Here is a picture of Sergej's progress on the T-80UD one piece upper hull that will eventually be a part of new kits.



HOWEVER, his mother broke her ankle, so he will be caring for her for the next two months or so. That means that while the upper hull will become available in the near future, a "complete kit" (along the lines of #221 or #230) will not be available until June or so.

And yes, this will work with earlier versions of this conversion.

I am taking Pre-orders through the SAAMMODELS website.

Looks gorgeous. A few quick questions. I assume the intent is to use this to replace the hull pieces in 219, for example? If so, for the impatient amoung us, any chance we could use one of those two for the rest of the pieces and just swap out the hull? Second, would set 219 or 179 be the best choice for a 2001ish Ukranian T-80UD? Last, am I safe in assuming that the rest of those two kits will stay the same (i.e., the turrets aren't getting upgraded or anything?).

Thanks,
Matt

Hey Matt, sorry for the wait in reply...I forgot there were questions about this!

1. These hulls are for ANY of the previous T-80UD releases, up to and including 219 and 220. They will include all the parts needed to simply add this to any previous conversion.

2. #219 is probably the best base for a Ukrainian T-80UD.

3. I do not believe the turrets, as seen in #219 or #220, will be changed. There may be some refinement of detail to kit parts as Sergej tools this up, he always tends to rework something better whenever he remolds parts, but I don't think there will be anything worth waiting for.

4. Price has not yet been determined, but I would guess $20 or less.