Have a choice of the folowing in 1/35 scale: Italeri T-55 (low price as compared to the Tamiya kit and has Finnish decals I want) Trumpeter T-55 that includes bulldozer blade (very good price as well and Im looking for another tankdozer) Tamiya T-55 (most expensive but Im familiar with Tamiya quality and engineering) And Verlinden also makes a bulldozer blade for the Tamiya kit that I am assuming will also fit the Italeri model. Ive built several Tamiya kits and know their quality and have a couple of Italeri builds as well. Ive havent built and kits by Trumpeter as yet so am unfamiliar with what to expect from them, but the bulldozer blade included in the Trumpeter kit is very appealing as I am currently building a series of various makes of tankdozers. The Tamiya kit has had several very good reviews but Ive been unable to find any more info concerning the Italeri and Trumpeter kits. Anyone here have any info on what my best choice might be for a T-55 for my Warsaw Pact shelf?
The Tamiya T-55 is arguably the best armro model Tamiya has ever produced. Period.
I don’t know if it is the best Tamiya has ever made, but it is quite good. The Italeri T-55 is a re-issue of the old Esci T-55. It was great for its time and can be built into a nice T-55 as well. It is not as detailed and refined as the Tamiya kit and has a few accuracy issues too. Trumepeter’s are between the Tamiya and Italeri kits. They also can be made into nice models, with a little extra work. Basically, it depends on how much you want to spend on it and how accurate you like your models to be.
The Italeri kit is a rebox of the old ESCI kit. Not too bad in it’s day, but now eclipsed by the Tamiya kit.
Here’s a few links which might be helpful.
Tamiya, Esci, Trumpeter and Skif go head to head with their T-55
Definitely, the Tamiya kit is the best T-55 out there, but you only can build a Russian version, if you want a real Poland/Czech production T-55 you may need some photo-etched sets like the Eduard 35189. The Trumpeter kit has some failures, and all Trumpeter T-55 kit series are moulded in ABS plastic, so you have to use cyanoacrilate glue instead of normal plastic glue. If you want to work a lot, buy the reboxed ESCI T-55, now Italeri, It haves a LOT of failures and unaccuracies. If you want to know a little more, check http://www.network54.com/Forum/191754/ It’s a Spanish forum, and look for José Silva’s (that’s me) posts. I’m currently working in it, making a Peruvian T-55AM León-1, so you can check what you have to do do make it look right, without the missile launchers, of course. Regards.
José
Not necessarily true. Their earliest models, which were really motorized toys, were made out of ABS and had screws to attach the roadwheels with. In the late '90’s, they re-engineered them and molded them out of normal styrene. They also redid the roadwheel attachments to be more like standard models. Pretty much all the Trumpeter T-54/55s that are on the market now are the newer versions.
DCV,I would go with the Tamiya kit.Its worth the money for the details that you get.Digger
Really appreciate everyones input. Looks like the Tamiya kit is the winner. I`ve been able to get a nice result from building the Verlinden Sherman bulldozer blade on a Tamiya Sherman. The T-55 blade photo makes it look less complicated, the blade for the Sherman was fairly involved and I found the instructions to be somewhat lacking-it was a bit intimidating after close to 30 years away from the hobby but I pleased with how it turned out. Looks like Squadron will be getting an order shortly.
DCV instead of buying add ons,why not try your hand at scratch building.Digger