2015 proved to be a taught one for the modeling companies. And what made it even harder was the official reveal of the new Russian main battle tank – T-14 Armata. On May 9, 2015 this new tank passed through the Red Square and for the first time since the 70s Russia had something new to offer. As the tank was kept in secrecy until the end of February this year there was some real surge among the scale modeling community. Some liked it, others – hated it. No matter what this new toy is here to stay.
So, it was just a matter of “We must be the first!” to have this kit in scale. First were Cromwell models and W-models. Both in 1/72 resin, multimedia kits with accordingly high prices (about 50 euro). And just as many of us were ready to give them our money Takom decided to jump straight to the subject and announced a plastic one in… 1/35. Of course, some rants went on-line bragging about the stupidity behind this move – to make a prototype vehicle. Regardless of the public opinion they went ahead and the model is already available.
And now 6 months after the premier of the real Armata we have not one but 5 kits – two resins, one plastic in 1/72 by Modelcollect and the one in 1/35 by Takom. So which one is the other one – Panda also took this course and is working on a kit in 1/35.
May be the bigger surprise came again from Russia when Zvezda announced that they have an agreement with UralVagonZavod (UVZ – the makers of the real Armata) to reproduce a licensed copy of the tank, based on the SERIAL machine.
The battle is ready to start and 2016 should be also very interesting with Zvezda releasing their around the end of the next year. In the meantime I think that now is the time to be in this hobby. We have the unique opportunity to study the development of the newest piece of equipment in the world not only behind our screens but also by building it.
Enjoy!
RedLineModels 