| With the hull done our attention turns to the most difficult part, the turret, the most difficult because the turret needs some major changes done to it as will be seen. The turret supplied in the kit, seems to be a copy of the tamiya turret and as such it is neither a T-72A turret or T-72M turret but it is sort of somewhere in between as will be seen. When compared with plans the kit turret fits exactly the T-72 plans as seen,
This is a good start, but unlike the real turret, the kits turret front is near vertical as it should be for a T-72A. The turret front should slope back at an angle as seen in this picture.
This produces an almost flat surface to the turret front on either side of the main gun as can be seen in the picture above and the one below.
The two flat surfaces run approximately along the black lines with the lower edges running the curve of the turret.
With the front surfaces done the rear of the turret requires a small amount of attention to produce the correct over hang.
This is best produced by adding a small amount of filler to the rear and then shaping it, this also at the same time make the undercut at the base of the rear of the turret
With the turret shape completed our attention can now be turned to the sights. The T-72 had a co-incidental rangefinder, this means that we have to build the RH sight. I did this by shaping a piece of plastic to fit and by using channel and other bits I built up the sight gradually. The sight
The LHS is also changed, the next set of photos supplied By My good friend Bob Grimster shows the sights and gives all the necessary dimensions.
The Right hand side sight, the small cover on top has been made from metal foil cut and then folded into shape. The aperture is plastic channel with a hole drilled and slightly elongated
The LHS sight has small access plates in the side and top, The turrets here are covered in Mr Surfacer, the black is just marker pen outlining where the top plate is welded into the turret, As can be seen i also cut the main gun sight down in height, although you loose a bit of detail doing this, by using the T-55 PE set from Part it can be easily replaced. This alteration to the turret shape can also be used to turn the turret into a Polish or Czech tank with or without smoke mortars fitted, in these cases you don't have to add the RHS range finder. The various other alterations I made will come in Pt-3
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