1/72 Armory TZ-22 heavy airfield refueler kit

Review Article by Yufei Mao on June 3 2009

 

Armory is a Ukrianian aftermarket goods manufactor and their main products are accessery parts for 1/72 AFV and Soviet/Russian aircrafts.

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Here comes their first full kit,TZ-22.TZ-22 is a Russian heavy airfield refueler, and mainly used for refueling purpose for bombers or transporters such as Tu-22,Tu-160 or Il-76,etc.You can also find them from MiG-25 or MiG-31 aerobases. The multi-material kit here(72301a) contains original made resin cargo, tires, photo-etching parts and decal, together with E-Klass KrAZ-258 injection plastic kit, which is a civil use version of TZ-22 and shares some same parts.  There is also another version that does not include the E-Klass kit, and the catalogue number is 72301b.

The resin parts are cast in excellent condition, free of bubbles.  Also the fitting of resin parts are even better than some injection kits.  The resin tires are a great improvement compared with the plastic ones from the E-Klass kit.

Decal is nicely printed and includes lots of stencils and badges for the military use TZ-22.You have 4 choices for painting schemes,2 Ukrainian,1 UN,1 Russian.

This refueler has been asked to release for many years and finally, dream comes true.

It is a must have for any Soviet/Russian aircraft diorama built and will add the humanity feeling to your diorama a lot.

I was told by the owver, Mr.Taras  Karabyn, that more 1/72 Russian aircraft stuff is under construction, such as APA-5 Russian airfield starter,R-60 missiles with APU-60-2 pylon,R-40 missiles (in 3 types), exhaust nozzles for MiG-25,etc.

A new age for Soviet/Russian aircraft modelers is coming, pay attention to their homepage and sale website:

http://www.armory-rus.ru/

http://armory.in.ua/index.php

Highly recommended!

Yufei Mao

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Photos and text © by Yufei Mao