1/700 Tamiya Kits - What's with the metal bars??

I never could figure that out either; by the time you get up to the carriers and battleships they get pretty heavy too. It might be for using them as pieces for naval wargames, but the board would have to be huge just to fit a small fleet.

Pat

Just to lower the center of gravity and give the models a little stability. Most of the plastic is up top in a waterline model, and I guess they were concerned it would be easy to knock the completed model over, particularly skinny hulls like destroyers and cruisers. If someone accidentally kicks the table, all the hours of rigging a model could be for naught. Of course, if you've glued it solidly into an ocean diorama, it's a moot point. Gerald Owens

It's for wargamers to use. The metal bars in the models go with magnetic bases they use to show game related information about the ship

Another use for the bars is to keep the models from floating away and out the window. At a scale of 1/700, they are very light and sometimes just float away.

Ray Austin, TX ===