Hello everybody!
Have found a couple of kits of the brand Sif here in my local hobbyshop. And as an T-55 freak I am I would apreciate some kind of know how about their offerings of these beast.
Is it way off or ist it possible to make an decent kit of it?
The Skif T-55 kits are mediocre. Thay are soft on detail and can be a pain to assemsble. They do came with a basic interior and a good start if you plan on doing a burned out tank. They are slightly better quality than the old Esci T-55 kits, but no where near the quality of the new Tamiya T-55A. Here is a review of the older T-55s to include the Skif kit.
http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~TANK-GUY/KIT-REVIEW06.html
Here is a review of the new Tamiya T-55A to compare as well. http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tamiya/tam35257.htm
Run away, run away, run away as fast as you can. IMO, it can only make a decent destroyed vehicle. Go for the Tamiya T-55.
Disagree with you there. If you take the time and effort and add a few parts, it can come out looking great. Any kit can turn into a gem with some TLC.
I agree that it has plenty of potential, but is not better than the Tamiya kit. It can be combined with the Esci kit as well. Not worth the $30 it originally sold for in 2001.
Well, the Tamiya kit is the standard, but if this kit is going for a very cheap price, it can still be built into a nice model, albeit with some extra care and modelling.
Well I apreciate the answers!
One big issue is the differences on the price tags. The Tamiya kit has a price tag which doubles the price on the Skif kit. And don’t mention the differences between Trumepeters offering and Tamiya. It would be possible to make a whole platoon of T-54/55 of Trumpeter kits for one Tamiya kit. But they demand a little more work than the Tamiya offering.
I personally don’t think the Trumpeter offerings are that bad. THe most work will come in getting a good result out of the vinyl tracks. I’ve built two of the Trumpeter T-54/55 kits, and they were both a lot of fun to build. Plus as you said, the price really is not that bad. IMHO, I’d rather go with Trumpeter than Skif.
I agree, one thing I have encountered is that you have to make the boxes and storage bins lower on the track guards. They obstructed the movement of the turret if they there left in their original height. But it was no big deal because it is easy to correct these shortcomings.
But this is on the Type69-II maybe this i corrected on the later T-54-55 kits?
Hmm, now that you mention it, I did have that problem on one of them. The T-54 kit went together without a hitch. Back in those days, Trumpeter was performing some rudimentary moulding, so the kits definitely had their problems, but I just sanded the storage boxes bottoms’ down before mounting, and no problemo.
Anyways, let us know what you decide to do, and keep us updated on the build.