Legend Productions of Korea send us news of another new release for October.

Highly detailed resin upgrade sets, this release keeps up to Legend''s high standards, and is sure to be welcomed by Soviet and Middle Eastern armour fans.


LF1216 T-55 Enigma Conversion set - conversion set for the
Tamiya T-55 consisting of numerous resin and photo etch components. The set is now available to order from Legend at their website

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Yawn........ Do we reallly need another Enigma Conversion? I guess so.

Chris

I am sure they could have found something better to do...

Andy

It is the only "Cool" T-55 to many. Yawn indeed. I think it is just a good conversion for Legend's market, a market that is not being served (In service, price, or both) by AA or Cromwell (or Verlinden).

I would like to encourage Legend to keep on the T-55 theme, but go with something more unique like a bridgelayer (Yes, I know Panzershop do/did one...I have it).

I too was surprised that they would do another enigma, however if the price is good this may be worth considering. The quality looks good and seems better than some enigma sets I've seen in the past. The inclusion of the PE parts is also nice to see.

Perhaps it is not so exciting a release but I hope that soviet armour sets is a trend that legend continue. I agree with Jacques that some more T-55 sets would be nice

I do wonder where the market or "need" for this conversion is? The A.A. "Enigma" set (which I have for my Tamiya kit) is fabulous in terms of detail and dry-fit. It's a quantum improvement over Verlinden's ageing set which in any event was designed for the old ESCI T-55 kit and (allegedly) tweaked for the Tamiya kit. I cannot comment on "Cromwell's" set which if recent posts on this site are anything to go by re. this manufacturer's reliability, it's probably impossible to get hold of these days.

From the pics available, I personally see no improvement over A.A.'s available offering and also question whether it will be any cheaper to buy given the prices of "Legends" current offerings -here in the UK at least.

Still, I suppose it adds to the 'choice' in the marketplace and presume that "Legends" marketing team know what they are doing.

Gary

I wonder if this could be used on the ESCI kit however. While no where near the quality of the Tamiya kit, it would be a decent base kit for a conversion such as this.

Looks interesting to me depending on the price.

Gary - I think the point is that it WILL be cheaper than the AA kit in Asia, where Legend is actually aiming for. I hate to say it, but Asia does not really pay as much attention to us in the West as we like to think they do.

Also, this conversion is for the Tamiya kit.

I just dont get it, another ENIGMA? They should have put their energy into some nice T-55 conversions with ERA etc.

Anyway,

Best regards,

Andreas

Patience.

Hi Jacques,

First point noted and it's a fair comment you make re our Asia based fellow modellers. If that's where Legends see their market - fair enough.

Re the actual conversion set itself, the A.A. set is also designed for the Tamiya as well so the other comment is a bit lost on me?

Irrespective, doubtless we will see some head to head comparisons in due course.

Cheers!
Gary

Gary - Sorry, the Legend for the Tamiya kit remark was meant for Scott's comment right above mine.

This is somewhat important, so your replies are needed:

I know there was a dude on ML hard at work on a Type 59. Whether it has PE or not I don't recall, but my gut feeling is that it did not. How much of an interest is there in a Tamiya based Type 59, complete with PE?

Hi Robert!

VERY much interested in such a conversion!

Best regards,

Andreas

Ditto here 18 Bravo - I would be interested in one or two of those.....

I just wish Legends (Or anyone for that matter) would make the smaller things for the Tamiya T-55 like a Polish/Czech engine deck, FCS, ERA, BDD set, or I'll be forced to master my own and send them to Jeff at TMD......

Chris

Hi

Maybe Rob was reffering to the type 69 conversion?....that i Mastered a while back and for a time was available from Airedale castings. This has now been sold to Verlinden, who hopefully will tweak certain parts such as the headlamp covers and boom sheilds.
Other parts [Masters] that Graham has that i have made are
T-54 Spiderweb wheels
T-55 Starfish with missing centercaps and detailed hubs
T-55 Sprocket to carry the RmSh track used on upgraded tanks
T-54 Model 49m Turret with early barrel with counterweight.

In time i will have the other bits such as Engine deck and radiator cover etc to enable a more comprehensive conversion of the 49m.

Regards
Andy

Don't forget a drop in engine deck with WADING RAILS needed for most Russian build T-55. That's no. 1 on my T-55 wish list.

Regarding the Type 59 I'm not sure. I think good quality/reasonable priced/good researched conversions of "ordinary" T-54/55 variants is higher on my list.

Cheers,
/E

To me, ANY addition of another version of a kit is a good thing. Competition is what keeps manufacturers on their toes. Imagine if we all settled for the Tamiya Half Track series...

I'm sure the AA version is quite nice. In fact, I'd probably have purchased one had I not known that the Legend one was going to be available. I've built lots of their stuff and never been disappointed.
Verlinden? No thanks.
Haven't seen the Cromwell offering, but there is this one. I have no idea who made it. The side armor didn't have the correct "steps" in them. Other than that, considering it was designed for a badly proportioned kit, not too bad. No PE though...






No need to wonder any more. Rather than speculate, I decided to check for myself.

The rear counterweight support arms have the correct contour to fit the Esci kit as you can see here:



Likewise the turret armor:



The glacis armor will fit on the Esci kit as well. I compared it to the kit, and while a few hundredths of an inch (yes, I used calipers) narrower than whatever one of have on there, the pieces fit quite well:



Which leaves the fender supports for the side armor blocks.
I cleaned one off, and fit it onto the Esci kit. It works, albeit with SLIGHTLY more of an overhang. These supports require that you cut out the Tamiya fenders to add them. No big deal. Do the same with the Esci kit. Then you won't have to worry as much about removing the incorrectly spaced fender braces. Note in earlier photo that it was necessary to do so to get leftover Tamiya fuel cells to fit.



It's a shame the gorilla welds don't show up in the photos, but they're very well done, meaning they accurately portray the pretty horrendous welds on the real vehicle.

So, to answer your question, yes, it'll fit the Esci kit. And for fun, I checked it against the Trumpeter kit. For those on a budget, it'll work equally well.
There are no photos as holding the pieces together with one hand and photographing them with another requires more patience than i have this morning.