World War 2 tanks drawings

by MateoGSPL

Are there any sources to find blueprints/ technical drawings of tanks from world war 2 with all parts and measurements on them?

Chryckan

Short answer. Yes, there are lots of books and such with blue prints and exploded models of tanks. In addition to the original sources that’s gathering dust in archives around the world. Google is your friend.

Long answer. Without knowing exactly what you are looking for it is hard to go into any specifics.

For modellers and hobby projects you have Osprey Publishing that has published a large catalogue of historical books with both pictures and blueprints along with dramatized drawings.

On the other end, most countries have a national library or archive where historical documents are stored which are generally open to the public and researchers. For example, the Library of Congress and the National Archives in the USA has everything you’d want about American armoured vehicles. Of course, if you want German tanks you have to go to Germany and for Russian tanks to Russian, and so on.

Another source, somewhere in between, is tank museums. There are several high class museums around the world. Not only do they have an expansive collection of restored, often running, examples of tanks that you can actually look at and touch in real life (please, don’t touch museum exhibits) but because they are restoring tanks, they are probably the experts in everything technical when it comes to vintage tanks. So it’s good places to contact and ask for help.

Some examples is the Bovington Tank Museum in the UK, Arsenalen in Sweden, Kubinka in Russia and American Armoured Foundation in the USA. But again, like archives it often requires you to physically visit.

And unorthodox source is actually computer games. Games like War Thunder and World of Tanks both have detailed and accurate 3D models of tanks. While you won’t get many technical or internal details but for a modeller or someone who can’t go to a museum it is an interesting option just to look at tanks. Both games have staff historians to make sure their models don’t deviate from history too much. That said not everything is accurate. They are still games so there are still things like Warhammer or Viking tank skins to appeal to players and how tanks drive and perform is entirely fictional and is determined by game mechanics rather than reality.

Also not all games that has a tank in them is historical accurate. Like always you have to examine and judge your sources.