Old pro

Not really, the forward areas without ERA, are armoured blocks anyway, the crew area is covered by ERA, no point in putting it where it doesn’t need to be. the red area is laminated armour whilst the crew occupies the yellow area only (along with the gun breech and auto loader etc)

Explains it, was going to say I have loads spare if you needed one.

Trying to depict a covered MG would be better as there is a fixed cradle on the MG mount, you seem to be missing the exhaust?

Odd choice of sight, seems a bit of a miss match!

You can try over on missing links https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/missinglynx/braille-scale-discussion-group-f47210/ he is fairly active on the forum, might get a quicker response than through his website.

It’s a photo shop but if you want a what if! There is a similar photoshop of a Challenger 2 fitted with ERA.

These are the figures from Dan Taylor, I can’t seem to find them on his site at the moment so it might be better to ask him

https://www.dantaylormodelworks.com/ Did do a set of modern British crew you could ask him.

Technically the J was not supposed to have the cover plate, the reality though is quite different, the J was just a cheaper version of the H but not all modifications were incorporated in the production run at once and so it led to wide variations, some even having 4 return rollers still, that said most pictures will show the cover plate in place, even Bulgarian and Syrian post war Js have the cover plate on them.

Trumpeter have just released this, most likely with rubber wheels, I know that doesn’t help you much, I just find it interesting that there are now 3 models of this vehicle available, Revell, Takom and now Trumpeter! It used to be anything German and WW2 would sell, seems to now include anything German 😂😂

And we still wait for a decent T 55 and 62😤

At that price, I’ll give it a miss! Unless I can get it cheap somewhere 😱 Zvezda is a nice kit but delicate, I broke mine moving, I was going to repair it but I am missing the front of the cab! So I might have to get another one.

They are two different models, the Zvezda being an early version with 7 road wheels per side and the Trumpeter/Hobbyboss being a later model with 8 road wheels per side, the two extra wheels don’t justify the price which is nearly the same as the 1/35th model. 4D also make the early Topol probably cheaper than Zvezda.

Update on the Syrian T 72, finally getting somewhere, more ERA to add still got the sandbags and rubble to add.

Yes it can rotate, it had two periscopes at the hatch mountings that the commander could use when closed up, which is probably why it is more depicted front to rear than any other way, it would be nice if it was a separate item to put whichever way you want.

Luckily most of the later releases have mostly been different mks of the leopard, Vespid have the 2A7+ and the 2A7V, Meng and Takom both have gone for the 2A7, Border do the 2A6, Dragon seem to be rereleasing their 2A4 and 2A6, Revell have the 2A4, 2A5, 2A6 and then the Dutch and Swedish versions and let’s not forget the Hasagawa 2A3/4 kit. All of the earlier releases apart from the Dragon 2A4 suffer from some problems so I can sort of understand releasing better models but what other modern tank is as well covered? Well until Trumpeter start releasing their various ZTZ 99 series.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that is where Modelcollect messed up, Russian tanks didn’t sell as well as they hoped, if they had released one or two money makers to better fund the Russian stuff things may have been different for them ? First to fight seem to concentrate on early war German tanks and vehicles with a lot of the early marks of panzers.

Guess it’s more of a German WW2 thing that sell well, I mean you can get nearly every tank or tank proposal or pipe dream possible from multiple manufacturers, that even extends to the Leopard which multiple manufacturers make!

The Armourfast models are pretty useful for practicing on especially weathering techniques and are cheap and cheerful, I still have a few that I use for practice or to try something new before committing to a better model.

Tank production has been ramped up, the assembly lines are running (so far) Decided to have a blitz, got too many hanging round! so we’ll start with the T 64s, first up what will be a T 64A mod 69 next a T 64A mod 75 next a T64B Next a T 64BV And of course I can’t miss out the T 64AV (or what will be) Then come the T 72s. first a T 72 ural Next a T 72A Next some Syrian Battered T 72s a Ural and 2 T 72AVs because they are so battered they might need a bit of support from a BREM 1 on a different track is a T 80U of the Cypriot national guard On a completely different track, I have decided to upgrade my Challengers sorting out the horrible commander’s sight from the kits (amongst other things) now you know how messy my mind is!

That a lot of changes and scratch building good luck.

The leopard in 1/72 depends very much on which variant you want, with Dragon, Trumpeter, Border models, Takom , Meng, Vespid, and finally Revell, all making different variants, Dragon makes the best 2A4 but their 2A6 is terrible, trumpeter by all accounts make a decent 2A4 with the 2A6 coming later, Border make a 2A6, takom a 2A7 as do Meng, Vespid only do the 2A7+ And the 2A7V, the only one to stay clear off are the Revell offerings unless you are going to cross kit with something else as the are the only ones to do a Strv 122.

I would just go with what you find aesthetically pleasing, particularly if doing a captured vehicle, it could be that they stuck one there without replacing the side skirts, if anyone says anything ask them to prove you wrong!😂😂 unless it’s a brand new vehicle it seems anything goes in this conflict🤷🏻‍♂️

Just a quick one before you push on, the sensor mast is upside down, the big bit should be at the top, coming along nicely though.

The Dragon kit did have problems with certain details in the turret, mostly around the commander’s cupola shape and the gun shroud, if you are fitting an urdan cupola than that is most of the work, DEF did a correction set for it.