Gary and Gav build JGSDF stuff!! Type 90 & Type 87

[Gav0909]

So this is hopefully going to be quite a quick build. I have kind of stalled on my D-Day entry, and while I made some good progress with my F-15E recently, the decals in the kit suck, so I am at a crossroads with that as well on how to continue.

A while back, Gary Wintin sent me, very kindly, a Tamiya JGSDF Type 90 MBT kit. And it sat in its box for a while due to other projects. Now he then suggested recently that we do a small JGSDF Buddy Build as I now also have the Type 87 SPAAG, and Type 96 WAPC kits from Trumpeter. So this is my contribution and I will let Gary know about this thread and he can post his progress of his kit here too.

My progress so far.






I didn't get any more pics of the hull build as it built up nice and quick that I forgot! Will take more pics as this build progresses. I will be adding the mine roller to my kit as well, some nice added complexity.

Cheers

[Gav0909]

Another update from me. I love days off now that I have no PhD thesis to worry about!

I made some really good progress yesterday on the Type 90. Mainly I worked on the mine roller assembly, but this is a kit in itself!

First I had to make the upper couplers, these still move.



Then the lower couplers, there are 4 in total, and these also have a moveable part.


All attached to the front of the hull



I then made up the two rollers themselves. The roller discs still move around the axle.


Then it was on to the arms. There are two of these, right and left.


Test fitted on the hull for fun.




Then came the nightmare bit. I had to attach 4 lengths of chain (included in the kit) to each of the roller arms. These then needed to be connected to four points on each roller "bogie". I then had to cut 3 lengths of chain which get strung between the two arms, 3 lengths as there are two plastic connectors in that length.

I soon found that putting a loop of wire through the kit part and the chain and putting the two ends into my pin vice to twist was the quickest, and most secure way of doing this. So pretty soon I had this....


Then I had a boo boo. There is a steel cable line which connects the top of the arm to the tank hull, and the cable is a plastic kit part. And whilst I was fiddling with the chain on one bit, I snapped the cable in two. Now its too thin to glue back together. So I cut it out and replaced it with some twisted up picture wire. I then decided I liked this better so I did the other one too.



This is the result up til this point.




Then I attached the connecting chain




In the last pic you can see the "prongs" on the front. These are magnetic force emitting probes apparently. I guess to block any wireless controlled devices. The addition of some grab handles completed this part.

I later on got the gun assembled and tried something new for the periscope vision ports. The kit asks you to cut lengths of clear sheet styrene (why can't Tamiya provide clear injection moulded parts like everyone else!). But I tried Micro Crystal Clear for the first time. This worked well, so I took it out, mixed the MCC with Tamiya Clear Red and that is currently drying on the desk. Pics later once dry.

Today's work will be more work on the turret.

Cheers for looking. Gary will be starting his Type 87 soon.

[FishBowlMan]

Great work with the mine rollers, Gav. Looks like some fiddly work there.

[garywintin]

Happy to see you having fun with this Dr. Turner....

and lovely work on the cables... I wouldn't be able to get it right ... sweet work u got there

[garywintin]

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 ... jgsdf.html

But just for the sake for it, here's the box .. -


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 ), 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.....

[Gav0909]

Looking good Gary. Cheers for the heads up on the mesh and the grab handles. Note taken!

[garywintin]

Looking good Gary. Cheers for the heads up on the mesh and the grab handles. Note taken!

haha.. no need for thanks my brother

[garywintin]

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 -


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.

[UKguyInUSA]

That looks quite the undertaking with lots of fiddly bits to make great details! Looking the part now...will enjoy seeing this with some color and weathering on

[Gav0909]

Coming on great Gary. I got some primer on the 90 hull today. Just the turret and mine roller to prime now

Did you get those bits in the post yet? Just wondering if I should wait for them before I prime the turret?

Looking good though! Can't wait to get on with mine.

In fact I just remembered that I took pics of the rest of the 90 build!









The skirts and mud flaps will be added later as the tracks will be done separately but won't go on if the skirts are on.


Cheers

[Gav0909]

So here are a few last pics before paint.

Gary very kindly sent me the reloading crew and parts for the Type 90. I just thought they would add a little life to the model.

This is them all built up.


And then I primed the rest of the model and parts. Although I did forget to do the tracks, I will do them black in a minute.



That's it for now. Cheers

[MarkVerploeg]

Dang the two of you don't mess around
Great work guys

[Gav0909]

Cheers Mark.

So I got some colour down on this the other night during a Hangout.

Basecoated with a 2:1 mix of Tamiya XF-61 and XF-73.


Camo masked with Blu-Tack and painted with Tamiya XF-72




Mine roller should be camo as well, but I cba fiddling about with that so will just leave it in the green.

I had to strip and repaint the side skirts as I got the green mix wrong when I went to tidy up some brown overspray and it looked all wrong.

Cheers

[Schoof]

Wow you're going fast ! And gav. .... you having your crew do Yoga ??

[AchtungPanzer]

Wow - Sehr schnell . Very good work

[garywintin]

I LOVE that colour ... looks more closer than your Type 99 ( which looked way off ... hahaha ) ... I am waiting to see those ammo rack installed

[Gav0909]

So here is where I am now up too.

Crew figs painted using a sponge to get the camo scheme.






Tank after a gloss coat, decals, pin wash, flat coat, brown filter. Next is some subtle chipping and scratching, then some dust effects around the running gear and done. Then I just need to finish the mine roller.








Cheers. Comments are most welcome. !

[Paul]

Nice work dudes, liking that might have to pick up a few of these

[garywintin]

Superb Works Gav... just Superb... those uniform looks simply amazing

[garywintin]

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.

[MarkVerploeg]

Nice work Gary
It looks like a mean machine

[UKguyInUSA]

Great work guys, so far!

[Gav0909]

I got my 90 finished up the other day, pics are in the Land Gallery and a video will be up on YT sometime soon.

I am not sure what I will do next, I only have 2 JGSDF kits in the stash just now, and one I will keep until the wheeled AFV GB, the other is the Type 87 Gary is building just now.

But I feel the need to build some more artillery next I think.

[garywintin]

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.

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.

[robertw]

Great looking build. Might have to get me one when I get the funds.

[garywintin]

Great looking build. Might have to get me one when I get the funds.

You should... It's not that expensive and you get a really lovely kit for such a good price

[AchtungPanzer]

Looks very, very well - I am looking forward to weathering

[UKguyInUSA]

Wow...she came along quickly since I last checked in on this build! Looking great so far

[garywintin]

Thanks guys ... It's finished but I need to make an update which I will do so later on ...

[garywintin]

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-








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.

[robertw]

Looks excellent!

Once I get some pocket money I think I'm going to go on a JGSDF shopping spree!

[garywintin]

Looks excellent!

Once I get some pocket money I think I'm going to go on a JGSDF shopping spree!

oh you really should go for some JGSDF armours.. they are GREAT '' insert Tony the tiger voice here ''

[Gav0909]

Looks cracking Gary! I can't wait to get mine under way in the future.