New Heng long t-72 with ERA (more an S than a B)

[Mr tank a lot]

Hi!
It’s a t-72AV or if you play war thunder a turms, I got in touch with heng long (toucan) and the guy said he’d show the company.
If they Mike it like this it’s a perfectly accurate t-72 variant, to get a B it needs the bigger turret cheeks.
I was thinking of getting a t-90 turret and changing the commanders top of the hatch over from the T-72 because it would have all the nbc cladding and the Dolly Parton.

Anyway I’m on the case, there’s one of these already captured in Ukraine.

There not quite right, but close enough for jazz!

[Mr tank a lot]

Picks of the instructions for the bricks

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Mr. tank-a-lot, you keep making the T-72 look more and more enticing. I am weakening...

[tankme]

Just make sure you fill them with rubber to "bounce" all those anti-tank rounds...

[Mr tank a lot]

Milliput, I’m calling it ceramics!
Just a quick pic of what you can do with spare brass sheet and the supplied bricks. Had to cut and fill to get individual ones.
If I carry on I’ll put this in a build thread bit here.

[Timbo68]

Picks of the instructions for the bricks

Great! Very useful, thanks. PM sent...

[Timbo68]

I have now added the Heng Long ERA block accessories to my old T-72 - thanks to the instruction images posted above.

I needed to make some changes, and there are no appropriate pre-drilled holes for the blocks on the 'old' T-72. The glacis v-shaped water deflector and tow cable had to be removed, and the sides of some of the bolts there needed to be trimmed. One of the DSHK ammo boxes was removed with the nearby tube container (whatever it is...), and the launchers on the front of the turret also had to be removed, and replaced on the left hand side of the turret with the mount provided. The snorkel tube was fixed to the new rear storage bin provided in the kit, and the third bin (also provided) was fixed to the rear left side. I had two T-34 copper tow cables which I etched, and fitted to the rear using the replacement clamps in the kit. I noticed that the middle of the top row of the 7 blocks on the glacis would in reality completely block the driver's view, so I removed the middle three which required a bit of filler. Some online images show cut-down blocks there, and some have them removed completely. I chose the latter option. The new blocks fortunately mostly covered the now-unused holes/slots on the turret.

I used a dab of paint on the 2mm pins on the ERA blocks to mark their location, and drilled a 3mm hole to allow for a bit of adjustment. The blocks could have been glued directly, but the tank was treated with spirit weathering, so glue might not have stuck well. I was left with a few blocks, so I added another two glued together and fixed them with a small magnet to the region by the R/H hatch where the IR receiver would fit. The side skirt blocks needed quite a bit of careful adjustment, fitting and drilling to get them level. The biggest problem was the fitting of the third storage bin, but plenty of ABS glue fixed that!

The new blocks are part-weathered on the sprue, but the colour didn't match the existing shades, so it's now all weathered with the original MIG 1005 brown for green wash, and sprinkled with some 3014 russian earth for that grimy finish, with fuel stains and engine oil in some appropriate places.