Intro

Panda released this kit late last year and it competes with the Takom and Zvesda Armata Kits. The kit is molded in medium green plastic and the track components are molded in a dark tan plastic. There is one sprue of clear parts, a PE fret and decals. With a length of tow cable.

Background

The T14 Armata is Russia’s latest Main Battle Tank that first appeared in public practices for the 2015 Moscow Victory Day Parade. This was a shock to NATO and Western Forces as the advanced design was unknown at that time. The T14 is derived from the Armata Universal Combat Platform. The tank weighs 48 metric tons and is 11 feet wide and 11 feet tall and 29 feet long. This is a big tank.

The Aires Hobby Models website lists not only the Aires product line of resin replacement accessories, but also Quickboost, Wheelliant and Aerobonus. I have used products from all four lines and have never been disappointed. Collectively the product lines offer a broad choice of detail enhanced replacement parts for aircraft models in several scales.

The subject resin parts come in a sealed clear package with a small "instruction" enclosed therein. The instructions are limited to a profile of the parts with the portions of the resin to be removed shaded grey. The parts are surrounded on two sides by resin "legs" to protect the parts. I noted that the arrestor shaft had a small opening cast in the end where the hook was to be attached.

There’s a lot of parts, fourteen to be exact, to this landing gear replacement, and they are done very well. Parts represented are D20,21,30 and 31; G28,35 and 45, and J12, 13, 16, 17, 32, 38 and 39. Of course they are all in white metal, which requires some polishing and some smoothing of the surface on a couple of the parts, and assembly using gap filling CA glue. The parts come in the typical SAC clear plastic bubble card. The AH-64 is a heavy aircraft, so he white metal assembly will definitely give it some stability.