Thanks Gino. This one had a long rough road to completion. In a way, that's a good thing, as my skills and techniques improved over those years.

I loved these kits back in the day! Art work was great, subjects were highly sought after, and no one in the West knew much about these tanks!

Great job, good to see one built.

stikpusher, it looks great to me.  Your weathewring is subtle without over doiing it and your figure painting is very good.  An excellent representation of a piece of Russian armor.

tjs

She looks great SP! Glad you dug her out and finished her. Esp love the mud splatters!

Hey! Stik!

       Ya Nailed it! That looks great, the weathering is what sets it off!

Thanks for all the kind feedback guys!

Rob, when those Dragon Soviet AFV kits first came out I was in hog heaven for kit choice selection. I think that I eventually ended up purchasing the whole original series, although I still have a couple of T-80s left to build. Funny how Dragon dropped the Soviet subjects, but now Trumpeter has picked up that ball and run with it even farther.

Tom, the figures and weathering didn't fight me as much as the basic kit did... LOL! 

Gamera and TB, the mud splatters are the fun part. I'm learning more and more how to play with pigments to get that sort of look.

Great job Stik

Thank you Tony. It was trying at times, but worth it in the end.

Stik,

I have to agree that when DML started to kit 1/35 modern Soviet armor, I was also in hog heaven.  My first DML armor kit was the BMP-1, which I enjoyed immensely.  Accuracy issues aside, they were "the first-est and the most-est".  ESCI had a mixed-bag of kits before DML, and Tamiya just had the T-62.  The T-10 doesn't count, as it was a toy with actual rubber band tracks.

I think there will be a lot of Russian armor kits these days showing up with the "Z" or Ukrainian markings.  There are kits that have been announced which will feature the "cope cage".  I hope for less and less real  "Z" tanks in Ukraine.

I want a 1/6 scale Javelin. 

Great work, Stik. Very nice work indeed. Only issue is it's not burning in a ditch. LOL. Anyway, great detail, it's very convincing.

BK

RG, & Brandon, thank you. 

G, my first buy and build of those DML/Dragon Soviet AFVs when they came out was the BMP-2. I just liked how mean that one looked with the 30mm autocannon. 

Brandon, the lack of this build having a KO'd look is the common reply it seems to be getting. 

Nicely done. 

Bit of kit trivia here. The original T72M2 kit (3501), sans ERA, was (as far as I recall) Dragon's first 1/35 scale release in 1990. 

Phil_H

Nicely done. 

Bit of kit trivia here. The original T72M2 kit (3501), sans ERA, was (as far as I recall) Dragon's first 1/35 scale release in 1990. 

When they came out, I loved them and bought most of their modern Soviet armor range. I still have a couple of the kits that I built from way back when.

Hey Stik, you did an excellent job with this tank. I see it likes to play in the mud. 

Phil & Tiger, thank you. 

Phil, I think that basic T-72M2 kit was the first of the tanks in the series that I built back then.

Looks just great!

Now, when are you gonna blow it up like a real one?

disastermaster

Looks just great!

                                     

Now, when are you gonna blow it up like a real one?

 

Blow it up? Never! LOL!!! Sorry that I missed your reply here back in the summer DM!

Well, one final post script to this build. It won 3rd place in 1/35 1946 to Current Tracked AFV at Modelzona 2022 here this past weekend! Woohoo 

Congratulations Carlos.  Well deserved - I almost went this weekend just to check it out.

Thanks John. We have chapter meets for IPMS and AMPS in early December if you're interested in going to either one of those. Just show up and see how the club meets are. Oh yeah, this AMPS meet just happens to have a model swap meet at the same time & place...  

Okay, now this is impressive. I remember buying and building this kit and the T-80 (unsure which) way back in the day. I was really proud of them.

Fully agree with the others; it looks great.  Congrats on the win, well deserved.

Rob & Gino, thank you. Funny how these Dragon kits were pretty much it for many years. Yeah there's better kits of these things out now, but they can still hold their own with a little help. 

Congrads SP on your well deserved win!!! 

Great job Stick. Looks great to me. Congrats on the award.

Gamera & Lurch, thank you. Considering the competition in the category, I'm quite happy to have even placed. Not to mention all the broken parts & repairs that this build has suffered along the way. 

stikpusher

Rob & Gino, thank you. Funny how these Dragon kits were pretty much it for many years. Yeah there's better kits of these things out now, but they can still hold their own with a little help.  

Congratulations on your win Stik!  

Armor is a tough category to compete in.  I blame all the new, fancy weathering techniques that are popular and widespread today.  I remember the carefree days of just slobbing on a dirty thinner wash, dry brushing, doing a little graphite pencil on the high wear areas, then calling it a day!

Rob, I'm with you on soft spots for the older kits. I'm happy building them all week long.

RG, you are not kidding! Each category has its own tough crowds and new fangled stuff to crowd out the old school guys. But life goes on and every dog has his day