I am trying to reproduce the t-64BV. This tank was fielded by the Soviet army in large numbers and saw limited action during the first Chechnyan war, I think. One unit was captured by rebels/freedom fighters, but it was soon destroyed. You can see a few pics of the wreck here. http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/97475&page=1
This will be a complex build. I will use a Miniarm T-64b turret, ERA blocks. The tracks will be from Masterclub and I am going to modify a Skif hull. If my scratching attempt fails I will get an SP designs replacement upper hull.
First, I would like to start with reviewing the Miniarm T-64B with anti radiation layer turret set. The product is packed in the usual Miniarm soft green box. I consider this inadequate, because the parts barely fit in and the delicate details were damaged in every set I got from this manufacturer so far. The instructions are photocopied, quite usable. This is one of the simpler Miniarm turret sets, the build is straightforward provided you get the right parts.
The largest part of this conversion is the one piece resin turret. In my set the turret is the standard T-64B without the anti radiation layer. I am not impressed. This is an expensive AM kit, the manufacturer should be more careful about controlling what goes into the box. I will reproduce the anti neutron layer with green putty. The quality of the casting is excellent, no bubbles or deformities, just a little flash. The casting plugs are easy to remove. The smoke grenade launcher supports were damaged by the inadequate packaging. I compared the turret to reference photos and the details are accurate. The shape seems to be correct, no rebuilding is required.
The smaller resin parts are cast without deformities or larger air bubbles. I have already cleaned most of the parts I will be using for my particular build. The stowage baskets and other turret details match the reference photos quite well. The Luna IR searchlight is a copy of the corresponding Tamiya part. I suspect the NVST machinegun is made by Tank Models, its details are nice, the barrel is slightly bent and the muzzle needs to be drilled out. Miniarm provides us with some brass rod for cabling
Recently Miniarm discarded its own gun barrel and replaced it with RB models product. On the photo you can see the RB model, the Miniarm and the ModelPoint sleeveless barrel. The tree barrels I have have all different proportions. The RB models barrel has impressive detail, I do not know whether its length is correct. The only drawback I can think of is that it is difficult to glue the delicate etched brass parts to the aluminium barrel, even with superglue
I would recommend this conversion mainly to diehard soviet armor fans. Its is not cheap by itself and you need many additional AM sets to match the quality of the turret. I will review the Skif kit in another post.
In the next post, I will add the missing anti neutron layer.
