Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

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REVIEW: 1/35 T-90A RUSSIaN MBT (MENG TS-006)

THE T-90 bOXart

Meng Model is a relatively new model kit manufacturer from the far east that is already loved for their accuracy
and attention for detail.
They have different dinosaur series that represent a vehicle type, the Tyrannosaurus represents battle tanks.
The latest addition to this series is the Russian T-90A Main Battle Tank with kitnumber TS-006
The T-90A is the Main Battle Tank of the Russian Army and is the successor of the T-90 MBT. As of today the
T-90A is on of the most advanced battle tanks in the world. The T-90A is equipped with a 125 mm 2A46M-5
smoothbore gun, a pair of auxiliary machine guns and the Russian
Shtora-1 combined electro-optical
countermeasures suite to protect the tank against laser guided weapons.
The T-90A entered service in 2005 and replaced the older T-72s and T-80 tanks.
Nowadays the T-90A is forming the backbone of the Russian ground forces.

THE MODEL
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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

To create a model of the most correct Russian battle made so far, Meng co-operated with Alexey Khlopotov
(better known as Gur Khan). Gur Khan works and lives at the biggest tank factory in Russian where this T-90A
is being produced and engineered. Gur Khan has, as he says himself, the most complete knowledge and
reference material on the T-90 in the world, so Meng did a good job contacting him!
Gur Khan has been involved in the one year development of this model and made sure this is the most correct
Russian battle tank out so far!
The great features Meng Model added that make this T-90 really stand out from the rest are a full engine
system with the option to display the engine deck in open position, workable suspension, great detailed track
system and some detail on the turret interior.
More on this in the review below
The Model kit consists:
instruction sheet
a piece of text by Gur Khan explaining his involvement
information on the actual T-90
10 regular sprues
1 sprue with clear parts
16 sprues for the tracks!
upper hull piece
lower hull piece
turret piece
decal sheet
2 small Photo Etched sheets
1 PE mask for painting the tires
gun mantlet
2 crew helmets
a piece of rope

In this in box review on the T-90A I will guide you trough the steps in the instruction manual and give my
opinion on the steps and detail of
the parts.
The Box
I have to be honest, this box is the nicest I have seen yet, the painting on the cover looks great and the quality
is great as well. The box is sturdy as well and gives good info on whats inside and the available options for
painting the model.
Instruction Sheet:
The instruction sheet is equipped with a beautiful colored cover where a T-90A rolls trough the sand, the T-90
looks really cool on this picture especially with the red lenses on the turret.
Next to see is the piece of text by Gur Khan where he describes who he is and why he is the best person to be

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

involved in developing the T-90A model.

An informative text about the T-90A is next, on this page are illustrations as well where Meng Model shows you
what the exterior pieces on the T-90A are, see the picture I included. The illustrations are really nice and
answer all your questions on what would that be?.
Step 01
You start off with the idler wheel, drive sprocket and road wheels of
the T-90A. In total two idler wheels and
drive sprockets are made and 12 road wheels.
The detail on the parts looks really good!
Step 02
In this next step you work on the lower hull piece. You will attach the lower glacis plate in which you need to dril
four holes for other parts to attach, you will also attach other small parts such as guidance
wheels for the
tracks and work on the idler wheel assembly.
The lower hull piece looks really nice with a lot of attention to the
bottom of the hull. When the tank is finished
you will not see this, but that did not stop Meng from recreating this part. Please see the picture to know what
Im talking about.
Step 03
In this step you will attach the self-entrenching device to the bottom of the hull. Again, its great to know Meng
paid attention to the bottom of the tank, it gives you that extra level of detail and completeness.
Step 04
Now here comes the great part, the T-90 has a workable suspension with torsion bars that can move like they
do in real life! In step 04 you will recreate this. In my build review I will go further into this, so like our Facebook
page or follow us on other social media to stay updated.
Step 05
In step 05 you attach the rear plate of the T-90A and attach some parts on the drive sprocket area.
The detail on the rear plate looks amazing, there are some bolts there that look really sharp and crisp.
Step 06
Here you will attach the previously created road wheels, idler wheels and drive sprockets.
Step 07
After you applied the wheels and so, Meng wants you to create the track system on which they paid a lot of
attention and brain. The tracks
are build like they are in real life and thus exist of a lot of parts! Check the
pictures of sprue H to know what Im talking about. Meng created a smart system with help pieces to create

the tracks, it looks really good and should result in some great looking
tracks instead of those rubber tracks
provided by most brands. Only disadvantage I can imagine is that you would have to spent a lot of time
on
creating them, but well, you get some great results!
In my build review I will tell you how I liked this system created by Meng.
Step 08

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

Attaching the previously created tracks to the hull piece is done in this step.
In my build review Ill dig deeper in the track system.
Step 09
Another great feature of this model is the option to display the full
engine compartment of the beautiful T-90A
MBT, I personally really love
this! In this step you will work on the engine!
Again, detail looks great and crisp, you will use some Photo Etched parts here as well.
The amount of parts to create the engine indicate that a lot of attention is paid to the engine part by Meng!
Step 10
Here you will attach the engine and place some engine compartment walls and other details. Like said before,
this is a great feature! Thanks Meng!
Step 11 & 12
The upper hull is next in process, you start with attaching the front
glacis plate to the upper hull piece and
attaching parts to the glacis plate itself. Ive taken a careful look at the glacis plate and again, am amazed by
the level of detail on it and the crisp molding! I understand why this kit price is above average.
Step 13 & 14
The front fenders are created and attached in step 13 & 14. The detail on the fenders is great, again.
Step 15
In step 15 you will attach PE grills to the hull piece. Great they made this out of PE material.
Step 16
You will work on the exhaust port from the engine in this step. It will make the engine compartment look great!
Some PE is used here for some more grills.
Step 17 & 18
Multiple hull pieces are attached in these steps like marker lights and other stuff.
Step 19
The engine deck is attached here, like said before you can either close it or display in opened position, the
supports for the fuel drums are attached and some more stuff.
Step 20 & 21
In this step you will work on the headlights that exist out of four and five parts respectively. With a quick look
that seem to look great and complete!
Step 22 & 23
Here you will work on the side skirts assembly. The side skirts look great and have some nice natural curves in
them like the real rubber ones have. Lots of parts are used and they all look great!
Step 24
In this step you will attach the log to the back of the hull and place another piece of the engine deck. Tow
cables are attached as well,
you will use the rope Meng included to create the tow cables.

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

Step 25 & 26
In this step the fuel drums are created and installed on the T-90 The
detail looks great and it is great Meng
included the fuel pipes as well!
Step 27
In step 27 you will work on the barrel of this beast. The barrel exists out of eight pieces and should look great
when completed. I just hope the seam lines will be easy to fix.
Step 28 32
In these steps you will work on the turret exterior and some interior
parts. Some interior parts visible from
outside are included like the control panel etc. on the exterior youll attach roof armour plates, smoke
dischargers, laser probes, night vision sights, hatches and the gun mantlet. The nice detail on the gun mantlet
is that it is made out of rubber, so its flexible!.
Step 33 & 34
In these steps you will create the IR Shtora lights, you know, the red eye looking things on the turret! The
supports look complex but great, the lights itself are amazing! Meng did a fantastic job on the detail of them,
take a look on the detail on the picture of sprue G detail to the right. The moldings are so crisp.
Step 35
In step 35 you will attach the explosive reactive armor plates to the turret, again, the molding looks very fine!
Step 36 & 37
The storage boxes are created in this step and attached in the next step (37). Other parts like ammo boxes and
the smoke dischargers are attached in step 37 as well.
Step 38 & 39
In these two steps you will create the commanders cupola, looking at the instructions it looks like a complex
but great assembly with a lot of attention to detail!
Step 40 & 41
In those steps you will assemble the anti aircraft gun that will fit on the commanders cupola. Detail on the gun
looks great with drilled out
hole and all. It will look mean on the commanders cupola!
Step 42 & 43
The final steps! In the final steps you attach the commanders cupola and barrel to the turret. All the effort in the
previous steps paid out and you created an amazing T-90A by this moment.
Painting options
Meng Model gives you the option for the following version:
A. 27th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of Moscow military district, Russia Victory Day parade 2011
B. 27th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of Moscow military district, Russia Victory Day parade 2012
C. 19th motorized rifle brigade of North Caucasus Military District
D. 27th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of Moscow military district, Russia Victory Day parade 2008
E. 27th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of Moscow military district, Russia Victory Day parade 2009

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

F. 27th separate guards motorized rifle brigade of Moscow military district, Russia Victory Day parade 2010

CONcLUSION
Meng Model did another amazing job with the help of Gur Khan and created a stunning T-90A kit with great
features such as an engine compartment, workable suspension and amazing detail on the plastic parts. Meng
Model is really proving their professionalism with this, and
their previous kit and starts to get a real good
reputation.
We are very curious what Meng Model will bring us in the future.
A build log / review about this T-90A kit will follow soon on MSM where I will walk you trough the build
process.
If you have any questions dont hesitate to ask. I created a youtube video as well! Check it out in the
right sidebar and like it if you liked it.
Review Score:
95%

KIt INfO

Brand:

Meng Model

Kit #:

TS-006

Scale:

1/35

Price:

$41,99

CONtENtS:

PrOS

- great features such as engine compartment, suspension and tracks.

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

- great level of detail on the parts

- should be the most correct T-90 out there

CONS

- the tracks may be a little to much for some persons.

Review Score:
95%

Sprues

Others

Video Review

Sprue A

Sprue B

Sprue C

Sprue D

Sprue E

Sprue F

Sprue G

Sprue G detail

Sprue H

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

Sprue J

Sprue K

Sprue M

Sprue N

Sprues E

Sprues F

Sprues G

Sprues H

Sprues H 2

Turret piece

Turret piece

Upper hull piece

Upper hull piece

Hull piece

Hull piece

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

6 COmmENtS
Lee Stewart on July 26, 2013 at 1:33 PM
Maybe its just my old IE (7 work computer so I cant upgrade it), but this

Reply

looks like black text on a very dark brown background its nearly
unreadable (though I can highlight your text and make it a little more
readable. Just so you know.

Boris Kamp on July 27, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Im sorry to hear that!

Reply

It should be your browser, it is very old indeed. I personally

use Google Chrome, its way better then Internet Explorer.
Firefox would suffice as well.

Good luck with that.

Tom on July 26, 2013 at 10:36 PM

Hi ! Thanks for the review; I want to grab this kit right now, it
looks so crisp

Reply

and detailed ! Do you think there is room for improvements ? (aftermarket

kits possibilities i.e. metal barrel).
Thanks !

Boris Kamp on July 27, 2013 at 4:04 PM

Hi Tom,
No problem! glad you like it.

The kit is amazing indeed! I think a metal barrel is always

welcome for the modeller who has enough money to buy
them, it saves you a lot of time. As for PE stuff or so, Im not
sure as MENG includes PE themself as
well. I think ET
model or so will bring out a set for it and am curious
what
they will improve.
As I start building this kit, I can be more specific on a lot of

things, so keep track of my build log if you like and ask

around at that
time and Ill be glad to answer your questions!

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Review: 1/35 T-90A Russian MBT (Meng TS-006) | Military Scale Modelling!

Boris

Ingemar Caisander on August 28, 2013 at 10:41 AM

Excellent in-box review, thank you very much!

Reply

The Meng T-90 definately sounds like a kit worth getting (great with the
inclusion of the V-92S2 engine; that certainly opens up quite a few

possibilities for a maintenance diorama)

Boris Kamp on August 28, 2013 at 4:37 PM

Thanks! glad you liked it.

The engine is a great feature indeed! I hope I have the time

to build this kit before I go away for abroad study.

LEaVE a REpLy

h
i
p

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