Kit No:00377
1:35 scale
Reviewed by Andy Burton (June 2010)
Our thanks to Hannants for the review sample – get this kit here now at: www.hannants.co.uk
What’s in the Box?
There are 16 x sprues of light grey plastic 7 of which are the individual track links, a one piece lower hull tub, 4 x sprues of black plastic containing the separately moulded road wheel tyres, 1 x sprue of clear plastic containing all the lenses for various lights and the periscopes, 1 x small fret of photo etched brass parts for the engine deck grills and several other small fittings, 1 x Turned aluminium main gun barrel, a length of twisted brass wire to make up the tow cables and a small sheet of decals. A 16 page instruction booklet and a separate glossy colour printed sheet for colour schemes and markings options.
Accuracy:
I do not have any reference material to check this kit against, but from the information I can gather on the net from various respected modelling websites and forums the overall opinion would appear to be that this kit is generally extremely good as far as dimensions and details go. However I have found that there is also some mixed opinions amongst the more advanced super detailers and accuracy enthusiasts that there are some alleged dimension problems with the engine deck plate, the types of auxiliary fuel tanks used on the right fender and various other minor details that are not quite correct for this particular model, but nothing that is glaringly obvious to the untrained eye. The only missing detail that is instantly noticeable are all the small fittings and pipe work that connect the auxiliary fuel tanks together but there is now an aftermarket set from Mig productions to rectify this or you could scratch build your own. On the whole though as I mentioned earlier this kit is generally very good indeed in all respects and has certainly been received as a vast improvement over the old Tamiya offering that had many accuracy and detail faults.
This welcome release from Trumpeter will build into a very impressive model of a T62 mod 72 straight from the box or it can be super detailed with the addition of currently available after market etched brass detail sets.
Fit of parts:
Having not actually built the kit yet it is a little hard to say how well all the parts will fit together but having tried a few dry runs of the major parts such as the main hull, turret etc. I would conclude that it will go together without any major problems. There are some optional parts included such as the gun mantlet giving a choice of canvas covered or not, an option to use the metal gun barrel (recommended) or the 6 piece plastic barrel and various other options to use either etched brass or plastic parts, clear or opaque parts? A word of caution here: There are some very delicate parts on the sprues and great care must be taken when handling the sprues and the parts themselves so as not to break them, I found that part of the headlight cage on the sample kit had broken in half either in the box or during handling for this review, fortunately I found it on my bench and can repair it but be warned it is very easy to break or lose some of these extremely delicate parts.
Quality:
All the moulding of the parts looks crisp and the detail is sharp, there is no trace of any flash and the few parts that have mould seams are minimal and will be very easy to clean up prior to assembly. The turret is one piece slide moulded and exhibits some nice cast texturing but the purists may wish to add more for a better representation. The individual link tracks are very nicely done and have no trace of an ejector pin marks anywhere unlike some of the other major manufacturers’ kits.
The aluminium turned barrel is very good and is a straight drop in to the gun mantlet, I would highly recommend using it instead of the plastic one which is made of 6 x parts and will be hard to clean up after assembly. Clear plastic lenses and periscopes are also a nice bonus as is the etched brass fret, brass wire for tow cables and separately moulded road wheel tyres.
Instructions:
The instructions come in the form of a 16 page booklet that is very similar to the Tamiya style of instructions; it is clearly printed with what appear to be logical build sequences broken up into sections from 1 to 27. I would suggest double checking and dry fitting of any parts to insure that the instructions are in fact correct, on the very quick inspection done for this preliminary review I noticed two parts that are incorrectly labelled: gun mantlet’s C7 and B14 are wrong as B14 in the instructions is in fact C7 on the sprue and C7 in the instructions is B14 on the sprue. These may be the only errors but careful cross checking may be in order to insure you are fitting the correct parts.
Also there is no mention of how many track links are required per side to build up the track sections but I presume there are more than enough provided. Also worthy of note is B33 the un-ditching log has some very well moulded wood texture and will look great once painted up.
There are only two colour scheme options and these are very well printed on a separate glossy sheet, one is for a Syrian T62 in a striking dark green and sand camo and the other is plain Russian green.
Decals:
The decals look to be very well printed with thin carrier film, there are two sets of markings for Syrian Army 1982 and two sets for Afghan Northern Alliance 2001. It is not mentioned what the respective decals actually represent in the colour scheme guide, instructions or anywhere on the box, and I have taken this information from various retailers websites and modellers forums.
Conclusion:
This new release from Trumpeter is a very nice kit indeed and apart from not satisfying the accuracy nuts 100% (but what kit ever does?) is obviously light years ahead of any previous offerings. It will build into a beautiful model of a T62 mod 72 straight from the box or you can super detail it if you wish. As far as value for money goes retailing at around £25 it certainly ticks all the right boxes especially with the inclusion of the metal barrel, etched fret and clear parts provided with the kit.