The Soviet T\-34 medium tank needs no introduction, being the most famous tank ever built especially as has seen service across the globe throughout the twentieth century’s most brutal wars. However, despite this fame, little has been written about its design changes. While most tank enthusiasts can differentiate between the ‘T\-34\/76’ and the ‘T\-34\-85’, identifying different factory production batches has proven more elusive. Until now. With nearly six hundred photographs, mostly taken by soldiers who both operated and fought against the T\-34, this book seeks to catalogue and contextualise even the subtlest details to create a true ‘T\-34 continuum’. The book begins with the antecedents of the T\-34, the ill\-fated BT ‘fast tank’ series and the influence of the traumatic Spanish Civil War before moving to an in\-depth look at the T\-34’s prototypes. After this, every factory production change is catalogued and contextualised, with never\-before\-seen photographs and stunning technical drawings. Furthermore, four battle stories are also integrated to explain the changing battle context when major production changes take place. The production story is completed with sections on the T\-34’s post\-war production (and modification) by Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the People’s Republic of China, as well as T\-34 variants.

The Russian T-34 was the most influential tank design of World War II, with its sloping armour, heavy hitting firepower and rapid mobility. It first saw combat in the summer of 1941, and its qualities soon set it apart from other medium tanks of the period. However, its battlefield superiority did not last long, and it was soon matched by German designs such as the Panther. Several models, designated by years, were produced between 1940 and 1943, featuring changes such as upgunning (model 1941) and redesigning the turret (model 1943). More T-34s were produced by the Allies than any other tank. The T-34-76 was produced until mid-1944, when it was replaced with the better armed T-34-85, the subject matter of a planned future Osprey Modelling title. The modeling community is well served with several full kits and a plethora of aftermarket items to cater for the interest in the T-34/76, and it remains one of the most popular World War II Allied modeling topics with new kits being released. This title guides the reader through the basics of assembly and finishing, before progressing to more advanced modelling projects using conversion kits and extensive scratchbuilding. It covers both 1/35- and 1/76-scale versions of the T-34/76.

The T-34/76 was a major step forward in tank design and its appearance on the battlefield during the German invasion of Russia shocked the Germans into developing new AFVs such as the Panzer V Panther. Produced in huge numbers, its later variant the T-34/85 would see extended postwar service with Communist-supplied countries around the world - such as the Arab countries, the North Korea, North Vietnam and China. With detailed step-by-step model photography, specially commissioned walkround photography, scale drawings and wartime shots, these books will provide all the details needed to model the main T-34 version - the Model 1943 - and its variants. There is a full roundup of the models available on the market, details of where you can see the real thing, a select bibliography, and survey of websites of interest.

The T-34-85 tank is one of those rare weapons that have remained in service for more than half a century. First introduced in 1944, it has seen combat in nearly every corner of the globe. Steven Zaloga and Jim Kinnear look at this long-serving tank at length. Although long obsolete in Europe, it has proven a reliable and potent weapon in many Third World conflicts, and is still in service with more than a dozen armies around the world.

The design and development programmes which led to the world-beating Soviet T-34 WW2 tank.

The T-55 tank first appeared in 1958, a result of numerous improvements made to the (1949) T-54 series, and with a lineage stretching back to the wartime T-34 and the T-44. The T-55 series has seen service around the world with many armed forces, including the Warsaw Pact countries, Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Poland, Somalia, Sudan, and Vietnam, and has seen action in key modern conflicts, most recently in the two Gulf Wars. This title showcases the talents of several leading modellers, and presents Serbian, Iraqi, Czech, Syrian, and Russian variants across 1/35 and 1/72 scales. It also features several challenging projects that involve extensive scratchbuilding.

A hotly-debated topic amongst tank buffs is of the relative merits of the Soviet and American tanks of World War II. Using recently revealed documents, Steven Zaloga sheds light on the crucial tank battles of the Korean War as the rival superpowers' finest tanks battled for supremacy. The Soviet-equipped North Korean Peoples Army initially dominated the battlefield with the seemingly unstoppable T34-85. As US tank battalions hastily arrived throughout the late summer and early autumn of 1950, the M26 Pershing took the fight to North Korea with increasing success.

The T-34 was the most influential tank design of World War 2. When first introduced into combat in the summer of 1941, it represented a revolutionary leap forward in tank design. Its firepower, armour protection and mobility were superior to that of any other medium tank of the period. This superiority did not last long. While the T-34 underwent a series of incremental improvements during 1943, it was being surpassed by new German tank designs, most notably the Panther. This title traces the life of the original T-34 through all its difficulties to eventual success.