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WZ901 Chinese Security Vehicle Trumpeter
Reviewed by Cookie Sewell
There has been a general return to wheeled armored fighting vehicles world wide, and for once the Chinese were ahead of many other countries. The WZ551 6 x 6 APC made its debut in 1986 and since then has found a number of different jobs in the Chinese national police force as well as the PLA. This version, the WZ901, is a new model which has been downrated in armament for use by the PLA Hong Kong Garrison as a security vehicle. It has a small turret with eight small smoke projectors and a 7.62mm machine gun which can be fired from under armor. Trumpeter has now released this kit which is a very nice model, and in some ways better than their tank kits. It does come with two-piece plastic wheels rather than vinyl tires, but the molding is not too bad and the wheels have reasonably good details (the tires will need work, however). The kit includes clear styrene inserts for all viewports, and all of the kit's troop compartment hatches work. But on a bizarre note, the hatches open to... nothing. The model is designed for motorization and as such all those hatches show is the battery compartment where the troop seats should be in the rear of the hull. Also, belly detail is compromised for the sake of motorization screws. The usual solution (scrap styrene and putty) is called to play to seal the parts up. Overall the shapes and most of the details are plain but not too bad, and scale appears good. This is not a bad choice, as DML has an excellent set of PLA Hong Kong Garrison figures which can be used with this model. The kit's figure is better than the crew in the Type 80 kit I reviewed elsewhere. Decals are included for what appears to be a trade show (WZ901 side numbers) and a set of regular numbers for service use. Cookie Sewell AMPS Review Copyright © 2000 by Cookie
Sewell
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