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The KV-4 Project:

Buganov’s proposal

Kruchenykh’s proposal

Fedorenko’s proposal

Pereverzev's proposal

Proposal 11

Kreslavsky’s proposal

Shashmurin’s proposal

Mikhailov’s proposal

Tseits’ proposal

Tarapantin,Kuzmin&Tarotko’s proposal

(note: i modelled these in Google sketchup, with existing plans provided in Battlefield.ru with their collected data given.(somewhat proved to be a bit insufficient because it was missing a few things.) this thread could be the official if not centralized discussion thread for all KV-4s)This particular KV series is an interesting one in the Kliment Voroshilov heavy tank program. Its design purpose was to withstand any german gun and to destroy any opposing heavy german tanks. It was to remain unbuilt as its design proposals will be used if the time comes when it is needed.Designers began to work on the KV-4 design in April 1941. Since the Kirov Plant did not have experience in this area, the chief of the SKB-2, J. Kotin, assigned almost all the engineers of his design bureau to the design of this tank and placed it on a competitive basis.All the designers addressed this assignment with great enthusiasm. Their task was sufficiently difficult: the mounting of two cannons and 125-130 mm armor that had never been employed before on Soviet tanks led to the necessity to strengthen the chassis and conditioned a sharp increase in the weight of the tank. The creative thought of the participants in the design was not limited, and the designers took advantage of this. In consideration of the required specifications, they developed and put forth a relatively diverse spectrum of ideas. They considered the design of 80-, 90-, and even 100-ton tanks. The lightest of the designs was submitted by engineer N. Dukhov - 82.5 tons. The heaviest was by the designer G. Kruchenykh - 107 tons.The layout decisions were also very diverse. Designers, F. Marishkin, G. Moskvin, N. Strukov, andeach working on his own design, suggested single-turret variants of the heavy tank with the mounting of the 107 mm Tank Cannon in the main turret, and a 45 mm Tank Cannon in a small turret located above the main turret, a "second floor" as it were.Specifications: (estimated size scaled to fit with KV-1’s road wheel)Length: 7.03mWidth: 3.3mHeight: 2.77mGround clearance: 0.52mCombat weight: ? tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 5Armor:Hull: 130/80/130Turret: 135/130/130Sec. Turret: 50/50/50Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-62x 7.62mm DT1x 45mm 20-KSpecifications: (direct from Battlefield.ru’s data sheet)Length: 9.13mWidth: 4.03mHeight: 3.78mGround clearance: 0.55mCombat weight: 107 tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 9Armor:Hull: 130/130/130Turret: 140 /140/140Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-61x 45mm 20-k3x 7.62mm DT1x flamethrower (frontal sec. turret)Specifications: (estimated size scaled to fit with KV-1’s road wheel)Length: 8.8mWidth: 3.675mHeight: 3.635mGround clearance: 0.45mCombat weight: ? tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 6Armor:Hull: 130/130/130Turret: 140/140/140Sec. Turret: 120/120/120Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-63x 7.62mm DT1x unknown gun (receiver in plan loos too big for a DT.)1x 45mm 20-K (AA purposes)Designers A. Yermolaev, L. Sychev,, Bykov, and two workers whose signatures are missing from the working drawings, suggested a two-turret variant of the tank with the mounting of a 107 mm Cannon in a large central turret, as on the SMK tank, and a 45 mm Gun in a separate turret located in the bow portion of the hull.Specifications: (scaled to KV-1 road wheel)Length: 9.4mWidth: 3.57mHeight: 3.45mGround clearance: 0.5mCombat weight: ? tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 9Armor:Hull: 140/125/130Turret: 140 /130/130Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-61x 45mm 20-k4x 7.62mm DTKV-4 that was done by an unknown author. so i decided to name it the KV-4 11. as it is named after it's plan's filenamealso the tank is scaled to KV-1's roadwheel also since it had the secondary turret in the front hull, so i'll place this under categories with perevezev'sSpecifications: tank scaled to KV-1s roadwheelLength: 8.317mWidth: 3.572mHeight: 3.121mGround clearance: 0.561mCombat weight: ? tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 6Armor:Hull: 135/130/135Turret: 135/135/135Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-61x 45mm 20-k3x 7.62mm DTDesignersandin their designs recommended pairing the guns in one turret, and engineerproposed mounting the 107 mm Cannon in a casemate fashion in the hull on a pedestal with a 30-degree angle of firing to the horizon. This designer foreswore the 45 mm Gun and in its place mounted a 76 mm Gun in a production KV-1 tank turret on an enormous hull with significantly lengthened chassis components.Specifications: (direct from Battlefield.ru’s data sheet)Length: 9mWidth: 4mHeight: 3.225mGround clearance: 0.6mCombat weight: 92.6 tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 6Armor:Hull: 130/125/130Turret: 135/140/135Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-63x 7.62mm DT1x 45mm 20-K (Coaxial)Specifications: (estimated size scaled to fit with KV-1’s road wheel)Length: 8.35mWidth: 3.53mHeight: 3.121mGround clearance: 0.5mCombat weight: ? tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 6-7Armor:Hull: 135/100/125Turret: 60/60/60Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-6 (casemate/ hull mounted)2x 7.62mm DT1x 76mm L-11 (turret)Two designers,and G. Turchaninov, in their designs recommended the mounting of the 45 mm Gun casemate fashion, having cut an embrasure for it in the frontal armor plate of the tank's hull, and they placed the 107 mm Cannon in a standard tank turret on the vehicle's hull.Specifications: (direct from Battlefield.ru’s data sheet)Length: 9.mWidth: 3.6mHeight: 3.mGround clearance: 0.5mCombat weight: 86 tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 5Max fuel load: 2800 litres (located next to the engine position and ½ way across the turret ring)Armor:Hull: 180/150/130Turret: 140 (conical)Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-62x 7.62mm DT1x 45mm 20-KOnly engineerrejected the mounting of a second gun. He suggested the mounting of the 107 mm Cannon in a standard tank turret, laying it out in circular form so that the entire basic load of 120 fixed rounds were stowed along the walls of the cylindrical turret. This design stood out for its originality and in the future created fertile soil for employment of an auto-loading mechanism.Specifications: (direct from Battlefield.ru’s data sheet)Length: 8.35mWidth: 4.03mHeight: 3.62mGround clearance: 0.55mCombat weight: 90 tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 7Armor:Hull: 130/125/125Turret: 140 (cylindrical)Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-62x 7.62mm DTIn a collective design submitted by three authors (), the 107 mm Cannon was positioned in the turret with a limited angle of rotation (130°). The designers V. Pavlov and D. Grigorev reached the same decision, but for the 45mm gun and not the 107 mm Cannon. Outside of the design parameters, some designers recommended the mounting of a flamethrower on the tank.Specifications: (direct from Battlefield.ru’s data sheet)Length: 9.26mWidth: 3.79mHeight: 3.175mGround clearance: 0.5mCombat weight: 88 tonsEngine: Diesel M-40 outputting 1200hpRadio: 10-R seriesCrew: 6Armor:Hull: 130/125/125Turret: 130 (cylindrical casemate)Armaments:1x 107mm Zis-63x 7.62mm DT1x 45mm 20-KThere were also some original suggestions for the armor of the KV-4 tank. For example, K. Buganov and F. Marishkin selected a means of armor plating the tank turret in a form so that its ring was deep in the hull, which excluded jamming with the strike of projectiles and shrapnel, as happened during the tests of the KV-1 tank at Kubinka.G. Kruchenykh and N. Strukov recommended a tank turret that was rhomboid-shaped with rounded angles, and engineer S. Fedorenko designed a turret with a non-traditional curved form with the mounting of two DT machine-guns and a 45 mm Gun on an original turret mounting, which permitted a rifleman to conduct fire without exposing himself from the hatch.In their designs these workers frequently resorted to other methods that had not been encountered earlier in tank design. For example, engineer P. Mikhailov developed an original tracked loop for their vehicle.Five designers placed the engine and transmission in the front portion of the hull, which was an unusual decision for heavy tanks. Engineer N. Tseits suggested the placement of the engine in the stern and the transmission in the bow. L. Pereverzev recommended the pair of drive sprockets in the stern of the vehicle be removed from the hull and fastened to mounts, which gave some economy in the armor protection of the vehicle as a whole but at the same time made this most important component of the vehicle particularly vulnerable.An analysis of the preserved drawings (about 20 variants of the KV-4 tank design have reached us) attests that many of the designs contain valuable from the design point of view decisions and fully deserve patenting at the inventor level. Work on the KV-4 project was conducted in the troubling prewar days and therefore authorship of the most interesting suggestions remains unconfirmed.Quoted from www.battlefield.rutank sketchup models by me