New T-98 & T-95 tanks

I have found that Trumpeter makes a Chinese T-98 what are their standards like? I am familiar with Dragon, Academy, Revell, Tamiya and a couple of other quality model makers. I bought a resin model of the Swedish S-tank from SOL- not very nice I'll try one from a new manufacturer next time.

I'm sure Trumpeter will not be long in releasing the T-98..

Gee, I'm still waiting for a 1/72 scale T-72 tank! I need about four of them for my different Armies. Oh well!

I've got the big Trumpeter T-98. It's not a horrible model, but it's not anywhere near in the same league as the new large-scale models from Tamiya or Verlinden. Think the old 1/25th scale Tiger I -- without the interior.

Russian tanks (and their Chinese knockoffs) just have not kept up with Western technology. There is a lot of trumpeting coming out of the Third World and from Russian armour fans about how the Western tanks are all hype and the new Russian-style vehicles are so great, but a simple observation of the warfare in the Middle East over the past 20 years or so is all that's needed to come to a more realistic conclusion.

These large land-based empires have such huge borders that they must produce vehicles in vast numbers, and transport them over small bridges or poor roads. They just cannot produce tanks in sufficient quantities, and meeting those size limits, and still make tanks that can challenge the newest generation of Western tanks.

Not only that, but they don't spend nearly as much on the military as we Americans do. We are 5% of the world's population and spend 50% of all the money spent on earth on war goodies. [:0]

These radical new Russian designs are all based on Soviet era platforms that are proven failures in tank to tank warfare on the modern battlefield. Draw your own conclusions.

Well here's a link to a T-98 page that might be worth reading.

http://www.china-defense.com/armor/type98-2/type98-2_1.html

Larry_Dunn
As far as the Russian/Soviet tanks you have to look at the way the tanks are used, equiped, and how the crew is trained. Desert storm would have turned out very different if it was the Soviet Union we went up against. So Damn Insane bought T-72's but not with infared sights and other goodies the Russians kept at home, His crews were not trained very well and the officers were very poor leaders, but they did praise their fearless leader. Too bad for them his air defense and air force was worth its weight in camel do-do! Well trained & lead troops in average tanks can beat poorly trained & lead troops in good equipment. Look at Isreal & Arabs in '67 and the Yom Kippur War. Although an anti-tank missle can ruin a good day for a tanker.

IMO Trumpeter kits are okay. Up on the soap box: the T-72 is a "pile" regardless of who's crewing it or what tactics they use. And remember a well trained/lead crew in an outstanding machine is even better. Off the soap box. Thanks!