Here is Tamiya’s 1/48 US Staff Car, 1942. This will be part of a diorama I’ve been commissioned to do.
The kit is a basic curbside kit with no engine compartment, though it has a separate hood. The interior consists of front seat, rear seat, steering column with directional stalk and shifter, steering wheel and dash. There are no instrument details of decals but these would be nearly impossible to see in the enclosed vehicle. The glazing consist of windshield, rear window and back window and two front windows. Tamiya molded ice locator receptacles for the windows in the roof reducing the likelihood of glue on the clear parts. Chassis is die cast metal with two simple axels and front and rear suspension parts. Hub caps are molded separately from the tires eliminating the need to mask these. The bumpers are separate pieces as is the trunk latch/rear license plate. The builder is advised to remove the civilian style plates for a military vehicle. There are decals for the civilian plates and markings for one OD military car. The decals for the fender guards at the back of the rear doors could not comply with the compound curves and had to be carefully painted. Otherwise, the decals set down very nicely.

Once again something NOT available in 1/35th. Why not?

Because there's already a thousand other kits to make or buy in 1/35 maybe?

Great job on your model! I hope its future owners will be happy with their new car.

Al

Great looking model, great finish.

And I will second "why is this not available in 1/35 scale", I would buy one.

Kevin

Kevin . I see you say that about every 1/48 release. Why not just build the 1/48 kits then? You'll have more space on your shelves for more models

AJ. What is the diorama going to contain?

Been modeling in 1/35th since way before 1/48 came back into vogue. I want to keep EVERYTHING in the same scale. It is nearly impossible to explain away the relative differences in scale among airplane models now when guests come over and start asking questions. I don't want the same things happening with my armor.

If you're gonna offer it in the one scale then offer it in both! It is not that hard especially with today's fast digital prototyping capabilities.

Greg

You know what, I think I will give it a try, next visit to the Hobby Store, I will pick up a 1/48 scale kit and give it a shot. Maybe even this staff car.

Thanks
Kevin

Thanks for the kind comments.
There will be a Revelogram B-17G, the staff car, a Hasegawa jeep for the air crew and an Accurate Miniature tow tractor along with the kit figures and Verlinden's Air Crew and Ground crew figures and metsl tools/toolboxes. The base is a 22X28 inch frame.

Wow!! That should be a killer dio display. It's nice to see ground items and aircraft together.

Im planning a scene of T-34s running over and shooting up planes and flak outside Stalingrad (or just a plane more likely)

Also you mention that the 1/48 staff car has no engine. Again that is why I prefer 1/35th. At least most of the models coming out in 1/35th today have a full under carriage and an engine.

When I finish building a model I would like to think I have learned at least as much about a vehicle as I would if I had crawled around the real thing for a couple of hours.

I end up feeling that 1/48th is often a step backwards into the early days of plastic modeling!

Just my opinion!

p.s. I really would like this staff car to be offered in 1/35th. I have wanted it for a long time. However, I want it with full chassis and engine.

Might have something to do with the fact that the first car I can remember us owning was a 1941 civie Ford and me crawling around while my Dad worked on the engine.

Got to agree with Michael on this one. I just fail to see why anyone would release 1/48th scale armour kits. I can understand aircraft being 1/48th as they're huge compared to a tank but as an armour scale? Does nothing for me at all. I'll stick to 1/35th thanks...

You are right on that last point, but keep in mind that this is only something Tamiya's own marketting department has put on the scale, trying pathetically to reach a non-existent beginner/diecast audience, and even then mostly during the year 2006 that includes about one half or 2/3rds of all Tamiya 1/48th vehicles releases (this underdetailed and inaccurate staff car -roof thickness among other things- being one of the few later years exceptions): Try out anything from most of the (few)other 1/48th makers, and you will see this impression of stepping back in time is purely one of Tamiya's doing: All the others often put in very refined and intricate details, with no ridiculous metal hulls or solid grab handles, including the Hobby Boss T-34s that beat anything ever done in 1/35th...

Besides that, I think a medium-sized universal scale makes a hell of a lot more sense than an overly large scale of 400 part kits, that corresponds to no other area of the hobby, and thus splits the hobby into finer niches...

Now we could definitely use more sofskins, as long as they are somewhat better than this...

Gaston

Michael- I agree with you on the releases. Tamiya does eventually come around. The JS-2 came out in 35th first, then later in 48th. Same with panzer2, Matilda, Jagdtiger, etc. So they just reverse the order among the scales I guess.

I don't think I've ever seen Tamiya do an engine, but their suspensions are usually good (Humvee). Aftermarket pe/barrels and engines can be found by Verlinden, CMK, Hauler so you can add as much detail as you want in 48th just like any other scale depending on how much time and effort you have available.

I've seen plenty of well done 1/48 models so I'm not sure why some people are so against them. I appreciate their size that allows enough detail but size wise allow me to build and display more in my limited space. (I do have a couple 1/35 and 1/16 tanks too. My dad built things in every scale so I have exposure ).

I'm sorry AJ your build thread turned somewhat into a scale debate instead of seeing the model.

My Two Cents - Me Wantee in 1/35 or 1/32 scale too !!...
I have just gotten HK`s monster B-17 and this would look great next to it.
Hey Mr. T HINT HINT

Hi, All! I like to keep my scales separated, too. I model 1/35 Military Vehicles of all types, 1/48 Aircraft, 1/24-1/25 Classic Automobiles, HO Brass Steam-Era Locomotives and Trains (No, no layout- everything is behind glass) 1/48-120mm Figurines and a few 1/350 ships here and there. I don't do dios anymore- they take up too much space.

I agree that it would be nice to have the TAMIYA US ARMY Staff Car in 1/35. Even though I model 1/48 Aircraft, I don't want to get into 1/48 AFVs, even though more of them are becoming available. At this point in time, there's so much more variety for AFVs and Softskins in 1/35, so building the same in 1/48 would just create a lot of redundancy in my various collections.

ICM has opened a few doors with their 1/35 Packards and Axis autos, so maybe we'll see some other US makes such as the Fords, various General Motors car-makes, some Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths and possibly Ike's 1941 Packard? Would be nice to see some Rolls-Royces, Maybachs, Horchs, BMWs, Skodas and Steyrs as well... Maybe even a Wanderer or two? The ICM wartime cars have opened a whole new genre in 1/35. I hope that we'll see more of them...

Very nice model Al.

In a way I wish 1/35th scale had never been invented. With all the great 1/32nd scale aircraft out there I wish that the popular armor scale had gone in the same direction.

In any case 1/48th is too small for my tastes. I want something I can put very bit of detail into that is possible.

Just reposting a photo found on line;



Cheers

Hi Michael - that's true of 1/35. It has a bigger size so more detail can be added. But that's also some of the perks of 1/48. You can get away with adding less details when you're a modeller in a time and space crunch as myself. Or if you want to spend more time on other aspects of a diorama.

Here's the 1/48 Bronco Staghound by Pat Johnson. You can see plenty of detail still


or a 1/48 Tamiya M8 with Hauler/aftermarket added




compared to my OOB Tamiya M8 with some Blackdog stowage on top and more time spent on a scene and figures




There's a huge 1/48 gallery on track48.com and http://onefortyeight.com/gallery/index.html to see what others have done. I'm not against 1/35 but I wish 1/48 was given more due respect for what it offers to the modeller


Lastly for space comparison, my 1/48 Hobby Boss T34 diorama compared to my dad's 1/35 Italeri Opel Blitz (I think it was 1/35?)


Here's one off the web of 1/35 and 1/48 Sherman

Nice try, very good models all but you're still not gonna convince me. I go with 1/35th BECAUSE I can get my hands and eyes around the detail!

that's what my dad says too. Blames his old eyes haha. I think that opel must be 1/25 scale. Well someday you'll see a 1/48 armor kit you can't resist

Hi! I'm just an old-fashioned traditionalist- 1/48 aircraft, 1/35 armor, 1/24-1/25 classic cars, HO brass steam-era locomotives and trains, 1/350 ships and 1/35-120mm figurines... I keep my various scales separated in different display cases...

Since 1/35th is not aircraft-compatible, nor compatible with anything else, it actually makes a bit of sense to come out with a softskin in 1/48th first.

Armor in 1/48th make less sense, especially armor of the obscure and oddball type, yet that is much of what we got right away...

1/48th scale vehicles would have been much more popular if they had started with quite a few softskins and service vehicles.

To compound this, that 1942 staff car is inaccurate and simplistic, and this is not the way to popularize this scale...

Gaston