I've just received the kit of the T-14 Armata made by Trumpeter, 1/35.
My first impression is good, apart for the slat armors on the rear that are way too thick.
All things seem as one could expect from Trumpeter.
The decals sheet is a bit strange: there is a main sheet with the yellow-black bands (at least, they seem yellow looking at the sheet sealed in the envelope, but photos of the real thing show them as light orange), a Guards emblem, and a small separate sheet with furter emblems of medals. The painting instructions show to put them all on the side skirts in front of the yellow-black bands, but I haven't found any photo confirming this livery.
I wonder if this is a what if livery, or some tank has appeared in this way on some parade?
The instructions sheet gives two more possibilities: a standard three shades camo without markings, and a geometric sand camo similar to that of the Terminator sent in Syria, certainly a fantasy.
I haven't found any review of the kit till now.

At the 2018 parade they seem to have had it that way.

https://www.vitalykuzmin.net/Military/Dress-rehearsal-2018-Moscow-VDay-Parade/i-VW44H5b/A

Massimo;

I recently picked up that Trumpy Armata too. It does look pretty good - and yes, I agree that the slat bits are quite "overly robust"! I plan on replacing all the horizontal elements (slats) with either PE brass strips or perhaps 0.100 styrene strips to get a better scalar effect. While pretty large as 1/35 armor items go, I think that it will be a fairly quick build compared to some other "Big Russian" tank kits from Trumpy and other makers. Fewer parts and a somewhat cleaner real exterior are the big reasons for this.


As for paint schemes... The link Arpad provided shows excellent pics of current parade-ground vehicles (and some super great pics of other new Russian armor....) in the monochrome - with - flags and large colorful banner emblems scheme. I don't plan on going that way. The urban splinter scheme Trumpy provides is cool, but likely quite fanciful - I seriously doubt that Mr. Putin plans on exposing any of his new Armata to prying western eyes and possible capture by sending any to Syria. That wouldn't serve any of his likely purposes. On the other hand, Armata IS his new "steel fist" and they will soon likely deploy into active mainland armored units - and thus will eventually get "decorated" with one or another current or new camo scheme "for the real world". My plans go there.


Arpad: MANY THANKS for the great link! There are many spectacular pics and one can only hope that kit makers are eyeing what will evidently roll in the 2018 May Day Parade with intent to put out some new things.... A Typhoon K 4x4 kit would certainly get my modeling dollars, as would that Kornet set mounted on a modded "Tiger" chassis! And the peek at the real BPMT revs up my hopes to see that version appear on some shelves or e-sites soon! Of course, we would all LOVE to see more pics of these in some field / unit-service livery!


Cheers! Bob

Bob

Zvezda kit# 3682 GAZ Tiger with Kornet ATGM

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1017254-zvezda-3682-tiger-with-atgm-kornet#

Tony

Hi Arpad,
thank you for your excellent link. I seea tank with emblems of Guards and Red Banner order (I think, I am not sure) on both sides that can be made with the decals of the kit. Other emblems in the decals sheet stay unused for now,
Bob,
I am projecting to make the tank in parade livery. An alternative could be in parade without the side skirts, that would resolve the problem of the slat, but soboth the nice markings and the ship-like look of the hull are lost and, how to say it, it resembles too much a simple tank.
The kit looks simple, not exactly a weekend built but close.
Going on whatif ground, the winter painting shown on BTR-82 would look great on any tank.

I have seen that kit - it's OK, but the version I am looking to get would be the VPK-233116 with the enlarged armored body, as seen in the 2018 dress rehearsal images! I suspect we will be seeing more of these new Russians coming out as nice kits in the next little while...

Bob

Cool pictures. What shade of green are all of these parade vehicles painted? I've recently caught the Russian armor bug, but trying to figure out and understand all the shades of Russian greens is difficult.

The instructions sheet suggests dark green H309, XF-58, Humbrol 116 for the parade vehicle (and implicitely as new standard Russian green).
XF-58 is an olive green, for WW2 German tanks I think. I0ve already utilized it on T-90 and Terminator andI think it fitswell with photos.
For comparison, the three-shades what if pattern suggests light green H303, XF-20, Humbrol 117, and this suggests that it could be the older standard color for Russian tanks. (around FS-34102).
Anyway, I think that they would use the darker shade of green as base color for the camouflaged tanks too.