T-55 Soviet Tank
Italeri Kit No. 6427
1/35th Scale
First Look Review by Peter Brown

For those not familiar with them, ESCI released three versions of the T-55:

Italeri have provided the same parts as in the "T55 A (M)" kit, and the instructions give options for both early and late vehicles.

Being an older kit, it is not up to the latest standards. Several problems have been pointed out with the series, such as the pattern of the wheels, rearmost suspension arms being the wrong way round though this is not as obvious as it might be, and several areas like engine deck and fuel tanks need improvement.

Best feature of this kit, for me at least, is the plastic link and length track. This gives long and short runs and single links, which makes depicting the characteristic track sag of the T-55 series far easier than with soft-plastic band track and without the cost of replacement resin or metal track. That is, once the knockout pins which appear on about three-quarters of the links have been filed off.

With these problems, this is not the best T-55 out of the box - that would be Tamiya’s release - but it is far better than the Skif kits and with some work can be built into a presentable model. Much of this work was described in a long article by Bruce Crosby in Military Modelling’s 1999 Military Vehicle Modelling Special Volume 29 No 10 which also describes how to convert it to a T-54 or Chinese Type 59.

There have been several update sets produced for the ESCI kit and as this is the same kit they will fit it just as well.

What is new is the decal sheet which go with colour details for five tanks -

• Russian Army tank in the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, plain green with the white stripes for air recognition
• Russian Army tank the early 1970s in overall green with call-sign and tactical markings
• Finnish vehicle in three-colour scheme in the mid 1980s, Military Modelling Volume 29 No 15 has a feature article with background details for Finnish T-55s.
• Yugoslav Federal Army tank 1989 in plain green with call sign.
• Two Croation Army tanks from 1991, one in black over green and the other in a multi-coloured finish which both share the same red and white chequered shield decals

With Tamiya’s kit being the best available, the main value of this kit will be its lower price and possibly as a source of the basic kit to go with old update sets.

The Sprues

Click for larger view, close new window to return to review

Page Created 10 January 2004