I am putting this up here so that I am inspired to finish up this conversion. The history of this is messed up, at best, and basically involves a fight between a tank gun designer/manufacturer and tank designers after the invasion of Finland but before the invasion of the Soviet Union. They came up with a great gun for that time period, 107mm that could penetrate 120mm of armor at 30 deg at 1000m using “hot” rounds. Impressive but they had no tank for it. In desperation, the gun designed had it mounted on a supposedly standard KV-2, shot a lot of rounds, broke the barrel, had the barrel replaced, designed the “hot” one-piece rounds, found the turret was not long enough, supposedly extended the trunnion and mounts further forward (new parts - what all photos seem to show) for the ammo, showed great promise, no new tank to mount the gun on, KV-2 production had stopped so no tank to mount on, German’s invade…production facility over-run. Done. The only modified vehicle was never found again (yet?) so it may have participated in the defense of Leningrad, it may have been reverted back to the 152mm gun, no one is sure.
I decided to make the conversion because I liked the idea of the 107mm armed KV-2. Did the first conversion for the Trumpeter kit with a few new simple pieces to make the parts. THEN I found out Machinenkrieger had done one AND did his compliant with the photos of what I think was the second version of the modification with the extended trunnion cheeks. I then made a somewhat more complicated conversion for what I am calling the second version. The second version will work with both Trumpeter and Tamiya kits.
I am trying to get at least my Trumpeter version done.
So. 3D designed gun, mantlet (it is unique, not from the KV-3, KV-4, or the KV-122), inside filler curved pieces to represent the rotor mounting and to block open space with the rain cover off the gun, and two lift rings seen in some photos. Simple and when on the Trumpeter kit, I think it looks good. It will have new 3D printed deck screens, new 3D printed tracks, and a new 3D printed blackout light cover (hey, I think it looks cool and is worth mentioning). Again, I’m just trying to gain some momentum with this and cross the finish line where I will show off all the cool stuff.
Parts for the second/later version which will work on the Trumpeter OR Tamiya kits (the Tamiya kit needs a new front mantlet regardless and I have not made a initial version yet). Gun, Mantlet, Lift rings (4 - two for the mantlet and two for the trunnions), new turret front face with extended trunnions, and a new full rotor to fit the trunnion.
