Trumpeter shares sprue images of its recently released T-72 kit.

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Thanks!

"Over 1,900 parts"??!!??!! I'd have to clear my schedule for the next 15 months to finish this one.

Beat me to it, Jack! It looks like it would build up to a quite cool-looking model... And I LOVE these Russians with ERA plastered all over! But I'm afraid I probably won't live long enough to build one, even if I started today, given the time it takes me to build these things!

Bob

1900+ parts in 32 sprues

The biggest lie we tell ourselves is, "I won't buy a new kit". That being said, 1900 parts is surely enough of an excuse to buy that new kit we won't buy.

1,900 parts for a 1/35 scale kit... Holly Mother of God...
WHY would you do that to yourself

"I WON'T, I won't, I won't! Not another huge Russian tank kit with an absurd number of little bitty parts! NEVER AGAIN one of those!" fervently said the stubborn old modeler - ahem - model buyer - as, eyes glistening and tongue hanging, he reached for his credit card.

I just WON'T...!

Well.... I'll see...

Yeah...

And if you don't already have one... this kit clearly calls for getting (or making) one of those sprue-organizer things...!

Once again why is Parts count being considered an indicator of a difficult kit? Most of the parts are made of the ERA armor and tracks.

If they fit together well, the kit should be easy to build.

There's a greater chance the carpet monster will eat them.

It's not that a high parts count equates to a kit being difficult to assemble. But I see two possible problems, one being that companies seem to promote the idea that "more parts means more accuracy," when it more likely means "It costs $100 because we're giving you 1900 parts." And I fail to see the "accuracy" point in a Panther jack made up of 9 separate parts, or tracks that have separate links, pads & guide horns. Which goes to point #2, assembly might become tedious instead of enjoyable.

More parts can mean more detail and more excitement in the build.

Scott‘s right. Having built one of Trumpeter‘s T-72s and several of their other late Cold-War Soviet armor kits, I can say the vast majority of that parts count consists of the tracks, the ERA and its PE brackets, and also the fastening discs for the anti-radiation cladding, also PE. It‘s a hair tedious but everything goes together well - once you get into a groove, you can take care of it pretty fast. And of course, the level of detail is really good.

All in all, these are great kits.

Both posters referred to the time it will take them to build a kit with a high part count, nothing on being difficult to assemble.

Hi Everybody;

Well this is just going to be up to the Builder to just how its Complexity goes. Some of Us like A Challenge, while other's Sweat Bullets at the thought of individual track links.. Looking at the Sprue shots, I really Don't see anything to serious, and the tracks are there Normal RMSH non/working type !! And for Trumpeter this is just one of there average kit's ! My only Gripe is the Wanky Gun Mantlet and there PE sets which leave A lot to be desired, on the Plus side you get the choice of either 8 or 6 spoke road wheels !! The only other thing that People are not going to like is the 30% increase in the price of kit's.

CHEERS; MIKE.

You hit it, Tat! Trumpeter has done many great tank kits - I've built several of them. To be sure for all... There's NOTHING inherently DIFFICULT about a tank kit with over 1900 parts - specially if those parts go together well (which, in Trumpy's case, they generally do). In fact, Trumpy's big Russian kits, like most of Dragon's big German kits, are actually quite EASY builds; the parts are generally well-molded, fit together and usually have good places to go into.

But for those of us who take our time with things, who stop and admire the bits we've recently attached, who like to sit and dawdle around and think a bit while gazing upon the completed step, who take breaks and do other stuff between sometimes short bouts of clipping, cleaning, fitting and cementing....

1900+ bits is simply going to take a loooong time to complete! Just imagine... IF you actually average say 2 minutes per part - from sprue to cemented on - 1900 parts becomes maybe 3800 minutes... If you are like me... who averages perhaps 2 - 3 hrs (120 - 180 minutes) at the bench per week, most weeks... A 1900 part kit may go between 21 and maybe 32 weeks of assembly alone!

PS: I've been at this game for many years. I KNOW that I actually hardly ever get near to only 2 mins per part, on average, and watching other modelers tells me that they don't generally go that fast, either...

It's TIME, friends, not DIFFICULTY! I can do difficult all day long. Time... Well, that marches by at its own pace!

That said, the box-art looks cool, and I'll likely get one of these. What's the worst that can happen? I won't get to actually build it!

Cheers! Bob

I can relate to that

This new Trumpy 72A kit came up in discussion at today's club meeting... More specifically, the number of parts involved...

I mentioned the "math" of average time-per-part and the sometimes limited bench time available... All the other guys are at least as old as I - all of us into our Social security years... Everybody 'round the tables nodding in affirmation as I first waxed on how cool it looked in the box-art, and then moved on to the reality that it might take awhile to actually get one built! I'd brought along another Trumpy BIG Russian kit (the 72B/B1) for show-and-tell - its box just jammed full of plastic and stuff - and used same as a sort of visual referent for what this new 72A kit likely looks like in its box... One guy suggested that a few kits like that could serve well when he checks out... He wants his fam to give him a Viking send-off; pile up the un-built stash, put him on top, and light it off! Yeah, these big Trumpy kits would provide substantial fuel for such an event!

OK. When will it hit the vendors? I'm thinking more and more that I need to add one of these to my stash! Right after I score one of the recent T72B3 mod 2016 kits...

Bob