Plastic Soldier Company 1:100 T-55 / T-55A / T-55AM2

A closer look at the Plastic Soldier Company 15mm T-55 tank kit. The PSC offers a growing range of 15 and 20mm tanks and trucks for ww2 and cold war wargames.

This is one of their 3 post-ww2 tanks, there are also the US M-60 and the German Leopard 1, but their official homepage already lists more availble stuff coming soon. I found at Brueckenkopf.de some pictures of new modern stuff, you can find some pictures here.

But without spending more words, let us take a look at the model kit:

The T-55 kit comes in a sprue of grey plastic, it is the usual stuff the PSC uses for its kits, this plastic feels minimal softer than usual hardplastic model kits.

I did not find any major flaws on this kit, there are some mouldlines to remove, but I did not find any mentionable flash. The details are a littles softer than on the BFM T-55, what we will see in a future post.
The roadwheels are ok, but the tracks do not have much details, but they are still leagues above the tracks which Zvezda offers with their kits.

There are some sinkholes on some parts but they will not be seen, when the kit is built. Otherwise, the kit is nicely casted and offers the choice of  to build either the T-55, the T-55A or the T-55AM2.

I got the single version of this kit without any building instructions, but they can easily be found on the web. If you want to build the T-55AM2 version, you should look for some original pictures, the instruction do not show the exact position of some parts of the turret.

I had no issues building this kit, except for the unclear placement of some turret parts. Otherwise this is a nice kit which will need not much cleanup, when I built mine, I gave them Eastgerman NVA decals, as you can see below:

This is a nice kit and an good alternative to the plastic BFM T-55 kit. The kit is ok except for the stuff I mentioned above. The addition of a commander figure is nice, some decals would have been nice too, but none are included at least in the single sprue version which I got.

This tank is priced arround 5 EU for a single kit and 20 to 25 for a 5 pack of them, what is a reasonable price.

After we have taken a closer look at the "TANKS The Modern Age" T-55 expansion in a future post,  I will do a comparison of both different T-55 15mm model kits from BFM and PSC.

In the next post, maybe tonight, we will see another 15mm Plastic Soldier post-ww2 tank, since this is the second of the 3 available cold war kits I showed in this blog, there is only one left and it should be clear what is coming next. I think the next 3 or 4 posts will feature German Bundeswehr kitten, before I would like to show you the crappy Zvezda Abrams and how I improved its look.

By the way, the first batch of Zvezda reviews is uploaded and ready, I think the stuff I mentioned in the previous post will start next weeks Tuesday with the Zvezda 1:100 Panzerkampfwagen VI and then it will go on. Depending on my time, I will add here and there some little posts, but you may expect (almost) only reviews and closer looks for the next 6 to 8 weeks.

Maybe I will do an unboxing video of my next hobbystuff order, I already made one, but I have to dub it since I messed up the sound, this should be found next weekend on my Youtube channel, it will show a lot of Zvezda kits.

Update:
Ooops, I almost forgot, some while ago I took a closer look at the ww2 "TANKS" starterbox, now I edited it heavily, to fit into the scheme, you can find it here.

15mm T-55AM2 Squad

Some pictures of my NVA 1:100 T-55AM2 squad. These models were made by the Plastic Soldier Company, the kit offers the choice to build different versions of the T-55 (we will see that in a future post), I decided to build the AM2 version from this kit(s) just because I prefer its look compared to other versions. 

The flag in the background above was bought at a fleamarkted 20 years ago, and I think it fits pretty well in todays post, not only because these kits got the East German national insignia as all other non official units (coming soon) and proxie or 3Dprint hybrid models I use for "TANKS The Modern Age".

The East German forces had a lot of these tanks in their arsenal, this website shows all T-55 versions which were used by the Nationale Volksarmee.

As you may see, here and there are some little bits which I may redo, but basically these tanks are ready for future battles. The already served at the Easter front, one of them shot down a German PAH. At the moment they hold postion near the French border and wait for further commands.

In a future post we will take a closer look at this modelkit and then it will get compared to the Battlefront Miniatures T-55, but before we will do that, the next posts are dedicated to tanks of the West German Bundeswehr.

1:100 Shilka AA Tank

In the last post I gave the 1:100 Shilka AA tank modelkit from Zvezda a closer look, in this post I will show you the finished model. The picture above shows the Shilka accompanied by a Battlefront Miniatures BMP-2 and a BFM T-72. And while I made this picture, I thought that I should rework my Soviet forces for "TANKS The Modern Age", because I prefer the look of the recently finished Shilka tank.

The tanks was primed as usual, got its basecoat of  olivegreen, some parts were painted in dark green. After that it got a heavy drybrush of greenish gray, followed by a lighter drybrush of light olive, all paints used for this were Revell Aquacolor acrylics.

Then the tank got a wash, consisting of GW Gryphonne Sepia with some drips of Black wash, thinned in 2:1 ratio with Vallejo airbrush flow improver. Since I tried this stuff as thinner for washes, I will newer use any other thinner, it works great.

The tracks were painted brown, washed with several washes, then I used a pencil to give them their metallic look. Before the kit was sealed with matte varnish, I added some numbers from the decalsheet included in the BTR-80 kit, and an GDR insignia which almost all of my custom and proxie units got.

This is a nice addition to my collection and soon it will get its use as a custom unit for "TANKS The Modern Age".

Zvezda 1:100 ZSU-23-4 Shilka

A closer look at the Soviet AA weapon system ZSU-23-4 "Shilka", produced by Russian manufacturer Zvezda for the "Hot War - Battle for Oil" wargame. This kit is made in 1:100/15mm scale as all other Zvezda "Art of Tactic" and "Hot War" tank kits. Some are good, some are not as good as they could be, what is the case with this kit?

Especially since the "Hot War" kits cost twice as much as their ww2 counterparts, I hope the quality of this kit does not suck, but no further words, let us take a look at the modelkit:

The kit comes in 2 green plastic sprues containing all parts to build the Shilka. The casting is ok, and I did not find any flash or sinkholes while this kit was built. The plastic seems harder than the stuff they use for their "Art Of Tactic" models, and it takes modelglue very well, but you will not have to use it, all parts sit and fit well even without glue.

The kit is casted very sharp, with a good amount of details. At a first look, the built may seem complicated, and you should read the buildig insturcions careful, but this is not the case with this kit and everything went together well.

There are no bits left over for the bitsbox except for the flagpiece which would be needed for the "Hot War" game only.

Mostly I complain about the quality of the tracks of Zvezda 15mm kits, but this time I was positively surprised. The tracks of this kit show a better detail than the tracks of their ww2 tanks. Sure, they may be a bit better, but for 1:100 scale I think their detail is quite ok.
Not to forget to mention that this is "only" a gamepiece.

The decals included in this box made a good impression. While I wrote about diferent styles of decals in my T-72B minireview, scrap that, as this is the 4th "Hot War" Soviet tank expansion I give a closer look, I would state that every box has different decals, see the decalsheets of the T-72B, the BTR-80 and the 2S1, while all boxes contain a set of generic Soviet numbers, they all are different.

All in all, this is a nice kit, even the tracks are ok. Building this kit should make no issues, but you have to take care of the barrels which are very fragile. The addition of a decalsheet is a fine extra.

As you read, I have no issues with this kit and I can only recommend it if you need some AA power for your Soviet cold war army.

How this kit looks built and painted can be seen in the following post.

Zvezda 1:100 T-72B

A closer look at the 1:100 T-72B modelkit from Zvezda. This Russian producer not only makes scalemodelkits, also it has several ranges of wargames with mostly 1:100 models, but their grade of detail differs from kit to kit.
This kit comes from Zvezdas "Hot War - Battle for Oil" wargame, but I will use it as proxie unit for "TANKS The Modern Age".

I like the design of this tank with its reactive armour, and when I got the chance to get one of those for a reasonable price, I took the opportunity to get it, but no further words, let us take a look at the model kit:

This kit comes in 2 green sprues, containing 14 parts, the flagpiece excluded, to complete the model. All parts are nicely sculpted and casted, I did not find any sinkholes or visible ejectormarks on the sprues. There is no flash, but you have at least to remove the mouldline of the one-piece turret.

But since the used plastic is not as soft as the stuff they use for their for "Art Of Tactics" range, this should be no problem.

This kit can be built without using glue, the fit of the parts is very good. When I built it I was sceptical how the sideskirts would fit, but the fit is excellent, even when sometimes some pressure was needed.

Beside the included instruction leaflet, finally there is the decalsheet of this box. Seems that there is a third set of generic Soviet turret numbers for "Hot War" model kits.

For future reviews I call these decals "type 3", this is now "type 1" while this is "type 2".

Suspecting the same quality than other Zvezda decals, these should be fine.

On the left side you see the built Zvezda T-72B compared to the plastic T-72 from the "Team Yankee" range of Battlefront Miniatures. While the general shape of them is pretty equal, the main difference is the reactive armour of the Zvezda Model.

And while I am at the details of this modelkit, the boxart shows a different version of the T-72B, it was taken from Zvezdas 1:35 kit of this tank.

This is one of the better Zvezda 1:100 kits. A nice amount of details and a sharp casting make this kit very nice. Building this kit should go on pretty fast, even whithout glue, the parts fit and sit very well, and the result is a nice looking Soviet cold war tank

The tracks could have some better detail and the addition of an AA machine gun would be nice, but I recommend this kit beside that minor points. 

There is always the possiblity to add some bits to improve this kit, on this Tank I added the leftover mineplows from my other T-72 and an AA gun which was taken from the bitsbox.

Todays modelling session was successful, beside all that modelmaking, in D.I.Y. tradition I built a handy tool, but at the moment I can not find a matching power source.

Maybe it would be better if I would not find one.

Update:
I almost finished the model, there is only some dirt to be added, just watch the picture below:

TANKS The Modern Age: Custom Unit #4

After I took a closer look at the BTR-80 apc by Zvezda in the last posting, I made a custom unit card for it, as I did for the Zvezda M2 Bradley too. Once again a new custom unit card for "TANKS The Modern Age" was created.

This new unit is a reskin of the US LAV-25, with the same values, it offers a high initiative AA unit. Compared to the original tank, the values are not accurate, but I wanted to give the Soviet player a new unit as I did for the US forces before. I think you can not have enough choices to choose from.

As the 3 units I created before this one, you can find the PDF file with the new card at my google drive by following this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YcvFV4eeOjZTdmv7-6RmBngo77FHWbvw/view?usp=sharing

For the moment that are all custom units that I created until now. To give you a litte foresight, there may follow a German artillery unit in the future, but for the German version of the M109 I will have to do some modifications to the barrel of the Zvezda M109 kit.

Zvezda 1:100 Soviet Personnel Carrier BTR-80

A closer look at the Soviet BTR-80 armoured personell carrier model kit. This 1:100 kit is produced by the Russian manufacturer Zvezda for their game "Hot War - Battle for Oil". But as all 1:00 Zvezda model kits, this model could be used for any game with a matching setting.

As also the Bradley, I got this one for a discounted price. So let us see, what Zvezda has to offer with this modelkit:

The kit comes in 2 sprues. The cast is good, without any issues. A minimal amount of mouldlines has to be removed, but there are no sinkholes. 

This BTR-80 is made up from only 8 parts plus the 8 roadwheels, the turret is casted as a single piece.

Also included is a set of generic numeric decals. These decals are printed in good quality, there where no issues when they were applied.

Note that this is a different decal sheet than the sheet included in the 122mm "Gvozdika" howitzer.

After a look at the parts, it was time to get this model built:

Building this tank took me about half an hour. See the finished model on the pictures above, also you can see all tools which I used to complete this kit.

This is another nice kit by Zvezda. It could be built without the use of glue, the fit of the parts without glue is excellent. There are 2 things I do not like about this kit, first, the wheelhubs have almost no detail. Second, you will have to careful with the turret, the main gun is very fragile, but this is a matter of scale.

Overall, this is another nice kit from this range. 

But be aware, some of the "Hot War - Battle for Oil" kits are not as nice as the kits I already showed in previous closer looks at.

BMP-1 / BMP-2 Tank Expansion For TANKS The Modern Age

A closer look at the BMP-1 / BMP-2 tank expansion for "TANKS The Modern Age" from Galeforce 9.  This game offers a ww3 scenario, if you own the matching cards you could use your models from "Team Yankee" for this game.
Just like all other expansions for the game, this box contains an 1:100 kit and some cards for "TANKS The Modern Age". First a look at the kit which is included.

I do not want to repeat myself but once again this is a kit without any flaws. There are virtually no mouldlines and any possible ejectormarks will not be seen when this kit is built. As you may have foreseen it, there are no sinkholes or any flash.

The building instructions are kept simple but easy to understand. Depending on which version you want to build, a complete upper structure with matching turret will wander in the bitsbox (more on that later).

After a look at the plastic let us check out the cards. First we have the cards for the units:

The BMP 1 offers a low Attack of 3, with an Initiative of 5 it is "slower" than the BMP 2 which has an Initiative of 7. The scout ability is useful because the unit has no armour and only 3 hitpoints. Equipped with the AT-3 this unit costs only 12 points.
The BMP 2 has with its Rapid Fire ability 5 dice against unarmoured vehicles and helicopters, and if it is equipped with AT-5 missiles it is a threat to any unit on the battlefield. But this arnament is needed since its base attack is only 2. For 15 points (including the AT-5) you get a nice allrounder which is pretty fragile with only 3 hitpoints and 0 armour.

Next are the crewcards, 2 Soviet and an additional crewmember are included. The Soviet hero unit "Ivan Kasparov" offers some nice advantages for only 5 points. You will not only get an Initiative boost of 3, you get an extra hitpoint. Also you get the possibility to reroll an attack dice if you have a speed token. This comrade is not only useful in a BMP.

The Soviet "Komissar" offers the choice to drop an equipment or crew card if you draw some special critical hits. For the cost of two points this may be an interesting choice.

The "Defensive Driver", usable for all nations, offers for 4 points the chance to reroll one attack dice each time you attack.

Last but not least there are 2 equipment cars included. Each BMP gets its additional missile launcher for 2 points. This seems like a must have.

At the moment this are the only Soviet anti air units, that why they are very important if the enemy uses air units, especially since Soviet intelligence reported that a Bundeswehr platoon with air support has been detected.

Once again I recycled the bits which were left over after I built the BMP 2 from this kit. I found this template at Thingiverse and first I printed the hull. I had to use some sandpaper to make it fit.
See the 3D printed part below, printed at 195 C with 100% infill and 40mm printing and movement speed in 0.1 mm layers. It took about 2 hours to finish.

But the 3D printed tracks went pretty bad, after 3 successless attempts, I decided to use another method to get a pair of tracks for the BMP 1 hull,which I choosed to recycle. In this post you will find a video how I made the tracks for the tank.

And the result looks ok, see for yourself. With a layer of paint it probably will look better.

Maybe tonight I will give you a look at the Revell 1:100 helicopter kits I finished for the game.

By the way I have to correct myself, I thought that the "Team Yankee"/"TANKS The Modern Age" helicopter units are 1:144 scale. But I was absolutely wrong. Only the planes are made in this scale.

A comparison of the Battlefront and the Revell Hind and Cobra kits shows that the BF kit comes in 1:100 scale, just as the BF Cobra.

But you may see for yourself in the next weeks when I will take a closer look at the Battlefront and Revell Hind kits and the Battlefront Cobra kit, which has ridiculous large panel lines.

1:100 Soviet Tanks For TANKS The Modern Age

The second battleforce for "TANKS The Modern Age" is painted and ready for some action. The Sovietunion got its first tank platoon while the Americans got their first opponent.

The two T-64 tanks from the starter box. As all other tanks in this post, they were painted in a simple scheme. Primed with AK Interactive Russian primer, followed by a basecoat of Revell Aquacolor Bronzegrün. The final step was drybrushing the tanks with Revell Aquacolor Olivgrau.

The machineguns got painted black, then I used a pencil to add a layer of graphite for a decent metallic look.

The T-72 tank on which I took a closer look in this post. Painted as mentioned above. His decals and all other decals I used on the four tanks from this post came from the "Gvozdika" kit, which I show in this post.

Before I applied the decals, I added a layer of clear gloss varnish on the spot where I wanted to have the decals, normally I do this with the brush. Then I applied "Mr Mark Setter" from Mr Hobby before I set the decals.

After the decals were dried I gave some "Mr Mark Softer", also by Mr Hobby, over the decal. In the past I had some issues with this stuff, once it dissolved some decals while I applied them what caused a mess. But it improves the final look of the decal.

Finally all kits were sealed with Revell Aquacolor matte varnish, mixed 1:1 with water. I also have some thinner laying arround, but I prefer to use water, it had never  disappoined me before.

The last Soviet Tank is a custom unit, find all infos in this post, it is the 122mm self-propelled 2S1 howitzer. As I mentioned in the closer look at it, I changed the headlight for an AA machine gun from the leftover bits of the T-64 kit.

Next week we will play a first game, maybe I have the Cobra and the Hind finished until them, but there is still one questions from the rules, which seems unclear:

If I attack with missiles, does the target tank throw his defence dice or will he not ?

As I understand the rules, he will not. If the target tank would throw his dice dice, I would see no practical use for rockets, since they have a movement penalty.

If the attacker moves twice before he shoots his missiles, they will hit on 6 only and can not cause any critical hit. If the target has defence dice in this situation, this will make a hit very hard to get, you will need more than the usual luck.

I am gonna ask in their official Facebook group, maybe I will get a proper answer from there.

Update:
We got an response from their official Facebook group. They state:

"the target would get normal defense rolls. the missiles 

rules don't say anything about ignoring defense dice."

Hm, seems I was wrong with my interpretation of missiles rules.