How good is the Revell of Germany 1/35 scale armor? I am looking at two kits the T72 and T80.
Thanks
Mike

I'm not sure, but I think they are pretty similar to the Zvezda / Old Dragon kits.
I have build the Zvezda ones, the tracks are pretty bad but I guess you can build a decent kit. I've heard that the Tamyia T-72 is much better.

I don't know sure but I saw someone building a Revell T-80UD. It looked like a rebox of Dragon's T-80U with extra parts that I'm building right now. I think it's a pretty nice kit. It isn't super detailed like the latest kits, but still can be a very nice build.

Lars

When Dragon was entering the kit market 20 years ago, they decided that their niche would be modern Soviet armor, as nobody was doing much with it. They released a large range of Soviet tanks armored cars, and even a Scud launcher. Unfortunately, the Evil Empire was still in business, and still fanatically paranoid about military secrets, so the kits were designed using drawings based on rather distant photos. Unfortunately for Dragon, the Soviet regime fell soon after, and all kinds of accurate information became available almost immediately, and it turns out that their T-72 and T-80 tank kits were all quite wrong in dimensions and details. The armored car and BMP IFV kits were a bit better, as they were more widely exported around the world and better documented.
In any event, Dragon soon did two things. They switched their primary product focus to World War Two armor and figures, and they disposed of most of the now embarrassing Russian armor molds. This is significant--kit companies sell off their molds only under the most drastic circumstances. A mold that has been completely paid for is a cash cow that can be tapped every few years for decades--just look at Tamiya's success with their 1970's kits. If Dragon wanted to be rid of them, that does not bode well.
The unwanted tooling was bought by Zvezda in Russia, and gets loaned out to Revell Germany or Italeri from time to time. If you want a T-72, the Tamiya kit, while not perfect, is a far better starting point, and even Skif's rather dreadful T-80 is better than Dragon's.
The Revell and Italeri World War Two Soviet tanks are Zvezda originals, and the T-34, SU-100 kits are crude compared to the newer Dragon offerings. Their IS-2 Stalin is more dimensionally accurate than Dragon's (though cruder in detail), but does not compare to the excellent new Tamiya version.