Object 279
with NBC Commando

Object 279 (Объект 279) was an experimental heavy breakthrough tank designed and developed by the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1959. Three prototypes were completed in 1959, and demonstrated to Soviet leadership in 1960.

You can find a first look review of this kit, with sprue shots and a brief history of the vehicle, by clicking here.

As noted in the first look review, the kit parts are crisply molded with only fine mold lines, and are free from flash.

As with most Takom kits, the prescribed instruction sequence would have you assemble the complete lower hull with the running gear and tracks, then the complete upper hull with all its detail parts, before bringing the two hull halves together and adding the turret. Those of you who are familiar with my previous reviews will know that I consider myself a 'fat-fingered fool' and that trying to assemble the upper and lower hulls with all the detail parts attached will likely result in various parts flying off into the stratosphere, or being sacrificed to the carpet monster. I will therefore depart from the assembly sequence given in the instructions - more on that as we go.

Assembly

Assembly begins with the two longitudinal beams to which the suspension and running gear are mounted. Each of these is molded in two halves (parts A1 and A27). The alignment of the two halves is not quite perfect, even though the joint is tongue-in-groove. I clamped them together, glued them, let the glue dry completely and then sanded the joints flush with my biggest, baddest sanding stick.

I then assembled the idler mounts (parts A18). You are instructed to add two tiny crescent-shaped parts (A20) into U-shaped sockets on each mount. However, parts A20 are not quite the right shape to fit into the sockets. I gently sanded the ends to a more rounded profile, after which I was able to fit them into place. Even after sanding, the fit was not quite perfect but they will be hidden behind the idler wheels when the running gear is in place.

Step 2 of the instructions the two-part drive sprockets (parts A13 and A13) and their mounts (parts A11 and A12). I assembled the sprockets and the mounts, but left the sprockets separate until final assembly, to simplify painting. These parts went together with no problems, but there was a prominent seam line between parts A11 and A12 that required filling.

Step 3 assembles the two-part suspension swing arms (parts A2/A10 and A3/A9). You need to make 12 of each assembly; 6 for each side of the suspension beam, and there are two beams for a total of 24 swing arms. The instructions then have you add the swing arms to the beams.

There are raised ejector pin marks on the mating surfaces of some of the swing arm halves. It's a simple matter to remove these with a hobby knife or file.

Note that you can depict the suspension in raised (travel) mode or lowered (hunker down, a nuclear blast is coming) mode. There are two locating pegs on the base of each swing arm. The larger one is for the rotational axis, and the smaller can be placed in one of two locating holes on the beam. The instructions are not completely clear here, but you need to use the lower holes for raised mode and the upper holes for lowered mode. I chose raised mode, since I wanted to depict a vehicle on the move.

The diagram on page 3 of the instruction booklet shows the holes as options A, B (raised mode) and C (lowered mode). This relates to the three painting/marking options in the original 2013 release of this kit. Option C was for the vehicle as displayed at the Kubinka museum, which at that time had its suspension lowered.

Step 4 has you add the road wheels, idlers and return rollers to the suspension. I decided to leave these separate until final assembly, to simplify painting, so I skipped Step 4 completely.

Step 5 would have you begin adding small details such as the towing hooks to the lower hull. As noted above, I decided to leave the small details until later, so I skipped Step 5 too.

Step 6 assembles the individual link, workable tracks and attaches them, along with the completed suspension assemblies and the separate drive sprocket assemblies, to the lower hull.

The tracks are molded in black and are made from a different, slightly softer plastic. There are four sprue attachment points per link, but these are small and are easily cleaned up. The track links simply click together. I only found one link that was too loose to hold securely to its neighbor, but I simply tossed that one aside since there are plenty of spares. The instructions specify 82 links per track run and, as I discovered later, that was exactly the right number.

Here I deviated once again from the prescribed assembly sequence. I added the suspension beams along with the attached swing arms and idler mounts, to the lower hull. The beams fit into slots in the lower hull and the fit is quite tight, but not overly so.

As noted above, I left all the wheels separate for easier painting and weathering. The photo below shows one set of running gear. There are four sets, so cleanup and assembly will take a while.

Note that there are some very fine mold seams along the outside edges of the roadwheels and idlers, and along the inside edges of the return rollers. They are almost invisible but I figured that with my luck, they would be more prominent when I painted the model. A quick scrape with a sharp #11 blade took care of them.

At this point, I temporarily jumped forward to Step 12 of the instructions, which begins assembly of the upper hull. Note that there are multiple holes to be drilled out from the underside. I did so, then fitted the upper and lower hulls together.

There are several brackets on the upper hull that you will need to carve away to attach the tools that correspond to the holes you just drilled. Be careful though, because not all the brackets need to be removed. Pay attention to the instructions, which show you the right ones.

I then returned to the assembly sequence given in the instructions, where Step 7 turns to the main armament.

The kit gives you two options for the main armament; the 130mm M-65 gun as fitted to the prototype vehicles, and a shorter-barreled 152mm gun to create an 'Object 279M' which was apparently never built but is present in certain online games. I chose to use the 130mm gun because I liked the look of the weapon with its bore evacuator and fluted muzzle brake. The barrel is molded in two halves along with the muzzle brake, and the seam requires some careful cleaning up to avoid damaging the very nice detail here. I cheated and decided to use a turned metal barrel from Aber (35L-220), which is shown alongside the kit barrel in the photo below.

The Aber set also includes a brass 14.5mm KPVT machine gun barrel, which was too beautiful not to use. There is nothing wrong with the kit part, though the muzzle needs drilling out. I simply succumbed to temptation.

Step 8 adds a small blanking plate (part C13) to the main turret casting (part C1).

Page 7 of the instructions gets rather busy and the flow of the steps here is a little confusing, so you will need to pay attention.

Step 9 assembles the multi-part commander's cupola. This entire step is jammed into the bottom left-hand corner of page 7, and the flow goes from right to left. There are optional parts for the cupola-mounted spotlight, which again are called out as A,B in the instructions. As noted above, option C is for the Kubinka vehicle. I decided to go with the A,B option.

Assembly continues with Step 10, which is another 'multi-step step' that begins in the top center of page 7, progresses to the top right and ends up at the bottom right-hand corner of the page. This step brings the upper and lower turret halves together, sandwiching the gun mount between them, then adds the commander's cupola, loader's hatch (Object 279 was fitted with an auto-loader, but somebody had to load the auto-loader) and other turret details.

Most of the joint between the upper and lower turret halves is hidden, but the joint is visible on the turret cheeks either side of the mantlet, and there were some gaps that required filling. I sanded the joint smooth and used Mr Surfacer 500 to restore the cast texture.

The hinge assembly for the loader's hatch (part C25) has the inner edges of the double hinge sections tapered. This means that the single sections on the hatch itself (part C23) won't fit into the slots between the double sections. I filed the inner edges parallel, so that part C23 would fit into place.

There are two small parts that fit onto the turret roof immediately aft of the ventilator cover (part C29). The part numbers for these parts are not called out in the instructions. They are parts C4 and C15.

Step 11, in the top left-hand corner of page 7, completes the turret assembly. The completed turret is shown in the photo below, along with an X-Acto knife for scale. That is one very long gun barrel. Size matters.

I set the completed turret aside and proceeded to Step 12, which begins adding details to the upper hull. As noted above, I had already jumped forward and fitted the upper and lower hull halves together. I went back and added the front and rear towing hooks from Step 5. Note that the spring-loaded retaining latches for the rear towing hooks (parts D28 and D29) are transposed in the instructions.

I also went to add the two small unidentified parts (C10). There is a problem here however, since you need two parts C10 and the kit only includes one. The original 2013 release included two turrets, which are on sprue C, and therefore included two parts C10. This release only includes one sprue C, and therefore only one part C10. I drilled out the mounting locations with a #46 drill bit, then scratch-built two matching pieces from 0.080" styrene rod, drilled out the ends and glued them in place.

I then returned to step 12.

The kit includes a photo-etch fret with parts for the engine intake grilles, along with various brackets and fittings. If you want to go all-in, Voyager makes a very extensive update set (PE35640) for the 2013 release of this kit. I decided not to go to that extent, since the photo-etch parts supplied in the kit are perfectly adequate.

Steps 12 thru 15 add all the details to the upper hull. I followed the assembly sequence here. There are many small parts, but the instructions are clear (once you get past page 7).

Step 13 includes adding the tiny photo-etched mounting hooks (parts TP12) for the tow cable, to the left-hand side of the upper hull. I decided to delay adding these until I was ready to add the tow cable in Step 17, to reduce the risk of knocking them off during the remaining assembly steps.

At this point, I ran into another problem with a missing part. There are two grab handles on the rear deck (parts C17). The kit only gives you one sprue C however, and therefore only one part C17. I used the kit part as a pattern to scratch-build two handles from 0.30" brass rod, and glued them in place.

Step 14 assembles the two-part intake shrouds (parts D4/D31 and D5/D27). The fit of the lower parts (D4 and D5) to the upper hull is problematical. I found I needed to sand the lower edges of the parts to get them to fit into the slots on the upper hull. It was easier to do that, test fitting the parts in place, before I glued them to the upper hull, then added the upper sections (parts D27 and D31) afterwards.

Step 16 has you fit the fully detailed upper hull to the lower hull. I had already done that earlier in a sanity-saving move, so I laughed and skipped this step.

Step 17 assembles the rear-mounted external fuel tanks, and adds them to the hull. Note that the two tanks are not identical. The instructions are quite clear though, so take care and the parts go together and attach to the hull with no problems.

The three parts (A4/A7/A8) that make up the top, rear and underside of each tank go together very well. The same cannot be said for the ends (parts D14/D18 and D13/D17). The locating tabs on the insides of each part were too deep and caused the parts to foul the ends of parts A5. I got out my biggest baddest sanding stick (again) and sanded them almost smooth. Even then, there were significant gaps that needed filling and sanding.

Here I ran into another problem with a missing part. The two fuel tank filler caps are parts C16, but there is only sprue C in the kit and therefore only one part. I made replacements from thin sheet styrene using a punch and die set. They are not the same as the kit parts since they lack the angled upward-projecting pipe but since the surviving example at Kubinka lacks the filler caps, I decided to exercise a little modeler's license.

I also added the tow cable and its hooks at this point. The braided wire supplied in the kit is considerably too long to reach between the locating holes on the upper hull for the two end points. I cut the wire down to 100mm in length.

Step 18 assembles the two-part gun travel lock, adds it to the upper rear hull, and adds the completed turret to the hull.

The model was now complete and ready for paint.

The Commando

Before we get to painting though, Step 19 assembles the 'NBC Commando' figure included in the kit. There are 27 parts making up the figure and its equipment, many of which comprise a complex backpack breathing apparatus. The NBC equipment bears little resemblance to any Soviet equipment from the 1950s or 1960s, and looks rather 'science fiction inspired'. That said, it also looks very very cool and since Object 279 never saw service anyway, I suspended my disbelief and let creativity reign.

I had trouble getting the lower sections of the shoulder armor into place. In retrospect, I should have fitted them before gluing the upper sections. I decided to omit them, rather than try to pry off the upper sections and re-fit them.

The photos below show the fully assembled figure in grey primer.

Note that the base does not come with the figure. I mounted it on a spare gaming base to stop it falling over when I was trying to photograph it.

Painting

The kit provides decals and painting instructions for three different vehicles:

• 'SP-II' in three-color sand/brown/green camouflage, with Guards emblems on the turret sides
• '302' in overall green with a white turret stripe and red stars on the turret sides
• 'SP-II' in snow camouflage over the three-color sand/brown/green camouflage, with Guards emblems on the turret sides

Since Object 279 never saw service, all these options are fictitious. A few photographs survive of the original vehicles under evaluation in 1960, and show them in a single-color scheme, presumably overall green, with no markings whatsoever. I decided to go with something similar.

I primed the model with Tamiya light grey primer, applied from a spray can. The base coat was Vallejo Model Air Russian Green, followed by AK Interactive 4BO Light Base on the upper surfaces, with a final highlight of Vallejo Model Air RLM02 Grey.The result was a little too contrasty, so I gave the model a thin wash of Windsor & Newton Dark Verdigris oil paint to help tie the colors together. I then picked out the tools and other stowage in various colors to add some variety

I weathered the lower hull, running gear and tracks with AK Interactive Splatter Effects Wet Ground, before attaching the wheels and tracks to the model.

The photos below show the completed model.

Summary

The many small parts, along with the occasional fit issue, not to mention the need to fabricate several missing parts, will make this a challenging kit for the beginner. For a modeler with some experience however, it should present no major problems to assemble and paint. With patience, careful assembly and some MacGyvering, it builds into a nice representation of a very unusual subject.

Recommended for Intermediate to Advanced builders.

Thanks goes out to TAKOM for this review kit.

Reviewed by Neil Stokes

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