm basing my model on you can find an excellent walk-around gallery at http://www.andreaslarka.net/ (photos taken at the Finnish ARmour Museum).