The Chinese Type 59 is reportedly a copy of the Soviet T-54B. True, or are there differences? I thought China and the USSR had fallen out too soon for the Chinese to receive the T-54B tanks.

From what I have been told it is a T-54A

Try googling it?

And I know better than to blindly trust Wikipedia, based on past experience.

Type 59 is a series of tanks based on the Soviet T-54. The 1st Type 59 was a clone of the T-54A. Over time, China made numerous versions of the Type 59 without changing the name, which include the cloning the Soviet T-54B and later upgrade.

Only later on that China added extra designation on the Type 59, like Type 59-1 and Type 59-2, which were a lot different than the Soviet T-54s at that point.

Searching on google isn’t the same as Wikipedia

A T-54 has small cut-outs on the outer edges of the lower front hull plate. On the Chinese versions, it is a perfect rectangle, and the side plate extends to meet it. Takom got this wrong on their kits, but it's not hard to fix.

Type-59 is, generally a copy of the Soviet T-54A. However, there are some differences, such as what roadwheels are used or what fire control it has. Not all differences are visible, so the best bet, as many always state, is to find a photo of a vehicle you want to model and follow that to the best of your ability.

If you want to build a general Type-59, making sure to hit the main ID points as described on general sites, even wikipedia, will be fine.

If you want even more than that, getting ahold of a description from Jane's and doing more in-depth research may be in order.

Hope that helps