ICM 1/35 Soviet Tank Crew 1979-1988 Kit First Look

By Cookie Sewell

First Look

With the advent of new kits of the T-62 tank family, it is always nice to see a new set of styrene crew figures that compliment the kit. This nice new set from ICM is just the thing as it covers three Soviet tankers during the later period of the black canvas uniforms and with the first of the “four bar” improved tankers’ headset-helmet combinations - the “shlemofon” to the Russians.

Each figure consists of the normal six parts that compose most figures (head, torso, legs and arms) but comes with a three-piece “shlemofon” with two “bars” on the headpiece and one of each of the earpieces, which help to hide the joint seams. This by itself will make painting easier. The faces are well sculpted if a bit too much “new Soviet man” and not very animated, but will do fine for a tank just out of action in Afghanistan as an example.

One figure comes with his helmet on and one with it off, and the third figure offers a choice of “either or” with his collapsed canvas “shlemofon” in his hands. The nicest touch of the figures is that two of the heads with helmets have them worn Soviet-style, that is rocked back so that the soldier’s forelock hangs down onto his forehead.

But the figures are wearing the earlier model tanker’s jackets which do not have shoulder boards; this is a bit unfortunate as they injected a lot of color into the soldiers as many soldiers seemed to prefer the infantry’s red shoulder boards to the drab black tanker’s ones.

The box art is a black and white photo of three members of a T-55 crew which were obviously the ones used for molding the kit. Other than the fact they are smiling, ICM did a nice job of capturing casual poses of the same sort and creating the kit. The colors are a challenge, as they are either black canvas or black leather!

Overall this is a nice accessory for the Trumpeter T-62 and Tamiya T-55 kits, as well as other Soviet armored vehicles.