T-55 MAIN BATTLE TANK (Trumpeter)

This is a T-55 main battle tank in Soviet Army service as built in the mid-production years by the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory Харьковский Локомотивный Завод (ХПЗ KhPZ), and the UralVagonZavod УралВагонЗавод ( УВЗ UVZ). The tank was designed by the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau Харківське Конструкторське Бюро з Машинобудування ім. О.О. Морозова (ХКБМ KhKBM), and the Kartsev-Venediktov Design Bureau Конструкторское бюро Карцева-Венедиктова (OKB-520 ОКБ-520).

This was arguably the finest and most durable tank to emerge from WWII/Great Patriotic War. Several western tanks and anti-tank weapons were designed specifically to combat the T-54/T-55. Thousands of these tanks remain in service around the world.

As the T-54 and T-55 are directly (intimately) related, they are usually referred to as the combination name T-54/T-55 due to their superficial characteristics being so similar. Over 90 000 were built between 1946 and 1981, with the vast bulk coming from Ukraine SSR and Russian SSR. Several thousand were also manufactured in Poland (1956-1979), and Czechoslovakia (1957-1983). The T-54/T-55 was extensively exported, and became the most widely used tank in history, and remains in service with at least 50 countries, and has been retired from at least 30 more. Thus it is the most produced and longest production run tank in history.

The model is a Trumpeter kit of an Israeli army Tiran Ti-67 tank (#MM00339) which was a rebuild of the T-54/T-55 tanks captured from the Egyptian army and re-engineered for desert warfare. I removed all the upgrades and Israeli features to return the model to the way the T-55 would have looked in about 1966 when it formed the bulk of the Soviet Army armoured forces. The tank is named Kолхозник (Kolkhozhnik), or Collective Farm Worker, and this name appears on the rear of the turret.

Paint is all Vallejo greens, washes and powders. Decals, brief as they are, are from another armoured vehicle. The only problem with the kit was that the rubber tracks were badly warped and bent, and nothing I did fixed the kinks. In the end I positioned the tracks in such as way as to be able to glue the worst kink to the road wheel and hide the bend. I had to cut off the large infra-red covered lamp and reposition it to match the angle of the main gun. I added a wooden log and metal straps on the rear plate, and a wound metal wire tow cable on the bow plate.

This was an educational Covid-19 project which had previously stalled all spring due to worsening medical conditions.

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966
Kолхозник, or Collective Farm Worker.

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

T-55 main battle tank, Soviet Army, c. 1966

In the zavod (factory)

T-55 tank in the ХПЗ KhPZ factory, which just so happens to be in my spare bathroom.

T-55 tank in the ХПЗ KhPZ factory, which just so happens to be in my spare bathroom.

T-55 tank in the ХПЗ KhPZ factory, which just so happens to be in my spare bathroom.

                                    

MOST KNOWN WARS USING T-54/T-55 TANKS

1955–1975: USA war against Vietnam (S.R. of Vietnam)

1956: USSR suppression of Hungarian uprising against Stalinism (USSR)

1961–1991: Iraq–Kurdistan conflict (Iraq and Peshmerga)

1966–1990: South African Border War (Angola)

1967: Six-Day War (Egypt and Syria)

1968: Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (USSR and Poland)

1970: Black September (Syria)

1971: Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 (India)

1973: Yom Kippur War (Egypt and Syria)

1974–1991: Ethiopian Civil War (Ethiopia)

1975–1990: Lebanese Civil War (Lebanese army and militias)

1975–1991: Western Sahara War (Morocco and Polisario)

1975–2002: Angolan Civil War (Angola and UNITA)

1977–1978: Ogaden War (Ethiopia, Somalia and Cuba)

1978–1987: Chadian–Libyan conflict (Libya)

1986–1987: Toyota War (Libya)

1978: Uganda–Tanzania War (Uganda and Libya)

1978–1989: Cambodian–Vietnamese War (S.R. of Vietnam)

1979–1988: USSR invasion and war in Afghanistan (Afghanistan and USSR)

1979: Rhodesian Bush War (Rhodesia)

1980–1988: Iran–Iraq Gulf War I (Iran and Iraq)

1982–1983: 1982 Lebanon War (Syria and PLO)

1983-2009: Sri Lankan Civil War (Sri Lankan army and LTTE)

1983-2005: Second Sudanese Civil War (Sudanese army and SPLA)

1989: Romanian uprising against Nicolae Ceausescu (Romania)

1988–1993: Georgian Civil War (all sides)

1991–1992: 1991–1992 South Ossetia War (Georgia)

1992–1993: War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) (Georgia and Abkhazia)

1990–1991: Gulf War II (Iraq)

1991–present: Somali Civil War

1991–1995: Yugoslav Wars (Yugoslavia)

1991: Ten-Day War (Yugoslavia)

1991–1995: Croatian War of Independence (Yugoslavia, Croatia and Republic of Serbian Krajina)

1991–1995: Bosnian War (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska)

1994: Yemeni Civil War (all sides)

1997: 1997 clashes in Cambodia (Cambodian army)

1998–1999: Kosovo War (Army of Yugoslavia)

1998–2000: Eritrean–Ethiopian War (Eritrea and Ethiopia)

1998: Guinea-Bissau Civil War (government forces)

2001–present: War in Afghanistan (2001–present) (Northern alliance and Afghanistan)

2003–present: War in Darfur (Sudanese army)

2003–2011: USA war against Iraq (Iraqi army and militia forces)

2003: USA invasion of Iraq (Iraq)

2005-2010: Chadian Civil War (2005–2010) (Chadian army)

2008: Russo-Georgian War (Abkhazia and South Ossetia)

2011: Libyan Civil War (2011) (Gaddafi Government)

2011–present: Syrian Civil War (Syrian army, ISIL and Rebels)

2011–present: Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (Sudanese army)

2012-2013: M23 rebellion (Democratic Republic of Congo and March 23 Movement)

2014-2017: Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017) (Iraqi army, Peshmerga and ISIL)

2014–present: Libyan Civil War (2014) (Libyan National Army and Government of National Accord)

2015–present: Yemeni Civil War (2015–present) (Hadi-government forces and Houthis)

2020: 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (Azerbaijani Land Forces)

2020-present: Tigray War (Ethiopian army)

KV-2 Cartoon Tank (The Rainbow Forest?)

This is the KV-2 in the "cute tank" series from China (07317Z). As the box and plans are all in Chinese I cnanot determine a maker other than The Rainbow Forest. Box art is at bottom. Technically it is 1:72 scale. It comes moulded in pale blue and bright yellow, with decals of cute furry animals and paw prints. Do not be fooled, this is a remarkable technical product with some impressive slide moulding. 

Most interesting are the track links. Each side come fully moulded as a single piece, but no link actually touches the next one. The links were moulded directly onto a string which gives the length of track total flexibility. Each end link has holes moulded in or drilled through at the factory which will accept a tiny metal rod. This is a very tight fit, and I drilled out the holes to make it easier. The track length is just (just) long enough, and with some pull the ends met and the pins slipped in. Decals are from the IPMS Ottawa decal bank. The build took about one week.

This was a fun and interesting Covid-19 build and review.

The KV-2 (Kliment Voroshilov-2) tank was built in limited numbers (210) at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory Челябинский тракторный завод in about 1939. It was classed as a heavy assault tank with the MN-10 152mm howitzer.

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon tank

KV-2 cartoon "cute tank" box 

R.M.S. TITANIC (Suyata)

This is the very new first model from a new Hong Kong company called Suyata Models.

The kit is a cartoon version of the spectacular failure of a ship the R.M.S. Titanic, or as The Onion put it, "the World's Largest Metaphor".  

This is a superb kit in so many respects. The moulding is beautiful and the fit fantastic. It is cast in four colours, but I painted everything using both Vallejo and Tamiya gloss white acrylics anyway.

I bought at the same time the laser cut wooden decking for this new kit. There were about 25 pieces of decking, and I took the better part of a day applying it after first sticking it to my fingers. However, it was a great way to learn about applying wooden decking to model ships. There was no decking for the  aft flying bridge so I used excess wood to make proper decking for that piece. I also added chain for the anchors; rigging; a sternpost flag; and filled in all the portholes with clear glue.

Here is my in-box review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjsfoTdB2cU

The Onion says this was the final transmission from the Titanic: "Titanic struck by icy representation of nature's supremacy STOP insufficient lifeboats due to pompous certainty in man's infallibility STOP Microcosm of larger society STOP". Strangely there are almost as many lifeboats in this cartoon kit as there were on the real ocean liner.

This was a great and very educational Covid-19 project.

Work-in-progress in the Harland and Wolff shipyard which just so happens to be in my spare bathroom...

applying wooden decking