Also, are there any other country outside of the Czech republic or Slovak army that operates this tank? Possibly Finland, East German NVA or Polish, I would like to try to keep it in the warsaw pack.

Chris

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Also, are there any other country outside of the Czech republic or Slovak army that operates this tank? Possibly Finland, East German NVA or Polish, I would like to try to keep it in the warsaw pack.

Chris

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Hi Christopher
As far as I know VT 55 has been utilized just by czeck and slovak, but there is an export versioan for not pact warsaw countries called VT-55KS



VT 55 SK has been utilized by Syria Irak and arab countries

http://forum.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/83716

For the kit unfortunately I can't help you

Cheers

Marian would you mind answering me to a question about the bergepanzer t55 t?

As far as you know the big snorkel on the left is optional?

If I was Christofer i did the Slovak vt 55. I like NVA tanks but that 3 camo scheme is too beautiful to be ignored

Just my opinion anyway

cheers

Thanks Mauro, now I can place the camo pattern with slovak army. I do like the east german version, looks like the only difference between the czech and germans is the wading trunk for the tc hatch and a different storage basket on the rear hull.

I did manage at least to find out that my kit is based on the older esci t-55. So I can at least get the right photo etch parts for the engine deck.

About the Slovak camouflage (also Czech use it I believe). It is painted over the standard green and is only temporary. After a while it gets worn really badly. I still want to make a Czech T-72 with this weathered camouflage one day

Thanks for the reply Marian

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About the Slovak camouflage (also Czech use it I believe). It is painted over the standard green and is only temporary. After a while it gets worn really badly. I still want to make a Czech T-72 with this weathered camouflage one day

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Mat, me too when i saw that t 72 with those "psychedelic camo" , i though that it would be nice doing one painted in that way

Do you know in what particular conditions this temprary camo is adopted?

I have the info somewhere in one of my T-72 books, still somewhere in one of the 1000 boxes left over after moving to my new house I believe it is a summer camouflage and the paints are water soluable, kind of like the whitewash you often see for winter camouflage. It would be the perfect scheme for that hairspray technique...

Here are just a few pictures of the hull parts from the kit. As you can see the lower hull is from the old Esci kit. The bad thing is the resin is very brittle and the hull was cracked when I received the kit in the mail. Also while cleaning the kit up, one of the mounting post for the idler wheel went flying off into never never land and I have not been able to find it yet.
The upper hull is nicely cast with just a few areas to clean up. I plan to replace the rear engine deck to open up the armor covers for the intakes.


The real big let down of the kit is the main parts for the crane hoist is badly cast and needs to be rebuilt.

I already knew that the Esci kit has a really bad rendition of the lower hull. Yes panzershop has the wrong suspension arms, they all point the same direction. The rear arms should point foward just like on the T-62, which I'm going to cast some copies off of. I'm going to try to correct the lower hull the best I can without rebuilding the whole thing. If I can get it to look somewhat like it suppose too, thing I will be happy with it, I'm not going to hog wild in this area. The other thing is the mounting boses for the mine clearing equipment are wrong, their missing all the bolt heads and need to be added. I have a spare trumpeter kit that I might be able to pull these from, just need to dig the kit out to look at them.

Thanks Mauro, I will probably will hit you up on the pictures, mostly interested in the driver's area and the engine compartment when I get ready to start the build.