There is no rendition of the breech and autoloader included, so either closed hatches of or crew figures will be needed unless you plan on replicating all that yourself. Unusually, construction begins with the turret, installing the flat panels that make up the basic sides of the turret, with the top built up separately for installation once the crew hatches have been built and the basic interior parts around the lips of the hatches have been added.

The parts that aren’t exposed once the model is built still have tooling marks visible, which lends the sprues a sort of “industrial” air. The tops and bottoms of the turret and hull dominate two of the sprues however, and the detail here is nicely done, although a very fine patina can be seen on the more wide open spaces. The first thing that is noticeable on looking through the sprues is that there is no hull tub or pre-formed turret box. The box-within-a-box contains six sprues of mid-grey styrene, one of clear parts, a length of string, two different styles of mesh, a medium sized decal sheet and the instruction booklet. On lifting the lid however, a moment of confusion occurs, as the brown card base has another lid built in. The kit arrives in a standard looking box with a painting of a camouflaged T-90 on the front, as you would expect. It has been exported to India, Turkmenistan and Algeria, with India intending to produce around 1,000 under license. It has seen action in the invasion of Dagestan, where it acquitted itself well, and it is generally thought of as the most survivable Russian tank in their current arsenal.

It is powered by a traditional diesel engine, eschewing the unreliable fuel guzzling gas turbine of the T-80, and through subsequent upgraded has obtained well over 1,000hp from its 12 cylinder block.

As well as composite and steel armour, the T-90 also has the Kontakt-5 Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA), and a self-defence suite from developments of the T-80. The T-90 is based on the T-72 chassis, but takes elements of the T-80 fire-control systems to obtain excellent accuracy from the 125mm smooth bore barrel. The T-90 is a Main Battle Tank that is a curious blend of politics and financial expediency, as it was developed as a hybrid of the T-72 and T-80 tanks, due to the former being a little inferior and the latter being too expensive, but both plants where they were built being in politically sensitive areas.

Instaling 90 Tank Battle