Russian WW2 KV Series of Tanks

Research by Ian Sadler IPMS UK Armour TAS

152 mm Kit No T 00312

KV-1E 1941 Ekranami Kit No T 00357

The KV -1 1941 Ekranami version can be built as per the kit but the following different variations or sub types have been noted.

No 2… build as per kit for the turret only, there is no hull appliqué armour evident at all see page 114 in the Japanese book Ground power Special AFV vol 6.

No 3… Again as per kit but on the rear of the Turret, the bolted appliqué armour is not flush at the sides it is open-ended. A good illustration is in Military Chronicles Issue no 4 /2002 on bottom of page 30. Also note the full height of the turret letter B and its position to the left hand side of the rear face of the turret. Also there is no appliqué armoured V to the front of the turret race. Lastly it has no bolted hull appliqué armour fitted.

No 4…Again as per kit for turret and lower hull armour; but the side armour on hull is made from two pieces. It has half round cut outs, two per sheet, and stands up proud of the hull about 2 to 3 inches and is welded on. Note the cut outs are not in line with track support brackets but inboard of them. The upper hull front armour also has the added extra square strip of metal added and in front of hull hatch. It also has the rare alternative layout for the rear bolted appliqué armour two vertical lines of 3 per line unfortunately only 6 bolts out of a possible 9 can be seen. It also has as far as I can make out a 3 digit number 113 at the very rear of the turret see top right photograph on page 22 in Stalins Giganten KV 1 and KV 2 by Das Waffen Arsenal original German publication. Also of note is the late pattern road wheels fitted to this they are number 7.

No 5… Again as per the kit for the turret only but on the hull, the appliqué armour is made from two oblong sheets of metal welded above the track guards in place of the bolted on armour. These sheets stand proud of the hull and are flush with the bottom of the turret. It also has the square bar welded to the top of the drivers front appliqué armour.

The wheels are as per the kit. This is in Tankograd Early Versions top of page 46.

No 6… Lastly as per the kit in full but with an added oblong strip running the full length of the two side bolted plates of armour above the track guards. This extra strip is above the bolts line on hull appliqué armour; it is flush with the bottom of the turret. The wheels are from the front to rear Ist 3 No 2 then next is as per kit, and then last two back to No 2. In Tankograd Soviet Special 2002 page 50 top photograph and also on page 51 the top photograph.

Other details that can be added are the early square fuel tanks as well as the stowage boxes. I have observed several layouts but the most common is two fuel tanks between the last pair of track guard support brackets on the left hand side looking from the rear towards the front. On the other side, the middle 3 track guard brackets have two fuel tanks per set making 4 in all; this brings the total to 6 per vehicle. The wheels on this one are first three two no 3 next one is no 4 and last two are no 3 .This well covered in Tankograd Soviet Special 2002 top of page 51.

A good example of a none standard wheel layout is illustrated in Tankograd No 09 July 2000, on page 44 the bottom photograph. Here we have from the front the first two wheels are No 1 and the next four are all No 4. Note also the lack of any hull appliqué armour and it does not have the V turret ring appliqué armour fitted.

Wheel types observed can be no 1 on the drawing, then No 3, 4 and lastly No 7. You can have a mix of two types on a single side; mostly they are No 1 and 3. There are bound to be more variations than I have listed.

A further illustration of mixed types of wheels is in Front line Illustrated KV special combined issues on the bottom of page 60 photo no 66. This shows clearly the first to road wheels are No 1 and the rest are No 4.

As far as turret markings I have found very few photographs of them marked in white lettering, unfortunately I cannot translate them but they are in a long out of print Russian publication called Soviet Heavy Tanks WW2 published in 1996. The clearest is on the bottom of page 11; it is unusual in that it has a number in between the slogans and they are also unusual as they are written in to different styles.

One has a white star below the slogan it is Tank No 2 in above list. This is now available in Tankograd Early versions at the of top of page 43. There is an unusual marking on the turret of the tank on bottom of page 50 in the same book, it has a triangle with the letter V inside it; this is repeated on the turret side.

White Number markings are also hard to come by the best example is on the top of page 44 in the Tankograd Early Variants. As an extra bonus study the lack of appliqué armour to the hull from the initial production batch. Also in the same publication on the bottom of page 43 and top of page 44 the tank has not only the numbers 309 but in the rear face of the turret a white circle.

As to camouflage I can find only one speculative photograph in Tankograd KV early versions bottom of page 44. I could be wrong but it looks like two tone green and brown in a broad wavy line on the rear and side of the turret.

There has been some concern about the fitting of the appliqué armour to the turret sides in the kit. A very good example of miss alignment can be found in the middle photograph on page 51 in the Tankograd Early Versions.

On page 19 of Waldemar Trojca KV 1 -KV 2 publications there is a grainy photograph of the turret from the rear looking forward this shows the lower section of the turret appliqué armour is miss aligned and note the two types of wheels kit one and No 1 in the list. This is a very early production tanks as it has no hull appliqué armour fitted to it.

An other example of this miss alignment can be seen on page 64-65 in groinp power magazine august 2000 no 8.

This tank has only the appliqué armour fitted to the driver’s front hull plate.

Conclusions on the KV 1E Bolted on Appliqué Armoured Tanks…

In the end it comes down to finding the photograph of the particular version of tank you want to build and using the information contained in the photographs produce one of the above listed types. Safe in the knowledge that the final models are correct and were fielded in the war. This section is produced out of order just to prove that factories received various components and fitted them as they received them, this was contrary to any orders from up on high. The priority was to get them out to the troops as quickly as possible. So in the end most combinations are possible.

A very good example of this is in Front line illustrated KV special combined issue on the bottom of page 5 in second half. It shows that two types of hull: round and angled, along with 3 types of turret -- all being fitted on the same day and at the same time. Another factory photograph on top of page 10 again in second half on book shows clearly one hull type angled with 5 turret types, including (in the bottom right foreground) the rare simplified cast turret. Compare with the top plate of the tank in centre with gun turned to right. This photo will be examined more closely in the section about the cast turret KV-1.

Please note I have listed only the very best photographic reference with each type of KV but I have used 51 separate publications for the research. When I have completed the full research all the books and magazines I used will be included as a separate index.

Foot Note, I have not included the various alterations and additions to this series of tanks by the German Army. That is a separate study in its own right and I feel it needs someone who is more versed in The German Army than myself.

Nor are they published in the correct historical context for the years produced. The reason is they reflect the order in which the kits came available in the UK.