HISTORY

The Engesa EE-T1/T2s were Brazilian main battle tank prototypes started in 1982. They were developed as a privately funded venture by Engesa, with little government support; intended to be sold first to Arab and other Third World countries, jump-starting production; thus enabling the Brazilian Army to later place its own orders without having to fund development costs. However, the Osório tank was never put into production.

The EE-T1 was considered for service with the Saudi Arabian Army. It was evaluated against the French AMX 40, the American M1 Abrams, and the British Challenger 1 and emerged as the winner, but Saudi Arabia opted for the M1 Abrams instead. The two unique prototypes were given to the Brazilian Army as a result of Engesa going bankrupt. 

THE KIT

This kit is similar to in quality and molding to early Tamiya kits.  The parts are large and easy to handle. The sprues are molded in a light tan with average size attachment points to the parts. They are easy to clip and remove from the sprue.  

A nice set of pioneer tools, clear covers for the vision blocks and good external machine gun are included. The tracks are the rubber band type and look accurate for the prototype shown to Saudi Arabia for trials.  Decals consist of a set of white numbers.

CONSTRUCTION

This model was built to represent the EE-T1 prototype used for evaluation by Saudi Arabia. As usual, I started with the suspension. I inserted the suspension arm assemblies onto the hull using Tamiya super thin cement just touched to the join. I did one side at a time, aligned the arms and let the glue dry before moving on to the other side. While the suspension glue dried I assembled the road wheels and drive sprockets per the instructions and set them aside for painting. The side shirts were clipped from the sprue and set aside with the wheels.

I was curious about the track rubber. I wasn't sure the paint would stick to it; just to be safe I gave both tracks a coat of Krylon flat black primer and let it dry overnight. The steel parts of the track were brush painted Model Master (MM) steel and they are finished. Priming them seemed to work fine; there has been no paint flaking.

Back to the hull. With the suspension dry I glued the upper and loser hulls together. They mate up fine with a seam at the front. I looks like there is supposed to be a seam there on the real tank, so I just used a little extra MM liquid glue and let it ooze out to tone down the seam effect. The headlights just don't look right to me. I don't think the placement that the instructions show is correct for all of the prototypes or changes made to them over the course of testing. I found most pictures showing them on the front of the hull just to the inside of each fender. I decided to follow the instructions since this is a prototype and he head light position could have been changed on the real one. The pioneer tools were separate, so I just clipped them from the sprue and set them aside for painting later.  

As usual, the turret is my last major subassembly. It was pretty simple, even compared to an early Tamiya kit. The lower/upper turret join is under the edge of the upper turret. It does leave a slightly visible gap at the front. The gun tube (barrel) was glued together with a small seam showing. Just a light sanding of the seam made it disappear. At the same time I gave the front of the hull a light sanding across the glue that had oozed out of the join, to reduce, but not eliminate the seam line. All of the rest of the turret  parts were glued on with the hatches glued shut.

COLORS & MARKINGS

At this point everything (except tracks and machine gun) including all of the parts left on the sprue was sprayed with MM 2910 sand beige. It looks close to what I think the prototype being demonstrated to Saudi Arabia may have looked like. The kit paint color call out is for Mr color Gunze sandy brown. No decals were used.

While the spray paint dried, I brush painted the machine gun MM Gunmetal with MM Wood Handles and a flat black tip on the barrel. I also stretched some sprue for the radio antenna. A quick search on the web brought up a good image of the Saudi flag. I printed it and glued it to the tip of the antenna. The road wheels were brush painted flat black to simulate the rubber parts and the pioneer tools were brush painted MM steel and wood as appropriate.

FINAL BITS

Final assembly was a breeze. I glued the track ends together with super glue gel and clamped them for about 10 minutes. After I removed the clamps I stapled the joins together just for insurance. The track and road wheels were set into place and glued with super glue. The fit was pretty tight, so it took a bit of fitting and aligning to get everything together. After a break and can of Dew, I glued the side skirts and pioneer tools on. The pioneer tools are nicely molded, but don't have much detail to show how they are held to the hull. For the review I left them this way to show you. Before it goes back on the shelf, I am going to paint some Bare Metal Foil with the sand beige and use thin strips for hold down straps.  I painted the spare track steel with flat black pads and glued it to the rear of the tank. The machine gun and antenna were glued to the turret.

CONCLUSIONS