Italeri 1/72 T-55A

I did this as a build review for Model Military Int’l magazine a few months ago to show people what they got for their money. After the article was published and seeing a modelling buddy of mine on Facebook start a Revell 1/72 T-55A/AM, it inspired me to pick the build back up where I had left off.

Although the kit was built OOB for the review, I took off bits such as the turret grab handles, brush guards over the head lights and the too-short connecting rod between the searchlight mount and gun mantlet and replaced them with 0.3mm copper wire. I also used the wire to add the tie-down loops on the rear of the turret and for the brush guards I made a template from 2.5mm square rod to match the profile, after which copper wire was wound around it and trimmed.

Copper wire was also used for the fuel lines on the right fender and conduit tube for the headlight wiring. I applied Milliput modelling putty to the gun mantlet and fashioned a canvas cover as the one in the kit doesn’t have one.

I also used Milliput to fill in the gaps around the gun sight and machine gun covers on the turret. The two holes in the front left fender were filled in by gluing heat-stretched sprue into them and when set, trimming off the excess from the top and bottom.

All I have to do next is mask off the open engine bay and covers, get some paint on it and that will be another model finished. I have to say that 1/72 is a bit small for me armour-wise (although I’m OK with modern jets in this scale) and I’m not likely to abandon 1/35 any time soon, however this has been an interesting exercise in building a small-scale tank plus the modern tooling on these kits is light years ahead of what I grew up with as a kid. In fact I WAS thinking of taking a trip down ‘Memory Lane’ and getting the Airfix Panzer IV in this scale but then I remembered what that kit was like, took off my rose tinted glasses and shelved the idea.