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Armor/AFV: British Armor
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Tamiya's Matilda tank-any good at all?
long_tom
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Illinois, United States
Joined: March 18, 2006
KitMaker: 2,362 posts
Armorama: 2,005 posts
Posted: Friday, July 06, 2007 - 07:47 AM UTC
I occasionally see Tamiya's old Matilda tank kit for sale on eBay, but have heard this kit is no good. Is this the case?
tankmodeler
#417
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Ontario, Canada
Joined: March 01, 2004
KitMaker: 3,123 posts
Armorama: 2,539 posts
Posted: Friday, July 06, 2007 - 08:07 AM UTC
"No good" is a broad brush to paint it with. The kit is old and was designed for motorisation. The first left it lacking in detail and the second left the shape of the front of the hull substantially wrong.

Are you the sort of modeller who thinks nothing of sawing off the front of a kit to rebuild it to make it more accurate? If so, then you probably care about the accuracy and may or may not decide to do the substantial amount of work needed to bring this kit up to scratch.

If, on the other hand, you just want a kit to build that goes together pretty well and looks, to the non-AMS eye,just like a Matilda, then this kit is probably just fine for you.

If you can let us know what level of accuracy you want or will fix in a kit, then that will help us evaluate the kit with respect to your needs.

HTH

Paul
chris1
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Auckland, New Zealand
Joined: October 25, 2005
KitMaker: 949 posts
Armorama: 139 posts
Posted: Friday, July 06, 2007 - 08:53 AM UTC
Tom

I Have an article from MM in 2000 by Steve Zagola on how to correct most of the flaws I'd be happy to send it to you
From that you you make up your mind on whether the amount of work is worth the trouble
Sen me a PM with your EMAIL

Chris
Fitz
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Minnesota, United States
Joined: July 11, 2006
KitMaker: 439 posts
Armorama: 331 posts
Posted: Friday, July 06, 2007 - 03:50 PM UTC

Quoted Text

"No good" is a broad brush to paint it with. The kit is old and was designed for motorisation. The first left it lacking in detail and the second left the shape of the front of the hull substantially wrong.

Are you the sort of modeller who thinks nothing of sawing off the front of a kit to rebuild it to make it more accurate? If so, then you probably care about the accuracy and may or may not decide to do the substantial amount of work needed to bring this kit up to scratch.

If, on the other hand, you just want a kit to build that goes together pretty well and looks, to the non-AMS eye,just like a Matilda, then this kit is probably just fine for you.

If you can let us know what level of accuracy you want or will fix in a kit, then that will help us evaluate the kit with respect to your needs.

HTH

Paul



I couldn't agree more. I'm in the middle of an OOB build on one of these and it goes together very well and should look nice when done, even with my meager skills. Owning not a single piece of reference material on the Matilda I am quite content with the kits level of "accuracy". Ignorance is bliss baby. You can drive yourself crazy with too much knowledge. Note my signature below.
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