This is the 1:72 scale model of the T-80 third generation main battle tank as it appeared at the 2019 Army Games in Alabino, Russia. What made it special was that this tank was crewed by what Russia billed as their first all-female tank crew. Anastasiya Baranova, Marina Pushkareva and Daria Sirotenko are Russian Army doctors who volunteered to be tankers. The vignette shows the T-80 flying off an abutment at full speed before firing on a target. This tank can reach about 70 km/hr. Not bad for 43 tonnes!
The T-80 tank was designed by Nikolay Popov at the SKB-2 design bureau of the Leningrad Kirov Factory (LKZ) from 1967 through 1975 as Project 219 (проект 219); and was built in the LKZ (Кировский Завод) and Omsk Transmash (Омский завод транспортного машиностроения) factories in the USSR/Russia; and in the Malyshev Factory (Завод імені В.О. Малишева) in Kharkiv (Харків) Ukraine. The T-80 was famous as being the first gas-turbine powered tank made by a major Cold War country. Since entering serial production in 1976, over 5600 units have been completed. Russia now has only about 500 in active service and over 3000 in storage, as the type is replaced by much newer tanks.
The most unusual user of the T-80 is South Korea (RoK), which received 35 of the tanks in repayment of Soviet debt prior to 1991.
Revell T-80 B Soviet Main Battle Tank (1:72 scale, model #03104, 1996). Paint is mostly Tamiya acrylic with Vallejo powders. I bought he kit used from Hobby Centre in Ottawa as a fun nine day Covid-19 project.
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| T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games |
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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Anastasiya Baranova, Marina Pushkareva and Daria Sirotenko
standing by to begin the tank competition at the 2019 Army Games near Moscow.
Photo credit: Ilya Pitalev - Sputnik. |
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| T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games |
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 with all-female crew gets airborne at the 2019 Army Games
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T-80 under construction in the Кировский Завод,
which just so happens to be in my spare bathroom
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