Hello to all a new assembly with a Chinese model ZTZ96A HobbyBoss, it is a model of good quality on all aspects. The packaging is very correct, there is nothing wrong. It's a montage from on the box, the only complaint I would make is the lack of figurine, which is a plus with the armor.

Hi,
I've built the early version of this tank and I was satisfied enough.
Unfortunately nearly all Chinese kits lack of crew. I suggest to buy the box of PLA tankers of Meng.
For the building of my ZTZ96 I had some minor difficulties:
-the piping of the rear cylindric tanks can't be glued, so it is good to provide long pins, eventually drilling the pieces to fit them;
-the details of the inner face of the hatches are somewhat flat;
- the protections of the lights are difficult to fit, and the lenses are not trasparent;
- the side skirts are too regular, one can thin them and make them a bit undulated as visible on photos of the real thing;
- the alignment of the sprocket, road wheels and return roller has to be checked and eventually a bit corrected, because link-to-link tracks are unforgiving, in general.

Apart for those minor things, I was satisfied with the model, and I bought two more boxes for a low price: a ZTZ-96A as that reviewed here, and another with the idea of making a kitbashing to obtain a ZTZ-88.

hi and thank you for this information that will be useful to all! for my part it's a normal box assembly except that I redone the taillights resin and headlights and a pixel paint.
I start with the easiest way with the preparation of the caterpillars

Tuned in and watching. Teh PLA subjects from HobbyBoss are interesting, except the camo, which I personnaly do not like.

Thanks fro the heads up Massimo.

I buy the model only to make a pixilated painting, the wheels are very well thought and detailed

a tip: mark your wheels to differentiate them during assembly

Hi, about the pixel camouflage, I suggest to check on photos to see if the road wheels are of the same type.
Late production type 96s have lightened wheels with oval holes, as on the kit of Meng.

the wheels of this model are full and not perforated. The first difficulty is the mounting of arms hanging due to a multitude of parts

Hi later with mounting the turret, Hobbyboss to think about engraving the number

This one is very detailed, modern.


Primer and paint are put

Nice clean work!!!

and thank
Tracks do not pose a problem in the assembly, the skirts are just installed without glued

The box is primed and painted black


the kit having no clear lights I decided to make them, they are not sticking because of the upcoming painting


The lights are in resin

I modified the cables because the one supplied in the box is too thick

At the level of the painting I tested two methods to make the pixel,the first

and the second

personally I prefer the first but the second requires a lot of editing because I did not protect and the disadvantage stencil is metallic.
What forced me to do the touch ups with a brush.

Resin fires are installed

The continuation with a finished painting but I invite you to read the assembly of the diorama on:
https://sampieromodels.blogspot.com/2018/09/type-96a.html

Hi,
the overall effect is very impressive. It is a beautiful model and base. I like the trasparent lights too.
About the masking: I've made a similar work on a ZTZ-99 of HB.
I started cutting the shapes on size, put them over areas made light green by airbrush, and masked.
Then the brown, and masked it again without removing previous masks.
Then the black-green, and mask.
Then, I sprayed all the medium green background and, at the end, I removed all the masks.
Some correction was necessary, always by mask and air brush.
I've seen that it is easier to put a big piece of masking tape on a cutting plate, make long vertical and horizontal cuts to obtain a lot of assorted squares or rectangles, and then put them on the surface to mask, creating the shapes by a partial overposition of the squares.
It is less accurate in size than cutting masks to shape, but the risk of oblique contours is lower.

thank you for the information, I would try this method on an old model because I have the project to do another and I must find the least restrictive method if we can say! Only the result counts.

I agree with all of the above. That is the method I used on my Meng egg tank version of this. The metal stencil looks faster, but more difficult to use. The lights do look great, and overall the result looks good.