Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 WIP Detail Work

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Thanks Mark your input is much welcomed, but as for saying my work is better than yours, those trumpeter kits just make you look good. No my friend I've seen you progress by leaps and bounds, I can't even see the stuff you work on. :captain :skipper :captain

That's why I build in this small scale! Nobody can see my tiny mistakes! :woohoo: :woohoo: :dance

The new progress looks great; very clean work Gerry. Another possible explanation for those "thingys" is that they are also mudscrapers keeping the wheels from getting gummed up when traveling through soft terrain. Russian winters being what they are; they would know well how effective "Colonel Mud" can be.

I think they are to limit travel, the next photos are for scrapping mud just didn't have time to get them made.

I was talking about the little thing on the bottom by the first torsion Bar, with the hole in it, I think must be for a tow cable. Guess I need to look at the next pages, I have looked at every thing, just don't remember these little things.

 

[jknaus]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

The curved plastic is a guide to bend the PE. Once the PE is bent it attached to the hooked piece with 3 pins so you align it properly. This is a mud scraper. If you wait to put the drive sprocket on it is a tight fit. Maybe this will help.

And here you can just see from the back.

I believe the hooks are for lifting and also jack pads. May be wrong.

James

 

[iambrb]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

The curved plastic is a guide to bend the PE. Once the PE is bent it attached to the hooked piece with 3 pins so you align it properly. This is a mud scraper. If you wait to put the drive sprocket on it is a tight fit. Maybe this will help.

And here you can just see from the back.

I believe the hooks are for lifting and also jack pads. May be wrong.

James

Pretty sure they are. The T-64 was never exported, and it is true that you do not see the suspension design continuing with the T-72 series, but it is was for its’ day a very innovative tank. If you read about it, the suspension almost required that the designers ‘live’ with the tank crews as they were learning how to use it and break it in, but I have always thought that the design process behind this was to allow the take to be more mobile, kind of what the Germans were trying to do with the Panther in WW2. IIRC, the T-64 early versions used a day gun sight like that of the T-62, within a certain range if the target falls within the sight fire and you will hit the target, or at least that was the theory. The laser was just there to determine if you were within that range. Thus, you could ‘run & gun’ and in order to do that, you need a better suspension than the T-62 series offered. Although the autoloader offered a high rate of fire, the loader only worked at certain angles, so when used in some areas of high angle fire (I.E: Afghanistan) the tank was at a serious disadvantage, but, within its’ design realm, it was a good idea for the day & time

 

[jknaus]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

The T-64 is a different family to the T-62. T-62 to T-72 to T-90. Actually the T-72 did so poorly in the gulf wars that noone wanted them so they upgraded them some and renamed them T-90. T-64 to T-80. The T-64 was designed to be a lite tank and although the T-80 is a bit more buff it is also considered a lite tank. It used the weapon systems of the T-72 to upgun the T-64. Not sure what the Autoloader has to do with angle of fire though. The gun had to go to full elevation to load and then after that like any tank its min and max elevation is limited. I havent read anything about this being a problem in Afghanistan but in Chechnya they were slaughtered in the towns and thus the Terminator was developed.
James

 

[Piet]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Ask And You Shall receive, Thanks Guys, I got buried up here at the shop, When I get home, I'll digest all this info, glad to know that is a bending jig, now all makes since. Thanks for your help & responses.

 

[lupanzer]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Nice progress

Luiz

 

[Sharkmouth]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

From Osprey's T-64 Battle Tank book by Steven Zaloga:

"The T-64, a tank whose design history began in 1952 when per their military regulations the Soviets began searching for the NST - a Russian acronym for New Medium Tank. This was due to the fact that the brand new T-54 Model 1951 tanks were finally entering mass production and being fielded to units, so a replacement needed to come up on the drawing boards.

The prime candidate to create this tank was Aleksandr Morozov, who had taken over the Kharkov design bureau in September 1940 following the death of Mikhail Koshkin. He had been the chief designer when the bureau moved to Nizhniy Tagil a year later and through the wartime and early postwar years. But by this time he was now the chief of the design bureau for Factory No. 75, relocated to Kharkov.

Morozov’s first efforts were focused on a relatively modest upgrade of the T-54 design with some new concepts in armor protection and a 100mm D-54TS high-powered rifled gun. This was matched by a new design from the remaining elements in Nizhniy Tagil under Leonid Kartsev. Morozov’s Article 430 was similar in many ways to Kartsev’s Article 140, but it used a unique new opposed piston four-cylinder (eight pistons with twin drive shafts) called the 4TD. This was an air cooled engine and gave great promise, but was a nightmare and one of the reason his designed was turned down. (Kartsev made the great faux pas of saying he didn’t think either tank should be selected for production as they offered no real improvement; this statement meant that from then on his designs would be ignored in favor of Kharkov efforts.)

Morozov then came up with a revolutionary design called Article 432. This tank was to use the same gun but with separate loading ammunition and a new autoloader that replaced the human loader. With a crew of only three the turret could be made smaller with thicker armor and the tank made lighter. This used an improved engine design, the five cylinder 5TD, which would take until the mid 1980s to perfect and cause most of the headaches with the T-64.

The “sugar daddy” for the T-64 program was Dmitriy Ustinov, who was then the secretary to the technical committee of the Politburo Central Committee. He loved new “toys” and put all of his support behind the new design. While under development the British introduced the new 105mm L7 gun which soon became the NATO standard tank gun. The Soviet leadership was irate about having an “inferior” caliber and as a result with some experimentation the D-54TS was bored out and became a 115mm smoothbore. This gun, the D-68 or 2A21, was selected for the Article 432 and became its armament.

The Article 432 entered very low rate production in 1964 but it was not until the end of 1966 when it was accepted for service and designated the T-64. But while nearly 2,000 were eventually built, they were considered maintenance nightmares and “hangar queens” by the troops. Morozov was continually having to upgrade the tanks and rework everything, especially the engines, and as a result there was little standardization from year to year of production.

A vastly improved but still imperfect tank came out in 1969 as the T-64A. This upgraded to the end item desired by all of the Soviet commanders, the 125mm D-81T smoothbore gun. From the designer’s standpoint it was a “drop fit” into the T-64 tank, but the tanks still had engine problems.

Ustinov had ordered that the T-64A would be the new standard tank and be built at all Soviet tank plans, but due to political reasons and regional animosity neither Nizhniy Tagil nor Leningrad (whose production facility was now at Omsk) agreed to that. Kartsev was told to design a simpler version tank for wartime production and export using a V-2 type engine, and Leningrad was tasked with a turbine powered variant of the T-64A. Both factories did so, but heavily modified their designs as the Article 172M from Kartsev and Article 219 sp 2 from Leningrad (Nikolay Popov).

Ustinov was furious at Kartsev and had him moved to a deadend job as punishment, but his tank went on to become the highly successful T-72/T-90 series tank. The Leningrad tank became the T-80 series, fast and powerful but a complete fuel hog as many specialists had noted at the time.

Finally the ultimate T-64 came out in 1976 - the T-64B with the additions of a laser range finder/fire control system and the 9M112 “Kobra” through-the-bore antitank guided missile system. These tanks were called “sniper” tanks when introduced due to the fact the missile was accurate to over 4,000 meters. But by this time the T-72 was into its A Model and the T-80B model with the same missile was being prepared for production. By 1985 the T-72B with its better 9M119 laser-guided ATGM and the T-80U with its improved engine and the same missile were being fielded. After Ustinov died enthusiasm for his tanks did too, and the Soviet Army began to move them to depots for “wartime reserves”.

With the breakup of the USSR, the Russians quickly sent all of their T-64s off to storage but due to national pride the Ukrainians kept up development with the T-64U Bulat and T-84 Oplat. But production of these two tanks has been quite modest.

There is no good set of numbers for T-64 production but when the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty was signed in 1990 there were 4,900+ T-64s in Russian service west of the Urals. Most are now scrapped with only about 2,000 still in depots east of the Urals."

Regards,

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Thanks for the information Saul, I was going to buy this book. but it was out of stock at Squadron, this may help me with the paint job, as T thinks it shouldn't be Russian Green. Not sure which color would be better. most of the Soviet Armor is Green.

Also thanks Luiz, for following along, I tried a update, last night but MS Edge just collapsed & started a new blank page, as I was nearly done. I was so tired of this happening, that I just turned the computer off & went to bed.

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Update on what I've gotten done.

I put this little piece of PE on the front road wheel axle.

I formed, on the Jig and installed my Mud scrapper, I will adjust it when I start with the tracks and determine sprocket location using the painted tracks.

Installed eight of these, looking for my AFT welding decals.

So on to step two where We do the other side and some extra bits.

C&C Welcome - Cheers Gerry

 

[iambrb]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Thanks for the information Saul, I was going to buy this book. but it was out of stock at Squadron, this may help me with the paint job, as T thinks it shouldn't be Russian Green. Not sure which color would be better. most of the Soviet Armor is Green.

Also thanks Luiz, for following along, I tried a update, last night but MS Edge just collapsed & started a new blank page, as I was nearly done. I was so tired of this happening, that I just turned the computer off & went to bed.

Interesting that you should post the questions regarding Russian green. When a militaria-trading bud of mine that I used to trade with heavily heard about the wall falling, he hopped a plane and flew to Mother Russia, and spent almost a month buying a 40' container of militaria that he shipped back here and sold. that allowed him to afford to emigrate his cousin, and they started a gun company in the US now known as Arsenal Inc. In the course of this I bought from him two 12.7mm ammo boxes that I still have. To hear him tell it, they were bought right off of a T-72 and into the container. I will post pics later (gotta nap!), but the paint on the two are strikingly different

 

[moon puppy]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Looking good Gerry.

 

[jknaus]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Maybe this will help.
http://www.migjimenez.com/img/cms/PDF/Triptico%20colores%20sovieticos_BAJA.pdf
James

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Thanks Fellers, what I was trying to do is figure out what Terry was talking about when He said "I hope you don't paint it that green color, so I was trying figure out, if He meant a grey color, but I don't see that scheme for Russian tanks. So the People that do the voting would want it to be period specific.

Any way here's what I did this, morning, sorry the Chill dogs went to my head last night & the blue chair won.

 

[lupanzer]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

....

Luiz

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Well Ok then, I wanted to proceed with this thing, but I found a walk around, with great detail. I saw some things, that has more or less stopped forward progress, :skipper

Notice the welds around all this stuff that I recently put on the front.

I installed the other Idler Hub, and checking position, of this next piece.

I have to do some work, and lots of it around this whole area, So I drug out my

I watched a video on how to use these, found out my Micro-sol had the wrong color of letters. I have the Blue, must be the red, last night I drove to Rockwall to the closest Hobby Lobby to get some of the right stuff, they didn't have it, also they had a 50% Off Christmas Sale going on. I bought some Testors decal set, don't think it will work, but in desperation, I bought it anyway, $1.56 and Forty-five minutes wait in line, I had my little bottle of decal set. Folks I'm real proud that My checkout at GHD doesn't take that long.

So this morning She's in Her Box, Being protected from Harm, but still on top of the Cue.

C&C Welcome - Cheers Gerry

 

[moon puppy]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

I don't see the weld lines but will take your word for it.

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

They are there, Here's a close up

Can you see them now ???

 

[lupanzer]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Anxious to see the weld lines instaled

Luiz.

 

[Swordsman]

Soviet T-64 MOD 1972 1/35 Trumpeter WIP Hull

Me too, thanks Luiz for looking in, I'll try to get them done, fixing to go see if decal set will work

I also see a piece not in the kit that I may have to make, the little piece that only has two bolts on it. :woohoo: