Soviet Steel: Exploring the KV-1 and KV-2 Tank

Please welcome the newest member to the No Mans Land team - Dean. Today Dean shares his latest project Soviet heavy KV tanks!

Hi everyone, Today, I will be showing off the beast of the east during the mid-war period. The monstrous KV-1, the Kliment Voroshilov (Russian: Климент Ворошилов) Named after defence Commissar, and Commander Kliment Voroshilov this monster weighed a staggering 45 tonnes and offered its 5-man crew excellent protection with 90mm armour in the front, 75mm on the side and 70mm in the rear. This allowed the KV-1 to shrug off much of the Wehrmacht anti-tank of the period (until heavier guns came in!)

For this vehicle, I started with Army Green from Vallejo. While it may be a bit brighter than Soviet tanks of the time, once all the washes and weathering have been applied, the colour darkens to something I’m happy with. From there, I brushed the tank in watered-down Athonian Camoshade from Citatel, adding a second coat that I ran down the flat panels to add rain streaks, mainly visible along the turret. After that, I sponged on Orruk Flesh from Citadel to give bright green specks across the tank and then spent a significant amount of time (Around 2 hours!) painstakingly applying hand-brushed chips to the vehicle. I did this with a size 1 brush and Leather Brown from Vallejo. After that, I filled those areas with Leadbelcher from Citadel to make them look like the factory paint was being stripped from combat use. The tracks for the vehicle were done in Vallejo’s Black Grey, a favourite of mine! With a Vallejo Flat Brown ‘wash’ mixed with a lighter layer of Skrag brown from Citadel. I then dry-brushed the area silver to give the tracks a metallic look!

 

Before moving on, this kit from Warlord Games also allows this monster to be built as the KV-2. A bunker-busting heavy tank boasting a 152mm howitzer in a turret that comes straight from Wallace and Gromit! Due to its ineffectiveness, not many of these tanks saw active combat. The combination of a massive gun and tremendous weight saw it struggle on slight inclines andmade it too slow to warrant mass production of these beasts!

KV2 Tank

Now, back to the painting! To finish the tracks, I smothered a small layer of Dark Earth from AK interactive; this allowed me to add more layers of the parts within the tracks that would catch the wet mud being flung around the undercarriage. I build this in layers, focusing it within the links of the track and upon the torsion bars. I even did light layers on the hull and around the turret ring, although more sparingly! And that leaves you with a relatively simple-looking tank that will fit into most early / mid war Soviet armies. This tank would see active service until 1943, with its Swansong being the second battle of Kursk where it would be replaced by the IS series, which itself was a KV variant!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this I and look forward to producing more content for No Man’s Land Studio in the future.

Happy New Year!

Dean

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