Takom T-55 AM2B - Construction

Here we go... Very cool box art and a staunch looking T55 variant...  

Lower hull and running gear underway...  

Suspension arms are nice and tight terms of postive key into the hull, but the fit of the wheels to the arms are quite ordinary... No polycaps within the wheels, just a stub and hole affair making axial alignment and straightness across all wheels more of a chore... 

Alignment pins and keyways to the road wheels, sprockets and idlers have been over looked majorly... No socket affair to mate the halves together leaving concentricity issue...How Takom missed this is beyond me... It'll just add to the alignment issues... 

Surprising number of components go into the make up if the suspension... The roadwheels alone consists of 5 parts.. An outter rubbers, inner rims and a hub... The sprue gates to the rubber tyres prove annoying to clean up without partially damaging the tread pattern... 

So far it's going pretty well... A few more things to bond and the running gear should be good... I'll leave all the wheels loose for the time being till I make a decision about the tracks and their separation from the hull for painting purposes... 

Finished out the suspension arms... Checke the alignment on these as there's the chance of the arms being outta whack... 

Upper hull pieces bonded together... The kit contains multiple decks for other variants... The joint between them is pretty good... Only a little filler will be needed toward the front as the join isn't hidden by any panel line or feature... Easy to do... 

Using the lower hull half to ensure alignment of the upper hull pieces... The lower hull has a bit of taper that when opened up, will clamp onto the upper hull pieces and the corresponding tags...  

There will be a little filling to do when the upper hull is bonded the the lower half at the flared regions and probably at corners where both meet...  

Went to put the rear lourves into their large pocket to the rear of the deck... The PE Grills fall straight through unfortunately... The instructions suggest they get housed then the lourve panel sandwiches the lot for a neat finish but isn't the case... Will have to maybe create a small subframe within the pocket from styrene to finish things off neater... 

Setting up for the individual tracks... They don't want to mate together too well... In fact they really wanna jump out of their mating connection... Had to break out the big guns and tell them whats what...! 

A little brass bling.. 

A little bit of fill needed here and there...  

Onto the turret.... 

Do I retexture the turret.?? Maybe a single layer of crusty putty... 

Do I rework the electrical conduits...??? 

Lots of small assemblies build up the detail to the fenders... 

Some of the tanks and boxes to the fenders overlap the PE Fender braces... Popped one locating a box... Easy fix but be mindful when you bond these braces in that future steps see these engage with other parts... 

Finally the fenders are complete... Fair bit of work go into these... Seems to be some odd positional holes for other T55 variants left visible... May have to fill these 

Brass bling looking good.. 

Couldn't help it... Textured the turret... 

Rear PE grills are quite nice and fit very well... 

There's a significant number of subassemblies and components to the turret... These are just a few of the larger items... 

Frontal Cheek Armour and some of the larger subassemblies to the turret will need to remain off till I can get a coat on the turret under these items... 

The rear plate and its associated assemblies are quite fiddly with limited purchase on its mounting locations... The instructions are pretty vague showing how it all goes together but with a little thought and study you'll make it out... 

Turret Goodies...! 

The rearmost engine compartment cover has a nasty injection pin mark to it...  

Rear tanks aren't too bad... But will require priming separately from the tank to ensure the seams aren't visible... 

Gotta admit it does look good... 

Will add some additional cast texture to the frontal cheek armour and some weld seams to lifting lugs that go on... 

Really taking shape... 

Little more done tonight... 

And a bit more done tonight... 

A few more peices of photo etch to the periscopes to the driver hatch...  

Added a small cable to the light mounted to the frontal cheek armour... Used 0.25mm lead wire bonded into some predrilled holes... 

The supplied vinyl shrowd to the main gun fits pretty well... Bonded it bit by bit with CA Adhesive around thr perimeter... Came up quite a neat joint... 

Close up of the DSK Gun... Very well detailed... Quite a few parts to its make up and the instructions are a bit vague but I got there... 

Some nice peices of photo etch to the turret also... 

Still got some items to go on the rear of the turret.. Very small tie down points and quite a few to go on... 

Looking good... Not far off paint I think... 

Few more items bonded... Been a while since being at the bench... 

Side skirts on... A little gappy at the rear end tho... Hmmm... How to fill this... I think a strategically place rag might be in order... Lol 

Leaving the fenders and side skirt assemblies free for the moment... Will probably have some tight areas between them and the hull making painting a little tricky... But I'm just giving myself options at the moment... 

Tracks are finalised... Fortunately you can cheat and leave the upper run off as they're not seen with the side skirts in place... I bonded 28 links into a straight run... Then 15 links either side will make it around the idlers and sprockets... You could probably get away with 13 either side however... One thing that is really handy about Takom's instructions is they use a 1:1 side view of the model on their covers... You can use it to count the number of links you'll need to assist with track building... 

These tracks are problematic... Your typical thin cement doesn't bond them well as the plastic has a very glossy surface preventing the cement from penetrating and biting as normal... Sanding the joints will produce a stronger joint...  

Each link has 2 injector pin marks on the inner face and their fit requires some work... Each protrusion that interlocks with its mating track link needs opening up... Its not a lot but each link has 5 protrusions with 12 faces in total needing a tickle with a file or a sanding stick... Not exactly fun... 

The track runs should be removable like this even with the fenders bonded in place... Giving myself some options for come paint... 

Just got rhe fiddly bits to do... 

The tow cables outta the box are ordinary... Doesn't help when their all kinked and twisted up for packaging...Better than string though.. 

Side skirts and fenders in place temporarily... Beasty 

Some copper bling replacing some rails that support turret boxes... It's inevitable these will crack and break plus the original plastic parts don't appear to key into anything on the turret, just a butt joint makingnit difficult to determine their locations... 

I keep thinking this thing is getting close to paint but the construction keeps on going... 

Added a couple of welds not present in the plastic... Certainly no welding jedi but was fun none the less... 

Most of the turret goodies bonded on... 

Cluttered turret.. But it looks good... 

Omg that linkage between the base of the main gun and the search light is tricky to get on..! 

Close up of the light and additional cable... The weld beads to the lifting lug could have been better...  

Need to replace the detail on the ammo box the the gun...  

Fine PE to the hatch light... Went cross eyed doing this one... 

Bit of fill on the rear tanks just to make sure... But primer will tell... 

The light off the turret hatch is a bit tricky...  

The DSK gun looks epic... Fine peice of PE to this for the sights... 

Epoxy welds to the lifting lugs to the Cheek Armour... Not my finest work but it's freakishly small... 

Textured the front glacis plate with a thin layer of tamiya putty thinned with airbrush cleaner... Also replaced the cable that routes from the hull to the light cage as it looked kinda kinked how Takom tried to go about it... 

Fuel lines are included... Bit fun trying to clean the mould seams without breaking them... 

I just noticed the holes in the Fender... Bit awkward to fill those now..!  

Tracks... 

More tracks... 

Tracks are quite fragile... I have several variants of this Takom kit... I dare say I'll have to invest in some aftermarket tracks in the next build... 

And she's done till I can get some paint in and around things... Will bond the last items to the turret and the fenders in place as the painting progresses... For now though... All done...! 

So... I'd give this kit a 6.5 to 7 outta 10... It's beautifully detailed and very crisp but it does have its failings... It comes with added perks like PE and Metal Tow Cables... But these 2 items fail a bit... The tow cables are buckled and twisted during packaging which pretty much ruins the texture of the stranded wire... 2 of the Main Grills from the PE fret are too small for their placement into the hull rendering them useless unless you spend more time trying to correct it... There are some major oversights on the Suspension and wheels that without care will lead to wonky and floating wheels...
The tracks are pretty well a write off... They simply won't bond with standard cement and will have to resort to extra thin CA to stiffen them... Their fit is also problematic even after spending time opening them slightly to improve the fit and penetration of cement...
Even with all these hiccups it does build up to an impressive beast... Recommended for patient intermediate to advanced modellers only im afraid...