Miniarm T-64B Turret with Anti-Radiation
Cladding (for SKIF Models) (B35012)
by Cookie Sewell
46 parts (44 in tan resin, 2 turned aluminum); price US $51.00 (via Chesapeake
Model Designs)
Advantages: fixes many of the major flaws with the SKIF kit; very petite
details on turret and accessory components; amazing detail on commander's
cupola; partial interior for turret included
Disadvantages: directions are the "stick here" type with little
explanation; no material provided for barrel thermal jacket seals
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for all Soviet and Russian/Ukranian tank fans
For years I have been a fan of the T-64 series tanks, which always struck
me as the "sports car" of the armor world. Designed over a tortuous
20 years by A. A. Morozov, one of the designers of the famous T-34, the
T-64 was not an evolutionary tank but a "revolutionary" one,
combining an autoloader, opposed piston flat air-cooled diesel engine,
and three man crew in one package. The idea, a Soviet favorite goal, was
to get the protection and firepower of a heavy tank on the chassis of
a medium, thus creating the "osnovnoy boeyvoy tank" or main
battle tank.
Well, the idea didn't quite work out as well as planned, and many of
the tanks were, to be blunt, dogs. Out of the first 897 T-64s built 575
suffered catastrophic engine failure in the first three years of the tank's
entry into service, and many reports indicate it was freakishly temperamental
below 50 degrees F (10 degrees C). The running gear was not reliable,
the electronics unreliable, and the three man crew had a lot of problems
trying to carry out local (crew) maintenance on the vehicle. While the
tank is still reportedly popular in the Ukraine (where it was built) the
Russians have parked most of theirs and only seem to use them for training.
But even though this was the seminal vehicle of the late Cold War period
(1965-1990) only ONE manufacturer has bothered to kit it; naturally, it
was SKIF, who is a Ukranian company. But SKIF tends to be schizophrenic
in its kits, and some have good features, some have bad. Most of their
T-64 kits (T-64, T-64A, T-64B, T-64BV, T-64AK) have undersized turrets
and absolutely the worst set of vinyl tracks put in a model kit in the
last 10 years. It's truly a shame, as the hull and running gear of the
kit are pretty decent.
Now help is on the way in the form of a new Russian company, Miniarm.
They offer an initial release of 23 1/35 scale resin and plastic accessory
kits to correct many existing kits on the market, such as those for the
BMP, T-72, T-64, MT-LB, 2S1, KV-1, and IS-1/2. Many of their kits are
oriented on SKIF kits, which is good for the modeler.
This kit provides a new turret with all accessories for the SKIF T-64
series kits, but it appears that the target is the T-64B or BV kit (as
they come with skirts, which this turret has to have with it; "flipper"
armor panels are incorrect.) This corrects the biggest single flaw of
the SKIF kits, namely their undersized and straight-sided turrets. I compared
this one with the SKIF BV turret and it is much, much better shaped and
defined. I compared the resin turret with the one in "Osnovnoy Boyevoy
Tank T-64" by Sayenko and Chobitok (Exprint, Moscow 2002) and it
is pretty much a dead match for the B less reactive armor. The correct
model nomenclature would probably be T-64B Model 1984 as the initial B
came out in 1981 (also offered by Miniarm as their kit B35008) but without
the external radiation cladding. It could also be be used for a T-64B-1
Model 1984 without the 9K112 (AT-8 COBRA) ATGM control box in front of
the commander's hatch.
The resin parts are delicate and fragile, and some of the ones on the
review sample components were dinged as a result. The worst damage was
to the bases for the Type 902B "Tucha" smoke grenade launchers,
but can easily be fixed with some thin styrene strip. All of the covers
and canvas bits are well done, and are most complete. Resin molding plugs
are present, but not bad and large indented lines indicate where to separate
the parts.
The directions indicate that the modeler must come up with some 0.7 mm
wire for hand grabs and handles (0.030") but the modeler also will
need fine wire (0.3 mm or 0.015") for the connector from the electrical
feeds to the smoke grenade sets.
The only items I noted as missing were the joints (two flaps with bolts
connecting them) on the sections of the barrel where the thermal jacket
sections are sealed. These can be made from styrene strip; I think 0.010"
x 0.030" (0.2 x 0.7 mm) is about right for the joints, along with
some bolt heads. The other item missing is the tank's storage tarpaulin,
which goes up on top of the OPVT wading tubes at the rear of the turret.
As noted, the weakest part of these kits are the directions. The class
act here is Chesapeake Model Designs, and since they are one of the main
agents for Miniarm perhaps they can show them a better way to package
their kits.
Overall, this is a really decent kit that fixes one of the major problems
with a so-so kit and gives it a real chance to be a gem.
Thanks to Bill Miley of CMD for the review sample.
http://www.miniarm.com
http://www.
chesapeakemodels.com
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