Das Werk Medium Tank T-72M | Armorama™

New T-72M from Das Werk, with decals for German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Czechoslovak and Iraq Armies.


This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/das-werk-medium-tank-t-72m

Is this a Takom rebox?

Nop, base kit is from Amusing Hobby.

With a new turret I guess ?

According to their announcement, and as you can read on the full news:

the kit features correct shaped T-72M / ÜV-1 / ÜV-2 turret

Good news, in that case I believe it will be the only styrene M turret available .

Help me understand the turret situation better. The original Amusing Hobby turret was for an M1 and this one is different in some way? The M turret being earlier and shaped differently?

I’m looking at the Tankograd article online and I think I know what might be different here, but am not really clear about it…

T-72M differs from T-72 in replacing the right-side coincident rangefinder with a centerline-mounted TPDK-1 LRF

The list of T-72 tanks.

  • T-72: Original Russian tank from which T-72 variants were derived.
  • T-72A: The Russian variant differs from T-72 with the TPDK-1 LRF, added sideskirts, additional armor on the turret front and top, smoke grenade launchers, internal changes, and a slight weight increase.
  • T-72B : has the thickened frontal turret armor and is commonly known in the United States as the Dolly Parton.
  • T-72BK: Commander’s variant with additional radios
  • T-72BM: Version with 2nd Generation Kontakt-5 explosive reactive armor similar to that on the T-90. This system is being fielded and is available for export.
  • T-72M: Original Polish and former-Czechoslovakian T-72-series tank from which Polish/Czechoslovakian T-72M1 was derived. T-72M differs from T-72 in replacing the right-side coincident rangefinder with a centerline-mounted TPDK-1 LRF.
  • T-72M1: Russian export version and Polish/Czechoslovakian counterparts. Versions with Kontact ERA are known as T-72AV /T-72 M1V. Some countries have inventories of T-72, T-72M and T-72M1, with different versions of each variant. Also, many variants were upgraded or modified. Some T-72M1s do not have smoke grenade launchers or track skirts. Some T-72s/T-72Ms have smoke grenade launchers. More reliable discriminators are armor and rangefinder/FCS.
  • T-72S/Shilden: Russian export T-72A upgraded to be comparable to the T-72BM standard. Although similar to the T-72BM, it may have less turret front protection. The early T-72S tank has Kontakt ERA.
  • T-72BV: with explosive reaction armor packages fitted to the hull and turret. The glacis plate is covered with a layer of single ERA blocks while the turret is covered by one, two or three layers with one being the more usual.

Thanks. The Amusing Hobby is listed as an M1 and this is a new turret just for the M. Looking at the art for the two and then the build-up, it’s hard for me to see any difference. Cookie Sewell’s review of the original kit says the bulges on the turret aren’t quite deep enough for a T-72M1. One wonders…

My understanding is that the M turret is a hybrid with the thinner front cheek armor of the initial T-72 model 1975 but the laser rangefinder of the T-72M1 in place of the coincidence rangefinder. An ID feature between the two is the M1 has a step at the lower front edge of the cheek armor right below the smoke grenade launcher conduits while the M does not.

M1 upper photos, M lower photos


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