History

The IT-1 tank was a Soviet cold war missile tank based on the T-62 Hull. The tank was specially designed to carry and fire the 3M7 Drakon missile from a pop-up launcher. It saw limited service from 1968 to 1970. It was withdrawn due to the limited ammo it could carry and the large dead zone around the tank caused by the minimum range of the missile. Most were converted into recovery vehicles.

The Kit

The contents of the kit are nicely boxed and individually wrapped in plastic sealed bags. There are 19 sprues, 1 clear sprue, 1 PE fret, and the lower hull section. The instruction are in booklet form with 12 pages of black and white instructions. A separate color painting guide is also included. No decals come with the kit and there are no instructions to guide you as to where they might have gone.

Build

You start off with steps one thru six which consist of the lower hull , tracks, and road wheels. The road wheels assembly is great, as their rubber portion is a separate piece which really helps out in the painting process. The tracks provided in the kit are the individual link type. There is very little cleanup and assembly goes very smoothly. In step 5, the instructions call for placing part B26,but this gets in the way when the turret in set in place and should be deleted. Steps 7 thru 12 are the assembly of the upper hull. In step 11, a sub-assembly (part E18, a side of one of the stowage boxes) is different than what is shown in the instructions. You will need to add part F15 to this to complete this step. Step 13 thru 15 detail the turret assembly. All of the parts went together smoothly with very little to no cleanup.

Painting/Weathering

Painting was done with Tamyia paints, a layer of clear dull coat, then weathered with AK products, Mig pigments, and pastel chalk.

Conclusion

This is a great subject to add to any model collection. There is little to no cleanup of parts and the fit is excellent. The lack of decals included in the kit is a con, but I could not find enough info to verify if the tank even had markings during its operational time period. I highly recommend this kit to all armor fans. It goes together quickly and without and hassle.

I would like to thank IPMS for the opportunity to review this kit. Also I would like to thank Squadron for supplying the kit and Trumpeter for producing and excellent armor kit subject.