Saturday, 22 January 2011

Mystery T-34s

Regular readers will have noticed that I have not posted anything for a few days.  This is because I have been away in London for a work-related conference and dinner.  The speakers at my company's annual meeting included Nick Robinson (the BBC's Political Editor), England Cricketer Alistair Cook and selector Geoff Miller, one of the Chilean miners who spent 69 days trapped underground, and a Mr D Beckham - who I understand plays some football.

Anyway, in between all the business stuff, I managed to grab some wargames-related activity - lunch with Alex Kleanthous and dinner with Bob Cordery and his wife.  Bob and I did actually manage to play a quick game in between chatting, looking at his toys and trying on silly Russian hats.  As I was leaving, Bob (clearly glad I was going) kindly gave me a couple of 'surplus' 20mm T-34s he had. 
I have photographed these below and would be glad of any information about their makers.  Both are the same size - slightly bigger than my Airfix & Matchbox (1/76) models and shorter than the Esci (1/72) T-34.  Hull length is the same as the Fujimi (1/76) T-34.
Firstly there is a T-34m42.  Both models are metal and plastic.

The underside of the m42.  It shows signs of having been fixed to a display plinth.  The tracks are a bit nasty and as can be seen, one of the wheels fell off as I was taking the photo!
The second model is an m40 with the early style gun and mantlet.  This is to my eyes a rather nicer model.

Again it looks to have been fixed to a plinth at some point.  The tracks are more detailed than the m42.
Any help identifying these would be appreciated, and thanks again to Bob for his generosity.

Added 23/01/11 at 1115 GMT:
Thanks for all your helpful comments about these models.  I can now confirm that the m42 is by Deagostini  (see http://tanks.deagostini.co.uk/tanks.aspx) and the m40 by Dragon (http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/catalog/dragon_armor/).  Both will eventually find their way into one of the two Megablitz T-34 boxes.  I'll not repaint them as such but will add a fair bit of weathering to make them look suitably scruffy.
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10 comments:

  1. Tim Gow22 January 2011 at 22:25

    Rich
    They both have the feel of magazine giveaways - I couldn't identify either of them. Bob thought one was from a Fench magazine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bartender22 January 2011 at 23:09

    Oh man! You should have got all those guests to have signed your tank and then sold it on Ebay!

    Equally, I would have asked the miner for a rock to paint over and use for terrain.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeff Smith22 January 2011 at 23:29

    Tim,

    The second one looks like it may be by Dragon Armor. Dead ringer for the Mod 1940 on their website. I had some of these a couple of years ago, but moved them on.

    Jeff Smith

    ReplyDelete
  4. Geordie an Exiled FoG23 January 2011 at 02:08

    Hmm curious

    I would bet on a short production run for a magazine

    I noticed that the Tank Collector Mag had different variants (paint style) depending on which part of Europe they were selling to

    Wether this was intentional or a production quiry is beyond me

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul23 January 2011 at 02:31

    Yep I believe Rich is correct about the first one and I have a hunch the second T34 is a Easy Model.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Greek_Geek23 January 2011 at 06:06

    I have one, suprisingly similar to your first T-34. It was in a DeAgostini tank collection. I think even the markings are the same.

    Dimitri

    ReplyDelete
  7. Al23 January 2011 at 09:21

    They're alright, are you going to paint them or leave them as they are?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tim Gow23 January 2011 at 11:07

    Bartender
    I think the miner is probably sick of the sight of rocks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tim Gow23 January 2011 at 11:10

    Jeff
    Just had a look at the Dragon website (http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/catalog/dragon_armor/) - yes - it's the same model.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tim Gow23 January 2011 at 11:12

    Dimitri
    The first model is indeed from DeAgostini (http://tanks.deagostini.co.uk/tanks.aspx).

    ReplyDelete