Product Features and Details
Artitec 1870010 Highlights:
Model: Artitec 1870010 1/87 scale T-34/85 is a resin kit and is unpainted.
Prototype: In 1942 German Panzer IVs began to be equipped with the 7.5 cm KwK 40 high velocity cannon which could penetrate roughly 75 mm of sloping armor from 1,500 m. This combined with the introduction of the Panther and Tiger tanks in late 1942/early 1943 rapidly eroded any technological advantages previously held by the T-34/76. To meet these new opponents the Soviets in the short-term decided to up-gun the T-34 by installing a larger and better armored turret on the T-34/76 body. This new turret housed a 85mm ZiS-S-53 cannon, an antiaircraft gun repurposed into a tank gun and able to penetrate 92 mm of armor at 1,500 m with an armor-piercing shell. While not as well protected as the Panther or Tiger, the T-34/85 had better armor and was more maneuverable than the Panzer IV and StuG III. Its significantly lower cost than its German rivals and the fact that it could employ all of the T-34/76’s components minus turret and gun meant that it could be easily and rapidly produced. 22,559 T-34/85 were produced between February 1944 and May 1945.
