I finished painting up my first batch of T-72. I thought I'd show off some of the new Team Yankee models. Sorry the pictures are a little dark. I got a new camera for Christmas, and I'm still figuring out the settings.
The T-72 kit is very nice. Good detail and builds quick and solid. The self defense MG is pretty delicate, but the sprue includes a spare. My biggest complaint is that the main gun's sprue attachment points are on the top instead of the bottom of the barrel.
The T-72 is comparable to the size of the bigger late war Flames tanks. But the Hind is ridiculously huge at 15mm.
The detail on the kit is decent, but the model is cut up strangely in a few places. Especially around the cockpit. The front canopy doesn't fit well, and mine had some kind of casting issue that made it very difficult to assemble properly. When finished, it's got some gaps that need to be filled. Plus those rotor blades are not long for this world.
It's so close to being a good model. The kit was designed so it can be assembled gear up or down. Had they focused on just having a gear up only model, and then put the effort into having a solid or even a clear cockpit, it would have hit the mark better.
I also wanted to point out some additional size issues with the Hind. Battlefront is releasing the ground attack jets in 1/144 resin. As you can see compared to an Academy 1/144 Su-25, the Hind is a monster. It's also has about an 8 inch rotor blade diameter and the Hind's unit coherency is only 6 inches.
The BMP kit's is phenomenal though. I've never seen a gaming plastic miniature that is tooled so precisely. The fit of the model rivals something I would expect from Tamiya or Bandai. Battlefront may still need to work on their aircraft model engineering, but they've just about mastered the art of plastic armored vehicles in 15mm.
And some more painted T-72s to finish things out.
They look great! Genuinely interested in this iteration of Flames of war I can weirdly get behind speculative wargaming more than historic...
ReplyDeleteI just wish there was an actual two plater starter than a rulebook and two army box sets which I am not sure if they are balanced or even forces?
It seems tricky for a complete newbie!
Thanks for the review! Andrew NZ
The starters are balanced at roughly 40ish points. It's why the American starter only has 4 tanks and is $40 cheaper. There is no discount baked into the TY starters, but you will probably use everything in it. Helicopters and MBTs are pretty essential in most lists.
DeleteThe speculative nature of the game is actually pretty great for the rules as a whole. It allows them to take some liberties to balance and simplify the game that the rivet counters wouldn't let them get away with in Flames of War.
Cool thanks for the reply. It's pretty expensive here but if it takes off it looks like a reasonably fun game.
DeleteHaving seen the Hind in person, I'm also perplexed why they didn't down-scale it to 1:144 instead of 1:100 (15mm). And yeah, it's kind of a sloppy model compared to the tanks. Though the lack of a clear cockpit doesn't bother me as it's little trouble to paint some convincing reflections on it.
ReplyDeleteI wish there was a German or British started available, as I know to much about the Abrams's flaws to think that it's actually a great tank. But I'll probably pick up the American starter this week or next.
Gotta finish the kids' pinewood derby cars first though. :)