The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945. Initial production ramp up settled for 1947 at Nizhny Tagil, and 1948 for Kharkiv were halted and curtailed as many problems were uncovered; the T-34-85 still accounted for 88 percent of production through the 1950s. The T-54 eventually became the main tank for armoured units of the Soviet Army, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, and many others. T-54s and T-55s have been involved in many of the world's armed conflicts since the later part of the 20th century.

The T-54/55 series eventually became the most-produced tank in history. Estimated production numbers for the series range from 86,000 to 100,000. They were replaced by the T-62, T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks in the Soviet and Russian armies, but remain in use by up to 50 other armies worldwide, some having received sophisticated retrofitting.

During the Cold War, Soviet tanks never directly faced their NATO adversaries in combat in Europe. However, the T-54/55's first appearance in the West around the period of the 1950s (then the beginning of the Cold War) spurred the United Kingdom to develop a new tank gun, the Royal Ordnance L7, and the United States to develop the M60 Patton.

According to Scalemates, this kit, along with the nearly identical T-54, were released in 2002. Since then some other companies, of which I have never heard, have reboxed it. As is the norm with many companies today, the kit includes parts for both the T-54 and T-55. These differences are basically limited to the turret as the T-54 was not equipped to handle NBC warfare, so will have vents, something not wanted when trying to keep out poison gas or radioactive dust.

Molding is actually quite good and while a very few parts have sink areas and some have ejector towers, all are flash free. Undoubtedly the green plastic is to enhance painting. The kit has link and length tracks, these items being a very dark brown.

With 170 parts you'd expect a 1/72 kit to be a bit fiddly to build. Understandably, a lot of those small parts are for the road wheels, tracks and the usual bits that fit on the turret and upper hull. The lower hull is built up of a lower section, two sides and a rear. All the road wheels glue right to the side panels while the sprocket and idler have a separate attachment piece that then fits on the side panels. As mentioned, the tracks are link and length so there are small single track pieces to fit around the sprocket/idler and to go around corners.

The turret is standard fare and one can build the gun to elevate. All the hatches are shown closed and while you can pose them open, there is no interior and the hatches have ejector towers that will be difficult to remove. There are a lot of small items to fit to the upper hull and you are provided optional rear engine covers. The two tow cables are built up using thread from your own source. There is a large external machine gun on the sprues, but apparently this is not used on the T-55.

Instructions are on one side of a piece of folded paper. The 9 construction steps are well drawn and there are a few detail images to help. The other side is a history along with a painting guide using what appears to be Humbrol paint numbers. Not surprising is that all the options are an overall Soviet armor green. A half sheet provides the decal application guide. You are provided basically hull numbers for seven tanks. Four are from the USSR, two from Poland, and one from the Afghanistan Northern Alliance. The decal sheet is nicely printed and quite matte. A scan of the sheet only shows a white rectangle thanks to the white background. I'm sure there are aftermarket sheets for this as the T-55 is a popular subject.

A number of other companies make 1/72 T-55s, so which is the best I couldn't tell you. This one will certainly not be a short term build, but then again, I could be mistaken. One thing for sure, it can be found on-line for as little as $10, so may well be the choice for the budget conscious modeler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-54/T-55

November 2024

Copyright ModelingMadness.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction in part or in whole without express permission from the editor.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.