Takom Iraqi Medium Tank Type-69 II Gulf War 1992 1:35 – build review

Full Review with Mick Stephen

And now for something completely different…

In these strange days we live in of quarantines, lockdowns, curfews and working from home, the light that peaks out behind the clouds is the opportunity to get some good modelling time. As any self-respecting modeller would know, some of what lurks in the stash of kits gathering dust was bought on a whim and may not even be of any great interest. Driven by a lack of appropriate paint supplies to complete other projects in my favoured genre of aviation subjects, it was time to turn a little to the ‘dark side’ and have a go at one of those dusty boxes.

Armour has never been of any great interest to me, but it does offer the opportunity to try some different techniques and as a novice in this realm, perhaps I can be converted, certainly no harm in trying.

Here’s a sneak peek of how it all turned out…

Our subject is the Iraqi Type 69, a Chinese built main battle tank based on the Soviet era T54/T55/T62/T72 family and widely sold around the world to nations who could neither afford nor had relations with the Western manufacturers. I won’t dive into any further history of the type, suffice to say it should prove an interesting challenge in terms of corrosion, wear and tear and weathering effects, just what the doctor ordered.

What’s in the box

From what I read, Takom are a relatively recent newcomer to the armour kit market in comparison to the old favourites, but have established themselves with a pretty high standard of product, which reflects in the price.

The sturdy lid and tray-type box is not overflowing with plastic, but there is more in there than it seems, all sprues moulded in light grey styrene and individually wrapped.

Parts are located commonly on the sprues in a logical order.

A small fret of clear parts and a zip-loc bag with plastic track links makes up the bulk of the contents.

All the parts are free from flash and sprue gates are not too heavy with locations that minimise tidy up. Detail is crisp and there there has been some decent effort to create surface effects on the armour casting and welding joints, let’s take a closer look.

Read on…