The AS90 is a new British self propelled gun in the same ball park as the M109 Palladin and German Panzerhaubitze 2000.  The Trumpeter model is the first of this vehicle in plastic, although Accurate Armour and Cromwell Models both offered excellent resin renditions.  The AS90 is one of Trumpeter's newer kits reflecting more attention to tooling, accuracy and uniqueness of subject matter.

The kit is molded in olive green plastic, with nicely detailed vinyl tracks, some nylon mesh for the turret basket lining, a large decal sheet, and some rather fuzzy string for the tow hawser.  

Assembly starts with the lower chassis, and is, unfortunately, rather tricky.  I encountered several problems right away, which were disappointing as this looked like a fun OOTB weekend project.

Trumpeter's plastic is wierd in this kit.  I have built many of their older and newer kits, and am familiar with the old ABS kits, styrene, etc.  Previously, ALL of their kits went together pretty easily with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, whether they were ABS, Styrene, or whatever.  This kit is more glue resistant.  Large quantities of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement and Tenax were needed to get a permanent bond.

Now as to the construction, the suspension is fairly complex in that each torsion bar must be mounted to a spring housing.  That makes 24 parts to keep aligned.  Fortunately fit is fairly precise without a lot of slop in the arms.

The return rollers were most problematic.  They are of two different styles and each roller assembly is three parts.  The AS90's hull sides slope and the kit instructions do not clearly show how to attach the mounts for the rollers so that 1) they will be at the proper height and 2) the proper angle.  You can figure this out, but it is not clear on the plans at all.  The "long" outer rollers that go in the middle on each side do not fit in the recessed sockets on the hull sides, so you must sand down the mounting brackets for these.  Oddly, the "short" inner brackets are too small for their holes, so there is a lot of slop around them. If you cement the rollers to the outer brackets you can't fit the tracks, either, so leave these wheels off until after painting.  The way the wheels attach is bizarre, too. Instead of a pin/socket in the middle of the back of the rollers, the roller wheels mount on offset square pegs that are not centered on the wheel back or bracket. Not very durable, either.  

The idler wheel mounts could be adjustable, so cement them after you have assembled the tracks for a trial fit.  The mounts themselves do not fit together cleanly, and there are mold pin marks marring the outside of the mounting brackets.  The tensioning arms for the idler mounts do not fit well, either.  It looks like their natural position should be straight and parallel to the hull side.  Instead they bend backwards behind the idler mounts at an odd angle.  The arms hit a molded rivet that, when cut away, makes them fit slightly better.

The kit sprockets and idlers go together okay.  The idlers and roadwheels are designed Tamiya style with poly caps inside to hold them on the axles.  The wheels do not fit snugly, and flop around a bit untill the tracks are attached. The roadwheels have seperate hub caps to be fitted.  For some reason the front and back roadwheels not only fit together with the usual flange around the poly cap, but also are keyed to a particular setting with a little pin.  The pin does not fit the hole in the other half of the wheel, so the halves do not fit together.  I cut the pins off and glued the halves without them, and with no trouble.

The kit tracks are well detailed, and the instructions show how to shorten the length.  I assume the tracks are used on another kit.  They fit good, and the adjustable idler makes it easy to make sure they are snug.

The kit's upper hull is well detailed, and the fit of the rather complicated rear door area is not bad.  The inside of the large rear door is well detailed, but there is no further floor or any other detail inside provided.  I glued the door closed, which is good as it hits some sort of assembly that goes above the door and would interfere if the door was open.  Quality of detailing varies a lot on the upper hull.  The rear tail lights are just round blobs, but the weld lines, spare track blocks, headlights, etc., are very, very well replicated.  I decided to leave the upper hull seperate from the chassis to facilitate painting because the fit is good.  I attached the small side skirts to the opper hull, and the rear door assembly to the chassis.  All of this fits good and can be permanently cemented after painting and installation of the tracks.  The small details on the hull generally fit well, but there is a lot of sloppy fit and aggrevating goofs on Trumpeter's part.  For instance, the driver's hatch has a to piece mount that attaches to the hull top, but the hole for the mount is larger than the parts that fit over it.  You can see into the hull around the hatch because of this.

The turret is composed of three large parts; top, bottom and rear.  The fit of the parts is not bad, although the corners of the rear panel do not match the shape of the groove on the top piece that the rear is to set into.  There are a ton of details to attach to the turret, and many do not fit well.  The stowage box on the back right corner is particularly ill fitting, but all of the boxes and assemblies take some care.  The anti-aircraft machinegun is particularly poor and should be left off or replaced.  That is the one part in the kit that is really just plain bad.  I had an FN Mag from an Israeli soldier set that is better than the kit gun.  A pole mounted training lamp is provided for the turret roof that is probably for training only and not fitted to combat tanks in the field.

Trumpeter provides both long and short barrel options.  The fit of the six piece barrel is pretty good.  Getting the three segments together straight is rather tricky, though.  The canvas recoil buffer bag looks rather unconvincing.  The gun mantlet has some of the worst fit on the whole kit.  Nearly everything from the roller mantlet, the side panels that trap it in place, the extended box on the front of the mantlet where the gun attaches - everything - does not fit well.  Some parts, like the roller part seem to be asymetrical or warped, as there is a twist that builds into the parts that is hard to describe.  

Overall the model looks very good.  I have no specific references on the AS90, so I can't judge the kit on the accuracy of smaller details.  Construction, on the other hand, is incredibly poor.  I have built several of the Trumpeter T-54/55 kits, their new Stalin 3, the Swedish S tank, and Chinese jeep.  All went together reasobably well, to having excellent assembly.  The AS90, on the other hand, was quite troublesome to build every step of the way.  I would not recommend the kit for beginners due to both the large number of parts and the poor fit.  If you really want an AS90 in your collection then the kit does look good when completed, if you get that far without being totally frustrated.