Re: Still exaggerating

Kurt, I never commented on any Bronco kit. Modellers of British armour, like those of Soviet or French armour, have been just as neglected for just as long. If there are problems with the Bronco A.13, no doubt they are disappointed. This is the first model in fifty years, and will probably be the last for a very long time. This is their only chance to get it right. I hope they get what they desire.

"Zero-sum"? I don't know where that came from, nor how it is relevant even if it were true.

The problem (as mentioned previously) is that Soviet tanks are just not as popular. No sensible company is going to invest in mold cutting (or re-cutting, in this case) without a reasonable expectation that there will be a return. As I could tell you myself, having complete and accurate data does not equate to making a profit.


If that is the case, why do a T-34 at all? Clearly, if Soviet tanks are not popular, there is no market, no why go there in the first place?

DML did go there. We are forced to dine on the fruits of their incompetence today. I konw quite a bit about these kits, clearly more than you do.

DMLs T-34s are based on a mould for a T-34-85 they purchased from Gunze years ago. All of their T-34-76 kits prior to #6388 included a T-34-85 lower hull and suspension swing-arms (corrected in #6355). They have been adding new sprues for turrets and roadwheels etc. to their same basic parts without concerning themselves with the details of what combination of features were accurate. It drives us nuts, but we live with it. They are still better than the Tamiya kits.

If you follow their progress, 6096-6205-6418-6355-6388-6452-6479-6424 they are getting better, but they still skip too many steps, their information is confused, and they make very simple and obvious mistakes. I can name eight books published in Russia since 2006 that have greatly expanded the knowledge of T-34s, and DML has declined to use this information. I guess their research budget doesn't extend to hiring someone who can read Russian, although it has also been offered in translation by some members here, including individuals who have posted in this thread.

DML is a big company now. I met the guy who owns it twenty years ago, when he was a model wholesaler in Canada. I sold him vacuform kits and decals. He has done well. He's only ever been in it for the buck, and I say that without prejudice. He's a businessman, not a modeller, and a damn good one. Credit where its due.

So our businessman has sunk money into T-34s. THey are not superkits, but they are not too bad. Even the most anal T-34 fans will build it happily because it is so much better than what else is out there. We suffer with detail errors, fix them ourselves, swap ideas back and forth, and some of us make T-34 parts. We mutter, but we mutter quietly between one another, usually in English.

Then along comes #6388, arguably the most important variant of early T-34s, perhaps more than the KhPZ standard or later Sormovo tanks, and it's hopelessly botched. The single most important part, the upper hull with its unique joints, is useless. And I do mean useless.

I like T-34s. I build T-34s. Ever since I saw it, I have wanted to build the one that Don Greer illustrated for the front of Steve Zaloga's landmark monograph, Squadron/Signal No.20, ca. 1973. It is an STZ-built T-34 from one of the January 1942 production batches, one of 200 tanks built there with appliqué armour, part of which were issued to 130 Tank Brigade, Southern Front, and was lost when the unit was destroyed for the first time around Voronezh in May 1942. (The brigade was reformed with later STZ tanks, wiped out again in July-August, and not reformed.) Other similar tanks were delivered to 3 Gv.TkBde, Kalinin Front. Those are the ones (with) s ekranami.

Modellers building German tanks examine the provenance of their models minutely. If you enter an AMPS contest, that's expected. Work from a photograph, and know what the crew ate that day. Why can't modellers of Soviet tanks do the same thing? Because there are no easy kits...

So along comes #6388. It's screwed. Hue and cry (faint) and we wait. And mutter. And hope.

DML released #6264, a German tank, the Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf E. Everybody bitched because the drive sprocket was in the wrong place. Badda-boom, along comes #6300, the Vorpanzer IV E, and there's a new lower hull and mounting tabs. DML quietly slips these new parts into #6264. I bought the kit after they had done this, and was baffled by the fuss until I saw Terry's photos. Frankly, it impressed the hell out of me that a manufacturer cared enough about their customers to do that. Well done, Freddie!

That was before I had been back into tanks for very long. Three years later, I am more cynical, and impatient with DML for how they have handled their T-34s. I am not alone, either: witness the tenor of this thread, and many others like it.

So, what do you build, Kurt?

I build Soviet armour, and don't know a hell of a lot about Shermans, except the Red Army used about 5000 M4A2s, both guns. I heard a rumour that since DSML released their M4A2 #6188, they released another M4A2 that had corrected intake grilles on the top of the engine compartment. Have you heard anything about that?

Cheers

Scott Fraser