T62M Detail Set
No. 1627
For Tamiya 1/35 Kit

Review by Terry Ashley

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The quality of the resin casting is first class as we have come to expect from Verlinden. You get a completely new turret with nice cast texture and many small detail items included plus many more to be added. The top half of the engine and transmission is included in another large casting to which is added the cylinder heads and many finer parts in resin and etched metal.

The new engine deck has all the hatches separate, as you would expect with the engine to display. The intake louvers on the rear deck are made up of 10 etched strips, which you fit inside the resin frame.
The new rear end includes the hull section as mentioned above, new rear bulkhead final drive housings plus the many other finer fittings such as fuel tank supports etc. The two rearmost hatches on the engine deck are also separate with etched and mesh screens to fit inside if shown open?

The side fenders and supports are all in etched metal to which you add the kit fuel tanks and mudguards. A diagram is included showing the fuel line placement to the tanks.

The turret as I said is nicely cast with subtle surface detail with the mantlet dust cover included, which means the two-part resin barrel is fixed in place. Again there are many fittings to be fitted to the turret with all the sights as separate parts as is the rear shell ejection hatch (although the turret is moulded solid).
The kit hatches are used on the resin turret.

The forward hull has many detail bits to be added like the light clusters with guards made from the wire supplied. There are literally dozens of smaller latches and fittings to be added all around the hull to finish off the vehicle including the rear fuel tank straps (the fuel tanks are in resin also), the ammo box supports, fuel tank supports and many more.

The DshK 12.7mm machine gun has no less than 28 parts in resin and etched metal and looks excellent.

Now, while I'm no expert on the T-62, I have had some experience in detailing the Tamiya kit while build my "Road to Beirut" diorama some years ago which featured a disabled T-62.
Many of the improvements I added to the kit have been included in this update set (plus a few more and a few that aren't).
While building the kit, the one thing that came to light was the depth of the turret. The Tamiya turret was about 2mm too shallow and required an insert to correct this, this lack of depth was the reason some details were missing from the rear turret on the Tamiya kit (the third lifting hook being one). Vasko Barbic also noted this in his superb series on the T-62 back in the June, July and September 1988 issues on Military Modelling Magazine. The September issue features the T-62M including 1/35th plans, which confirm the turret height.

The new resin turret in the update set is the same height as the old turret and it appears that Verlinden has missed a golden opportunity to correct this problem by using the old kit turret as a guide to producing this set. It is virtually impossible to correct the height of the resin turret with out major surgery.

This is disappointing, as the rest of the update set is very comprehensive and adds a lot of detail to the Tamiya kit. If you can overlook the turret height or you could use all the hull improvements and modify the Tamiya kit turret. There are many items in this set, which could be used to detail up the old turret although you would have add the cast texture yourself.

Conclusion:
A very comprehensive and well-detailed update set let down by a lack of basic research regarding the turret. What you do get in the rest of the set is top shelf; the rear hull and engine parts are particularly nice and will result into a very "busy" and detailed rear end. There is enough detail to keep you busy for hours and will result in a superb looking kit.

The Resin Bits

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