Trumpeter T-64

There's been T-64 kits out, albeit, not very good ones. The Skif kits were not horrible. Hopefully the Trump one will be better though.

Yes, I have built the Skif T-64BV, and am thinking about building the T-64A in my stash soon... Like you said they are not horrbile. I did not think the Skif T-64BV was that bad at all. But these look a little better, so for the T-64B, I think a Trumpy will do...

Yup, I have all the sudden found myself interested in Soviet cold war era vehicles after picking up the new BTR-60 P on a whim. I'm about 1/2 thru the paint process on that one. Good kit btw...

I am glad they're putting these kits out as well. It's been a mostly neglected era and as you said, the kits that are available aren't necessarily the best.

Heading into the 80s, the only Soviet armor kit we had was the old, terrible Tamiya T-62A.

Towards the end of the 80s, we got the BMP-1, BMP-2, T-72, T-74(lol), T-55, T-55M, Ti-67(lol) from Esci, BMP-1U, T-55/Ti-67 and T-80 from Lindberg and then the Dragon kits. To be honest, by this time we had more new current use Soviet armor kits than current use late Cold War US armor kits.

Dragon's line is long in the tooth, from back when they concentrated on moving hatches and not scale accuracy.

Yes I am not complaining about selection for Cold War Soviet AFVs these days. It just keeps getting better thanks to Trumpeter

Preach on brother man!  

Since I've gotta wait for my local HobbyTown to restock it's Tamiya paints I'm probably gonna break the seal on Trumpy's BMP-3 this weekend!

Well between Trumpeter, Skif, and Dragon-Zvezda, we soon will have all of the basic BTR and BMP series of AFVs, The MBTs from T-55 thru T-80 are covered by Tamiya/Trumpeter/Dragon-Zvezda/Skif, BRDMs from Eastern Express and Dragon (but it would be nice to see the Swatter and Snapper BRDMs), Mobile ADA in the form of the ZSU-23-4, SA-6, SA-9 and SA-13, PT-76s and MTLBs (with a towed D-30 Howitzer) SP Field Artillery in the 2S1 and BM-21, and even some of the VDV vehicles, the BMD, ASU-57, and ASU-85. Even the Scud TEL and a SA-2 with launcher and transporter. Yes there are still some gaps in the line up across the board, but as Rob said,a  far cry from 30 years ago. and the kits coming out today...gorgeous, down to the bottom of the belly plate of the hull. All these new Trumpeter releases have me returning to my "serious adult model making" roots of Cold War AFVs.

What about all the new Chinese hardware from Bronco and Hobby Boss?!  Makes me wish I was still in the intel business.

Seriously though, there are still so many holes in US 1980s thru Desert Storm Cold War armor, good stuff that Ronnie bought that helped end communism in Russia. We still need an M60A-nothing, M1IP, M3A1/A2 CFV, a real M113A3, but we get six kits of an obscure German tank that they made five of done by three different companies.

Agreed. I would also love to see the M60A2 "Starship" re-issued. And all the AP guns that are going for a gouging on Ebay. And a M578 would be nice....

The A2 was reissued back in 1998 as kit #89542. It is bascially an A2 turret on the old M60A1 hull and has none of the modifications to the hull necessary to make it an A2 hull. The biggest modifications being the redesigned rear portion of the hull and grill doors.

The hull doesn't even have updated parts that Tamiya made for the M60A3 and USMC M60A1 RISE/Passive.

Interesting--these "frying pan" turret tanks never got my heart rate up, but it's great to see someone filling in gaps.

Now if someone would just start doing some of the ol' WWI tanks.

Yes, the beginnings are only represented by those dated Emhar kits. And the British WWI tanks do have something of a "land battleship" air to them. It would be nice to see some new and improved kits of those.

I am sure most of the other Cold War guys can tell you the same, but after all the training and indoctrination you got about those Red hordes sitting on the other side wating to come pouring across, those frying pan turrets do get your heart rate up. The boogeyman has a tendency to do that even after his myth has passed.

I agree, having spent my formative adult years staring at the Fulda Gap awaiting certain death (success would be killing 10 enemy tanks before you died), the Soviet 1980-90s T-series tanks capture my interests (not so much the post Desert Storm T-series).

I remember studying variants so you would potentially know which forces (NVA, Soviet Guards, Czech, Pole, etc.) you were up against.

RPM did a dozen variants of the FT-17 tank (all basically the same kit) that is a fiddly build. That is one tank that would be a nice one for Tamiya to decide to do.

I was in an MI Company assigned to 1st ID (Forward) so the grunt battalion commander gave us our "welcome speech".  "Blah...blah...blah...Welcome to Germany!  You're now in Scud missile range!"  Like any second they were gonna rain down on us! 

You guys may have actually seen him on TV during the Hurricane Katrina recovery operations...only now he was Lieutenant General Russell Honore!  He was the guy President Bush put in charge of the Katrina effort, aside from the Coast Guard guy, Thad Allen (?)  He sounds like Foghorn Leghorn if ya ever hear him talk!  "I say welcome to Germany, boy!  Ya now in Scud missile range!" 

He was a hoot!  It really is a small world.

the doog

Now if someone would just start doing some of the ol' WWI tanks.

Dang it Doog, now you planted a bug in my ear... I was just having a look at those Emhar kits... Bad Doog! A Mk IV Female is not too costly, and some folks have built them up SO nice... The Rhomboid shape would look good, and quite unique on a table at chapter meetings.. Bad Doog!

As for the Cold War stuff, it was quite a contrast to go back to Germany in 1998 after the Wall fell. My last time there beforehand was in 1984. To see  airliners in large numbers going East/West was an eye opener, and then to see those former WARPAC AFVs sitting there as "decorations" at Hohenfels like we used to have Pattons and Pershings...

We toured the border and looked at our GDP positions from the East German side after the reunion. I was there from December 1987 to December 1990. The first night I was in country, there was a news report on German TV regarding some East Germans trying to break through the barriers in what looked like a Scooby Doo mystery machine in East Berlin and were shot to death. Dang little van hardly bigger than a VW shot to heck. If they only waited a couple of years.