I was watching "Antiques Roadshow" (the U.S. version) on PBS this evening and a fellow had an interesting model tank that his uncle sent back from Europe during WWII. The guy said he was about four years old when he received it and that his uncle was in "Patton's Third Army" during the "Battle of the Bulge."

It was a in a rather plain wooden box, but I gasped when he opened the lid. Inside was a very nice model of a T-34/76 Model 1943. The appraiser correctly IDed it as a "Russian T-34, " correctng the old boy who said he thought it was a "Tiger tank." (you'd think that in the 60 years this guy has had this thing, he'd have made a trip to the library to find out what it was ... but I digress ... )

The model looked to be somewhere between 1/20 and 1/25 scale. In the close-ups, it looked like it may have been made from wood and was painted dark green. The main gun moved up and down, and the hull machine gun moved. Also, it had "rubber band" type tracks and the wheels turned and tracks could move.

The appraiser pointed out some German writing on the side of the tank, which, roughly translated, said the model was "for official use only" and that any misuse would be punished. He said he had never seen one like it and guessed that it was some kind of wargaming model. He estimated its value at from $1,000 to $1,500 US.

I've seen photos of recovering wounded German soldiers building tank and aircraft models as a sort of physical/vocational therapy in hospitals, but they didn't quite look like this model. I know that the Germans studied the T-34 design and many design elements were inclorporated in the design of the Panther. My guess is that This model was either part of that design process (possibly from a tank factory) or it was a training aide -- perhaps for tank hunting infantry, so they could see the strengths and weaknesses of the T-34 in three dimensions before facing them in combat.

Regardless of its origin or purpose, I think the appraisal was low. What a collectible -- and the guy who owns it doesn't even know what he has ...

That's petty cool, Bob, I watched a few minutes of that one too, but missed the tank. Are we going to see you tomorrow night at Kelly's?

Rob

Rob:

Wish I could make it, but we're down to one car and the wife has dibs all this week for a class she is taking.

Also, totally Received word from Scott Conner today that the AMPS contest at Fort Knox is a NO-GO. It's hard to try to organize something from 600 miles away. I guess KC AMPS is going to try to put together another regional for this year.

Make a bid on it. Tell him you had it appraised at about 50 bucks! He won't know!

~Chip :-)

Here's a link to the episode guide with a photo of the T-34 model: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/series/highlights/2004/chicago/index2.html

Be sure to click on the thumbnail and check out the photo of the model.

even by todays standards that really is nice looking I think maybe its been used to help tank crews get used to the shape of the tank at distance as these were/are still quite common

that is one cool model for being that old!
here is the pic

Wrong color...poor tracks...bad shape...roadwheels terrible...incorrect markings...LOL!!!
Thankfully the expert didn't suffer from AMS!

My guess is that it could have been made by one of the German toy manufactures for the Wermacht. This is NOT a model made for Kriegspiel under any circumstances. These were (in general) only painted blocks of wood used to represent units (like a large scale Avalon Hill game) . More like the identification models made more training purposes nowadays...Interesting, thanks for sharing it with us....Jim

Needs more weathering

hey maybe dragon will release it...........cuase the germans built it! and look its got some german script on it.................oi dragon why not not done this kit yet