For this week's Flames of War Friday project we asked our fans over on the Mighty Ape Hobbies Facebook Page to decide which armoured unit they'd like to see; either the Soviet T-34 Tankovy ; or the Japanese Light Sensha Platoon and the ubiquitous T-34 was the winner. So lets take a closer look at the plastic T-34 Tankovy boxed set.

The T-34 was the most produced tank of World War II and is the mainstay of Soviet armoured forces for both the mid-war and late war period and this set enables you to field 2 of the most common variants: the T-34/76 obr 1943 and the T-34/85 obr 1944. The kit includes:

• 5× plastic T-34 hulls
• 5× plastic T-34/76 turrets
• 5× plastic T-34/85 turrets
• 5× metal Tank Commanders
• 15× Rare Earth magnets
• 1× Soviet decal sheet

With both turret versions and magnets included you can magnetise all 5 tanks so that you can simply swap turrets to change between the T-34/76 and T-34/85. This gives a great amount of flexibility when choosing writing your lists and means you can use these tanks for both the mid-war and late war periods. Combine that with the similar versatility of the Tank Killer Company and you'll see that this is a fantastic perk for Soviet players.

As I was expecting from these newer plastic Flames of War kits assembly was very straightforward but I reccomend following the online assembly guide as there are a number of components on the sprues aren't used on the T-34. I also recommend using a thicker plastic glue when gluing the hull and turrets as otherwise you can end up with a small gap between them.

The most important thing when assembling these tanks is to make sure the polarity of the magnets is correct when you superglue them in place in the hull and turret. I'd recommend double checking before you glue to avoid making the mistake I did on 4 of mine as pulling them back out once the superglue has fully set is a little bit problematic!

For painting once again I used the AK Interactive 4BO Russian Green paint set, although this time I also added some soft-edge camouflage using the Russian Tan. For weathering I've used the Dark Streaking Grime, Rust Streaks and Earth Effects.

I'll be adding the decals and doing the final matte varnish this coming weekend, as well as painting the T-34/76 turrets and the tank commanders.