Hello, I build 1/35 scale but would like to try 1/48 scale, which Tamiya kit do you recommend. Thanks, Steve

the tamiya kits are good , but can be quite expensive,
can i reccomend a hobbyboss KV1 kit
they are substantially cheaper, and the fit and detail is very good IMO
i have buit aroud 4-5 so far.

Depends on what your interests are Steve, they make shermans, crusaders, tigers, a panther and so on, they are all Tamiya quality, so pick one and dive in and have some fun, cheers Bob.

Do you have a Hobby Lobby close by? If so, you can print a 40% off coupon from their website quite often and use it for one of the Tamiya kits they carry. You may already know that.

The M10 has a sprue of extras, and the M4A1 gives several building options.

Tamiya 1/48 Jagdpanther + Pzkw III are very nice kits

for a Tiger I Late go with the 1/48 AFV Club,more detail+molded on zimm

The PzKpfw III Ausf. L and M26 Pershing are quite nice. The Steyr 1500 is also a good one to build.

Chris "toadman" Hughes
Toadman's Tank Pictures

I liked the KV-2 as a first Tamiya kit

Hetzer - some one here built the whole kit over a weekend (and it looked good).

So you see almost all are good. Everyone has one they like. Check out all brands. I like the AFV Club Tigers. Great detail. More than Tamiya. And, as said previously, the zimm coating is on the late version. Prices can be high, check sellers here for deals. Oh yeah, the Tam Pershing is an excellent kit with alot of detail also. So is Hobby Boss M4A3E8 Korea and T34/76 (with interior) and on and on... Have fun.-C.

Luckymodel has the AFV Tigers (formerly skybow) for $16 and they include the PE engine screens - great deal. Ebay often has kits around $15-$20 for 1/48 Tamiya. Go to Track48.com to see the largest gallery of kits. onefortyeight.com has some pics too. Squadron dod have Hobby Boss kits for around $10-$11 but I'm not sure if the sale is still going. Just shop around. HTH

The best Tamiya kits, and truly excellent OOB, are the Crusaders, Marder III, Pz IIIs, Pershing, Steyr 1500. The Sdkfz 250 half-track is ok if you make the driver visor plate 9 degrees more vertical... The Tamiya Kurogane may beat the Hasegawa, which is unusual...

Despite what you often read, Tamiya's Tiger 1 has a much more accurate turret than the Skybow, with its hugely oversized gun mantlet... Tamiya's Tiger 1 hull lacks a little in upper side plate depth, as does the Skybow/AFV, but simply glueing the side skirts lower 1 mm in the front, and 2 mm in the back, fixes that easily... Lower front hull plate depth is better on the Skybow hull. The Skybow sides are also more fully correctable by raising the upper hull deck section a bit higher, and shaving down slightly the too-tall visor plate, reducing the huge 3 mm visor plate vertical "overhang" to about 1 mm...

Carrying spare tracks in the lower hull front of the Tamiya kit makes the lower front plate problem hard to see, and Tamiya tracks are also infinitely superior on the drivetrain... Tamiya is clearly the Tiger 1 winner, but I used a Skybow hull with a Tamiya turret. Tamiya tracks fit the Skybow drivetrain perfectly...

Acceptable Tamiya kits include the hull Mg deprived Firefly, which allows hiding under stowage or spare tracks the 3 inches too low, and massively visible, transmission rivet line... You would need to raise the hull Mg positon a full 1.5 mm on all the other Tamiya Shermans, along with headlight fixtures etc: This from measurements on a Sherman... The Hobby Boss Sherman M4A1 76W one-piece transmission is much more accurate in height, and the wrong sloping hull sides, mantlet and gun issues may actually be easier to fix than the tranny height on the Tamiya, despite appearances... This is especially true with a few inexpensive after-market parts.

Late Stugs, Krupp, Beetle and Cromwell are sort of OK, but have many small detail shape problems, the Krupp notably. The M-10 seems to be very good, but the Sherman tranny height problem is compounded by visible open sponsoons and metal posts...

Pz IV does look good but is questionable in the visor plate position and turret chord...

Most of the other Tamiya kits are very unsatifying in my view, and the Panther will soon be measured to prove at least some of my points: Solid handles, hull front plates size and angles, turret height, maybe even the gun lenght or muzzle size...

Worst Tamiya kits: King Tigers, GMC truck, Kubelwagen, Jagdpanther, Hetzer, Citroen staff car, 251 half-track.

Tamiya KVs and T-34 are far inferior to Hobby Boss (notably because of the driver visor plate height in the case of the KVs).

In fact, all my favourite 1:48 armor-vehicle kits are usually by manufacturers OTHER than Tamiya: The Jeep, BMW and Japanese truck by Hasegawa are good. The Hobby Boss T-34s are superlative and their KVs even more so, except that Tamiya KV tracks are better.

The AFV Club Sturmtiger is by far the best "big" assault gun in 1:48th scale, and their SdkfZ 251 is by far the best half-track... These, along with the Hobby Boss Soviet tanks, are the real best of 1:48th scale in my view, but most can benefit from excellent Tamiya tracks. This is not the case of the AFV Club 251, whose rubber bands are far more accurate than the awful Tamiya 251 plastic tracks. They are actually very good for the rubber bands that they are...

We are still a long way from 1:35th quantity, but some quality is already out there...

Gaston

Look what this guy made as shown on onefortyeight dot com with the Tamiya 251 - is it really that bad???

There are some cracking kits on the market for 48th, for a newish concept I think it is doing really well! I have built several now and always find my self coming back to build something 48th.

Tamiya new halftrack is a great kit to start out with!

Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread a bit, but as campaign leader for the 48th Scale Campaign it is my sworn duty to take such oportunities to point to our cause...

There will be a 48th Scale Campaign in September: See here for more! Hope you will join us!

That's it for , as for your question: I built the Tamiya Firefly and it went together really well. The T34 I have in my stash also looks very nice.

Cheerio!

The new Tamiya 251's biggest problem is with the total lack of the very deep track shoes on the tracks: A completely different look... As is often the case with Tamiya's blind trust in museums or running-condition hardware, they slavishly copied post-war "runners" devoid of the original tracks. Said "original" was probably in this case using some sort of "Caterpillar" bulldozer substitute...

In addition the amount of empty space above the drive sprocket seems odd, even considering the visual effect of the tracks...

The final nail in the coffin is the superlative AFV Club offering, that is much better in every respect, including accuracy, price and even details...

I have to add I also resent the subject duplication by Tamiya over AFV, which is made inexcusable by the fact that the 1/48th AFV Club 251 halftrack was known to be coming for nearly three years... It was also likely not an "empty" promise by AFV, since it was openly discussed as ongoing by staff (quite unlike Tamiya secrecy), and already had a box art and catalog # for years... These types of delays are annoying, but not out of line for such a small maker with their first real "debut" full kit in a small starting market...

A survey on "Track 48" nearly two years ago showed the Churchill, US M3 halftrack and even the Italian M-13/40 to be clear and massive winners, and badly needed in our still "young" scale... It would be nice if Tamiya actually listened to quater-scale modelers, instead of totally ignoring them and offering low-production oddballs like the Marder III, or tripping themselves up offering confirmed non-RAF Tillys nobody knew they needed or ever asked for... Again, blind trust in museum paint jobs... Sounds familiar doesn't it?

Gaston

Ya'll need to listen to ole Gaston! He has built EVERY 1/48 scale armor kit ever made. None of them were up to his standards! One of these days he may even deem us worthy to show us one of his builds!

Newish concept? 1/48 scale armor pre-dates 1/35 scale armor going all the way back to the rubber band powered Lindberg kits and Aurora armor kits of the 1950s.

I was rather pleased with Tamiya's T-34/76 kit; I'm not an expert, but I thought it built up very nicely.

I've found that the AFV club Tiger I is brilliant, far better detail than the Tamiya version.

For Tamiya the Marder III is good and you can get a good Black Dog resin stowage set to go with it.

The Hobby Boss KVs are good and simple to build, and their T-34 is great with a full interior!

Hi Sabot, I should eat my own words, I had totally forgot about Bandai and the others, thanks.

Martyn

Steven -

I'm mostly a 1/35th builder, but for a change tried one of the Tamiya 1/48 kits. It was the Tamiya German King Tiger Prod Turret (TM32536). It was a pleasure to build, very nice details, and went together great. Here's the result;


You'll be happy with any of the Tamiya kits, just gotta choose one. If you're interested, I see that there is a "1/48 Scale Campaign" starting with builds beginning in September. great place to get ideas, info, and support. Enjoy,

Blade48mrd

Got the AFV Sturm for 11.99 plus 7 ship from Luckymodels two weeks ago!!