Bronco

1/35 Chinese PLA ZTZ-99A1 MBT

Kit Number: CB-35040

Reviewed by  Joachim Lotz, IPMS# 44170

MSRP: $69.98 Website: Bronco Models Review sample provided by Stevens International: www.stevenshobby.com . History Considered one of the best tanks in the world right now, The ZTZ-99 (a.k.a. Type 99) is the latest tank in the arsenal of the Chinese PLA. The ZTZ-99 is the successor to the Type 99, and based on that model. The tank is equipped with a Chinese 125mm gun with autoloader and the Chinese version of the Dshk machine gun. The engine is based on that of the German Leopard 2, with an output of 1500hp. The crew numbers 3. Nothing is known about its actual armor protection, but it is suggested that it is either ERA or composite blocks. Other equipment includes IFF, Laser Suppression System, GPS, modern communications and multiple workstations. The combat weight is around 57 tons. Due to their high cost, it is not expected that the PLA will put many ZTZ-99 into service. The Kit The kit comes in a large box with a nice box art showing a ZTZ-99. The box contains 14 tan colored sprues with approximately 1000 very nicely detailed parts of which over 650 are just for the workable tracks (more about the tracks later), 2 PE frets, a piece of string, a sprue with clear parts, and a decal sheet for 2 different vehicles. The assembly instructions are in booklet form and include 19 assembly steps and a paint chart with paint call-outs for Gunze Sangyo, Hobby Color, Humbrol and Tamiya. The painting guide is in color and shows the tank from four sides but no overhead view, which leaves the painting of the upper surfaces up to guesswork if you don't have any reference pictures. The Build The assembly starts, as usual for most armor kits, with the suspension on the lower hull. This is covered in the first 3 steps. The fit of the parts was very good with hardly any mold lines and no visible ejector marks. The suspension is designed to be workable on no. 3, 4 and 5 torsion bars on each side. But since the torsion bars are very thin in diameter I opted for gluing those in place. It just appeared a tad too flimsy for me. Step 4 just covers the attachment of the engine deck and upper part of the hull to the lower hull. Again, the fit was very good. The next 3 steps show the assembly of all the components for the upper hull. This included the engine access doors, drivers hatch, frontal added armor, tow hooks, PE engine grills, clear vision blocks for the driver and head lights. The vision blocks are very small and need to be masked off. I used Walthers' Magical Masker liquid mask for those. It was in step 8 that I faced my first challenge.-the assembly and attachment of the tow cables. What an exercise it was. The tow cables are attached to the rear hull plate with several very small brackets First of all, the provided thread is far to thick. I replaced it with thinner kite string which was still a hair too thick. I started out with cutting the string about an inch longer than I needed, and dipped one end of each string in thin super glue. Then I attached all brackets, except the very last one, for the tow cables. My next step was shortening the hardened part of each tow cable enough to glue those into the tow rings. Then I dipped the other end of the string into super glue and let that set. When the glue had set I shortened the string to the right length. After that I attached each cable to a tow hook and glued the hook in place as well the parts from sub step 3. I let everything sit over night to cure. Then came the interesting part. Each string had to be threaded through the small brackets as well as the other tow hook. Both cables have to go through the bottom center bracket and the kit supplied string would have never fit because of its thickness. After each cable was threaded, I glued the second tow ring to each cable and attached it to the hull with the remaining bracket. The instruction show a schematic of how the tow cables are running and are of great help, but it still is a fiddly undertaking. The external fuel barrels were next. The fit on the barrels wasn't quite as good as the other parts and required some filler. Also, the PE parts that are representing the straps for the barrels weren't anything like as shown in the instructions. The instructions showed the straps having two little ears on each end that need to be bent so they can be attached to the holding brackets of the barrels, but the straps on the fret were plain straight. So I just glued them around the barrels. Next in line were the fenders. I assembled these, but left them off until after the tracks were installed. I also left all the wheels off until I was ready to install the tracks. I also left all the clear parts for the lights off until the end because they are very small (about 1mm diameter). The last few steps covered everything concerning the turret. Again the fir was exceptional for most parts. The only problem encountered here were the holes for the vision blocks. They appeared a little to small for me and I opened them up a little. I was especially impressed with the fit of the 2 halves for the main gun barrel. I did not need any filler at all. The external machine gun is a little kit in itself with 16 parts. I keep the biggest challenge for last - the tracks. The tracks itself accounted for 656 of the total parts in the kit. I probably spent a good 8 hours total on the tracks, with most the time dedicated to cleaning all the little sprue attachment points. Some of the track pieces had up to four attachment points that needed cleaning. But a word of caution: the parts for the tracks are very fragile and you need to be very careful when cleaning. I broke one part but I could still use it. There are only enough spare parts left over for 2 links on each side. That does not leave much room for error. I can highly recommend making a jig for the tracks. None is supplied in the kit and it helps a lot in the assembly process. I made mine from balsa wood. Even though the assembly of the tracks is tedious overall, they are very well engineered and go together almost like the real thing. The way I assembled them was that I started with a guide horn part that I placed on the jig with the guide horn down. Then I placed 2 link connectors on the guide horn part. And then I placed the rubber pads on top of it. Do not use liquid cement since it will likely make the tracks unworkable. I placed a little drop of Testors Black bottle cement in each locating hole of the rubber pads and then placed them onto the guide horn part. I was surprised that the tracks actually do work. The instructions call out for a total of 82 links per side which surprisingly is the correct number. I assembled the tracks completely and then painted them with Tamiya Earth, along with NATO Black for the rubber parts. I then weathered them with Bragdon powder rust. I painted the lower hull and wheels before I attached the tracks to the model. I have to say that the tracks fit snugly, and I am really impressed the way they came out. I am sure this won't be the last time that I use workable tracks from Bronco, considering the price of about $18. Finish After everything was assembled the painting started. The instructions give you the choice of two paint schemes. One shows a tank in 3-color camo that participated in a Sino-Russian joint anti terror exercise, and the other shows a tank in a 4-color digital camo for the 60th anniversary parade of Communist China. I choose the former. After masking off the running gear, I painted the whole tank in a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-59 and XF-2. Then I used Silly Putty to mask of the areas that stay sand color and painted Tamiya XF-5 Flat Green, which was the closest I could find matching the color called out in the instructions. After adding more Silly Putty I sprayed the last color, Tamiya XF- 61. I have to admit that after checking some reference picture that the colors look pretty close to the real thing. Next I sprayed a coat of Future and added the decals, which are very nicely printed. I little bit of SolvaSet to help the decals to settle down. I then applied a light oil wash and finished with Testors Acrylic Flat. I kept this model fairly clean, based on the pictures I found on the internet. Conclusion Despite the few little problems with the wrong PE parts for the fuel barrels and the fit of the vision blocks, this is a very detailed and well engineered kit. I was really surprised that the tracks actually do work even though they require some time and patience to put together. I can only recommend this kit to every armor modeler. It is a model of a unique tank that even hard core WW2 modelers might enjoy. I would like to thank Stevens International for the review kit.