Review by Terry Ashley
The quality of the resin casting is first class as we have come to expect from Verlinden. You get a completely new turret with nice cast texture and many small detail items included plus many more to be added. The top half of the engine and transmission is included in another large casting to which is added the cylinder heads and many finer parts in resin and etched metal.
This set is not for the inexperienced modeller as there is a lot of surgery needed on the Tamiya kit to accommodate the new resin and etched bits. The entire rear engine deck and fenders have to be removed from the kit hull and the rear section of the lower hull has to be cut off and replaced with a new parts.The new engine
deck has all the hatches separate, as you would expect with the engine to display.
The intake louvers on the rear deck are made up of 10 etched strips, which you
fit inside the resin frame.
The new rear end includes the hull section as mentioned above, new rear bulkhead
final drive housings plus the many other finer fittings such as fuel tank supports
etc. The two rearmost hatches on the engine deck are also separate with etched
and mesh screens to fit inside if shown open?
The side fenders and supports are all in etched metal to which you add the kit fuel tanks and mudguards. A diagram is included showing the fuel line placement to the tanks.
The turret as
I said is nicely cast with subtle surface detail with the mantlet dust cover
included, which means the two-part resin barrel is fixed in place. Again there
are many fittings to be fitted to the turret with all the sights as separate
parts as is the rear shell ejection hatch (although the turret is moulded solid).
The kit hatches are used on the resin turret.
The forward hull has many detail bits to be added like the light clusters with guards made from the wire supplied. There are literally dozens of smaller latches and fittings to be added all around the hull to finish off the vehicle including the rear fuel tank straps (the fuel tanks are in resin also), the ammo box supports, fuel tank supports and many more.
The DshK 12.7mm machine gun has no less than 28 parts in resin and etched metal and looks excellent.
Now, while I'm
no expert on the T-62, I have had some experience in detailing the Tamiya kit
while build my "Road
to Beirut" diorama some years ago which featured a disabled T-62.
Many of the improvements I added to the kit have been included in this update
set (plus a few more and a few that aren't).
While building the kit, the one thing that came to light was the depth of the
turret. The Tamiya turret was about 2mm too shallow and required an insert
to correct this, this lack of depth was the reason some details were missing
from the rear turret on the Tamiya kit (the third lifting hook being
one). Vasko Barbic also noted this in his superb series on the T-62 back in
the June, July and September 1988 issues on Military Modelling Magazine.
The September issue features the T-62M including 1/35th plans, which confirm
the turret height.
The new resin turret in the update set is the same height as the old turret
and it appears that Verlinden has missed a golden opportunity to correct
this problem by using the old kit turret as a guide to producing this set. It
is virtually impossible to correct the height of the resin turret with out major
surgery.
This is disappointing, as the rest of the update set is very comprehensive and adds a lot of detail to the Tamiya kit. If you can overlook the turret height or you could use all the hull improvements and modify the Tamiya kit turret. There are many items in this set, which could be used to detail up the old turret although you would have add the cast texture yourself.
Conclusion:
A very comprehensive
and well-detailed update set let down by a lack of basic research regarding
the turret. What you do get in the rest of the set is top shelf; the rear hull
and engine parts are particularly nice and will result into a very "busy" and
detailed rear end. There is enough detail to keep you busy for hours and will
result in a superb looking kit.
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