Friday, 11 July 2014

HobbyBoss 1/35 ZTZ-99B of the PLA

Good day to you Gentlemen.

I have here another kit that I have been working on for quite some time. With every new addition added to the log, this one get push further and further behind along with 2 other kits on the bench.. It was a struggling effort to finish this as I cannot resist the call of the new additions but I pulled through and finished it finally. 

The kit is very well detailed and has excellent mouldings of the details.  Very little cleanup is needed.  A PE fret is included for the engine vent screens. The add on armor packages and slat armor are extremely well done and simply need to be removed from the sprue and glued in place. There are many smaller bits that add detail to the kit, such as triangular lift handles, that are often left off of other kits. The main gun looks great out of the box.  There is minimal filling needed, and most of that is on the bottom of the barrel since the connection for the sleeve is at the top and means a bit of a visible seem is a good thing.  

A little informations that need to be known with this kit is that even though this is named 99B, it's actually a 99A1. There is no 99B in the world, only 99A1 which is the currently latest version used by the PLA while the 99A2 is undergoing trails and development.

As much as the kit is great, I couldn't resist getting the Voyager Upgrade kits for it. It did help with quite a bit with how the kit looks but there are a lot of stuffs on the upgrade kit that I didn't put on. In hindsight, I do regret spending money to buy the Voyager kit as the kit is great by itself.

The entire kit was painted with Mr.Hobby Aqueous as it was the most closest and best colours for the PLA vehicles. I painted the ZTD-05 with the same paints and I was happy so I just used Mr. Hobby Aqueous. 

The scheme is obviously the digital camo from the 60th Anniversary Parade but the turret number is my girlfriend's birthday, July 13, as she insisted that from now on, all the vehicle numbers are to be put on in this. ( I'm pretty sure you guys are aware what I have to go through .. hehe ). I was going to build it absolutely weather free but I didn't like how it looks so I put on small amount of dust effects on the wheels, tracks and lower part of the hull to depict a vehicle that is going back to the garage/base by the end of parade.

Last time when I built my ZTD-05, I cut my own patterns and it resulted in crooked and uneven lines. So this time, I look around and found pre-made masks from J's Works. I jumped at the chance and bought it ASAP and using it makes me a happier man. 


Well, that's about as much I can sum up about the build. 
I know it is not perfect but this is probably one of a very few kit that I am very happy with and is totally satisfied. I really loving how this came out.
It's time for the photos - 
(If you think some are small, just click on them )



The running gears -




 

Some close ups of the sights -

And the lights -

 
And as usual, my show case photos from various angles -








And as usual from me, the Gary Wintin Shot  -

Well, that's all I can say about this. As you all know, my patience is my bane so the usual hiccups are met but nothing I can complain. I could have done a better jobs on colouring the periscopes, some of the P.E works and also on some of the over- and under-sprays but at least it is presentable. All in all, this was a very enjoyable build apart from those hiccups but still, I am more than proud to have this on my shelf.


I couldn't keep building if not for my supporting friends and comrades. Thank you guys for always supporting me. Thank you dear readers for your patronage as well.

Until Next time.

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Thursday, 10 July 2014

A peek inside the box - Dragon 1/35 MBT-70

As a fan of novelty vehicle and unusual ones, when this was announced I couldn't resist but to get this. After a lot of searching I managed to find myself one at a good price and bought it on an impulse. 

Like the Terminator, I don't really see too many inbox looks so I will do just that.


I have only done a kit review and I don't have what it takes to review a kit. 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 okay box art of machine -




That box is wide and a typical 1/35 model box but open the kit and a bit of disappointment is found -
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And we are provided with a typical non-booklet type manual from Dragon along with some close up shots of the vehicle in the museum -
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I took pictures of the sprues but I didnt take them out of the bags yet as I will not be building this right now -I'm sorry as I forgot which sprue is which -First we have the hull and Underneath the hull is some bibs and bobs parts for it -
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Another sprue with the wheels and running gears on it -
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This one with the turret - 
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Underneath it is the sprue of parts for the turret - 
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And then we have the chassis and the track -
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The Tracks are provided in 4 DS-track, each side made up with 2 run. I really don't understand why do they have to do that. DS-tracks are ok but in a vehicle like this without any option of a side skirt, they should have put on just 1 long run each side. 
And then, the decal sheet, the clear parts and what appears to be Dragon putting a small sheet of error fixing on the manual -

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Quality wise, well, it's a Dragon quality but it appears to be less crispy than some of the Dragons I have built and a little bit soft on details. I will leave that final verdict for more experienced reviewers.
I didn't take anything out of the bag but I managed to take 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, viewers and 2 cm cannon mounting

The Cons of the kit: missing some details such as power cable to the searchlight and fittings on the turret and hull including two vital pieces of P.E-
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As you can see from the photo, the engine fans are covered by a mesh but there is nothing in the kit for that. Quite a bit of let down for a 2014 release from Dragon. 

I would have built it myself but I wanted the new Trumpeter JS-4 more than this ( and I may be infected with AMS as I didn't find the kit neither impressive nor appealing ) so I sold it. It should make a nice addition to any Cold War Armour fans.


Speaking of selling, let me direct you to a great trader - By the time of Tim Green based in the UK. He runs a FB group named Value Kits ( Click on the link and have a look around, web store is still being in the works so for now, he trades through FB and paypal. ) and he can and he will ship to anywhere around the world. He's a great guy and his prices are superb. If you guys are in the UK, you might want to join his FB group as he will shoot you with deals after deals. 

And if you guys want to get your hands on hit kit, shoot a massage to Tim as well. I don't know how much this will retail at but I bet you any money Tim will offer you a great deal....
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Monday, 7 July 2014

W.I.P - Trumpeter 2S19 Msta-S; Part 4

Right ... an update is long due on this ...so let's carry on - 

I spent three evenings and made up the tracks - 


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The tracks were a pain to clean but very lovely and beautifully casted.
I carried on the build by building all the storage boxes and parts for the left fender; Be very careful when you put on the little P.E belt buckles-


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Which goes on the fender like so -


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Boxes for the right fender -


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Which are glued onto the fender -


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Two short towing cables; the kit supplied a long brass wire so you have to cut them to size-


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Test fitting everything -


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And with that, everything except the side skirts are done -


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Due to the nature of the kit and parts break down, I had to paint the lower hull and wheels first before working on the tracks and gluing the fenders -


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Glued on the fenders after that and finally closed it up with the side skirts -


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And the last touch is to glue on those little blade looking thingy that we all see on T-72 hulls-


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And now. on to painting... primed and ready, I put on the first colour and masked them -


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5 days of studying the photos, painting one layer after another, fixing the damned thing and touching ups over spray and I got this -


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Still has alot of problems and many fixings need to be done...... why am I so attracted to this infernal scheme? LOL ... 
Until the next update
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