"Suggest some uses for my spare T34 turrets" Topic

Hi,

I have quite a few plastic T34 76/85 turrets left over from the Flames of War plastic kits which are brilliant by the way.

You get two turret options on each sprue but one hull. I'm looking for some ideas on how to use up the extra turrets other than just having spare 76/85 variants.

So far I have thought of:

T34 Turret bunkers for the Germans

Captured T34s with Axis decals/crews but keeping the original Russian green base colour for a quick turret/hull swap.

Destroyed/Damaged markers.

Are there any interesting or unusual variants that you can think of?

You can add them to scratch built trains and I think there were some river boats that used them as a gun turret.

Make some walkers for weird war II?

A few ideas:

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link

Some of my 1/76 T-34 also came with 76 and 85 turrets. I built and painted both so I could swap out turrets for early/late war units.

Syrians used them too as bunkers in the Golan Heights IIRC

I think you'll find the Yugos used them as bunkers too. Yugos usually used whole tanks, but of course only the turret would be visible.

Does anyone know whether the Soviets used T-34 turret bunkers on the Chinese border? I'm thinking mostly T-54 and T-55, but maybe not exclusively.

Thanks Fellas, some great info there.

I'm focusing on WW2 Eastern Front. Found some more photos that have given me some ideas for terrain markers and objectives.

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Give a few away to folks who need them. I don't.

I have used some of my Roco T-34 turrets to make armored trains and river boats. Recently I did a series on converting the T-34/76 turrets into T-34/57 turrets. It gives you an additional option for the tanks.

I like the idea of making bunkers, and a couple wrecked ones too. I have seen wrecked ones with small dug outs under them being used as a bunker or HQ; I plan on doing that too.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

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Forgot the link. Several pages long.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

I painted all my spares so I can use them as either 76mm or 85mm tanks.

However, obvious other uses are Armoured trains or bunkers.

Thanks for the inspiration everyone.

Bunkermeister, I totally forgot about the T34/57 option (bookmarked your blog, cheers). I found another very useful site about making 1/35 conversions for this. Lots of useful data and more importantly pictures.

Looks like the 57mm option was first introduced in 1941, fitted to the earlier turrets to be used as a stop gap tank destroyer. After Kursk in 1943 it had a bit of a come back and was fitted to some of the later turrets.

Everyday is a school day.

link

Will keep my eyes peeled for a suitable train or boat to convert.

I am building a tank factory and using mine as fluff

Major Tom, I used a bit of wood, a 1 x 2 and trimmed one end into a pointy part as the bow and built up the superstructure. The drawing up above of the 1124 series of boats from haywire were monkey simple to make for wargaming models.
wio.ru/fleet/ww2armorb.htm
They made a couple hundred similar boats.
Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

Hi Mike, scratch building the boats seems to be the cheapest solution. I have looked at some 1/700 ship kits to mod and the length seems fine (16-18 cm) but they look like they would be a touch too narrow.

If I can get one cheap enough I'll try and pick up a Revell HMS Ariadne (Minelayer) and give it a go anyway.

Thanks for the additional link and if I find a simple conversion option for a boat I'll post back.

PS. I am stealing your T34 ARV and bridge layer ideas because they look too cool not have in a collection.