For the T-80U Upper Hull:

Sergej is going to gravity cast them, but the mold rubber gets vacuumed, so fewer warts and such. Also, he is experimenting with a new resin that may be superior (hopefully no airbubbles.) We are aiming for the quality he is getting is his castings like in the TOS-1 conversion and T-72 glacis. No worries. And initial comments are that it will be available April and will be in the $15-$20 range. However, just ordering the upper hull will be a Special order item as he intends to package them with all of his conversions after this, starting with a new conversion: the T-80U m94.

The glacis on the new upper hull has been left as is becasue it would end up causing a major rework of the whole upper hull (as you well know George) and he said if he was going to do that much work on it, he might as well do a whole Resin T-80U kit and he flatly refuses to do it as he does not think he would get his money's worth out of it. I am happy enough that he has done the upper hull and saved all of us a HUGE effort in fooling around with the whole engine deck/turret ring area. So sorry George, no perfect conversion piece.

As for the T-64, he is reworking the T-64U with a hollow turret and opened hatches. Sounds like the T-64BM will go OOP when what stock he is currently sending me sells off. He is also working on a T-64B without applique and he is contemplating 3 other versions (non of which he mentioned).

He is working on the BREM-4 conversion slowly. Maybe by this summer?

The T-72 late glacis is also something that may show up at any time depending on when he can make the molds for it.

And for the future he is interested to see what the Trumpeter T-62 and BMP-3 kits look like. If they are dimensionally sound, he plans to make conversions for them.

He has just finally gotten enough of a break to work on masters. His kits are selling VERY well in Russia right now and so he has been doing almost nothing but casting kits. The down side of success....

Good news, thanks for update. But I think you might have misunderstood me, I'm just excited about his current and upcoming projects as many others are. As for pressure casting, I've been experimenting with resin casting for few months now and after assembling vacuum chamber, strongly altered space bag , I can see why he chose to only pressurize rubber-most imperfections on the surface are due to uneven rubber distributing on the master, pressure/vacuum it and worst you can get is insufficient flow of resin into VERY thin parts of VERY complex geometry. As for BMP-3 it should pop up on manufacturer's site sometime this month, if they stick with current plans, so he can plan ahead better. Sergej already had Bahcha turret module, so there is chance of making relatively prompt BMP-3M conversion.

No problem George. Looking over my comments it might seem like I am giving you grief, but I am not. I just know how wrapped up we all are in the T-80 stuff, so we all understand every small problem with the SKIF kit and want it all addressed. I am not sure that I can even notice the incorrect angle of the SKIF glacis when I look for it.

As for the rest, remember, you need to VACUUM the rubber before you pour it and PRESSURIZE the resin after you pour it. If you do it the other way, you will get a big nasty mess that will not work well. But you are correct, vacuuming the rubber should help a lot for any aspiring casters out there.

As for the BMP-3 and T-62...he needs to have one on hand before he will make even one cut in styrene. I tried VERY hard to get him to make BMP-3 conversions years ago, and he said it would take too much work to fix the SKIF kit, so why bother. He is also cautiously optimistic about the Trumpeter kit and if it is good, he said he will do a number of conversions for it, like the recovery version and the ATGM (AT-16 launcher) version. (I cannot remember names/classifications right now...). So we will have to wait and see.

Good news, indeed. Thanks Jacques. I'm looking forward to this kits. Especially to the BMP-3 anti tank version which is being called BMP-3 Khrizantema, just as the AT-15 ATGM.

pfft, Khrizantema. 3 nights of work and you have it done, what about Vena

2S31 Vena, well, I would probably start bugging him about that, but he may already be thinking it...who knows (Besides Sergej that is...). It all hinges on Trumpeter releasing a good kit.

As for the Khrizantema, I would think he would do it in firing position, if he did it!

No offence, but we need an accurate and proper one . Apart from that, it's not easy to build one from scratch albeit it seems to be just a turretless BMP-3.

You don't need AM conversion to make khrizantema because of simplicity of pieces, even short wave radar, and detailed walk-arounds on the web.

It appears that the JS models T-72 turret is OOP. This might be a good oportunity for SP designs to make a corrected turret for the Tamiya T-72. (After all Blast models is very expensive...)

Jacques!

What about small update sets for existing kits? Like battle worn fuel drums, gill armor plates for early T-64/72´s, seperate reactive armour tiles, deep wading snorchels etc.

And what about barrels? As far as I know there are several variants of the 2A46. Also some ukrainian 120mm barrels would be nice. (Okay, since there are no conversions, that remains a day-dream, lol)

Are any interior-sets planed since Sergej molds the turrets hollow?

Just some thoughts.

Best regards,

Andy T.

Andreas, resin barrels are pron to bending over time and are VERY difficult to even cast straight. You can add a steel rod when casting but it still won't be as authentic as one made out of metal, technology limitation. But it would be nice to see certain segments in resin like new alignment verification and exit velocity measuring device or an accurate ejector. Gill armor is already on the market and trying to make master of interior for Soviet MBT is just plain suicide.

Right now, as mentioned, Sergej's focus is on casting and remolding. He may do some small improvements to masters when he remolds as well.

Next he plans to release the T80U Upper Hull, the T-80U m93/94 conversion, and after that it will depend on time permitting for hte other mentioned kits.

As for smaller stuff, I will certainly advise him, good fuel barrels and half barrels would be pretty cool, but I am not sure he will want to tackle them. Detail sets like those just do not sell so well, so the least amount of effort he has to put into it, like the AT-4/5 launcher, the better (it was modified from a older master for BMP-1 kits instead of needing to be scratchbuilt).

Snorkels are in the kits already and available through special order.

Barrels are insane to do with gravity casting. They would also have to be multi-piece kits and to compete with milled aluminum barrels...most likely not. Maybe, but most likely no.

As for interior, Sergej is working on the main parts for a turret, like a breach block and the main sensors around the hatch openings. But he does not like the small work, I may be able to get him through it. No promises, no timelines.

Hi, Jacques. Quick question: on proposed T-80U run '94, does Sergej plan on doing transition variant with passive thermal imager on French platform or full blown T-80U(M)?

Thanks for the answers guys. , as stated above, these where just some quick thoughts.

A T-80 UM would be.........................

Best regards,

Andreas

I am not sure and will ask. Since it is a '93/'94, mayhe both? I will confirm because Sergej is NOT using the moniker T-80U(M).

Is the intent of this kit to allow one to make a 2000-2007 version of the T-80U or is it a rarer beast?

Matt

Hi, Matt. What do you mean 2000-2007 version.As far as I know Kirov experimental machinery works went belly up shortly after collapse of USSR and last T-80 version made by Omsk TransMAsh was 1998, also last year for series production of 'standard' T-80U there, concept with 1400hp turbine and new electronics.

I didn't mean a production version but rather one that was in service during that timeframe. Apparently, there were some minor external changes to the fleet in the late 90's, changes I've never been able to lock down, by the way.

Matt

Is that it? Doubt this particular one was done in metal, good model though.

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Sergej has not answered as to changes in the newest T-80 conversion, other than to say that MANY of the pieces of it are newly mastered. I have not gotten the impression that he will be doing any Shtora, so I would not count on it.

It looks like it will be a Military Expo version from the early 1990's when it was called things like T-80U(M). There are 4 possible versions and I am not usre which one Sergej is actually going to do. I believe if you look through the Concord book on the T-80U that it will be one of those versions without the Shtora. Time will tell.

Personally, I am still excited about the new upper hull.

I have a question about the T-62 series turrets, made for the Tamiya T-62A kit which is supposedly 1/35 scale but really 1/32 scale (according to what was said about it in this forum in the past). Have the SP designs turrets been sized properly for the Tamiya kit's scale?

Yes, the SP Designs T-62 turrets are scaled to the Tamiya kit. And yes, that means that if Trumpeter comes out with accurate kits, Sergej will have to re-master everything to make it work with them. But that is a joyfull problem.

Some very interesting info posted on SAAM SP Designs page

OK, maybe it's a stupid question, but how about some WWII stuff?

For example, I'd love to see some nice resin artillery tractors sold at affordable prices (i.e. $100 or less.) Or how about an accurate T-44? I bought the only kit available (Navigator) and the casting is pretty horrendous (major scratchbuilding required.) Also, way overpriced, not to mention it comes with awful T-34 wheels, indy tracks and other pieces (from the Zvezda and other old Russian kits) that need to be replaced with Dragon parts. That means you'd have to add the cost of a brand new Dragon T-34/85 on top of the already exhorbitant price they ask...

Other ideas: SU-76 (the ORIGINAL one, not the "M" type), B-4/152, b-4/203 and other "exotic" howitzers, T-27 in its several incarnations, the post-war heavies (T-4, T-7, T-10 and maybe even some of the truly bizarre prototypes I've seen at Kubinka...)