Time for an UPDATE
First, some wiki for ya.
The 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China took place on 1 October 2009. A military parade involving 10,000 troops and the display of many high-tech weapons was held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and various celebrations were conducted all over the country. This parade was immediately followed by a civilian parade involving 100,000 participants.
The People's Republic of China was founded on 1 October 1949. Since then, celebrations of varying scales occur on National Day each year. Military parades, presided over by Chairman Mao Zedong, were held every year between 1949 and 1959. In September 1960, the Chinese leadership decided that in order to save funds and "be frugal", large-scale ceremonies for National Day would only be held every ten years, with a smaller-scale ceremony every five years. The last large-scale celebration during the Mao era was in 1969. Large-scale celebrations did not take place for 14 years amidst the climax of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, the most prominent National Day celebrations have taken place in 1984 and 1999, at the 35th and 50th anniversaries respectively. During these celebrations, then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin reviewed military parades of the People's Liberation Army. The 2009 parade was the first and last time Hu Jintao oversaw this task, as he will leave office in 2012 due to term limits.
Military parade
The military parade took place on Chang'an Avenue, with the country's leaders watching the parade from Tiananmen, above Mao's portrait. Hu Jintao inspected the troops standing onto a Hongqi HQE limousine designed for the event, with a special license plate (京V 02009). For the anniversary, the Chinese government budgeted roughly $44 million for the military parade, with some budget cuts due to the recent global financial crisis.[23] The parade displayed 52 new types of military hardware, including
ZTZ99 main battle tanks, J-10 fighter aircraft, KJ-200 and KJ-2000 early-warning aircraft, Z-9W attack helicopters, and new models of the Type 95 and Type 03 assault rifles.
The five new types of missiles were paraded by the Second Artillery Corps. The Second Artillery's display included a total of 108 missiles and was intended to showcase China's strategic deterrence capabilities.[25]
List of participating divisions in the parade[edit]
In order of appearance:
PLA Combined Guard of Honor (Chinese: 中国人民解放军三军仪仗队)
PLA Ground Force Cadet Officers Square Formation (Chinese: 陆军学员方队)
PLA Ground Force Infantry Square Formation (Chinese: 陆军步兵方队)
PLA Ground Force Special Forces Square Formation (Chinese: 陆军特种部队方队)
PLA Navy Cadet Officers Square Formation (Chinese: 海军学员方队)
PLA Navy Seamen Square Formation (Chinese: 海军水兵方队)
PLA Navy Marine Corps Square Formation (Chinese: 海军陆战队方队)
PLA Air Force Cadet Officers Square Formation (Chinese: 空军飞行学员方队)
PLA Air Force Paratroopers Square Formation (Chinese: 空军空降兵方队)
PLA Second Artillery Corps Cadets Square Formation (Chinese: 第二炮兵学员方队)
PLA Female Soldiers Square Formation (Chinese: 三军女兵方队)
People's Armed Police Square Formation (Chinese: 武警方队)
PLA Reserve Service Forces Square Formation (Chinese: 预备役方队)
Female Militia Square Formation (Chinese: 女民兵方队)
List of military craft paraded[edit]
A ZBD2000 amphibious IFV in Beijing during a training exercise.
Chinese official state media states that all equipment displayed in the parade are manufactured in China, with 90% of them first displayed to the public. The equipment are listed in the order of appearance, with new appearances in bold:
ZTZ99 main battle tank
ZTZ96A main battle tank
ZBD2000 amphibious fighting vehicle
ZBD-97 infantry fighting vehicle
ZBL-08/09 infantry fighting vehicle
ZLC2000 airborne infantry fighting vehicle
ZSL-92 anti-riot infantry fighting vehicle
Type 05 155mm self-propelled howitzer
Type 07 122mm self-propelled howitzer
PLL05 120mm self-propelled mortar-howitzer
PTL02 100mm tank destroyer
PHL03 300mm multiple launch rocket system
HJ-9 anti-tank missile system
Type 95 self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery
HQ-7 surface-to-air missile
HQ-16 surface-to-air missile
YJ-83 anti-ship missile
YJ-62 shore to ship cruise missile
HQ-9 surface-to-air missile
HQ-12 surface-to-air missile
ASN series tactical unmanned aerial drones
DF-15 short range ballistic missile
DF-11 short range ballistic missile
CJ-10 land attack cruise missile
DF-21 medium range ballistic missile
DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missile
DF-31A intercontinental ballistic missile
KJ-2000 early warning aircraft
KJ-200 early warning aircraft
Xian H-6 bomber and tanker
along with newer Xian H-6K variant
JH-7A fighter-bomber
J-8F interceptor fighter
Chengdu J-10 multirole fighter
Shenyang J-11 multirole fighter
Changhe Z-8 transport helicopter
Harbin Z-9W attack helicopter
Hongdu JL-8 jet trainer aircraft
Type 022 stealth missile boat
Type 052C destroyer
Type 054A frigate
The Type 99 (Chinese: 99式; pinyin: Jiǔjiǔ shì), also known as ZTZ-99 and WZ-123, developed from the Type 98G (in turn, a development of the Type 98), is a third generation main battle tank (MBT) fielded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It is made to compete with other modern tanks. It is currently the most advanced MBT fielded by China. The ZTZ-99 MBT is a successor to the Type 98G tank manufactured for the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Here's the kit - wrapped up very well. lovely detail. the tracks look DEADLY! Almost thinking of buying the Trumpeter AM tracks for it. Thoughts?
This the only PE that came with the kit (right) - so I picked up the Voyager kit.... FML.

The instructions are a nightmare. I'll show them off as I go.
So all this plastic should hopefully eventually look like...
And we're off!
The Type 99 is powered by a liquid cooled, turbocharged 1,500 hp diesel derived from the German MB871ka501 diesel technology. At its current battle weight of 54 tons, this gives a power-to-weight ratio of about 27.78 hp/ton. The maximum speed on road is 80 km/h and is claimed to be 60 km/h on cross country. Acceleration from 0 to 32 km/h takes 12 seconds. The transmission provides seven forward and one reverse gears.
Pretty straight forward assembly.
This took me about 4 hours...

a LOT of swearing

but eventually... I think they look quite lovely
(I made my own PE plate with an abandoned picture frame glass (from a previous dio), and I used electrical tape to seal off the potentially sharp edges... the black also allows you to better see where the cutting service ends.
Well, I had to put her down for a little, but I promise another update shortly. Until then, I'll be contemplating how to properly model this...
According to fact and model scaling...to accurately depict Tiananmen gate, it would have to be 3ft tall. We're all gonna have to use our imagination... cuz it ain't gonna be that big
Thanks for stopping in!
