W.I.P - JGSDF Type 87 AW - Part 2

Update on this baby.....

Carrying on from where I left off, I decided to put everything on the hull minus the spare tracks and the on-board tools-

I started by putting on the handles for the many hatches on top of the hull. This is the left side - 

and this is the right -

rear part of the hull, left side -

You will also notice a fire extinguisher. Be careful when putting the little handle on that fire extinguisher. Very small and very fragile.

Rear hull, right side -

And then, I put on 14 .. ( yes 14 ) of these little grab handels on top of the big grilles -

On the very rear central of the engine deck, I had to put on very tiny little shackles. Be careful with these as well as these have flown off from my tweezers more than 3 times.

A quick glance on the kit reminded me that I still have yet to work on the front lights to I took them off, painted the inside steel and put on clear part on it and masked it with blue tac-

Now, I found a very very BIG BOO-BOO by Trumpeter.
If you look at this reference photo -

The bulb on the left is a infra-red night driving light which has its own cover. Now, the problem with this kit is, there is no clear part for it. As you can see from this photo -

As you can see, I have already glued on and masked the normal head light but there just isn't any clear part for the IR light. I decided to just put it on and I will use Deluxe Materials Glue and Glaze once all the painting have finished. If you guys are building this, you guys might need to figure out some way to correct this boo-boo by Trumpeter.

Another prominent downfall I have noticed is that the head light guards are very thick and out of scale. Trumpy should have ( or rather could have ) provided these in photoetch. But that is nothing a hobby knife and some file can't help -
I took a photo of a before and after -

and with that done, I just put on the P.E for the roof guard of the lights. Great care must be taken when putting this P.E on and make sure they align properly. I messed up and it came out not aligned. OH well..

And with that, I can proceed happily now that all the parts are attached on the top of the hull ( minus the tools of course ).

With that in mind, I turned my attention toward the back plate, put on everything I need to put on -

and that goes on along with the rear storage basket -

 
That's that for the front of the hull, the top of the hull. More pieces need to go on the rear which will come later.
I decided to go for the turret -
First, I had to fill in these two little parts into the slots -

Again, exercise care when putting these on as it tends to leave a very noticeable seam. 
I put on the upper and lower halves along with the front hatch and the back plate of the turret -

After that, I decided to put on the many little sights infront of the turret hatch and I had trouble with these two little pats -

Exercise great care as these little parts are nearly ant size and will fly off easily. 

Thus, the turret look like this after the sights have gone up -

And this is how this baby looks as of now -

I just love how it look ... lovely little thing don't you think ?

Well, until the next update...... have a good day.

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W.I.P - JGSDF Type 87 AW - Part 1

Right .. I have got this for a long time but I couldn't bring myself to start building this as this kept being pushed behind and behind under new additions. Dr. Turner suggested a build-off of a same armed forces, whether same or different vehicles, and I jumped at the chance to build it.

I will be using a 2012 release of a JGSDF Type-87 anti-aircraft. It's quite a beautiful vehicle and has quite a bit of a sci-fi look to it.
I will not be posting sprue-shots on this thread as I have already reviewed this kit on a earlier time - http://modeller-innovation.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-peek-inside-box-trumpeter-135-jgsdf.html
But just for the sake for it, here's the box .. :P -

Just like everything, it starts from the running gears -

I put on the little towing hooks on the front lower hull - 

And this is the back - 

This is very strange of me but I went ahead and build the wheels -

It's so sad that Trumpeter didn't put on on separate rubber tires like the T-62 or the Type-99. Oh well.

Next, I deviated from the manual and started putting on stuffs randomly. Started by putting on the tow cables and these two little things I pointed with the red lines -

I started putting on some of the many meshes that comes with the kit. These two are located in the front - 

Decided to close the driver hatch after that -

While closing the driver hatch, it strikes me to paint the driver vision blocks before hand. I looked at some references but I couldn't make head or tail of the colour so I just went ahead and sprayed on some clear green on all of them -

Put on some of the meshes on the back - 

If any of you guys are building this ( this include you Dr. Gaving Turner :P ), becareful when you put on the two square meshes as you can end up gluing them facing them the wrong way. I suggest gluing on the rectangular one in the far back ( P.E 7) first so that you can coordinate the mesh's directions.
More Etches to follow up - 

Last of the etches to go on the engine grilles- 

If you guys are building this, very very gentle with these meshes parts. They are very thin and will bend out of shape very easily. 
Next , I built these little boxes - 

which goes on the back hull -

Coming up next is a rather tedious job. After inspection, the next step requires gluing on little grab handles directly onto the hull without any locating holes. I have applied the similar type of handles on my Type 99 and no amount of glue can make them stay on; they will keep flying off with just a small bit of force. Therefore, learning from my old experiences, I drilled out little dents so that the grab handles will have something to sink into and the glue something to bite -

with these drilled out, the little grab handles stay on quite secured -

and I followed up that by putting on the the handles on the hatches on the front of the hull-

Finally, I put on the vision blocks I painted earlier with masking tapes glued on along with the two little protruding parts in front of it -

And this is how it now looks at the end of this update - 

Stay tuned for more..... 

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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. 

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