1:35 Digital Camo Paint Masks For Chinese ZTZ99 MBT And Numbers

Digital camouflage of the Chinese ZTZ99 tank

The ZTZ99, referred to in the West more often as the Type 99, is the heaviest battle tank of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It entered service at the turn of the millennium, and what sets it apart from the older machines of the Type 96 family is the welded turret with wedge-shaped frontal armor, the 125 mm smoothbore gun with an autoloader and a substantially more powerful powerplant. A pixel finish appeared on parade and training vehicles and over two decades it became their unmistakable recognition mark.

Box contents

The set consists of cut self-adhesive film parts that are laid onto a base shade that has already been sprayed and has dried. Besides the masking pattern itself, characters for the numerical marking are enclosed, so the builder does not have to go looking for suitable decals.

Where a stencil beats tape

With adhesive tape you can reliably create a straight edge and a simple curve. A pixel pattern, however, is made up of dozens of small rectangular fields and their spacing has to stay the same along the whole length of the hull and the turret. Hand-cut tape will not hold that regularity: every field shifts by a fraction of a millimeter and the eye catches the difference on a large flat surface immediately. Cut film holds the geometry exactly as the subject has it.

The limit of accuracy lies elsewhere. The film adapts willingly to a slightly curved surface, but across a sharp edge or over protruding rivets and handles you have to press it down carefully, otherwise the paint creeps underneath. On broken-up areas it is worth working in smaller sections and overlapping the joints.