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This set is designed for Trumpeter’s kit and does a great job of reproducing all the upper armor panels in an ‘in scale’ medium. Other notable details are the replacement exhaust grills and interior structural bits. Some items replicate a working hinge for the driver’s visor and rear fighting compartment hatches. They do require a bit of sprue, which can be cut from the included ABS rod.
The kit’s gun mount is also replaced with an etched assembly. For my model, the handles, strap bases, and camouflage loops that are included in the set will be replaced with wire that is more appropriate.
The four frets are of different thicknesses according to their use. The brass was easy to use and I lightly sanded each side to add some tooth for the adhesives and paint. It is up to the modeler to reproduce the missing weld seams on the outside of the bends. This is also missing on the plastic parts that are to be replaced.
The instructions are printed on two sides of an A4 sheet with a legend to explain some of the actions and can get confusing. In particular, one of the replacement exhaust parts did not appear on a fret until I realized that I was looking at two parts, A9 & A19, which overlapped on the instruction sheet.
I soldered the upper armor pieces using the Cold Heat iron. For the weld seams, I will use epoxy putty.
This set is labeled part one so I am sure another set will follow. Thanks to Julian Dace, we are now aware that the upper armor for the 75mm armed version is quite different. I have taken the liberty to inform Voyager Models so I hope a set rectifying the kit errors will be produced.
I am now wondering what the second part will include. Since I did not have the correct version of the Trumpeter kit (only the 75mm armed kit was available to me), I have decided to use a leftover Aires 10,5cm gun to complete the conversion. This is not a loss since the kit was shelved when AFV Club released their gun.
This set is highly recommended, as the scale effect achieved by this medium is quite noticeable.
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