My father-in-law was a tanker in the Czechoslovakian army in the 60's - commanded a T-54 and a T-55M. Can anyone recommend a good kit representing either of these models? Thanks

Bill,

Tamiya's T-55A is by some distance the best T-55 kit currently available and has a reputation to match. I've just built one (now waiting its turn in the 'paint shop') and it is indeed a beautiful kit.

Maybe your best bet would be to use that as the base kit, and convert it? Some of the Soviet armour anoraks here (whose knowledge is encyclopedic) will be able to advise you far better than I can on how to go about that. There may even be an AM conversion kit for the M model also (not sure).

The other T-55s on the market (Skif, Trumpeter etc.) all suffer from various dimensional accuracy and fit issues, from what I understand (as indeed do the T-54s).

Hope this helps.

- Steve

honestly do not bother with anything except the Tamiya kit..
its great to build and can be worked out easily.

cheers

If you want to do a czech/ polish vehicle you'll need to make a slight correction to the enginde deck of the Tamiya kit. The rear right grill should be made into the correct version.
Eduard models makes a small upate for it TP043, T-55A Grille and armoured plates.

See also here:
http://www.primeportal.net/apc/jussen/t-55a.htm

Also you can add the fuel lines for the external fuel cells with some brass wire.

TAMIYA ! TAMIYA ! TAMIYA!..................(KEEP REPEATING).

I think as well a Czech Army version is one of the options offered O.O.B?

I did mine as an Afghan Northern Alliance tank and all I added were some fuel line details and one or two bits of etch here and there. I bought an Eduard etched set for it and seriously, about 80% of it was not used as the kit parts were so good.

One of the most complete OOB kits I have ever bought / built.

I totally agree, Tamiya is THE kit, but only a base kit. If you want another version you'll have to convert it. It is not so difficult to backdate it into a T-54A, but if you want an older version like a T-54 model 1948, you'll have to do major surgery to the turret or get an aftermarket resin turret. It is the same fora T-55M, lots of bits to be added to the turret, you can make them or get a conversion set. Best regards.

José.

@ Gary,

You're correct, but Tamiya missed the engine deck difference.

I would definitely recommend the Tamiya kit as a base used with some aftermarket kits.

CMK have a good T-55AM "kladivo" kit, it has numerous additions, such as the correct engine deck as pointed out by others (whilst turret options in the Tamiya base kit allow Polish and Czech options the engine bay is left as standard and is incorrect), it also has the side skirts, extra armour and kladivo laser finder.



Not sure how much the T-55M varies from the T-55AM, I had thought that M reffered mainly to the Russian model upgrade, whilst the AM was specific to the Czech version, but I maybe wrong. Even so the CMK kit should allow plenty of extras for options regardless.

Terry Ashley has scoped out many of the options:

http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/subject/t55.htm

As stated, Tamiya is the only kit to use.

Personally, I much like the Blast Models upgrade set. If you want accuracy, their set includes options for different hatch configurations as well as a fix for the engine deck to provide for almost any T-54 or T-55, including Polish and Czech production.

Aber have THREE sets for Tamiys's kit, one of them fenders, with eleventeen hundred tiny parts to bend and solder and lose. PART has additional sets, one of which is just for the fuel drums on the rear plate. Voyager may also have a set, and their stuff is usually pretty good.

The RB barrel is very nice, and cheaper than the rest. Armorscale has one that is also nice, and includes a resin mantlet.

Finally, good tracks can be had from ModelKasten or MasterClub, and Fruil probably has some too. Check PMMS for suggestions.

There is no shortage of information on these tanks. There are lots of walkarounds on the web, and there are several walkarounds in book form. My books on Russian tanks are in Russian, and I could recommend the best of them if that would be of use.

Cheers
Scott Fraser