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But doesn't Tamiya's Patton have a plastic cover?
No, they don't. They have the worst of both worlds, in my opinion.
They have a fabric texture on the face of the mantlet and an area of fabric texture on the turret surface, but the mantlet is still free to move, so there is a gap all round.
You can't build an accurate turret out of the box, you _must_ add the side portion of the cover yourself and it's not easy to match that to the bit of texture on the turret so you end up buggering that up and having to reapply the hold-down clips, etc.
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I think if the old Tamiya kit has it a new DML kit should.
If it did, I'd agree with you, but it doesn't they compromised. For the same reason. I think they actually made a poorer compromise.
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Look at how much people complained about the T28?
They complained abuot the lack of a mantlet cover on the T-28?? I never saw that. I saw complaints that the use of the Easy 8 suspension as it compromised the shape of the tank, but nothing abuot the lack of a mantlet cover. Not that I don't believe you, I just didn't see it.
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Yeah, again that's an issue of spending large sums of money on their part but why do it if you're not going to do it right?
Why do it if you price yourself out of the market and can't make your production costs back?
That is _always_ the question and on this matter DML agrees with Tamiya (and Italeri) and have decided that the market (as a whole, not just us real fanatics) would prefer a slightly less expensive kit with more flexibility to position the gun elevation.
And I say Italeri above because none of the late Sherman, M26, M46 or M47 kits from any company come with a mantlet cover. Tasca has a cover for their late Sherman mantlet and it's in 4 pieces and fits just OK. It still needs some work. And people regularly comment (if no longer complain) about their kit prices.
It's a marketing decision. I'm OK with it.
I'm going to hack the arse end off my 103A1 kit anyway to make it an A2, so a little putty on the mantlet isn't going to throw me off much anyway.
