JGSDF Type 87 AW

[virtue66]

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 infront of it -

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

Stay tuned for more.....

 

[colin m]

You have plenty of detail here, all ripe for highlighting later. Should look good.

 

[dubster72]

That looks an interesting kit Gary. I came up with the same solution for the

grab handles on my SU 152 - it must be a Trumpeter thing!

 

[papa 695]

A very nice start gary I will watch this one unfold

 

[Polux]

Excellent start Gary!! Will be a very interesting thread

 

[virtue66]

That looks an interesting kit Gary. I came up with the same solution for thegrab handles on my SU 152 - it must be a Trumpeter thing!

Really? I thought it was only on a few kits... It's kind of annoying isn't it ?? ... oh well..

 

[virtue66]

Thanks for the enthusiasm guys ... happy to see such ...

 

[Alan 45]

Great start and I now see how the pe can make a difference to a tank build

 

[virtue66]

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 blub 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 -

 

[virtue66]

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.

 

[virtue66]

Alright... update has been long due for this one.. I do apologize as I have been busy lately ...

This was the sate of the vehicle I left off -

So carrying forward from that, I put on whatever I need to put on on the turret.

I started with the sides, this is the left -

and this is the right -

All the little parts I had to put on are shown with the red lines.

With the sides done, I moved to the back. The kit comes with option for plastic or etch for these steps so I decided to use the etch for the great details they provide -

I then put on these three little parts in preparation for the complicated build up of the radar equipments -

I followed that up with the main hatch -

The min hatch comes quite detailed with some interior details and a hatch handle inside and outside. The downside, however, is that the hatch can only be open to a maxim of this -

I thought of putting in some figures but since the hatch can't swing all the way to the back, I'm not gonna bother.

With that done, I decided to work on the 2nd most tedious build of this kit ( after the radar ).

I started with this round slab base thingy that the gun and the gun base sits on-

If you are building this kit, be very mindful when you glue this two parts together. The little edges which I have shown with the lines should sit nice and tight like in the photo. There is a tendency for either end to pop out and result in a boo-boo set up. I had to try for 4 times until I finally get it right.

Next, I built the housing ( let's just call it that for convenience's sake ) for the gun breech and ammo feed. It went up quite quickly and simply but I realize it need a bit of filling and cleaning -

IF you are building this, be very mindful of the attachment points, gaps and seam lines I have shown.

After that, I put on the little bibs-and-bobs details on the housing. These are very small pieces so be very carefully as they will ( and had, in my case ) fly off the tweezers.

Followed up by gluing the two halves of the gun barrel. The gun barrels are too flimsy so be very careful when taking off the sprues -

The two halves joined -

and apparently, when glued to the housing, it seems to be bent -

I did my best to softly bend it the other way by heating it up getting it near a warm light bulb and used a very little amount of force.

After that, I put on ten little hooks which put so much of a strain on my eyes -

And this is how the whole gun assembly looks. All that left is to put the housing into the turret and glue it on.

Right. here comes the tricky part; installing the guns into the turret.

If you look at the photo -

the little extruding part that you see on the slope is on the way of a direct insertion of the large round base of the gun housing so it has to be installed in a certain way. The bottom part of the round base has to be facing the front just like I have shown in the photo. If you just randomly put in the round base, you risk the chance of breaking the little extruding parts.

You then bring the bottom surface of the gun base back down like so -

Thus, I have avoided a situation where I will end up with a broken detail. Had I knew this beforehand, I would have put on the little details only after I put on the gun bases. ( Talk about people only caring for WW2 stuffs and other mainstream modern AFVs and doing only build reviews on such kits and completely ignoring this kind of vehicles :/ ) And I'm sure you guys have noticed that I haven't put on the gun housing on the base.I find it the most easiest to do so by not having the guns housing over these bases.

After putting on the other side of the base and gluing the attachment point in the middle, I put on the gun housing on the bases.

The gun housings needed a lot of care when gluing or you risk gluing on mis-matched angles of the guns -

Make sure the two guns are level and at the same angle. They elevate and depress at the same angle so they have to be levelled.

With that done, this is how it looks now.

Totally in love with this baby. It looks like a love-child between a mecha and a tank. LOVE IT.

 

[dubster72]

That's a very detailed build Gary, with lots of excellent information.

Once it's done, how about editing out the comments & posting it up as a build review? I agree there's not enough info around on modern AFVs.

Cheers

Patrick

 

[virtue66]

Alright... An update is long due on this baby.

I do apologize .. I have been uber busy with my paper ...

This was the sate of the vehicle I left off -

With the guns finished, I moved on the last remaining complicated build up of the kit- The rader apparatus

I started off with the pistons -

Followed that with the radar arch which is made up of more than 3 sub-assemblies -

Followed that with the very very fragile hydraulic rods for the piston along with some kind of boxes next to the radar arch -

The whole assembles were then set up like so taking very care so as not to break the fragile hydraulic rods. Sadly, I did broke one of them as it was a very snug and tight fit at the piston opening. I greatly recommend drilling the opening to make more room.

The arch is made to be workable but as I have already broke the rod, I chose not to move it any more.

After that, I made the radar parts ( there are two of them )

Which goes on the arch and infront of it -

Both radar remain fully movable -

After that, I decided to put on the SGLs. The kit comes with an option of late and early type. I chose to go for the early type as these looks much cooler and not to mention, I have only seen photos that these SGLs with the kit-supplied tracks.

While building these, I noticed a mistake in Trumpeter's instructions.

As you can see from the photo -

The parts are on the wrong side. The left shown in the manual is actually for the right and vice versa.

After that, I build the rear mud flaps along with the rear lights -

And finally, I finished all parts that need to be built with the storage bins on the rear hull -

So now, it's time to prime. I ran out of Halford primer so I used the Vallejo Black Primer. As much as I love Halford primer and that vallejo primer being so much of a PITA to spray ( as it dries so quickly inside the nozzle), it is quite resilient and gives a very nice coat.

With that done, I built the tracks. I have build so many tracks from Trumpeter and I know they are not that good, especially with the clean up, but this one just take the piss out of me..... grrr... but I soldiered on and got these -

Once I make sure the glue on the tracks are set and it is safe to take it off again from the wheels, I did exactly that and painted and weather them.

 

[virtue66]

Painted that with AMMO dark track, washed with Flory Models sand wash, another wash with thinned down AK track wash and finally dry brushed with VMA steel. I still haven't applied any pigments yet.

With that done, I moved on to the vehicle itself.

The vehicle is supposed to be with a hard edge scheme but as I am just so lazy and can't be bothered with masking, I thinned down the paint and drew the outline carefully, trying so hard not to give any feathering. It's not perfect but it works and won't be too obvious unless close up.

And that's that for this update. Next, I will be putting on decals, pin-wash and what-have-you. I still don't know how I should weather it though. I can't decide if I should go for summer themed weather or autumn (wet ground and rainy season) themed weathering.... Decision Decisions ..

Until the next update ....

Catch you all later.

 

[virtue66]

Right.. Time to update this baby. It has been too long. I was busy with my dissertations.

Last time, I left off here, with the whole vehicle painted -

With that done, I gave it like 3 coats of Vallejo Gloss Varnish and started working on the pin wash.

After that, it was time for the decals -

The number 21 is not shown in the instruction but I loved the number and loved the font so I took a little artistic license here.

More decals -

Now comes the fun part, weathering. I didn't know which kind of scheme should I go for but after some time, I decided to show a vehicle in a autumn seasons of Japan... a bit of rain yet dry and dusty. Hence, I have to start with the rain marks-

 

[virtue66]

Next, I used Tamiya Diormama texture paint on the sides of the lower hull for collected earth-

Followed with dried muds on the wheels -

I noticed the hull sides earth look more moist and wet then the wheels but I kinda like it. Since it is on the inside, I assume some amount of moisture would be trapped thus keeping those earth wet unlike the dried mud on the wheels.

Happy with that, I put on on the little small touch ups such as the lights, sights and the tools and finally topped it off with a layer of dust which was applied in a wash made from thinned down oil paint; Naples yellow.

And this is it. I still have some touch ups to do but this is basically done and I will unveil the finished product in a day or two.

This has been a very enjoyable build.