I ran across a post where Jacques said: The trumpeter kit is, essentially, a copy of the Tamiya kit. While the Tamiya kit had a questionable turret, the Trumpeter one is BAD, no matter which version of thier T-72 you buy.

I'm not arguing with that, but I'd sure like to know, here, (since I have a HobbyCraft T-72 with plastic by Trumpeter) what makes the Trumpy turret so bad? At a glance, in comparing it with pictures of an AM T-72 turret by Annabus, it doesn't look that bad to me. But then, I haven't started building, yet, either.

First Glimpse impression Essentially both Tamiya and its Chinese copy turrets are wrong, because they are off in slopping of frontal segment plus they have incorrect height across entire symmetry line. This is worsened by fact that Trupeter's turret is a bad copy of tamiya. Remember these are supposed to be 72M turrets.
PS I'm looking to buy Annubis T-72A turret, where did you get yours?

when did Trumpeter start copying Tamiyas T-72
I would have thought it would be a copy from Dragon.
If I knew it was a copy of the Tamiya I would have bought one. asumming it it is a good copy
What about the zvesda T-72? are those dragon copies?

Trumpeter used to copy a lot of other kits before it was widely known on the West. Their T- 72 with ERA are cross overs between Tamiya and DML (Tamiya's kit plus DML ERA). Zvezda uses surplus forms from DML for ALL their Soviet/Russian MBTs, BMPS and line of BTR kits, don't let reviews like some on modeling madness or cyber modeler fool you.

Oh HO! I am being quoted. Ok, here goes:

The Tamiya turret has "simpler" problems, basically that the "angles" and "planes" of the turret are off. The Tamiya turret can be fixed with putty in one evenings work if you are brave enough to tackle the problem. (maybe 2-3 hours of sculpting).

The Trumpeter turret is worse. First off, remember that the Trumpeter T-72's are copies of the Tamiya kit. And they were made to be motorized. So the sprocket area needs to be addressed (that steel rod running through is not so great to attach to) and the detail level, compared to the original Tamiya kit, is soft. It is still a nice, inexpensive kit to start from (for the hull and running gear) but there are issues with it. It also comes with stickers (!) for the engine deck grills, so the Eduard T-72 Zoom! set is needed for that. The full Eduard T-72 PE set would be better if you would use the whole thing.

The turret...sigh. First, the general fittings, like the AAMG, are slightly softer than the Tamiya kit and quite good. But look at the figure...melted wax city. And the turrets are Trumpeter originals and are a bastardized marriage of the Tamiya and DML turret types, and they also got them wrong. I wonder if they used this kit as practice for learning to do original tooling? The angles are wrong, several of the details are incorrectly placed, and the details are especially soft. They look ok until you compare them to what a real -A or -B turret should look like.

Maybe this is hard to see without books and other kits on hand to compare them to...I have the Tamiya kit and the Anubis turret on hand...believe me when I tell you the Trumpeter turret looks nothing like it. I will try to put up a picture tonight of what I mean.

CRM Hobbies carrys/carried them. He may still have some old stock.

HTH,

Mike

Here are some pictures. Remember that due to the width of the field of view, there is some distortion.

1. The likely subjects. Note that kit turrets are most likely attempting to be -A style.




2. Tamiya, Anubis, and Trumpeter (bottom) turrets. Notice on Trumpeter turret how thick the wiring is on the lower left and where it goes and also the spacing of optics and details in the green square compared to the other two turrets. (Simple lines for reference shown on top two turrets although there is some distortion...they are closer in detail than the lines imply)



3. I lined them up on a steel ruler, though there is still some distortion, and ran some lines off of similar "landmarks". Notice differences.



And above all, those darned "pits" in the Trumpeter turret make it look like it had a bad case of acne...bad idea on their part to try to 'rough" up the casting.

Now I know not all turrets are -A models, but that is what I could come up with from my stuff.

And here is a top view line drawing I just found...source unknown. This is for a T-72M1, which is actually what both the Tamiya and Trumpeter kits are supposed to depict. Duh!



Notice that while labeled as a T-72M1 it has the Anti-rad cladding

Okay, this is cool... if a person knows they can make an informed decision!

Jacques, I agree about the metal rod... the only reasonable method I see for attaching is CA glue, maybe?

Other than that, the turret I've got is for a T-72B. I'll try and snag some pics tonight (if I have time) to post. It actually appears to be similar to the AEF T-72B turret. But if you could have a look, later on, I'd appreciate it! Later, folks!

That T-72B turret looks funny. It's fortunate you have the AM turret so you can build either A or M versions with minor adjustments, mainly to hull. Since you asked about discrepancies in Trumpeter's turret, I'm going to assume accuracy is your concern. If so, It appears that rear hull plate is set at wrong angle. I thinking on starting new build log where I'll try to fish out and fix most of flaws in the kit (Tamiya/TR is still the most accurate T-72 around).

To be honest, now that I have been able to look it up, the AEF Designs turret is a T-72BM (Thier designation). The Anubis T-72 turret could be a -M1 since they produced it to replace the Tamiya one. The Kirin one is supposed to be a -M1 as well.

So I screwed up a bit.

...and so you can all see some of the problems associated with trying to pin down a T-72 turret.

By the way, according to Zaloga the AEF and Anubis turrets are T-72M1 Late or m1983/3, having been mistaken as the T-80 AND is the tank that sparked the T-74 nomen. Really.

I find it easier to tell you what is not right in this case. The Anubis turret, while OOP, is a very good turret. The AEF Designs Turret is fiarly good but has fit issues on the bottom and a dire lack of directions. The Kirin turret was really cool for its day, but is overdone. JB Models is supposed to be spot on for a T-72M1 export, but they are difficult to come by (No, I do not have one.) The Miniarm T-72B looks very good as well, but it is off in the Ukraine right now being "inspected". And George did a good review on the Verlinden one, check it out.

That said, if you want to do a Good T-72 without killing yourself, take the Trunpeter kit (If you can find it for $10-$12 or so), add in a Eduard Zoom! PE set, and get the Verlinden Turret (cheap) or the Miniarm Turret (Expensive).

An alternate source for AEF Designs kits is Historica Books...look up in the right hand corner ads. While I will not vouch for AEF, I can say that Andrew is a respectable seller and a safe bet.