T-64B Turret model 1981
1:35 Scale Set #B35008

Review by Terry Ashley

The quality of the resin casting is very clean with just the usual casting blocks to be removed with the absence of extra resin film (flash) noteworthy which reduces cleanup time. Some of the casting blocks will need care when removing as they are near detail such as the hatch hinges but overall there shouldn’t be any problems.

The main turret shell is cast hollow with a large gun breech casting and a couple of equipment boxes to add to the interior.

The long barrel is made up of three parts, two metal sections and a central resin fume extractor which has a hole pre-drilled down the middle although this had to be enlarged slightly to fit the barrel locating pins. You should also make sure to align the detail on the two barrel thermal jacket parts during assembly and when fitting the turret. These are the four longitudinal grooves added to each of the jacket sections and they should align down the upper centreline and actually have small fillets added which form part of the thermal jacket attachments. There are also fine metal clips to add on each end of the thermal jacket sections if you wanted to go all the way?
Detail on the resin fume extractor is nicely done with the small weld bead down one side and the four bolts on the outer end, these are usually aligned at 2,4 8 and 10 o’clock positions when attached in most photos.
The fit of the barrel to the turret mantlet is very snug and will stay in place without glue such is the good fit which will allow you to take this out at any time if required.

Barrel image showing fillets added along top centreline

Details on the remaining smaller items is very crisp and well defined with the fit of the hatches spot on with items such as the rear and side mounted storage boxes, rear snorkel tubes plus the sights and periscopes all included as separate parts.

The Commander’s cupola has the large machine gun support included with a two part 12.7mm MG and mounting plate as well as ammo box and small searchlight added to the hatch ring. Detail on both sides of the hatch is excellent as it is with the Loader’s hatch.

The instruction sheet is quite small with just an exploded view drawing showing all the numbered parts but no real indication where they go and good references will come in handy to work out the correct positioning. The box top photos of the assembled turret do give clues to locating many of the parts but as said good references will help.

Conclusion:
This new turret and fittings is a quantum leap ahead of the very basic kit turret and only real problem is you will have this superbly detailed turret sitting on the very average Skif T-64 hull and will stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. But it may well inspire you to superdetail/rebuild the rest of the kit to bring it somewhere around the same detail level as the turret.

Highly recommended

Turret parts


Hatch details

	T-64 (Tankomaster Special issue) 64 color pages, soft cover Russian text
	T-64 Armada Publications 92 pages, 4 colour pages, 200 black and white photos. Hard cover. Russian/English
	T-64 Main Battle Tank Tornado publications 40 pages with illustrations, Russian text

Thanks to Dmitriy from Model Point US for the review set.
Model Point US carry the full range of Miniarm products.

Page Created 6 August 2005