Zvezda: T-72 Battle Tanks in 15mm

I was fishing around the web for some Russian tanks for MNU and stumbled across The Plastic Soldier Company who were selling some plastic Zvezda T-72 tanks in 15mm scale.

Would mercenaries have tanks?  Well- historically- a certain South African mercenary company fielded T-72s in its operations in African trouble spots.  So I thought it would be fitting for the Ark Light Battalion to have its own armour.  

Advancing- from the Flames of War school of driving

Good things about the kit- firstly they offer a platoon deal: 3 tanks for 16GBP.  Thats about 1-2GBP cheaper than QRF miniatures and (depending on exchange rates) about the same versus Khurasan's T-90s.

They are also in plastic- which after my struggles with resin and metal was a nice break.  They were easy to put together (though I suggest reading the instructions first!!!!- don't be like me!) and required minimal clean up.

My critique is that the detailing is a bit lacking (especially compared to Khurasan).  For example there are no smoke launchers and no cupola mounted 12.7mm machine gun.  And for the real rivet counting Rain Man types, the glacis doesn't have the distinctive "V" bar across it.  And the cupola lacks the set of vision blocks for the commander to peer through.  Oh yeah, I think the decals it comes with are for 1/72 scale (28mm scale).  So they're sitting in my bits box....

That aside, I'm more of a 'representative' gamer- it's recognizable as T-72, so it's good enough for me.

I'm not much of a reviewer of kits so I'll let the pictures do the talking....

Back of the box.

The whole kit is designed to be snapped together sans glue.  I *STRONGLY* advise you to read the instructions carefully before taking your Revell plastic glue to it and discovering you've left out the internal support struts of the hull!

Tank tracks, side skirts and the internal support struts down the bottom.

Other sprue kit- see Chassis and take note of the TURRET SUPPORT PEG

Even without looking at the instructions (I'm bad aren't I?)- I managed to put it together.

Then keeping the turret separate from the assembled chassis, I started painting.  I painted them exactly the same way I painted the T-90s, trying to keep the colour schemes consistent.

This is when the issue of the turret peg became important.

Little did I know, my avid spraying with paint had put layers around the turret support peg- increasing its diameter.  And then, my avid spraying of the turret had actually partly filled in the socket of the turret (that is supposed to mate with the peg).

As a result, the turrets didn't sit very well on the model- and then when I tried to twist the turret off....

Yep, snapped off...

Argh!!  Blardy plastic!

Never fear, I brought out a spare paper clip, my wire cutters and my hand drill set (which I haven't used in years).

Drilled out the centre- still a tedious process.

Paper clip fragment Zap-a-Gapped in place.

I then had to drill into the Turret socket to make sure the paper clip had some space to poke into.  After a few goes, I finally got the turrets to sit flush onto the hulls.  They aren't super stable though.

Anyways, be warned!

After all that, I was finally able to finish them off.  Here are some views so you guys can get a good idea of what the model looks like.

You can see the turret still sitting a little bit awry on the left tank.

Yes, that blue dot on the side skirt has since been corrected!

So, the question I ask myself, is... are they worth it?

Taking into the vagaries of exchange rates and postage and handling- I don't find them any cheaper than tanks I can buy from Khurasan (my gold standard of 15mm tank building).  Khurasan, however, don't make T-72s.  I have never bought from QRF- but from the images- QRF T-72s are much more high fidelity (they've got smoke launchers!) and are only a touch more expensive.

The plastic set is a heck of a lot easier to deal with, but personally- when I get a model in plastic, I expect it to be much cheaper than comparative miniatures in resin or metal.  Maybe that's the unrealistic GW drone in me, but 5 metal Space Marines = 10-15 plastic ones!  (Or that's what it used to be).

Enough rambling from me, I'm going to plan a new mission for Lt. Klotz.  His platoon should be rested after that shellacking they got from a roving Prawn patrol.....

Until next time, Happy Gaming!