Russ Amott provides a Built review of the IJA Type 1 Medium Tank by Fine Molds in 1/35.

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Thanks!

Hey Russ,
Nice review of what looks like a super kit.
A few years ago a friend of mine shipped me Fine Molds Type 3 Chi-Nu medium tank and it went together with little or no problems.
I don't think it needed any putty and I'd recommend their kits to anyone.
Cheers

jjumbo

nice review Russ, enjoyed reading.
seems like a good kit.
getting one should prove as a nice diversion from usuall allied / german buildsl.

James, thanks for helping me with this. John and Matan, thanks for the comments. I think this was the fastest build I've ever had. I'm looking now at the Type 97, which includes etch for the muffler covers, some extra details, and is on sale at Lucky Model. If I get it, I might be in trouble.

Russ, I always thought the Fine Molds kits were the best of the lot for IJA armor in WWII. Disappointing to hear they don't measure up. How do they compare to the Tamiya kits?

Thanks for the review. I've been eye-balling some of their stuff lately, particularly the 2 forthcoming trucks

Bill, I am going to get the Type 97 Shinhoto, which is upgraded. It includes etch for the muffler guards and some other better detailing, and is the same price online. It is better than the Tamiya kit, which has very soft details on the muffler and no sponsons. Real life references on the Type 1 are hard to come by, so that may have limited Fine Molds. I can get a Dragon smart kit at the LHS for the same price, which includes a lot more, but they don't do Japanese armor (yet).

Rudy, I was looking at the trucks, too. They look great and I have seen lots of photos of them from all over the PTO. The first price I have seen is $75.00 US. I hope that was wrong. Details from photos appear to be excellent. We need figures to go with them.

Of course, Vision Models now has indy tracks coming out for Japanese armor. Maybe we'll see more goodies in the future.

US$75? Ouch! I guess I'll have to wait until the price comes down Did you see the photos of the built up masters on the FM site? Very nice!

Regarding figures, well personally I subscribe to the "if it isn't commercially available: convert existing" crowd. We're a small crowd these days The 1/35 figure production community takes their lead from the vehicle manufacturers, ergo if we see more Japanese subjects produced, the figure guys will produce figures to support them. I don't like it, but I do understand the business logic.

I'll check out the VM links - I picked up the ancient Tamiya 1/35 IJA Type 1 75mm SPG over the weekend and it's in desperate need of AM stuff (and there don't appear to be any! )

Rudi

Fine Molds do offer some aftermarket upgrades for their kits which should fit the Tamiya kit, but I don't know how far they went. At least there would be some improvements for the hull. The Type 1 SPG actually made it into combat on Luzon, according to Taki's page.

For whatever reason, this kit arrived at our store reboxed as a Tamiya offering with the comment that the tank was a Fine Molds offering. It had some extra men as far as I remember but it was ridiculously priced and sent back immediately. This is the one aspect of Tamiya that leaves me cold; they pair up with some suspect kit makers (Italeri, Fine Molds, etc.) rebox them and boost the price. Sad to say, this looks like a trend from Tamiya that is not going to stop. I beleive it will hurt their otherwise excellent reputation.