1/72 Egyptian 122mm SPG Project - Part 3

Having examined the T-34/85 tank kit that will be used in this conversion, it's time to look at the main event! Central to this project is Black Dog's Egyptian SPG 122mm conversion set [cat. no. T72027]...

It's a small collection of supplementary parts which are intended for the Revell or Dragon 1/72 T-34/85 kits, but I don't think it's vitally important that just these makes of kit are used for the conversion (they just happen to be very good models of the WW2 Soviet medium tank).

The polyurethane components come jammed in a small plastic bag, something I never like (with good reason as it turns out)...

So let's see what we have. First of all, we have a set of post-war style 'starfish' T-34/85 road wheels (there are hints that these *may* have appeared very late WW2, but I haven't seen any photographs to prove this).

Patience is the key here, as all these wheels will require a varying degree of TLC. Flash is apparent on them all. I'm also a wee bit suspicious about the make-up of these wheels, as I *believe* the Starfish wheels were supposed to have a small hole in each of the raised 'spokes' [see 'Identifying variants of the T-34/85' Brett Green on Clubhyper.com].

Edit: Nothing is ever straight forward! Apparently, certain T-34/85s were retro-fitted with T-55 style 'Starfish' wheels. On this type of wheel the holes at the top of the raised 'spokes' are not so apparent (but it is still there). Also, the 1963 upgraded T-34/85 (designated T-34/85M) was fitted with these T-55 pattern wheels as standard. I have read that - and it's probably important to note - that these are T-55 *style* wheels, they are not actually T-55 wheels - as the two wheels are different diameters so not swappable. To further muddy the waters, I have seen photos of Egytian 122 SPG's with wartime T-34/85 'dish' style wheels...Go figure!

Next we have a couple of 'sprues' of hull furniture, and we see the problem with packing resin parts tightly in a plastic bag...

Nice boxes for the hull fenders, but - oh dear...

Drat! Not irreparable, but quite an annoying breakage.

The broken part I received was the delicate gun traveling lock. This component is fitted to the rear of the T-34/85's hull and is designed to hold the 122mm gun barrel securely in place for travelling (in 'travel mode' the Egyptian 122 SPG's turret is turned to the rear). Now it's not a hugely critical break, I can glue it back together OK - it's just annoying.

And so, we get to the mean feature...The turret...

Quite a slab of resin! Again, some rough edges which will have to be cleaned up, but generally very nice detail. One of the nice things is that you can just make out the shape of the original T-34/85 turret that has been absorbed into the design of this turret...

This highlighted area of the Egyptian turret conversion is the part of the original
T-34/85 turret onto which the sheet metal expansion has been constructed!

And finally, we have the 122mm howitzer itself. A Soviet 2A18 (D-30) artillery piece was used as the basis for the SPG conversion, this was originally a towed field piece which first went into service in 1963. It's probably worth noting that while this was an indirect fire gun it did have the ability to shoot AT ammunition and there were 'emergency' direct fire sights, but as desperate as the Egyptians were for armour during the Yom Kippur War it would have been a brave man (or a fool) who would have wanted to take one of these vehicles into the front line!

The resin gun of the kit is what it is, but - unfortunately - the very distinctive muzzle break is plagued by the same flash as some of the other parts of the kit. This flash is far harder to reach, though...

There are four parts to the gun kit, the barrel, two halves of the muzzle break and the recoil block (which sits atop the gun).

RB Models metal 1/72 D-30 122mm Howitzer
A solution to the so-so Black Dog 122mm gun is to buy a third-party metal model instead. I mean, if you've gone this far to make something a little out of the ordinary you might as well go all the way!

Now, isn't that much better?

Well, it's going to be a challenge, no doubt about it. But I want to step up a gear in my model making and this seems an interesting subject with which to do this.

Next: Checking the Black Dog turret against the Zvezda hull!

1/72 Egyptian 122mm SPG Project - Part 1

Oh, happy day! The final part of the set of components that I needed to begin my Egyptian SPG arrived today. I'm quite excited...

Today's parcel contained Zvezda's 1/72 T-34/85 kit. This is a fairly new model and is based on the success they had with their T-34/76 m43, of which I have an example of. In fact, I was originally going to make this conversion using the earlier T-34, but decided that there were too many differences in the hull and that it would be easier to just buy the correct T-34/85 model instead.

As it happens, I am curious to see Zvezda's take on the T-34/85 - the c1944 development of the original 76mm gunned T-34 - as I am in the midst of completing PSC's T-34/85. Zvezda's kit is marketed as an 'easy build' model, so comparing this to PSC's 'easy build' will be quite fascinating. But, that's an aside and I'll get to that later.

The Egyptian 122mm Self-Propelled Gun
Now, I'd love to give you a little history of this cobbled-together Egyptian SPG, but I'm struggling to get any information about this vehicle (so far). I'd hazard a guess that this was used by the Egyprian army* around the time of the Yom Kippur War (1973), and represents just one of a variety of ad-hoc armour designs that the Egyptians deployed.

* The Syrians made a similar conversion, apparently.

Sadly, one of the better quality photos of a 122SPG. Turret in 'travelling' position.

The concept was very simple; re-use obsolete T-34/85s by slapping a Soviet D-30 122 mm howitzer into a makeshift turret. It's interesting to note that this was not an altogether new turret, but rather a conversion of the standard T-34/85 turret, which was enlarged by the addition of large steel sheets onto the original tank turret.

A useful shot if the front of the 122SPG in which you can just make out the shape
of the original T-34/85 turret, over which the Egyptians built the larger 'box'
turret of their AFV conversion.

This was intended to be a support artillery vehicle and not a front-line tank. Which was just as well, as the sheet metal turret was hardly protection against much more than shrapnel and light arms.

(Hopefully, I can find out more about this AFV.)

The conversion components
The main part of this project is, of course, Black Dog's conversion kit. This contains the Egyptian SPG turret, replacement 'starfish' (late T-34/85) road-wheels and some hull furniture.

Jewel in the crown is the immense SPG122 turret...

Downside maybe the resin D-30 122mm gun. I'm not a fan of resin for tank guns, I simply think resin is too much of a volatile material and I've yet to see a straight resin gun! (I know you can straighten out resin guns quite easily by submerging the component in warm water, but they always feel too spindly to me.)

To rectify this niggle I have bought a lovely RB Models metal and brass D-30 gun barrel. It is a little piece of scale model porn...

And last, but certainly not least, is today's arrival - Zvezda's 1/72 T-34/85. As I mentioned earlier, this is a fairly recent addition to the Zvezda line, I can't even find a review of the kit.* But, I was quite confident that this would be a very nice model of the Soviet WW2 medium tank as I already have their earlier T-34/76 m43 kit (and it's really very nice).

Zvezda have taken their T-34 further by adding the necessary parts to turn their model into a Model 1944 variant of the T-34/85, with the 'step-jointed' Zavrod 183 style turret. This involved new 'flat' fenders, hull furniture, 'full spider' road-wheels and external fuel pods.

Of course, I won't be needing the turret parts or the roads wheels - these will be replaced by the Black Dog conversion kit parts.

* Typically, I've just found a review of this kit on Onthewaymodels.com - it's generally quite positive.

Final notes
The Black Dog conversion kit was intended, I believe, for the Dragon or Revell T-34/85 kits. I don't know - yet - whether my using the Zevezda model will have an impact on the build. We shall see.

I was very tempted to buy a Dragon kit for this conversion, as I think I am about ready to try a 'premium build' (as thus far I have mostly made budget 'easy builds' and cheap conversions). But, in the end, I was more keen to try out the Zevezda kit. Though, as far as I have seen - by way of reviews - I don't believe there is a huge difference in quality between the Zvezda hull and those of, say, Revell's or Dragon's (and certainly the Zvezda hull can be brought up to near-Dragon level, by adding one of the readily available etch accessory sets).

Next: We'll have a look at the Zvezda kit parts and do a test assembly.