PMMS
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T-55A Engine Set
1/35th Set #3046

Review by Terry Ashley
The update sets for the Tamiya T-55A just keep coming with this complete engine and compartment from CMK to add to the list.

As mentioned this is a complete compartment with full engine, transmission and accessories plus new upper deck panels and doors to transform the back end of your T-55.

The set consists of 37 cleanly cast parts in light cream resin and 6 etched parts, the quality of the resin is excellent without any blemishes with the only cleanup needed is the usual casting block removal and some minor resin film. One point here is with the separate cooling fan which has some very fine fins included, this will required extreme care to remove the casting block without damage to the fins and something I haven't quite worked out how to achieve as yet.

The engine bay is a simple three sided tub with some minor details and locating points for the other parts included and was completely warp free on my sample with the casting block on the inner face and this may not even be necessary to remove this as it will be out of sight on the installed compartment.

The engine has the main block in one piece with separate cylinder head covers with etched details, exhaust manifolds (two per side) plus other fittings and with the addition of some thin wiring (not included) will look very busy. The engine also sits in a separate smaller mounting tub for easy fitting.

The transmission is another excellent casting with nice details included and this is fitted between two separate brake housings which also have some extra parts included.

The rear compartment wall is a separate part that includes the housing for the separate cooling fan as mentioned above which gives excellent definition to this assembly.

The upper deck (Tamiya part D41) is replaced with a resin item that in turn has a separate left side hatch and interior detail if you wish to show this in the open position?

Some minor modification is required to the Tamiya kit to fit the new parts, firstly the inside locating tabs of the four fuel tank supports (Tamiya parts A4) have to be removed and the inside louvers under the rear deck panel (Tamiya part D18) have to be cut out and replaced with the resin parts supplied. Both of these mods should be easy to deal with and the rest is just assembly and painting of the resin parts with the tub fitting snugly inside the rear of the Tamiya hull.

In all an excellent and quite complete engine compartment that will allow you to open up whole upper engine decking to show off the details and if used in conjunction with the recent Blast Models T-55 Update Set will give you many options for the finished kit.

The instructions have six pages of very clear drawings showing the construction sequences as well as the mods needed on the Tamiya kit and should make assembly straight forward. A basic painting guide is also included indicating the different colours of the various engine components as well as corresponding Humbrol paint numbers but obviously some additional reference would be helpful.

Two views of the engine block casting
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Two views of the transmission casting

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The Resin Parts

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CMK Update set are available from NKR Models in Australia.



Page created 23 November 2003

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