Introduction

As this is not a review of the Type 87 itself, I’ll only briefly touch on the vehicle. A review of the Trumpeter kit by Terry Ashley can be found on PMMS.
The Type 87 is a 6 wheeled reconnaissance vehicle, with a roof mounted two man turret housing a 25 mm main gun and 7.62 co-ax mg.
The driver and radio operator make up the rest of the four man crew.
The Trumpeter kit goes together reasonably well, but as always many small detail parts are molded out of scale and this kit benefits greatly from the added detail provided by this Photo-etch set.

What's in the bag?

The set consists of two frets of Photo-Etch and four pages of instructions.
The fragile frets are sandwiched between two pieces of thick card, which ensures their save arrival on your modelling desk. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, thanks to Eduard’s use of colour coding to indicate which parts are to be removed, and where the new parts are fitted.
The frets are very clean, and the parts are attached with such slight nibs that a hobby knife is all that’s needed to separate them. The set contains parts to replace all the poorly, solid molded hatch handles, as well as new tool clamps. The one (well, two really) item missing from the Eduard set are the two small front mudguards. These are however provided as part of the Trumpeter Photo-etch, as are the small side reflectors. These are the only items you will use from the Trumpeter Photo-etch fret.

Detail

As already stated, much details, such as the hatch handles and tie down bars on the turret sides, are poorly molded. The replacement parts are a great improvement as can be seen in the comparison photo’s. The replacements for the jerry can racks are a particularly nice, and necessary, improvement as the Trumpeter racks are very poor. They are fiddly to construct, but the difference between the solid molded tie down bars and the wire replacements is evident. The sets instructions call for 8mm (which is to thin) plastic rod to be used for these bars, but I used approx. 12mm thick gitar string. Another worthwhile replacement are the small tie down hooks all over the vehicle. They are a massive improvement over the tiny raised nibs which are supposed to represent these hooks on the kit.
The Trumpeter headlight covers are not bad, but the Eduard replacements are crisper, as are the mud flaps which go at the back. Trumpeter does not provide any detail inside the Gunners sight housing or the Commanders periscope, so the Eduard parts for these are most welcome. Particularly the gunners sight window, which includes a basic but sufficient screenwiper.

Conclusion

This is a Photo-etch set which greatly improves the Trumpeter kit, and in my opinion the poor tie-downs make it worth the purchase and fiddly construction alone. The material is easy to work with, but strong enough to withstand a fair bit of manipulation.
Highly recommended.

related reviews

Type 87 review by Terry Ashley on PMMS


Thanks to Eduard for this review sample