I was able to make a proper start on the AS90 at the start of the week. After getting the larger parts of the kit together, most of the build has been adding the AM. Most of the kit has found its way into the spares box.
I'l start off with an update, and then i'll do a mini review of the kit and AM.
Starting with the hull, this involved adding resin and PE parts to the front.
Note one of thge light guards is mising. This seems to have gone AWOL so i am going to attempt to scratchbuild a replacment from styrene rod.
And a few bits of PE on the back.
And more resin parts on the turret. Also removed the 3 molded on ammo box frames.
And then just carried on flitting between hul and turret.
This has gone together a lot faster than i thought it would. The kit on its own could quite easily be built up in a few days. I only have a couple more days work before it will be ready for primer. This will be helped by the fact that all the hatches will be shut. The AM hatches all have some very nice detail on the insides and it comes with 2 stacks of shells to place inside the back door. But the rest of the interiour is absent, so it will be very apparent there is nothing in there unless you want to scratchbuild it. And goosd luck with that.
I had planned on leaving the re-door slightly ajar, but thyen i notice while it has mouting brackets, several items are not include, one of which is the most important bit of kit carried by any British armoured vehcile.
The kettle.
I was not going to embarrass myself by having the back door open and the BV missing, so i will have it shut.
So, now my impression of the kit and the AM.
Accurate Armour call this a badly designed kit. I would say thats a tad exaggeration. It certainly is not baxdly designed. It fits together very well and all the parts are there. Sure, detail is not Dragon standard, but then neither is the price. My only previous experiance of Trump kits is the E-100 Jagd and i said at the time it reminded me of Italeri. So does this, or maybe older Tamiya. For a 15 year old kit costing around £20, its good value and certainly not the worst kit in the world.
As far as accuracy goes, for those whom it bothers, there are a few issues, but not many. yes, one of these is a bit one, the gun barrel.
But an easy fix with an RB barrel.
Another exmple is the gun travel lock, which as i mentioned is the one for the 52 Cal gun, but easy to modify.
But theres no issues that can't be solved by some minor surgery or a much smaller outlay. Such as the driver periscope. This is positioned to far forward, as can be seen by the filed in holes.
Of course, this can be done with the kit part.
As for the AA resin set, yes, it does correct the issues. But for the most part it does what most resin sets do. It give you parts that have nice detail than what plastic parts give you, especially of this age.
A couple of examples.
And the AA instructions are not the most helpful. All the parts have numbers on the casting blocks, but these numbers are not all on the instructions. many parts you have to match the part with the image. And the 5 large bins on the side of the turret are not what they seem. they all look the same but one, the bin on the front left, is narrower then the other 4. The instructions do tell you this but don't give the numbers. So if your not paying attention its easy to mix them up.
And in case your woundering, yes, i was not concentrating and yes i mixed them up by putting a wide one where the narrow one should be. But i was able to get it of and out it in the right place.
I will say that the resin is caste very nicely. The casting blocks are only attached along a thin edge so there not of the major surgery needed to remove excess that you often get.
So in conclusion, its not a bad kit for the age and price. lacking some detail has some accuracy issues, but fits well and simple enough to build for a kit this side. Seems typical of Trump armour if past experiance with a more recent kit is anything to go by.
As for the AM, it gives better detail and corrects the errors, but at a price, and of course, most people looking at it would probably not notice.
Could i recommend it, no, not at £53. In the mid 30's maybe.
Do i regret buying it, no. I like resin and despite the issues i am already planning on buying their Challenger 2 sets for the Trump kit.
But, if you plan on buying the Trump AS90 and want some recomendatiosn of which AM to get, this would be my suggestion.
1) RB barrel, a must have. Not sure what you can do for the longer barreled 52Cal gun, but then i would think most people would buld the production vehicle.
2) Eduard PE. This will give some nice detail parts and correct some errors such as the smoke grenade launchers..
The above 2 with some minor surgery to the kit and relocation of a few parts wilkl give a very nice build.
3) If you must have resin, don't mind the high cost and less then perfect instructions and after all this know most people will not notice, then get the AA set.