1/48 scale Treadheads

Brand new, like the Sherman and more to come. More details at

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m19.aol.com, Keeper at snipped-for-privacy@aol.comedy wrote on 1/11/05 8:27 AM:
You can see a built-up Tiger (no paint) on Hyperscale. Pretty nice. I think I heard that a Sherman was in the works as well.
MB

I saw one of the 1/48 tamiya tanks, and it had a cast metal lower hull. Should build up nice, and it will be heavy, like a tank should be

I am not a tank guy, but I do try to keep track of what is happening with Japanese releases.
Tamiya has a 1/48th "Medium Tank Sherman Early Production" scheduled for a 1/17/05 release in Japan. Also a 1/48th "German Strumgeschutz III Aust. B" for the 22nd.
Needless to say, those release dates do not mean they will be in the US very quickly.
Norm

Next in line is an early Sherman. Look here: Personally, I'm not too enthused about their new 1/48 line. It seems to me that Dragon has forced Tamiya out of the 1/35 business and into other areas. Dragon offers a lot of extras in their kits (P/E, extras and turned barrels) at a fair price and Tamiya is falling behind. Note that Tamiya's next 1/35 release isn't WWII but rather the modern Leclerc. My problem with 1/48 is that it will soon be the same as 1/35 with tons of detail sets and P/E being offered because the size lends itself to the extra details. My attraction to small scale has always been their simplicity and the illusion of more detail.
Dan

: : Personally, I'm not too enthused about their new 1/48 line. It seems to me : that Dragon has forced Tamiya out of the 1/35 business and into other areas. : I don't think DML forced anybody anywhere. Tamiya made there own problems by not following up on their Panther G with the earlier models, which DML finally did. Tamiya did not improve their Kubel until the Hasegawa (now DML) version came out. They did offer a new GMC, but that is the only thing american and new - they even short cut the Shermans by keeping the old lower hull. That would be fine, if they had filled the sponson gaps... Has Tamiya given any indication that they are going to redo the very old US 'tracks? No, I hadn't heard they were either.
Tamiya seems to be too busy with R/C products to pay attention to static models. But they, DML seemed to be too busy with dolls to pay attention either, so you never know. : : Dragon offers a lot of extras in their kits (P/E, extras and turned barrels) at : a fair price and Tamiya is falling behind. : Shrug. That is not a selling point to me, since I prefer the Aber barrels with their machined muzzle breaks. OTOH, I am happy to see DML starting to offer "rubber band" tracks, since I said from day 1 that DML was alienating modellers by only providing individual links. : : Note that Tamiya's next 1/35 : release isn't WWII but rather the modern Leclerc. : If your thing is moderm armor, you are probably excited. Since my interest level drops exponentially the furthur you go from 1946, my response to a LeClerc s *YAWN!* : : My problem with 1/48 is that : it will soon be the same as 1/35 with tons of detail sets and P/E being offered : because the size lends itself to the extra details. My attraction to small : scale has always been their simplicity and the illusion of more detail. : I think that Bandai was way ahead of the field there. Interior in their 1/48 scale kits? Wow! But, it is too heavy, and very hard to see, not to mention that A/C's have more scale armor that battle- ships, so I leave them buttoned up. :-) Besides, you don't have to use PE. Turned barrels, however... :-)
Bruce

snipped-for-privacy@realtime.net (Bruce Burden) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@enews2.newsguy.com:
Not to mention what the blockheads on eBay will bid any Bandia Sherman up to. Ha-ha! Gonna get my M4 and M4A1 and I'm not gonna miss a car payment to do it. Interiors are nice but judging by the prices I'm seeing out of Hong Kong and Japan I'll be able to order both Shermies all of the Tamiys (so far) and the Skybow Tigger with the Zimmerit get it all shipped surface and to amortize the per unit shipping and I'll be getting the whole shootin' match for the price of 2 or 3 Bandai kits on eBay that may or may not have all the parts.

Of course they did. They did with Tamiya the same thing they are currently doing to AFV Club. Matching them release for release and providing more value.
Maybe not for you, but for many who don't want to buy the extras it is a selling point. Not everybody wants to buy a $22 barrel to add to the their tank and not all barrels have muzzle breaks. I use Aber barrels where the extra detail makes sense, but a simple barrel provided by Dragon is just as good.
Dan

I wonder how many 1/35 builders Tamiya will entice over to 1/48 with a retail price of $30 (at my local shop anyway) when the average Dragon 1/35 tank with the extras runs about $30?
Dan

Thanks for the heads up Norm! I'll keep my eyes peeled... Cheers,
The Keeper (of too much crap!)

I haven't quite figured this out yet, but apparently somebody has decided there is a market for it, most likely in Japan. We tend to forget that the bulk of Tamiya's kits play to the home markets and not foreigners.
The British market was assessed recently by Tamiya as so poor, for example, that they were moving to drop imports. Needless to say that rumor (no matter what the validity) sent ripples out in the UK.
All that aside, with the current popularity of 1/48 aircraft my guess is that somebody in marketing made a "2 + 2 = 4" equation and went for it. Bandai did it in the early 1970s to see if they could garner a market niche and, while it was one of the grander efforts, eventually failed at it. A shame, as the kits were cheaper (and better) than anything else on the market at the time.
As for duking it out, I talk to all of these folks and they go where they see the market being, not where we would like them to go. I keep arguing for new 1/35 US halftracks and a new series of Centurions but to no avail so far.
Cookie Sewell

You are most likely right. It really makes me laugh that one of the arguments is that the new line is in a popular aircraft scale so that the tanks can be used in dioramas with 1/48 aircraft. How realistically can the two be incorprated together in a diorama? I can't ever remember seeing a Tiger and a Bf-109 together in a period photograph. A Challenger/Abrams and a helicopter, maybe but the believability of numerous WWII aircraft and tank dioramas is a stretch.
Dan
Dan

Well, lots of interesting opinions..........I myself have always been a die hard 1/48 guy. I have all the Bandai stuff and a few of the odd ball kits in the same scale. There really is a pretty sizeable group of 1/48 modellers. Go to a web site "Track48" for a good look at some of the work being done in this scale. I would never go so far as to say it's ever going to catch up with 1/35 scale but there are a lot more 1/48 "treadheads" than you think. There are a few other sites pertaining to 1/48, but you will find links to them at the Track48 site. For me storage was a issue, and also the challenge of scratchbuilding many items in 1/48 not available as readilly as 1/35.

I've affordable 1/48 scale US armor for years-- to go aboard RC landing craft of the larger vessels, where a model in 1/35 would just be too big. At $30 a pop, I'll keep waiting....

I'm semi encouraged by this .Now, if we might see the soft skins, like say, Federal tractors and the Fueler Semi-trailer or some of the German and Japanese stuff, or Austin Ambulances for airfield dioramas, I'd be ecstatic over this.
Some of this exists in (expensive) resin,but tends to be a pain to find.

Yeah, I'm considering getting the Gasoline conversion for the Sturmtiger but I'm not on fire yet. I'd love to see some Japanese equipment or a Somua in 1/48. Cheers,
The Keeper (of too much crap!)

"DNSH" wrote in message
Strictly speaking, none of them do.
Muzzle brakes are another thing altogether though....
Shane (don't ya hate smartasses)

Strictly speaking, either spelling is accepted as correct, though "brake" is probably preferred. I'm used to you on the WWI list, so no, I don't hate smartasses.
Dan Hartz

"DNSH" wrote
Where did you get that idea? The purpose of the device is to slow or reduce the recoil of the tube when firing. It "puts a brake on it", so to speak. "Brake" is correct, not merely "accepted". "Break" is just wrong, unless you are talking about a catastrophic malfunction. The fact that people can't spell and pass it off with "Well, you know what I meant. . ." does not mean it is accepted as "correct". Likewise, just because people write and say "turrent" does not change the reality that the word is "turret".
KL