MSRP: $33.00 USD

The T-55 medium tank has been one of the most widely used tanks in the last 50 years.  Since its inception, it has been involved in almost every conflict from the invasion of Czechoslovakia through operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.  It was also produced by China as the T-59.  The T-62 was to replace it, but could not be produced inexpensively enough to do so.  The T-55 series has soldiered on for over 50 years.

Italeri has been producing high quality armor kits for a while now, and this is a welcome addition.  Upon opening the box, you see four sprues and the lower hull, all molded in olive green plastic.  Included on the turret is fine casting texture, which is a neat addition.  That is very hard to reproduce on a kit during construction.  The tracks are link and length injection.  This creates a very detailed assembly, more so than the ‘rubber band’ tracks we still see from time to time.  Some of the small parts are attached to the sprues by heavy gates.  These can be a challenge to clean up efficiently.  Also a few of the very small parts, tow hooks and lift hooks, have deep ejection pin marks on them and some flash.  Filler like gap filling super glue is very handy while assembling this kit.  Two parts are simulated wood, a strip on the front glacis and a log attached to the rear for a bumper.  I chose to replace these with real wood for a more realistic appearance.  The kit can be finished in six different versions: Russian Early 70's, Prague ‘68, Yugoslavia, Finnish and 2 in Croatian in ‘91.  I chose Russian Early 70's.

Assembly of the kit goes fairly smoothly like most Italeri offerings.  You begin with the road, drive and idler wheels, attaching them with the control arms to the lower hull.  It is called out that you install the tracks in the third step.  But you may want to wait since it is easier to paint the tank without the tracks on.  Just remember not the glue the upper and lower hulls together until the tracks are on.  It would be very difficult to install them after gluing.  There is a typographical error in the part numbers callouts in steps 4 and 5.  The lights that are installed on the left side of the hull at the front and back should be 42C.  They are called out as 43C.  All the other hull details go on quite well.  In step 6 you assemble and install the two large fuel drums on the rear of the hull.  It is better to trim off the guide pins on the barrel halves before assembly.  They will cause the halves not to line up right and you will have a ‘step’ between them.

The turret has three different ways of assembly.  Depending on what version you want will decide which step to follow.  The Finnish version does not have the turret mounted machine gun.  And there are some small differences with the Yugoslavian/Croatian version and the Russian Army version, primarily around the gunner’s hatch.  Some of the small parts here needed lots of clean up of attachment points and flash as well as with ejection pin marks.  Even though the barrel is in 3 parts, clean up of seams was easy.  Mine had a sink mark on one half but some Squadron White Putty solved that problem.  The last step has just the install of the turret and front wood piece.  My turret needed some sanding on the two tabs to get it to turn in the hull.

For the Russian version, Testors Model Master Enamel Russian Armor Green (2129) was used.  First coat was right out of the bottle for the base, and then lightened up about 20% as the second.  Various washes of black, ‘dirt’ and grime were used for weathering.  I then did some dry brushing with some pale green, steel, and silver to hit some highlights and show paint wear.  The very few decals (2) were applied with Walther’s decal solvent and then the whole model was given a coat of Testors Lusterless lacquer overcoat.

In conclusion this is a wonderful kit of a very important piece of fighting equipment.  The fit is good with minimal effort.  Some clean up of small parts can be frustrating but not impossible.  This will be a great addition to anyone’s tank collection.  A highly recommended kit!  Thank you to John Noack and Italeri for the sample kit.