I am interested in Tracked S.P. guns. Italeri seems to have a good selection of these in 1/35 scale. How do these compare to Tamiya and Academy kits? I am building the Academy 1/35 M-12 155 mm SP gun right now, and its a great kit! Are the Italeri kits any good or should I look at different manufactures?

TIA,
Garry

Well Garry,

You're going to get some pro's and con's here. But objectively, they are not "new" Tamiya standard, but most of them are quite nice. The biggest problem are the ejector pin marks, but nothing that a bit of sanding or filling can't cure.
Are parts normally fit nicely. They come with rubber tracks, so like all other get rid of them and get some friul or mk tracks.

Also the figures included are so so, then again they make nice pratice and spare parts.

Hope this helps

Kris

Hi there,
If you want to make a fair compair, Tamiya turns out a lot more expensive, however, a perfect fit, great detail, and so on, makes the price worth wile.
In my opinion, the newest Italeri kits are very nice, good detail, and a good price. They need a bit more work....But that's modeling, isn't it?

Greetz, John.

I think that Italeri does absolutely honest kits, and the majority of them are good value for money. If you take as an example their M47 "Patton" (now oop but will soon hit the shelves again) despite it has been moulded in the 70s is, in my view, an excellent kit.
Ciao

Here's my nickel: Italaeri kits are usually more detailed (compared to the older Tamiya kits) in that they have a lot more parts, though the pin release makrds and sometimes sinkmarks are a pain in the foundation. Their figures are mostly of the leprechaun size.
Overall, I like the Italaeri kist for the amount of detail and the sometimes more unusual subjects they provide use with.

GARY,
In MOO that question is really nonapplicable. As you said.......you want to build SPH's
I dont think there is one SPH kit that has been duplicated by Italeri. You cant say the same for a tank. On an overall picture, I think Italeri kits cant be beeten for the money. Fit and overall detail are on par with others in the industry.

I am a great defender of Italeri for the following reasons: Firstly they do a lot of stuff that no-one else does (or would ever do). Secondly, although the quality can be variable, you don't mind a bit of PE or resin when the base price is so low. thirdly. when you buy Italeri, you know more or less what you are getting. Many newer modellers are a bit confused when they see the Tamiya "new releases" and don't realise they are getting an old kit with a new fret added at sometimes 3 times the price of Italeri...Jim

I d agrre a lot with JimBrae. Tamiya has been selling for many years in expensive prices kits that in early eighties might have been the best at their kind but after 10 years with their prices always goin up and the kits beeing the same , i dont think theyare a fair sell. On the other hand when you buy an Italeri kit its in a lows price - usually the lower in its kind - its not so bad or wrong but surely need more work and adding on to be very good project. But this way you can buy many models and stock kits havin to build even in pocket empty times and also sharpening your mind and skills trying to do the best out of it and having much space for improvements to do.I believe that the best for a modeller is to buy from several brands , though maybe he wil have a favourite one. I recently turn to buy a lot of afv and academy kits that are expensive enough but i believe they offer a fair amount of quality for the price you pay, when this is not happenig always with taniya that from 1980 has been my beloved brand.
Try to be selective and have ears and eyes open i believe is the best solution to stock kits and have nice stuff to build.

The M-107 and the M-110 are staples for your SPG collection.With decent modeling skills,they come out very nice. (++)

Except for the tracks (Skybow for the M109 variants) and sinkholes (some are in awful places), I like Italeri a lot! :-) You know what you are getting when you buy one of their models! :-)

Again, as another poster said, if you want to build 11/35 modern SPG's, Italeri is the only game in town. But they aren't bad kits. NONE have the trademark Tamiya motor holes. Their old release of the Panzer IV came with 3 variant options with both the long and short gun. (Other's would have tried to sell you at least 3 kits to get these variant.) Several of their molds seem to have been copied by DML/Dragon, eg, the PzKfw 38(t) hull and running gear foir the Hetzer and the M4A1 Hull hat is a perfect (even to locator pins) fit for the DML Easy 8 running gear.

Just to explain that there are several "synergies" between Italeri and other manufacturers:
- Tamiya sells re-boxed Italerei models in Japan in Tamiya's packagings
- Revell Germany and Italeri swap their moulds to commercialize the other's products (ie Revell Germany's M113 is the Italeri one and the viceversa for the Leopard 1A2)
- Zvezda uses the Italeri's moulds for "their" White M3A1, M 13/40, Semovente 75/18, Carro Comado Semoventi
- Dragon and Italeri work together on various Sherman's hulls
Ciao

The original DML M4A3E8 and M4A3 76(W) HVSS originally came with the Italeri M4A3 hull and all the assorted parts that are on the sprues. Word was that they had some sort of deal going with Italeri.

Italeri has done some very good kits. Not all are the best in detail, but they are all buildable. As far as self propelled howitzers, Italeri's M7 Priest, M107, M110A1, M109 thru M109A6 are all respectable kits. There are issues with all of them, but I would recommend any, especially since they are the only game in town for each type of SPH.

Revell of Germany boxes the Italeri M109 series with German specific fittings. They also box the M109A6 Paladin. Try Revell's PzHbtz 2000 for a huge SPH.

I like Italeri kits. Excellent value for MY buck.... They are not perfect, but pretty damn close, and I had great fun building their M107, M108 and the M109A2 (and done fairly well at shows with them too!).

Would I buy/build another Italeri kit? Dang straight I would!

Howdy all,

It was interesting to hear everyone's opinion on this topic. And if it makes any sense, I agree with all of you! My input on this subject is fairly simple, and it's probably not even worth a nickel, more like a post-WWII era Farthing. The way I look at it is two-faceted. One; Is it worth the sheckle's you have to shell out for the kit. And, Two; Would it be any easier for me to scratchbuild the thing!
Now, I also apply this theorem to the AM resin kits as well. Only there, the first point I brought up really comes into play!
Italeri, for the most part, serves it's purpose well. And, even though I would be the first to appreciate high standards in a box, I also think that sometimes we, as modelers, get a little too nit-picky about the smallest of things (of course, that's our nature, we're modelers for crikky sakes! ).

About Tamiya's constantly charging more and more for the same old moulds with a new sprue thrown in the box? I compare it to some of the software companies, like Adobe for instance. They wrote the code for Photoshop, what, 15 years ago! (not sure) And they still get away with charging a small Arab fortune for the bloody thing!!! Same software, with a few 'patches' added to justify the exorbidant salaries they pay their 'geeks-in-residence'. Sheeezh!

Tread.

Wow! Thanks for the responses guy's! Italeri it is for my SPH kits, for the reasons you all mentioned. Good selection for hard to find kits, comparable quality, affordable, and I'm not afraid to test my modeling skills!
So with putty in one hand and green backs in the other, I start my mission.
Thanks to all for your input, great site here!

Cheers,
Garry

For the money Italeri is well worth it. You can take one of their kits and go in any direction with them. Need a destroyed AFV? Their prices make it easy to do so. I use a lot of the M-900 series kits from them for my gun trucks and tractor conversions. Also like it has already been stated in this post they are the only game in town for a lot of different subjects.

Can't say I have had good luck with Itaeri kits. I bought their Ferdinand and was "severly less than satisfied" with the quality of the kit. It was promptly returned and I bought DML's Ferdinand. The quality was like night and day. The kit went together very well and I was quite pleased with it.

I have since learned that their Ferdinand is an old kit and not their best work. I wish I had seen Italeri's Sturmtiger before I bought Tamiyia's. The kit seems to have alot more detail and give alot more "bang for the buck" than Tamiyia.

I have always shouted the praises of Tamiya kits, but with the quality of DML and now Italeri improving Tamiya might price themselfs out of the market.

like everything else you have to take each kit individually italeri's jerry cans are fantastic tamiya's rubbish but i agree about the ferdinand kit as far as figures go no one can touch dml however its just my opinion yours may be different.