Tamiya's latest offering is of a late WW2 JS-III (IS-III for the purists out there who know there's no letter "J" in the Cyrillic alphabet used by Russia) heavy tank which began entering service with the Red Army in 1945. The 43-ton tank was designed in 1944 and made maximum use of sloped armour plates. The tank in most other ways was similar to its predecessors, the JS-II and JS-IIm, using the same L/43 122mm gun and 520 horsepower diesel engine. It had a top speed of 40 kph/26 mph. In addition to being sloped, the tank's armour was very heavy - up to 250mm on the front of the turret.

The prototype, Tamiya tells us, was completed in October 1944 with mass production beginning in 1945. Whether the sleek new tank saw combat against Germany before the war ended is debatable. One unit had been equipped with Stalin III's before the German surrender but may not have reached the front in time to fire a shot. More certain is the fact that the big tank was used against Japanese forces in Manchuria when the Soviets declared war on Japan in August, 1945. The West learned of the JS-III's existence on Sept. 7, 1945, when several of them rolled past military representatives of the victorious Allied nations on a reviewing stand at a victory parade in Berlin.

The JS-III's sleek lines and gracefully curved hemispherical turret made the slab-sided tanks of the Allies look antique by comparison. It, and the T-54/T-55 family which followed, did much to shape the way modern tanks look - at least until the advent of Chobham armour. When production of the JS-III ended in 1951, about 1,800 had been manufactured.

The Model

Tamiya's kit consists of 201 pieces, all but four of which are used to build the JS-III. The track is made of the new polyvinyl material which is cemented together with normal styrene glue. A fiber string is provided from which to fabricate tow cables. One crew figure is proved, consisting of a body with separate head, arms and pistol.

At first glance, the kit seems too simple. But then one must remember that the original JSIII did not have a great deal of projections and attachment points, either. The very smooth and sleek lines of the rolled armour plates of the upper hull contrast nicely with the cast metal texture of the lower hull front plate and the turret. If anything, the cast metal texturing is a bit overdone and would benefit from a bit of toning down with coarse steel wool.

Assembly of the model begins with the road wheels, return rollers, idler wheels and drive sprocket. All have good surface details, replicating the heavy, clunky looking Soviet engineering of the time. Except for the drive sprocket which is attached to its axle by Tamiya's traditional polyvinyl cap, all other wheels are cemented in place (i.e. a non-functional suspension/drive train). The wheels are nicely detailed on both sides. Step two of the assembly focuses on the four external fuel tanks and the rear upper hull plate. As shown in the assembly illustration, the two rings on the plate need to point toward the bottom of the plate. I also overlooked attaching the third (middle) grab handle on the plate. I'd leave the gun travel lock off the vehicle until after painting, though.

Step three shows the attachment of the separate road wheel arms and the four travel stops provided for the first, second, fourth and sixth road wheel arms. Two templates are provided to assist in aligning the roadwheel arms so as to ensure all six meet the ground evenly. The two rear hull tow hooks are cemented in place as well. I was disappointed to see that Tamiya had neglected to provide the spring-loaded tow cable retaining clips such as are provided in DML's JSII and JSIIm kits. The clips are shown on the box cover art, but will have to be scratchbuilt by the modeler for both the front and rear pair of tow hooks. Wheels and sprockets are attached in step four. A mud scraper is provided as part A9 that is positioned so as to remove mud that might accumulate in the real tank's drive sprocket. This is best attached after the sprocket is slipped onto its axle.

In step five we tackle the upper hull details, including the driver's hatch (detailed on both sides), tow cable mounts, exhausts, turret flanges, driving lights, position lights, and horn. The lens for the driving light is molded in the same olive coloured styrene as the tank and would better be replaced by a clear lens. The external fuel tanks are attached at this time and feature a nicely detailed, somewhat delicate in 1/35th scale, lock nut attachment system.

Once the upper hull detailing is finished, it is attached to the lower hull. I was disappointed to see that Tamiya did not provide parts to blank over the bottom of the hull sponsons above the tracks - this is to say the track is visible from the open turret race.

The instructions call for the track to be installed before moving on to constructing the turret. To me at least, the polyvinyl tracks in the kit looked too thick, with muted details. I replaced them with white metal tracks made by Fruilmodelismo for the JSII/JSIII series of tanks. Fruilmodelismo tracks are available from Chesapeake Model Designs, PO Box 393, Monkton, MD 21111. The difference is appearance is significant, especially as the traditional track sag of the JS series of tanks can only be replicated this way. The Tamiya tracks fit too tightly to induce any suggestion of track sag. I used 77 links of white metal track per side. I did not use the white metal drive sprocket that's also provided with the tracks as the Tamiya kit's sprocket was adequate and fit well. Too, the fact that it is removable easily (because of being held in place with the polyvinyl cap) facilitates installing the metal tracks. I painted the tracks with Testor's burnt metal buffing metalizer, applying it by brush directly from the bottle. When dry, the track was treated with "Rustall" and allowed to dry again before being installed on the model.

Assembly of the turret is covered in three steps. Note that the periscopes in the two turret roof hatches are separate pieces as are the handles for closing and locking the hatches from the inside. The gun is held in place by friction on the trunions. This is one area where Tamiya should have provided some form of counter weight. The extremely long gun barrel tends to droop to maximum depression as a result. No detail is provided for the turret interior aside from rudimentary seats for the commander and loader on the turret race. An unusual ring mount is provided for the 12.7mm DShK machine gun provided with the kit. This fits to the back of the turret. The DShK gun is nicely detailed and is a great improvement over the one provided in the old T-62 kit. The turret was attached to the tank and the DShK to the turret to complete the model.

For painting the JSIII, I selected Tamiya dark green acrylic. Once dry, this was given a wash of water-based dark walnut wood stain to accentuate shadows and give the tank a shiny surface for application of decals. The wood stain needs to be given a few hours to dry though, or the water from the decals will wash it off. Tamiya provides markings for four vehicles (three large, 3-digit turret numbers and one diamond-shaped turret brigade insignia) but does not identify the units to which the tanks belonged or the locations in which they served. The obligatory parade red star also is included. Once the decals had dried, I sprayed the model with Floquil Figure Flat to regain the matte finish.

The crew figure was painted according to Tamiya's instructions and placed in the turret. A brass rod, painted black, was installed with crazy glue to represent the antenna.

To sum up, this is a very nice kit of a strangely popular vehicle. I personally hope a JS-IIIm will follow shortly. The JS-III, not having seen significant service anywhere in the world, has an underwhelming combat record to say the least. The tank was, however, the precursor of the great heavy tanks of the 1950's - Conqueror, M-103, T-10 - and thus deserves a place in any Soviet armour collection. The JS-IIIm, of course, is more renown for its service in the Middle East in both Egyptian and Israeli hands.

References

JS-II, by Steven Zaloga, Osprey/Vanguard Publications 19xx. ISBN ???.