Soviet Inscriptions: Part 2

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There are so very many inscriptions you can put on your tank, but I only covered 4 in the last article. Let’s do a few more.

It was requested in the comments of the last article, so let’s do the T-34-85 “Rudy” first. This tank is not a real tank, but is from a Polish television show Four Tankers and a Dog (Czterej pancerni i pies), following the exploits of a Polish tank crew and their tank, “Rudy” (“Ginger”). In the book the show was based on, the tank is initially a T-34-76 (thus explaining the only four tankers), but the show only has a T-34-85.

Here’s how it looks in game.shot_031

And here’s how it looks on the show’s poster.

Not even close. The eagle isn’t there, the number isn’t there, and the tank’s name is on the  turret, not the hull. Boo, next.

Here’s a T-34 with a pretty common history, “Donbass Avengers”. After the residents of the Donbass area returned to their homes, two brothers and their cousin decided to pool their miners’ incomes and purchase a tank. They sent a letter to Stalin, who approved their request, and, after tank crew courses, they joined the war with two other, non-relative, crew members. The tank fought both in Europe and in the Far East, and made it through to the end of the war.

Here’s how it looks in game.

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And here’s what it looked like in real life.

mstiteli

 

Come on, Wargaming. It’s not that hard to at least get the font size right.

Next, a KV-1S, Sovetskiy Polyarnik (Soviet Northerner). Many specialists working in the far north were indispensable, so their management could not let them go and die in a war, but they wanted to help the front anyway. Money was donated to buy an entire tank regiment and uniforms. The tanks began their combat path at Stalingrad, and continued fighting into 1944, when they were replaced with more modern vehicles. Here’s how the tank looks in game.

shot_009

And in real life:

polyarnik

 

Not bad, WG! The font is a little off, but it’s mostly right.

Next, a T-34-85 “Chervonniy” (archaic word for red, or gold with a reddish hue). This tank was driven by Junior Lieutenant Frolikov when he first burst into occupied Minsk, destroying a Ferdinand and a couple of guns. These heroic actions earned him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (regrettably, posthumously). You too can drive his tank in game!

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Except it looks like ass compared to the real deal, as always. Tiny text in the wrong font.

chervonniy

 

Join me next time for a few more inferior reproductions.

36 thoughts on “Soviet Inscriptions: Part 2”

  1. Most likely i have to dig again and find the book description, i don’t remember if the movie one is correct ;) …

  3. BTW, it seems that you’ve set a wrong aspect ratio. Tanks are looking somewhat flattened.

  5. This tank was driven by Junior Lieutenant Frolikov when he first burst into occupied Minsk, destroying a Ferdinand and a couple of guns.

    Judging from a some memoirs it seems that almost every destroyed german TD/tank was either a Ferdinand or a Tiger :))

    Quite funny book in that regard is From Buzuluk to Prague, where Tigers & Ferdies are destroyed left and right – partly because it looks better and because of naming generalisation – tank => Tiger, td => Ferdinand :)

    • Probably because of the latter (generalization). A memoir that I read, “800 Days on the Eastern Front” also frequently referred to German TDs and SPGs as “Elephants” IIRC. From a distance or in the thick of battle, it’s quite hard to correctly identify the targets you’ve taken out. Still, the former (claiming that you’ve killed Tigers and Ferdinands sounds better for propaganda and morale than claiming you’ve killed PzIVs and Marders) seems likely as well.

  6. Some of these I understand, SS. You have to realize that these aren’t just supposed to fit onto the historical vehicle, but EVERY vehicle of its nation, which limits things a bit when it comes to the designs.

    • Agreed, given that these writings have to fit on a T-26 turret too, or even a MS-, or even turretless TDs/SPGs, I agree WG would have a hard time making them look like the RL inspirations.

      Still, it would be nice if they looked how they should look on the tank model they were actually used for.

  7. As far as I recall there were four handprints + dog one (pawprint ?) on the side of Rudy 102, not one as you can see on poster. Oddly enough I cant find any good image from the TV show that clearly shows side of the tank

  9. Short note about Rudy being a T-34-76. In the book, at the start they do werer driving the 76 model. At a point, the tank and the crew was captured as a “test subject” for new german AT guns. Their tank was destroyed in the process. Eventually after liberation of a city nearby the testing site, crew received a new tank which was the 85 model. Eventually, apart from the dog, crew consisted of 5 members: Janek, Gustlik, Grigori, Tomek and Wichura.

    • Dunno about the book, but in the tv series Rudy was knocked out during liberation of Gdynia (Wielki Kack iirc) and it was replaced with the 85 model. Also – Wichura was only occasional driver, Czereśniak was the 4th member of the crew (he joined somewhere mid-way through the series). From time to time there was a fifth crew member (like “West”, from the partisans). I can be wrong, last time I watched this series was years ago.

      It’s still airing on TVP Seriale iirc. :D

      • Not Gdynia definitely :) , it was after passing Oder. And blowing off turret in one shot with crew surviving is sooooo REALISTIC… :P

  10. *following the exploits of a Polish tank crew* I am nitpicking now.Tthree Poles and one Georgian. And the dog is the 5-th crew member. :-)

    • One Russian in book, too. So, two Poles initially, then three since 3rd part, or four with one guest one ;) .
      I guess the dog has dual citizenship, though ;) …

  13. the main problem of the inscriptions is that there is only a designed spot for them, so you wont see them in their historical spots.

    but on the other side wg is lazy as fucks and they cant even use the correct font.

    in wt you can choose where you want to put them, but there arent a lot of inscriptions :(

    • But in WT you can create a new one out of at least two existing… and you can have infinite number of inscriptions.

  15. Their fonts are tiny on most of the inscriptions. If they decided to implement them anyway despite causing shitstorm on EU bcs of stalin inscriptions at least they could do them right. Like this it looks like they desperately wanted them, but were to lazy to do them right.