i was trying to organise my stash.... no don't laugh i really was!

and i discovered that i have two T62's and i was wondering other than the box art what was the difference or are they just they same tank in different boxes?

Box 1: T-62 ERA Mod. 1972 (kit number 01549)

Box 2: T-62 ERA Mod. 1972 (kit number 01556)

The 01556 kit is a 2014 rebox of the 01549 kit, which originally came out in 2012. 01556 is supposed to have updated/improved parts, but I am not sure what they are.

Here is what Scalemates has to say about 01549:
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/270063-trumpeter-01549-t-62-era-mod-1972-iraqi-regular-army

And about 01556:
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/149296-trumpeter-01556-t-62-era

It also shows the lineage of the kits and where they originated, timewise and kit number wise, and links to some in box reviews of the kits

Actually, both of these kits are different and not a re-box. There are no updated or improved parts that I can see. Simply put, the ERA layout is completely different in each kit. So same T-62, but very different ERA parts.

So it is a rebox of the T-62 parts with new/updated ERA parts, just like I said.

Sorry, I guess I didn't interpret what you said in the way you intended. You said "updated/ improved" parts which to me says the same kit with corrections or parts that are molded better, etc. To me, these are different kits, different versions of the same vehicle, just like there are T-62 Mod 1962 and Mod 1972 versions.

Isn't 01549 the Iraqi version and 01556 the Soviet version ??
I found an old post in the Russo/Soviet forum about how to model a T-62 ....

/ Robin

Well, you could say that about Trumpeter's KV series as well, couldn't you? I mean, if the second kit had 90% the same parts as the first, the third had 90% of the second, and so on wouldn't you really be saying that their SU-152 is just a rebox with some new parts of their KV-2? Or how about their IT-1 missile tank? Is it just a rebox of their T-62?

While there is no standardized glossary of terms for models, the common understanding of a statement like "The xxx kit is a rebox of the yyy kit and is supposed to have updated/improved parts" is that xxx is substantially the same as yyy with no real change in version, molding, detailing, and so forth. The term "rebox" is somewhat pejorative, carrying a meaning of "just a new box" or "same plastic, new paper". The perfect examples are the Tamiya issues of Italeri kits. In this case the two tanks are both T-62s, so there's really not a lot that's going to change, is there?

As to these particular kits they have different tracks and ERA fits. You can view the 01549 parts and instructions
here and the 01556 here.

HTH,
KL

Which one of these kits should I use to model a syrian civil war version?

Check out Oryx Blog,there is some great photos there that can help you there.

Had a look on there but there wasn't much info on the T62