Aircraft modeler considering some armour - advice?

I hear the more recent Academy kits are very well done.

Strange that I should say this...but I like Trumpeter's armor kits. Good balance of detail and buildability.

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922 {Sig Quotes Removed on Request}

Hi.

Not strange at all. I put their KV 2 together with zero filler or hassles. I will do a KV 1 at some point and I also have the SA 6 kit to do.

Allan

Comments here refer to 1/35th scale kits. Italeri kits are relatively crude by modern standards, though some of their 1970's kits (notably the Leopard 1A4 and M47) are quite nice. Tracks tend to be either stiff, black vinyl, or soft, very fragile, silver vinyl. Their Russian kits are mostly reboxes of Zvezda items, and their tracks are extremely stiff. Their US Dodge trucks, M3 armored car, RSO tractor, and Canadian trucks are old Peerless Max molds from Japan circa 1977. They also have some ex-Esci molds: the T-55 is poor, but the M60A1 is superb. Their recent Italian armored car kits are fiddly but well done. Dragon is top of the heap in terms of molding technology, but these kits are very sophisticated, most with brass and turned aluminum parts. Some experience is advised. Their newer "Smart Kit" models use more plastic parts, but benefit from very sophisticated molds for superior detail. Their tracks are either link to link "Magic Tracks" or soft glueable plastic band tracks made from DS (Dragon Styrene). Tamiya kits are well engineered and go together like a dream, but are sometimes rather simplified. The detail is crisp, though, and most tanks have soft plastic band-type tracks rather than link to link. Recent kits have a glueable soft plastic track, while older kits use vinyl, which must be welded with the tip of a hot nail or similar. Academy kits are similar in molding technology to 1990's Tamiya kits, but their research department is remarkably lazy, and their kits suffer from numerous, completely unnecessary, errors. They assemble easily, though. Revell Germany's modern German armor is mostly their own tooling, except for the Leopard kits, which are based on Italeri originals, though they are often updated with extra parts. Their own molds are soft in detail, and engineering isn't great. They also rebox second hand and even third hand molds. Their recent T-72 and T-80 tanks are old Dragon molds from 1989 now owned by Zvezda, as are the Russian armored cars and APCs. Their Soviet GAZ and Ural truck kits are old molds from defunct Russian companies. Trumpeter kits were initially atrocious, but their learning curve was very fast. However, this sometimes means that wonderful and dreadfgul kits can be side by side in the same model shop. Their early T-54 and T-55 series kits are very crude motorized models (some boxings were molded in ABS rather than polystyrene plastic, which required Plastruct cement to glue it, as normal cements wouldn't work), and some of their stuff was also pirated (badly) from other companies' molds (M60A1, T-72, Leclerc). However, much of their recent stuff is first rate, like the Russian KV-1/KV-2 series, which is amazing. Best bet is to seek out reviews of specific models before buying. Many older Trumpeter kits are now sold under the company's other labels, Wasan and Minihobby. Their kits have also been sold under the Hobbycraft and even Airfix labels. Tasca and Bronco are small, "boutique" operations, and their output is small, but their quality is quite high (as are their prices). Tristar is also quite nice, and more in line price-wise with Dragon and Tamiya than the first two. AFV Club does very good work, but again, their output is very slow. They apparently don't have the capital that the larger companies do, and they rarely make their release dates. Gerald Owens

Gerald - thanks very much.

Another thing...the trend in 1/48th scale armor from Japan and elsewhere in Asia may interest you. Tamiya has been regularly adding new militaria in 1/48th in the last few years, mainly WW2 subjects. Other companies have taken their lead.

Stephen Bierce

I would suggest that a long-time aircraft modeler who wants to try some vehicles try something with tires rather than treads.For current equipment there are Hummers, all sorts of trucks and the like. Most will not be re-boxed variants of older kits.TomOn Jul 6, 5:25=A0pm, snipped-for-privacy@vic.com wrote:> On Jul 6, 8:16=A0pm, Hoosfoos wrote:> > > > > Gerald - thanks very much.-> > Another thing...the trend in 1/48th scale armor from Japan and> elsewhere in Asia may interest you. =A0Tamiya has been regularly adding> new militaria in

1/48th in the last few years, mainly WW2 subjects.> Other companies have taken their lead.> > Stephen Bierce

Squadron.com had the excellent Tamiya JGSDF Type 90 MBT on sale for something ridiculous like $9.99. Tamiya also does a Leopard 2A5 and

2A6 and French Leclerc that are very nice modern tank kits too. These are probably the best of their modern western MBT kits.