T-72 M1
The Lion of Babylon
The T-72 M (M1 for upgraded version) was the exportation version of the T-72 A produced in URSS. Licensed. versions were produced in Poland and Czechoslovakia, for Warsaw Pact countries, and East Germany army used T-72 G build by Poland. These tanks had inferior armour quality, as USSR didn ‘t want at that time to export its newest armor technologies : resin-embedded ceramics layer inside the turret and Hull front armour replaced with steeled armored only.
.Before 1990, Soviet-made T-72 export versions were similarly downgraded for non-Warsaw Pact customers, mostly the Arab countries. Iraq even built their own T-72 copies under the "Lion of Babylon" label. They were indeed assembled from kits sold to them by the Soviet Union to evade the weapons embargo.
When Ace Model released its T-72 kit in 2004, it was the first correct T-72 model to be widely available for modelers, if we omit an earlier, more or less confidential attempt by the same manufacturer in the 90's and the Galaxie kit which apparently was not widely distributed and had some accuracy problems
The Ace kit was not perfect (small problems on the turret, as it will be the case later for the T-72 Revell) and not necessarily easy to assemble, it was nevertheless possible to achieve a correct result. The few EP parts used for this assembly are "generic" parts from the T-80 Eduard board, but most of the improvements are made of copper wire, stretched plastic sprue and aluminum sheet .
T-72 B
Like many other kits presented on these pages, this model is the conjunction of the Revell T-72, easy to mount but only allowing to represent a T72 G (export model) and the first kit of T-72 released in injected plastic in braille scale, namely, the Ace Kit, rather fair but much more complex to build
The front armour of the body must be completely redone to remove the over-thickness of the armor on the Revell kit (T-72 M1 et G) that disappears on the B version (additional armour integrated and no longer an additional plate). Less visible on the picture, there are 8 anchor plots on Soviet models and no t4 as on export or licensed versions
The Ace turret is used but topped with accessories from the Revell Kit, more detailed and better molded. represents the over-armoured turret of version B dubbed by NATO "dolly parton" in reference to its prominences
The decoration choices are little varied, this model has not been widely exported. they will be covered with a Russian Green color, in force at the time of its release in 1985.
However, Some photos, show it with a 3-tones camoulflage inspired by US MERDC camouflages pattern
T-72 B with ERA
T-72B fitted with Kontakt-1 explosive reactive armor. By 2020 it was the most widely used tank in active service with the Russian Army, and the most numerous version of the T-72.
A modified version of the Revell T-72 was used, combined with a T-72 B Ace turret. As for the T-72 B above, The upper part of the front Hull had to be totaly re-designed (to remove the additional armor layer typical of the T-72 G). Headlight protection have been done in coper, the convoy lights added, among other improvments
When this kit was built, the Ace T-72 B with ERA was not released, therefore, the ERA bricks were taken from a T-80 Matchbox kit. The EP set used is from OKB Grigorov. Some T-72 B were fitted with a full ERA kit covering the side skirts.
T-72 B3
The T-72 B3 is an update of the T72B (therefore, not a new version) incorporating the less costly technological improvments developed for the T90. To simplify this is an upgrade package, to get a low cost T-90. Since 2013, 600 tanks have been modified for the Army of the Russian Federation, and the Upgrade is available for export, used for exemple in Syria.
The kit is the Modelcollect T-72 B3 , with some very minors improvments.
TOS 1 Buratino
Putin Katyusha
The TOS-1 Buratino , also called Buratino ( heavy flamethrower system), is a multiple rocket launcher with 24 220 mm tubes. It is based on a T-72 tank chassis, and was first used in Afghanistan in 1988-1989. It was presented to the public for the first time in Omsk in 1999. It was designed to hit non armoured target as infantery, equipment, buildings, bunkers and fortifications, and light vehicles. As the minimum range of the rockets (600 m) and the launcher is heavy it required a sufficiently protected and strong Hull with powerfull engine, therefore the T-72 tank chassis was chosen. The range of the rockets is 5 to 6 km. Its destruction power is estimated at 1 km2 per salvo for incendiary rockets and 2 km2 for thermobaric missiles.
Once again the T-72 Revell chassis was used for this assembly. It is interesting to note, that the T0S launchers were first mounted on existing T-72 chassis before the serial production was launched, using new T-90 chassis
In addition to the usual improvements (detailing and conversion of the glacis) the chassis was adapted to the TOS 1. In addition, the blade at the front is in lowered position to stabilize the machine during the firing phase.
The turret is from the Ace Model kit and will be over-detailed. The launcher has been scratchbuilt using some of the Ace Model parts. Indeed it corresponded to a 30 tubes prototype rather than the 24 tubes production version of the launcher which inspired the assembly
The TOS was painted following a camouflage used during a "show" by the 2nd Motor Rifle Regiment, in Kalininets
