A peek inside the box - Trumpeter 1/35 JGSDF Type 87 AW

When this was announced, my interest in this peaked to its utmost level. I have great deal of love for JGSDF vehicles. And as you know, I am a fan of novelty vehicle and unusual ones so those all combined and I finally managed to find a nice deal on on ebay for this so got it, Finally.


Like most of the stuffs I have reviewed, I don't really see
too many inbox looks so I will do just that. 

As you all know, I'm one of the guys who don't give a damn about how a side skirt of a tank is 2mm too short or too long or blah blah. So, I will just keep this as a look of what is inside the box and some very obvious pros and cons of the kit.


First we have a rather beautiful photo ( instead of a box art ) on the box - 

That box is wide and a typical 1/35 model box and normal Trumpeter's boxes thickness.

And then we have the manual, the colour guide and the usual sheet of a catalogue page showing the new releases 

Here are the sprues of the entire kit -
Sprue A -

There are 4 of them which include the road wheels and some of the running gears AND the very numerous grab handles. 

Sprue B -

There are 2 of these sprues which include the sprocket, idler the gun barrels along with other parts.

Sprue C -

This include the back plate of the hull and some bibs and bobs along with the rear hull stowage basket. 

Sprue D -

This contain another two halves for the 2nd gun and some more parts ( which I still don't know where they go unless I build them )

Sprue E -

This sprue contains the track slack jig ( thank you Trumpy ) along with the gun hubs and other parts for the turret.

Sprue T-
a total of 17 sprues of these are provided -

The upper hull,

The two halves of the turret -

The lower hull along with some poly caps for the gun elevations and a pair of brass tubes -

And last but not least, the PE Fret, the decals and the clear parts -

Since I will surely be building this kit, I opened up the bags and took some close up pics of the parts quality -

The Pros of the kit: first styrene kit of this tank in this scale, numerous options for open/closed hatches, crisply moulded detailsl, relatively low parts count at 540+, clear parts for sights, relatively cheap kit at £29.99

The Cons of the kit: missing some details ( but these are minor ), a little bit soft details on some of the weld lines, no metal wire for tow cable, lacking informations on the decals call out, two-halves barrel on a very complicated looking gun 

If you are into unusual vehicles and a modeller who like to build non main-stream topics and subjects ( like me ) then this is one of the kit that you surely must have. Any fan of the SPAAG and/or JGSDF will enjoy this and is a must have. 

This will definitely be a great addition to any shelves and I can't wait to get cracking myself.