Decent kit (in terms of fit / accuracy) - or a complete dog?

Cheers,

- Steve

Bit of a dog really. I cant say much for the accuracy, but im certain that its inaccurate. The suspension and lower hull is very poorly detailed. The fit in many places is a bit dodgy, the turret comes in two half's and will need some filler. Its just a typical early Dragon kit, dont expect to shake the box and a nice kit fall out, you need to put some work in. And im certain if you want accuracy this isnt the kit. All that said, with the effort it looks cool once done.

I have the kit half done in my cupboard, i'll try snap some pics for you tomorrow!

It is ok, it is the DML kit in a different box, it is the same as the Revell of Germany and Zvezda offerings.

If you are not too wrried about accuracy, go ahead and have fun. It builds up into a T-80BV looking tank.

If you want something accurate, there is no T-80BV upgrade available, so scratchbuilding is in order.

Fun fun...

Thanks chaps for your replies.

Rob, if you could snap a couple of pics, that would be nice. But don't worry about it if you've got other things to do.

- Steve

Dragon's first range of kits from the late 1980's was built around late Cold War Soviet armor, and were all tooled when the vehicles were still officially cloaked in paranoia level secrecy. In the case of the armored cars and APC's, reasonably good drawings were available, but the tanks were less well known (reference books still showed aerial surveillance photos of the T-80 taken from aircraft flying over the inter-German border, which were murky, to say the least).
Dragon's bad luck was that the Soviet Union fell apart right after the products were introduced, and accurate measurements and close up photos of these vehicles soon appeared, and the kits suffered badly by comparison. The T-72 and T-80 kits all had ridiculously thick gun tubes, and basic dimensions and details were mostly wrong. Their only virtue was that they weren't as bad as the Lindberg or Esci/AMT/Ertl kits. These old Russian subjects are apparently the only molds that Dragon has sold off outright, which is why the kits now appear in Zvezda and Revell/Germany boxes.
Skif has a family of 1/35th T-80 kits, but it's a matter of swapping one set of mistakes for another. They need a lot of work too, though basic dimensions are reportedly better.

I am not sure that DML sold the molds off; they may be pumping the kits out for whoever wants to pay for them.