Dragon Models

1/72 Russian T-34/85 Model 1944

Kit Number 7269

Reviewed By Jack Kennedy, #12511

Dragon has done it again.  Last month, I reviewed the Dragon T-34/76 and now I can report that the new T-34/85 is every bit as nice as the T-34/76.

One thing I love about the Dragon kits is that the moldings are clean and crisp.  All the detail is evident at first glance and this makes painting and detailing a snap.

Like the T-34/76, this tank has the option of using photo etched or molded rear deck.  As in the last review I chose the molded in grating.  This decking is molded in so nicely that when painted, washed and dry brushed it doesn’t lose any detail.

Another great feature of the Dragon tanks is the paired road wheels.  This saves a lot of heartburn that you get when trying to line all the wheels up precisely.  The road wheels are in the late war configuration that is they are the rubber ones.  I painted them with scale black and then dry brushed them with a medium gray since the rubber back in WW II was more of a gray color.  I attached them with CA glue to prevent them from coming loose when attaching the tracks.

I assembled the lower hull with the road wheels first and using a hot screwdriver heated the tracks together and slipped them over the road wheels.  This was easier than I thought it would be, since the vinyl tracks had some give in them.  Again using CA glue I cemented them down on the road wheels to show proper sag.

Next I assembled the turret.  I didn’t use the periscope inside the hatch cover since I was going to cement it closed.  Maybe I’ll use it on another project.  It was a nice touch to give you the option in case you wanted to leave the hatch open.  Everything was straight forward in this assembly but care must be taken removing the hand rails from the sprue as they bend easily.

The upper hull was no problem and everything fit nicely.  There are a lot of parts on the upper hull including grab handles, machine gun, gas tanks exhausts and tow hooks.  Once all this was assembled and painted, all that I needed to do was to put the three main components together.  After this was done the final step was putting on the decals.  Care must be taken putting on the decals on the turret as there are a lot of bumps such as vision ports, gun ports and grab handles to make the decals sit over.  After about a gallon of decal setting solution was applied, everything looked just about right.

Would I recommend this kit?  You bet!  In fact I plan on buying more.  At about $11 it’s a steal.  One can never have too many T-34’s. (At least that’s what Stalin said).

I want to thank Dragon Models for supplying this kit and John Noack for giving it to me for review.

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