Hi Guys,
I know that Miniart are doing a T54b early & Takom are doing a T54b late & legend do a set for a T54 1949, but if I wanted to do a T54a, what would I need to change on either the Miniart kit

Cheers Mike

T-54A was fitted with 100 mm D-10T tank gun - the same gun that was used in the SU 100 tank destroyer of WWII vintage. The T54B had the bore evacuator fitted in an upgraded 100mm gun, and had an infrared search light fitted. There are probably some other differences but these two are the most distinguishable.

Cheers

Matthew

Hi,

For a T-54A you could either backdate the Takom B kit or buy the Takom Type-59 kit which is basically an A - but I just had a quick look at those sprues so I am not sure. It is cheap as hell in China but it is a bit more basic for the domestic market (less PE, etc.)

The most visible differences are the lack of the IR searchlight and one of the periscopes on the turret is different.

I think both companies will release an A soon if you can wait

This page is quite handy, although you will need some language skills or goole translate.

http://ser-sarajkin.narod2.ru/ALL_OUT/TiVOut10/SuT5455/SuT5455135.htm

Cheers,

Adam

T-54A (Obiekt 137G) was produced from 1955-1957 and started with the D-10T main gun, but shortly after production started the main gun was modified for the STP-1 stabilizer and a bore evacuator was added to the barrel resulting in a new main gun designator of D-10TG.

The T-54B (Obiekt 137G2) changed to the D-10T2S main gun (which incorperated the STP-2 stabilizer). That is pretty much it. To my eye, it is difficult to tell the T-54A and T-55B apart IF you want to model a T-55B BEFORE it was retrofitted with the IR system.

The T-54B was produced from 1957-58, after which the T-55 began production. AFTER 1959 the T-54B was retrofitted with the IR system, making the roof ventilator the easiest main ID between it and the T-55. I quickly looked through my T-54A information and it looks like they were not retrofitted with either the D-10T2S nor the IR system.

I do not have the TAKOM T-54B kit in hand to see what would be needed to backdate it to a T-54A, but in THEORY it seems like it would be simple.

A letter.