SMK heavy tank state trials Kubinka 1939 1/35th scale

The massive Sergey Mironovich Kirov or SMK was first proposed in 1937 as a ‘anti-tank gun destroyer’ with shell proof armour alongside a competing design, the T-100. In a meeting in may 1938 a decision to design a third tank with only one turret was made which resulted in the KV series of tanks. So the SMK can be traced right down to the T-10 heavy tanks of the cold war. These three vehicles were manufactured in Leningrad and sent to Kubinka for trials in September 1939. Shortly afterwards, the three were sent to Finland manned in part by factory crews. After initial success the SMK drove over a large mine and was disabled. Due to its size it couldn’t be recovered until the following spring and then only by six T-28 tanks! On reaching PerkiJarvi railway station the SMK was dismantled and cut up to be transported back, it was never rebuilt, and was scrappped in the 1950's. Of the three tanks only the KV was deemed suitable and went into production.

This not a cheap kit to build, I based my model on two Tamiya KV-1B’s, three Eduard KV photo etched sets (although leaving enough spares to build one KV), two Model Kasten KV tracks (alternatively you could use Dragon models JS/ISU tracks, Jadar Models sell KV1 metal track links at $9.90 or the inferior rubber band kit tracks), Jordi Rubio 76mm and 45mm aluminium gun barrels.I have also submitted a full article on how to build this kit with plans.

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