People!
I need help from the experts!!
I found a couple of captured T34/76’s in Finnish service and now I am trying to identify what version it is. To me it looks like a 1940 hull with a 1943 turret and drivers hatch.
Then some homemade boxes and additional periscopes on and around the turretroof.
Early 1940’s tracks, but later dated wheels. Oh… and a softedge turret?
Am I correct??
And while we’re at it… what is stored at the right rearcorner???
Some form of horn or exhausts, ratcheted down?
The objects stored on the rear hull side are ratcheting, screw-type jacks. As for the rest of the variations…this will take some research.
The domes on the fenders are armored headlight covers, look at a T-35 for an example.
It’s a later production hull, from at least late 1942, when the hexagonal turret was introduced. The access plate on the rear is circular, which was a feature from 1942 on. Also the drivers hatch has the later smaller twin periscopes as opposed to the earlier single periscope. The lack of an armored mantlet over the hull MG ball mount is not unheard of in 1942/1943 production.
They could be leftovers from the original factory, or salvaged off of an older tank to make this one operational again. The solid rim road wheels are from early production, like the tracks. The next type introduced was the steel rim rubberless cast type, followed by the later “spiderweb” rubber rim type.
Well, part of the answer has been found, thanks to @Stikpusher 1942 suggestion.
It indeed is a 1942 with a socalled “laminate” turret.
Known in the Finnish army as Ps.321-4, according to Mr. Larka.
I was given Zvezda’s T34/76 and was thinking of making it into such a Finnish version. It would seem that that would be rather difficult and would need a lot of extra parts.
Too bad really.
Although Finnish T34s are a popular modelling subject, it’s worth remembering that the Finns actually had very few of them. There were I think never more than nine T34/76s and nine T34-85s in service and that was in 1945. For most of the war there were just three or four '76s recorded as being in service. The '76s were a mix of early 1940/41 types and later 1943 types with hexagonal turrets. Some of the Finnish vehicles were captured directly but later on, some were supplied by the Germans from their own captured stocks.
Seems spare parts where taken from whatever could be salvaged.
Back to the lights on the fenders. Is there any model kits or aftermarket parts that represents that feature? I don’t recall any T-34 kits and I have not explored T-35’s. Same goes for the engine grill.
