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Tamiya Japanese Armor
exer
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Dublin, Ireland
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 11:12 AM UTC
Tamiya are to release the Japanese Type 1 SP Gun and crew set and Type 95 Light Tank & Infantry Set.



Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
GaryKato
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 11:28 AM UTC
Both of the newly announced IJA kits are in cooperation with Fine Molds. The Type 95 kit has the Fine Molds tank with Tamiya figures while the other has a Tamiya vehicle with Fine Molds tank crew.
PantherF
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 12:21 PM UTC
Good news!
psycnarf
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 01:00 PM UTC
alright i can now make my Jap invasion of the Philippines diorama
exer
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 08:29 PM UTC

Quoted Text

The Type 95 kit has the Fine Molds tank with Tamiya figures while the other has a Tamiya vehicle with Fine Molds tank crew.


I do make that clear in the article Gary


Quoted Text

The Type 95 set is the old Fine Mold kit while the figures are the old Tamiya Japanese infantry figures.
The Type 1 SP gun is the Tamiya kit while the figures are the Fine Mold Japanese tankers.
youngc
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 08:42 PM UTC
I have seen this 'news' posted on the site on three occasions.
HeavyArty
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Posted: Monday, July 14, 2008 - 09:01 PM UTC
More rehashing/reboxing of old kits by Tamiya. Why don't they make some new stuff other than the one or two per year. I think they have lost the ball to other companies.
SGTJKJ
#041
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 12:59 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I think they have lost the ball to other companies.


I agree, they have lost massively to Dragon and Trumpeter. A decade ago they were the standard in the hobby, now they are totally sidelined.

Do not get me wrong, these kits of Japanese tanks are very welcome, but that does not hide the fact that it is Trumpeter, Dragon and to some degree Italeri driving the hobby forward.

Thanks for the update, Pat
exer
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 01:57 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I have seen this 'news' posted on the site on three occasions.


Not everyone visits other sites Chas
210cav
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 04:02 AM UTC
Be interesting to see this one hit the market. Unique example of a disasterous AFV. HobbyLink Japan is no longer taking orders for the tank (about $37 plus shipping) or the SP (about $28 plus shipping). Lucky Models does not have them posted as of yet. I could not find them on Squadron nor on Great Models. Has anyone else seen them as a pre-order? Expected release date is shown as 31 August.
PantherF
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 05:26 AM UTC
Yeah, the Type 95 is more affectionately known as the Ha-Go. I never got the chance at building it.
GaryKato
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 07:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

The Type 95 kit has the Fine Molds tank with Tamiya figures while the other has a Tamiya vehicle with Fine Molds tank crew.


I do make that clear in the article Gary


Quoted Text

The Type 95 set is the old Fine Mold kit while the figures are the old Tamiya Japanese infantry figures.
The Type 1 SP gun is the Tamiya kit while the figures are the Fine Mold Japanese tankers.


Sorry about that. I posted on the wrong thread about this.
GaryKato
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 07:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

I have seen this 'news' posted on the site on three occasions.


Not everyone visits other sites Chas


Actually he's talking about this site.
GaryKato
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 07:44 AM UTC

Quoted Text

More rehashing/reboxing of old kits by Tamiya. Why don't they make some new stuff other than the one or two per year. I think they have lost the ball to other companies.


Certainly as far as 1/35 scale but I think they announced a few years ago that their intention was to concentrate on 1/48. I think this recent announcement reinforces that strategy. I can't think of why they would do a deal with Fine Molds since Tamiya and Fine Molds both compete in the WW2 Japanese market (both make Type 97 mediums and Ho Ni). Perhaps a deal was made to keep Fine Molds out of the 1/48 armor market by putting the better known Tamiya label on some of their kits and making Fine Molds happy to stary in the 1/35 armor market?
parrot
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 09:51 AM UTC
Very nice but is Tamiya ever going to slow down on WW11?
youngc
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 10:27 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text


Quoted Text

I have seen this 'news' posted on the site on three occasions.


Not everyone visits other sites Chas


Actually he's talking about this site.


Indeed
exer
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 10:48 AM UTC
Apologies Chas - and I just got new prescription glasses.

The reason for publishing this on the news page even though it's old news is that a lot more people read news stories than forum posts. The news story has 1444 views while this thread has only 513 views.
Open invitation to all members - if you see a news worthy item that Jim or I seem to have missed there is a send us news button at the top right of every news story.
SGTJKJ
#041
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 07:54 PM UTC
Well, I missed the news the first few times. So I for one is happy it made it to the "official" news section.
Drader
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Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 08:56 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Certainly as far as 1/35 scale but I think they announced a few years ago that their intention was to concentrate on 1/48. I think this recent announcement reinforces that strategy. I can't think of why they would do a deal with Fine Molds since Tamiya and Fine Molds both compete in the WW2 Japanese market (both make Type 97 mediums and Ho Ni). Perhaps a deal was made to keep Fine Molds out of the 1/48 armor market by putting the better known Tamiya label on some of their kits and making Fine Molds happy to stary in the 1/35 armor market?


They complement each other rather than competing, the only real cross over is the Type 97 Shinhoto (Fine Molds Ho Ni is a different version). Since Fine Molds aren't a mass market company anyway they aren't much of competitor for Tamiya, though they seem to have got their hands on a fair amount of my modelling budget. As to the 1/48 strategy, Tamiya's releases in that scale have slowed down and virtually stopped recently.

David
210cav
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Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 06:23 AM UTC
Hobby Link Japan is once again accepting pre-orders for the vehicles
pimpdogbert
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Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 09:08 AM UTC
My main beef with all of this is no other companies are releasing affordable Japanese tanks. When I first read the thread I was really excided but the once again let down by Tamiyas reboxing technique, I hate it my hopes have been brought up then they come crashing down once again esp. their reboxing of older Italeri kits. I think it time for other companies to start releasing new Japanese tanks esp. the amphibious tanks.....that would rock. And on another note how bout some more figures to go with them. I mean now the bigger companies are producing 1/350th scale battleships with exquisite detailing dont you think they should spend a little of their time on tanks as well?........Pardon me for the rant but I think it is a legitimate arguement........
GaryKato
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Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 09:17 AM UTC

Quoted Text

My main beef with all of this is no other companies are releasing affordable Japanese tanks. When I first read the thread I was really excided but the once again let down by Tamiyas reboxing technique, I hate it my hopes have been brought up then they come crashing down once again esp. their reboxing of older Italeri kits. I think it time for other companies to start releasing new Japanese tanks esp. the amphibious tanks.....that would rock. And on another note how bout some more figures to go with them. I mean now the bigger companies are producing 1/350th scale battleships with exquisite detailing dont you think they should spend a little of their time on tanks as well?........Pardon me for the rant but I think it is a legitimate arguement........


Aboslutely a legitimate rant. Fine Molds came out with a 57mm armed Type 97 medium tank recently. Most of the kit parts are from their Shinhoto. Maybe Fine Molds will get more exposure to the market and feel confident about making something like a Type 89 Medium or the Type 2 Kami. The problem is that while WW2 Japanese aircraft and ships/subs are popular (because they were good), Japanese vehicles have a less than stellar reputation. People tend to like building kits of fearsome things (hence more people building Panthers and Tigers instead of Panzer I). Fortunately, Fine Molds seems to be a good model manufacturer.
pimpdogbert
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Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 03:46 PM UTC
WoW I wish I knew about Fine Molds earlier but I will now purchase their kits, and they do look very finely detailed. I kills me to think what their out of production kits will cost now esp. on E-Bay.......And as far as the issue as Japanese tanks as not being fearsome neither were Italian tanks and now there are more then there were ten years ago like the Tamiya M13/40, but I do admit it is lacking in number of kits aswell. And the Japnese military was espically feared early in the war esp. by China and other Pacific Island nations but the Russians and the U.S. had the tanks to stop them but the U.S. did not have adequate numbers to deal with them early on, lucky for the Japanese!!!!
youngc
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Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 11:54 PM UTC

Quoted Text

And as far as the issue as Japanese tanks as not being fearsome........And the Japnese military was espically feared early in the war esp. by China and other Pacific Island nations but the Russians and the U.S. had the tanks to stop them but the U.S. did not have adequate numbers to deal with them early on, lucky for the Japanese!!!!


I enjoy modelling the Ha-Go, and have a deep respect for their ability in combat. Like Alex said, they were feared early on in the war in places like the Phillipines (to the M3, the Ha-Go was more than a match), and at Milne Bay (where two Ha-Go's were deployed and killed tens of Autralian infantry) and Malaya. I think if people learn of these less known, yet important battles, they will be more interested in modelling the AVF's and infantry which took part in them. I hope that through my own modelling, people will become more interested in these fascinating little tanks.

Chas
Drader
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Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008 - 12:04 AM UTC
AFAIK Fine Molds is a small-scale producer and their prices even in the Japanese market are high. Compare the prices with Tamiya's (who are hardly cheap either) on Japanese online sellers, it's quite eye-opening. Even more eye-opening (and eye-watering) was the cost of the first Fine Molds stuff to reach the UK - the Type 95 was GB£75!!! Which is why I went without until recently when they became more affordable.

Fine Molds seems to use the same sort of production methods as Hasegawa where they issue batches and then go quiet for a while, instead of maintaining a continuous flow like Tamiya. So it pays to wait and watch.

David

David
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