Like the T-34/105, this isn't finished yet, but nonetheless...

... behold, the T-2001!



This is how it looks like as of 3 October 2003. It's a BMP-2 (Dragon) with the turret from the T-62A (Tamiya) which is heavily modified with liberal amounts of sheet styrene, and some other T-62A parts.



The gun is from Dragon's T-80UD kit, a 125mm smoothbore.



The square-ish thingy on the upper left corner of the pic is the yet unfinished FLIR.

Below is how the assembly line at I&SW looks like:



L-R: Thunderbolt, T-2001, and T-34/105.

Wow! Good thing you have a good use for those styrene sheets. It looks more armored now. BTW, does the Dragon's BMP-2 has a good fit?

Again, good to see you are back Gennady.

Hopefully your long absence was "female" related...?

Like the builds, but do you think the T-62 turret/125mm gun would be feasable onthe BMP-2 chassis? I would think it would either need to have a beefier chassis, and I think anytime you fired off the gun it might stress out the hull...but then again, in the game, people would make a 1-off like this rather than have nothing at all...a sort of roaming pillbox for the streets of Warsaw or such.

I have a show to go to in awekk, working on stuff for that right now, then I will be joining in as well.

Keep the faith!

Thanks for the kind words comrades.

Jacques: I dunno if it's feasible. Actually, if this were "real", the turret isn't really that of the T-62 (I just used it instead of building one from scratch), but rather a new turret based on the Black Eagle's, albiet smaller. The chassis would've been strengthened to some degree to handle the recoil. Furthermore, this is rather a "light" battle tank rather than an IFV. Something like the CV90120 the Swedes have been tinkering with. Of course, because of the new turret, any "light weight" benefits were set off. I view this one as a Russian attempt to do a Merkava by copying the CV90120.

Finally I get to see the renowned Gennady's Steel and Iron Works assemble line!

That T2001 looks evil! You have a lot to teach us about scratchbuilding Oh Great Guru (may the fires in your iron smelting plant never die)

That's a great idea !
But to be honnest, I think the weapon is far too powerful for the vehicle !
Maybe a possibility to make it more "feasable" would be to shorten the barrel... by 1/4th perhaps ?
I don't know, that's just an idea...
Anyway, it realy looks cool !

Jeep: You are too generous in your praise. Thanks still! :-)

Penpen: Yeah, I was concerned about that one also, i.e. the gun being too powerful and such, so much so that if it fired, the tank would rip itself apart #:-). My only "excuse" is that this design is similar to the Swede CV90120 - a very versatile IFV of which I'm unabashedly a big fan of :-) IIRC, the CV90120 has a 120mm, low-recoil, low-velocity (I think) gun and its barrel can be considered long-ish - but not as long as this T-2001 I think. Looking at the T2001, I think shortening the barrel would indeed be a good idea, up to the end of the hull front perhaps? Adding a muzzle brake might also help. Thanks for the constructive input.

Glad to see 'ya back GIB! Totally inspiring work you've attached to this thread too. The T2001 needs some companion vehicles on the Red Team...



Gunnie

Hey, Nice work gunnie. Hope all went well...

Gennady, are you keeping busy?

I am off to Chicago on Thursday, but when I get back....

GIB and Gunnie nice work to do , and nioce inspiration to all us that we like scratchstaff.
Expecting to see them finished painted and weathered.
cheers from Greece

hey Jim (Gunnie),

Interesting lil Red beast there. What is your design for this?

Dave