Ukrainian T-84BM Oplot (Trumpeter 1/35)

[flakmonkey]

And I only went into tjhe model shop for some paint.

I emerged 40 minutes later with said paint, and another sizeable hole in my pocket courtesy of the Trumpeter T-84BM Oplot.



The Oplot (Ukrainian for "stronghold") is another development of the venerable T-64 designed and built by the Kharkiv tank factory, that bears some relationship to the Russian T-80, but it is considered to be superior in all respects.

Its 120mm smoothbore gun can fire the full range of current NATO ammunition, it has an entirely new turret and a significantly redesigned hullwith greatly improved armour, a commander's panoramic rangefinder/ viewer and a similar device for the gunner, a gunner's thermal imager, a hit to kill active protection system, and a proper diesel engine instead of some silly and thirsty gas turbine thing.

It's another very nice kit from Trumpeter, sharing a number of parts with the excellent T-80 kits of a few years ago. The downside to this is that Trumpeter have chosen to provide T-80 drive sprockets, which are cast with four spokes as opposed to the Oplot's sprockets which have three. However, as these are all but invisible behind the deep side armour, I find it of very little concern and certainly not worth the expense of buying the resin replacements.

I opened the box to inspect the contents (as one does) and before I knew it, it had launched a special modeling operation and invaded my work bench without provocation, taking advantage of a drying flat coat on my T-64BM.

So I built the wheels.



I then felt obliged to build the lower hull and suspension.



There are no vinyl parts this time, and the front anti RPG curtain is in styrene but exceptionally well done. It will look just the thing with drybrushing.

We shall be seeing quite a lot of this kit in the very near future, just as soon as the T-64BM is completed.

[flakmonkey]

There has been progress.

The upper and lower hull are now as complete as they need to be for the time being, and so it it is track time.

The tracks are of the individual link type. A handy little jig is supplied upon which to build them, which does speed the process somewhat. Said process is then slowed somewhat by the fact that the links and guide horns are separate parts.



320 parts later, I was ready to assemble the tracks onto the vehicle. As usual, I have built up the top runs, wraps, and drops as a single length and draped those around the drive sprocket and idler. The bottom runs are built up ready to go on.



A loop of sturdy elastic cord keeps everything in shape on each side as the cement sets overnight. The tracks can then be removed, painted, and fitted to the also painted running gear before the fenders and side skirts can go on.

Whilst I wait for all that, I think I shall set about the turret.

[JamesPerrin]

Has anyone studied the risk of RSI building these tracks? Apart from the potential joint fatigue this is going together well.

[flakmonkey]

Has anyone studied the risk of RSI building these tracks?

This could be a new avenue for ambulance chasing lawyers to explore. This time next year we'll all be rich.



Taking a short break from such trackery, I turned my attention to the turret.

This is entirely new tooled for this kit, is well detailed and goes together very well. I got as far as the smoke dispensers and realised that these areas would need painting before continuing, as they are boxed in but much of what lies beneath is still visible.



Trumpeter likes to throw in a random "gotcha" on every kit, and this one is no exception. There is a mystery item that, according to the instructions, must be attached in a silly place. The mystery item is, in fact, the ERA cell that sits above the coaxial MG and is hinged to move with the main gun. The kit provides the two mounts for this, but then tells you to mount it somewhere else. What should go where Trumpeter tells you to mount the ERA cell is a spare armoured skirt for the turret...



There is also no coaxial MG muzzle provided. I raided the spares box for a suitable item. With that all cleared up, I was able to complete the turret assembly.



The rooftop radio antenna is stretched sprue, and I scratchbuilt the small whip antenna mounted on the left of the turret bustle (which is an armoured ammunition stowage compartment with blowout panels). The stowage basket on the left side of the turret looks like it has a part missing. It doesn't, they look like this in real life, but it looks like something is not there that should be.



The armoured boxes that cover the smoke dischargers are particularly well done, and fit without any fuss at all.



With the turret pretty much done, I went back to the tracks which by then had been given plenty of time for the cement to set up properly.

The tracks fit very well with the Trumpeter prescribed 80 links per side.



You won't see much of any of that, thanks to the world's biggest side skirts. These are truly enormous thanks in no small part to a lot of laminated and explosive reactive armour. The insides are fully detailed. Because of course they are.





It's worth noting that the T-84T variant used by the Royal Thai Army often has the side armour removed, and are operated with just the fenders and the zip bins sat atop them. It is actually possible to model the kit in this way, although no mention of this is made in the instructions. It's also worth noting that there should be a pair of spare track guide horns mounted on the glacis plate. Again this is not mentioned. It's easy enough to do as there are around 50 spare guide horns in the kit. You just need to sand off the little lugs that mount them to the tracks, and cement them directly in place on the glacis plate.



There are a few more details to go on the hull before attaching the side skirt assemblies.

A fairly straightforward build, this one, although the parts count is very much on the high side. I think I'll tackle the headlights next.

[JamesPerrin]

Plenty of potential for trapped fingers on that turret. Make it rain Saul

How in earth do you get a smooth coat with all that hardware and potential for overspray to give you a gritty finish?

[ShaunW]

More sublime armour modelling from you, Mr Monkey and that neat trick with the elastic cord for setting the tracks is worth nicking off you if nothing else.

[B4en]

There is a crazy amount going on with that turret Flak. Kind of makes me glad my building interests are in older stuff!

[flakmonkey]

Thanks all for looking in.

How in earth do you get a smooth coat with all that hardware and potential for overspray to give you a gritty finish?

I've never even thought about that. It just comes out nicely with Vallejo or Mig Ammo acrylics at about 15 PSI with a few drops of flow improver added to the colour cup. I'm going to worry about overspray now.

Speaking of spraying, I decided it would be easiest to paint the major sub assemblies before fitting them all together. With this in mind, I have begun with the sponson/ side armour assemblies.





With a complex scheme like this it certainly does make life easier doing it in a modular fashion. It's actually not as difficult a pattern to replicate as it might appear. I began with patches of UAF Yellow Grey where they were needed, then masked off the parts I wanted to keep using squares of Tamiya tape to achieve the various shapes. I referred to pictures for this; there doesn't appear to be a set pattern for this camo scheme, or if there is, it is interpreted quite loosely at unit level.

I repeated the same process for the NATO brown and NATO black, and finally sprayed the whole thing with FS34079 Forest Green, which is a very good match for the green used by Ukranian forces.

It was quite a lot of fun removing the masking amd seeing the pattern develop before my eyes. Yes, gentle reader, I really am five years old. Inevitably there are a couple of minor touch ups required here and there, but overall it was a fairly successful venture.

I suppose I'd better do the rest of it, now.

[Clashcityrocker]

Nice scheme, but I think the degree of difficulty will increase when it comes to masking and painting the turret

Nigel

[flakmonkey]

I think the degree of difficulty will increase when it comes to masking and painting the turret

He's not wrong, you know.

But it is achievable.





I'll now finish detailing the hull, and get that painted too. Then I can actually assemble the beast.

[Clashcityrocker]

Never in doubt

Nigel

[flakmonkey]

We now have a fully pixelated T-84BM.







Surprisingly not all that difficult to achieve, it took around 8 or 9 hours to do everything.

I must now remove about 2000 small squares and rectangles of tape from the work bench before continuing, but I am quite happy with the overall effect.

[general rocket]

Looking very good

[AndrewR]

That's a very nice paint job

[Clashcityrocker]

Very nice. Worth the effort.

Nigel