Just about to start the Takom 1/35 ZSU-57-2 and have a couple of questions:

1. Are there any etched brass sets for this kit?
2. Are there any crews?

Hi Ian;

"ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT" !!!!!!!! Being A New kit, if there is not sets already available, Im sure there will Soon !-- Dedicated sets useally don't appear for A Lil-time.

CHEERS; MIKE.

Majic Models has turned barrels....

I have already got one and got a Aber barrel set I want to say.Anyway from just looking at whats in the box,it looks great.Also at this time there is no figure sets I know of this time.

I believe that Paracel makes some North Vietnamese crew figures, if that helps. Wayne

This one is on my "GET IT!" list.

That said, jump into it with a couple of things "fore-warned is forearmed"...

Takom does (IMHO) GREAT kits of T-55 - variants and based-subjects, and this is one of those.

One "problem" item some folks have focused on is the road wheels: The kit wheels are the same sort used in other Takom -55 kits - separate tires and rims...

The tires have heavy-duty ridges molded on... The real ones did / do have small ridges, but these model parts need some muting and even removal from the tire surface which rolls on the treads (unless of course you WANT "all-new" tires! ).

And those rims look nice, and have the CORRECT "step" inside, as seen on real T-55 wheels. But Takom has engineered these wheels so that you fit the rubber tire onto the rim from the outside (of tank) - and when you fit these on, you will end up with a visible seam around the inside rim between the rubber tire and the rim. That needs to be filled and sanded smooth . There are a couple of pretty simple, effective approaches I have successfully used to address this problem:

One is to assemble the tire with GENEROUS cement right inside the lip of the tire where it will meet the rim. Press firmly together and hold 'til set. You will force up a small cement bead out of that seam-gap - filling it. After the wheels are dry, scrape or sand that little bead off / smooth. A bit tedious, but it works well and doesn't actually take a lot of time.

Alternatively, I assemble the wheels "normally", and then run some diluted filler putty (Squadron green plus thin styrene cement, for me) into the seam-gap, let dry, and sand smooth. Again, it is a little tedious, but...

EITHER route will get you proper-looking SMOOTH inner-rim surfaces complete with the correct step.

Another "issue" some see in those wheels is that Takom has not provided any huge, well-defined rim-edge on the outside of the rubber tires. There IS such an edge visible on the real tires/wheels, but Takom did NOT give you a lot of well-defined rim-edge. BUT... There IS, if you look closely, a defined rim-edge faintly molded to those tires. So... The way to make this work is to simply paint the entire wheel "rubber color", and MASK the rubber tire to leave BOTH the inner rim AND that thinly-molded rim-edge available for painting body-color. Painting in that "rim-edge" will work fine. By me - as I always mask my wheels anyway, this is a NON-ISSUE of the first order, but you will see it raised in some other threads, so...

And, a suggestion about assembling those wheels... Go ahead and fully-assemble them right up front PER INSTRUCTIONS and later paint the ASSEMBLED wheels - some like to think that it is easier to paint "rubber tires" separately from "steel rims" and then assemble the painted pieces. Takom's engineering of these wheels does not support that approach well - because of the seam-gap AND the "faint but there" rim-edge molded onto the separate tire pieces - which needs painting to be seen. So you don't come out ahead by "paint-and-then-assemble" with these. You'll still be (masking and) painting to get those rim-edges - and the inner rim portion molded onto those "rubber tires"! Also, if you do paint them separately, chances are you'll get paint on the surfaces where tire fits around rim... making assembly difficult...

Just a heads-up and some possible work-a-rounds and suggestions for some known issues!

ENJOY the SPAAG build!

Bob