Yes.... that one...

I am entering a totally new realm here on Armorama. After 14 years of being a member this is the first time I actually am going to post something in the Russo-Soviet forum. And I do that with the infamous Tamiya T-62A. That should say something about my state of mind....

But in all seriousness.
Recently I have begun building old kits again and the reasons for that are several. One is based on economics, another on nostalgia, a third is that I want to show others that those old kits, due to their affordability ideal for newcomers, can still be built and made to look presentable. And recently I have become quite interested in Cold War events and want to build tanks representing these events.
Now I know that the T-62A most likely is not entirely historically accurate and Tamiya's kit is far from accurate in and on itself, but it is close enough.
I had some issues finding reference material, clearly showing details of those tanks those days, which made it hard to correct mistakes, suitable for beginners. So no major surgery altering measurements or shapes etc.



However there will appear crossovers from other kits and builds as well. I have had Trumpeters T-54A Model 1951 for ages, started many years ago and I plan on pillaging that kit from parts I gathered over time to improve on that kit. I wanted it to be a T-54B as used by the NVA in Vietnam during the Easter Offensive of 1972 and so I acquired tracks, wheels, idlers, sprockets and a DShK from another Tamiya kit; their T-55. These, being better than the T-62 parts, will now be used on that one and the T-62 parts, still being better than Trumpeters, will end up on the T-54.

A comparison of the running gear; T-54 vs. T-55 vs. T-62


Here too T-54 vs. T-62 vs. T-55 DShK's and ammoboxes.


One thing that was omitted was the rough cast metal surface Soviet tanks are known for. The T-62 turret was a smooth as a baby's butt. So that had to be replicated. At first I tried the "cement"-method; covering the surface, waiting for it to become soft and than apply a texture with a stiff brush. I used Tamiya's cement, but that only created a glazing on the surface.... So I went for little more drastic measures; nailpolish remover. That worked quite well, but I had to sand down the excess later on, hence the frosted appearance.

I also had to sand quite a lot to get the barrel acceptably round, but with some effort that worked quite well.


The fit of the barrel assembly however is not good. First image with barrel in almost level, downward position, the second with barrel in raised position. That will need "some" work...

I’m definitely going to follow along here. I do like the Prague Spring subject area.

I may peek in now and then too, I'm about two steps away from finishing the same kit, lots of AM stuff that I got cheap when the Trump kits came out.

@ Carlos; I have gotten into the Prague Spring events due to this kit. And I am already expanding into Hungary 1956 and DDR (former East Germany) 1953.

@ Russell; What AM?? I could not find any?? No p.e., no barrel. Only Miniart's tracks.... and even those were more expensive than the kit.
But it would have defeated the purpose of this build to use any such too.

This build surely isn't the hardest one, but it isn't the easiest either.

The kit has its number of pitfalls, but all in all goes together rather quickly. However for my endgoal I needed to address some things and make some changes. First of all the wheels. I replaced those with a set from Tamiya's T-55 as I wrote earlier, but the main issue is that the wheels do not fit the shock absorbers! Or more precisely the polycap wheel hubs do not. So I had to shorten the axles, meaning the wheels had to be glued in place permanently. Which meant leaving off the hull for easy of painting. I would have to anyway if I were to have any chance of fixing the vinyl tracks later on, since these have to be made to fit and glued in place too.

Several of the reference pictures show T-62's in a rather dark shade of green, so I tried Tamiya's XF-61 Dark Green.... which turned out quite dark indeed! But I sort of like it for representing a relatively new vehicle, so I'll run with that.

Another detail is the deep wading equipment. Tamiya provides a short one to be attached to the rear of the turret, but pictures show a long one attached to the rear of the vehicle, often on top of the extra fuel drums. I had a tube in just the right diameter, so made a new one. Added additional drum fastenings as well.

I did not like the outcome of the turret, so I'll redo that one. References show all sorts of white markings. There appears to have been no real uniformity in either applying them, their location or their form.
I have seen all from T-shaped to crufifix-formed with straight and angled arms. Even running all the way down the backside of the tank over unditching beam and fuel drums.
All sorts of unitnumbers too; simple, with or without a small divisional symbol, with additional numbers in either squares or near-cirkels.

Hi;

Your main problem is the Tamiya T-62 itself; Its really worthy of the Scrap Bin !! Its not accurate in any area, as it was probably the Worst kit that Tamiya built. Any of the AM sets are really made for true 1/35 which the Tamiya kit is closer to 1/32 ! There mite be A older PE set that was made for the Tamiya T-62 that would be close to its scale and Mite make it look Better !!

GOOD LUCK; MIKE.

Well, the model is 5 mm too long on about 200... not really 1/32, more 1/34. Not a terrible problem for a nostalgia building.

Throw it away? No, why?
It fits together reasonably well, it looks T-62...ish, enough to recognize it as such anyway and for the few SEK I paid for it, it was worth the effort. I had fun building it.

I would actually argue that it is quite a decent starterkit. Cheap, simple and you can't do to much wrong. And if you do, not much harm done.

I agree, just build it.

For aftermarket, Eduard has a pe set. Aber, Armorscale and Barrel Depot did barrels. Chesapeake did a turret. Miniarm did a searchlight. Now because the Tamiya kit is old these are probably not in most shops anymore so eBay, contests (not that anyone has those anymore) or private sales is way to find them. However I think your doing a good without any of those.

Ron: I scored two sets of Eduard PE, one "old" and basic, one made up of several sheets and quite comprehensive but very fiddly. I used a small pportion of it only. Also in the box was the complete Verlinden set, which was a resin rear hull portion, drop-in engine, turret, lots of resin detail parts and a pile of PE, in copper. Additionally, the box came with several turned aluminum gun tube, and a canvas mantlet for the Tamiya turret. I had a set of Friuls on hand.
Mine, nearly completed:
IMG_3567 by Russel Baer, on FlickrIMG_3569 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
I have a Trumpeter T-62 Mod 1972 started, and have compared the hulls, with the Tamiya hull being longer by about two scale feet, oddly with the extra length being added between the last road wheel station and the final drive. The relationship between the front of the hull and the front of the turret ring is the same on both kits, making the engine deck on the Tamiya kit look obviously too long. An unpainted pic:
IMG_3091 by Russel Baer, on Flickr
Sorry for the hijack, think of it as moral support for building an inaccurate model just for fun.

Moral support is always welcome!
Amazing work with that one! It would defy the purpose of my build, which was going back to basics.... basically.

I did not like the outcome of the turret, so I redid that one. Off into a bag of oven cleaner it went. The decals took some scrubbing though. References show all sorts of white markings. There appears to have been no real uniformity in either applying them, their location or their form.
I have seen all from T-shaped to crufifix-formed with straight and angled arms. Even running all the way down the backside of the tank over unditching beam and fuel drums.
All sorts of unitnumbers too; simple, with or without a small divisional symbol, with additional numbers in either squares or near-cirkels.

The decals I used, once again from Trumpeter's T-54A kit, were so stiff and unpliable that I cut them up in order to make them take the shape of the turret better and diminish the creasing. I doused them in Microsol first, dabbed, tapped and pushed them down and finally used Microset. But you still see the creases, especially along the top edge.







Another problem occurred when I sealed the decals with the matt clear paint; the entire surface became considerably darker! So I had to redo the whole tank, making it much darker then I had initially planned for.



The rather minimal stowage comes from the sparesbox. It lacked more suitable stowage.





Just out of nostalgia I used only this Tamiya set for the weathering.

Tracks were drybrushed using Vallejo's "natural steel", gave it a wash with dark grey, followed by a darkbrown wash and topped of with the brown from the weathering set along the outer edges.

Unfortunately the vinyl tracks were twisted and bent, making it impossible to get them to fit properly. The tracks actually are made up of one set of Tamiya T-55 tracks, combined and cut to length. The supplied kit tracks are too short and as a result will sit too tight, losing the typical sag of the real thing.

Weathering in general is kept minimal. Looking at pictures of the event itself all tanks look remarkably clean. None of them had come a long way during the invasion, so I suspect they had been standing at the ready just across the borders.

Good pick on the tracks, they should lay down with time too.
If you can find some, Walthers decal setting solution is more aggressive than Micro Sol, even works on Academy decals.

Soviet Tanks usually have minimal stowage compared to their NATO counterparts. If you do an image search of Operation Danube, you will see that for the most part, they only had a tarp or two, as well as chock blocks for stowage.
It’s looking real good so far!

On the following pictures a number a small issues was shown, so I had to fix those. Replace the broken antenna, paint the "glass" of the optics etc. I had also forgotten all about the fuel hoses between the external tanks, even though they are quite prominent, until it was too late to add them. Finding good references photo's for details of contemporary vehicles proved difficult, but in case of those hoses, one could easily copy those from a T-55 for instance.

The white markings had to look as it they were handpainted by the crew and I always find it challenging to do that convincingly. With this one I am rather pleased by the result and I used Tamiya's XF-2 straight out of the jar. Painted some small runners on the front too. I toned the white down with a neutral grey wash, making it look a little grimy. I suppose Soviet tanks always were...

I must admit that I did not give this kit the attention it should have gotten. There are a number of places where I should have sanded a bit better, remove some flash, work a little more precise and such. But I guess I got biased by reading reports and statements online, when I researched the kit. It was stated that it was such a horrible kit, nothing was right so I ended up cutting corners. I really shouldn't have...

It was really not all that bad! The main flaw I discovered was the wrong rear end. The mudguards are too long and straight. They should follow the curving of the track. The engine deck is very long too, but neither of these issues hampers the fun of building the tank. All in all I enjoyed my first "Russian heavy metal"! And I also learned a lot more about events behind the "Iron Curtain". More to follow....

Good result. I like the white ID markings, well done.

Hello Ron van Wiggen

This variant T-62 was not available during the 1968 CSSR invasion. This variant T-62 with this turret was later introduced into the armament of the Soviet Army. I think 1973/74. If you have a different opinion, then show original pictures.

Best regards LKWMAN

I know. So what?
Goal of the exercise was to go back to basics, have fun and learn about history.

Well done! It’s not perfect, nor fully accurate, but you made a nice work of what comes in the box and what you had available. And, most importantly of all, you had fun.

The long rear mudguards can be really found on some variants of the tank.