okay here goes with my first ever blog.. this is Tamiya's flak 88 it bought it years ago before Dragon even envisioned theirs but for some reason i kept putting it off, then i got both of dragon's flaks and took all the spares and thought i wonder if i could use these to update my tamiya kit? taking the plunge i plowed on because i model on a budget with the current ecomomical crisis i didn't want to throw ££'s and ££'s of AM stuff at this kit i just wanted to test my conversion skills, i'll apologize for the quality of the pics as i'm a novice at photography and as i said i'm constrained to a budget. okay enough rambling here's some pics of my progress so far, i hope you guys will go easy on me. Ant
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Hi Ant, looking good so far. I've done the same thing, saved my Dragon leftovers and one day I'll get around to doing the Tamiya kit. Keep it up and look forward to the finished product. Tom

hi Tom, go for it mate! at first i thought the parts wouldn't be compatible but studying the parts closly i found it was possible, goes to show that although tam's kit is 30 years old it is dimensionally sound because the dragon parts fitted with no problem, the only hiccup i can see will probably be adding the shield but that's near the end anyhow, will post more pics soon once i upload them to photobucket. cheers Ant

Looks fine to me mate..but take it off that sheet and take some more photo"s that background kind off confuses the pictures..apart from that can't see anything wrong with it..!!

Tamiyas kit has been around for 30 years!!! I didn't realize that it was that old. Hope you don't mind a yanks input, it looks like the barrel is off to one side on the front on shot. Is that the way the Tamiya kit is or the use of different parts? I have always wanted to build an 88, yours looks great without PE and other aftermarket items. Slap some paint on and send some rounds downrange. Great Job!

cheers Mike, Andy. sorry about the sheet Andy i haven't got a photobooth or anything like that, so i placed the gun on mt king tiger box so i could photo it. will probably have to find something to substitute as a photobooth. hmmm. Mike you're right the gun is slightly off this was due to adding dragon's barrel onto the tamiya carriage i've already gave it a base coat of primer and first coat of humbrol matt 84 i'll post pics soon hopefully the gun will be straight .ha ha thanks for the kind words guys. Ant

Very nice work, I remember this kit well!

Great job!

thanks Mark i just hope i can pull off a good finish to do the kit justice, hopefully i'll use it as a test bed coz i've got the two dragon 88's in my stash and i realllly don't wanna mess up a £35 kit as apposed to the £17 i paid for the tamiya kit. Ant

can't wait for the pics, keep up the good work!!

lookin good. I did the same thing with a Tamiya Tiger along time ago.. didnt have much money..lots of spare Dragon Tiger parts and an old Tamiya.. afterbuildmarket parts?

it's funny you mentioned sprucing up a tiger with Dragon parts Tim coz i'm currently doing just that to my tamiya late tiger for the getting it done campaign! i'm converting tamiya's late into a command tiger, i even replaced the rear idlers as i read tamiya's are the wrong size for a late tiger, and i even replaced the turret roof, which the dragon roof fits perfectly. i guess the controversy over tamiya's turrets being symmetrical is busted seeing as dragon's late turret roof fit. also on my late tiger i'm painstakingly hollowing out all the guide horns on the tamiya indy links, coz i'm modelling on a budget i can't really justify shelling out £23+ on fruil tracks although i'd love to i've got to cut the cloth somewhere. lol. Ant