A few
weeks back, I previewed the Kitty Hawk 1/35 ZTZ-99A Main Battle Tank. This
is a tank operated by the Chinese army and it carries a very complex looking
camouflage scheme that is what many call a 'digital' scheme due to its many
small angular rectangles. I had commented at the time that painting this
would require a lot of time and tape. So I did some inquiries and it turns
out that DN Models
in Bulgaria produces a set for this particular tank. So I contacted them via their web site and ordered a set of the masks for the ZTZ-99. DN Models was
also kind enough to offer another set of masks for review and soon the
package arrived in the mails. What one gets with this set are two of the usual grey-green vinyl masks that are sufficient to do one tank. A note states that careful handling will allow these to be reused. A full color five view is provided and there is a guide as to where the masks are located. I have not shown the actual masks as you would see little more that a solid rectangle. Something I would have liked to have seen is an order in which the masks are applied with each mask coded as to what color it covers, but it does seem as if one starts with tan, then goes to light green, then black, then everything else is painted dark green. Note also that the set includes number stencils as well.
While it may well take a while to paint the tank, even with the masks, these make it so much easier and the end result will be a very different model in the collection.