While Im not the biggest fan of Russian armor, I have always liked the T-72. So when Trumpeter announced their T-72 with ERA blocks, and in 1/16 scale, it immediately went on my list of kits to buy.



Its been a while since Ive built a 1/16 scale kit, and first thing that shocked me was the overall size of some of the parts. I knew the pieces were going to be significantly larger than their 1/35 counterparts but man, did I underestimate.



Looking over the sprues, the parts look cleanly molded with little to no flash or mold seams. I did find some mold seams on the lower hull, but for a piece that large I wasn't surprised. The seams look easy to clean up plus they'll be hidden by the running gear.







The turret has a nice texture to it and some crisply molded in details.



Trumpeter includes individual links for the tracks. Normally I dont care for indy link tracks but since the pieces are so large clean up will be a breeze. Trumpeter also includes steel pins to link the tracks together. No need to mess with glue!




And just for fun, a size comparison between Trumpeter's 1/16 and 1/35 T-72's.



I hope to do a mini build review with this blog, currently there are little to no reviews out on this kit. Time to get cutting!

Oh boy!!! I will be watching this, have this kit on my to buy list, will wait your progress.

I'll be watching as well.
Dan

Hope everyone had a good weekend and got some bench time in!

Progress has been made on the T-72. I took cutters to sprue and was able to get the running gear, minus the tracks, glued up. Things where sped up by Trumpeters inclusion of rubber/vinyl tires for the road wheels. You can clean up the wheels and not have to worry about gouging or sanding away too much material. The drive sprockets had a small mold seam that ran in between the teeth. This most likely would have been covered up with weathering but, given my severe case of modeling OCD, I decided to clean them up. Few swipes with a No.11 blade and they are hardly noticeable.

That brings me to my biggest take away from this weekends session. Dry fit and seam lines. Now there are no horribly fitting parts, but some of the pieces will need to be clamped down until the glue sets. Given the overall size of the kit and some of the pieces, its possible they could have warped in the slightest. So far, everything has been fitting quite nicely and no filler has been required. Except for some of the ERA blocks, which have a hollow back. I just filled the ones that sit at angles that allow the back to be seen.

Now for the seam lines. There are minimal mold lines in the parts, some being more noticeable than others. Now not all of them will be visible or require clean up but some of them will need to be removed for a proper fit of the parts. Its nothing major, but just be aware of it when assembling the kit.

One thing to point out in the instructions is the ERA mounting plate for the lower glacis. The instructions are a little vague as to the placement of the smaller bracket. Luckily I had the 1/35 counterpart in my stash and was able to reference those instructions. Below is the proper placement of said bracket. Id actually recommend leaving it off until later in the assembly as the slots in the bracket correspond to ERA mounting points that are molded into the upper hull.



I also had to enlarge a clearance opening as the molded one did not allow the plate to sit flush.


Im hoping to get the upper hull assembled and turret started by the end of the week. Most of the high parts count can be attributed to the tracks and ERA blocks. The main assembly of the hull/turret has a reasonable parts count.


Enough of my rambling, enjoy the pictures.

I've got the 1/16 T-72b. Shoulda waited for the b1. Oh well, nothing sayz I can't buy that one too.

Well, I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped over the weekend, but I was able to get a majority of the parts placed onto the hull. The build is still going smoothly, no major fit issues so far. Most of the parts do require mold line clean up, but a few swipes of the blade is enough to clean them up.

A couple places needed some filler, mostly where the front glacis and upper hull come together.Trumpeter molded the electrical lines that run to the headlights to upper hull and the front glacis. Thankfully, everything lines up and just a small amount of filler is needed.





I also started placing some of the ERA blocks on the front hull. Trumpeter molded some lightly raised alignment circles in the hull to help with placing the blocks. I labeled the circles to help make installation easier as there are a few different part numbers that are used. For some reason, it seemed that the blocks were slightly shorter than the length of the alignment circles. Its not that big of a deal, as the blocks cover the front hull pretty well.





The side ERA mounting brackets went on smoothly as well. Pay attention to the part numbers and the direction the brackets are supposed to face. The instructions can be a little vague and it helps to look a couple steps ahead as there is usually a better depiction of the part's orientation.

I purchased both the B and B1, apart from the tracks and the ERA, there's not a lot to either. They are RC models, without the suspension/track, etc. Don't know if Trumpeter is going to sell a kit to make them so, or they supply the RC company's with the bodies and just decided to see if they would sell as display models.
Impressive size, that's about it.

T72 fan not withstanding........are they different enough visually to warrant the purchase of both?

Well as any true Soviet armor and big scale fan would do......I bought them both....that solved that!

Also WOW!. What an effort. So how much liquid cement will you need in this build! lol And at this scale the effort of weathering will be a lot of fun. Every chip and scratch can be included.

Is this build dead? I was hoping to get some feedback on the accuracy of the kit as well.