The news from the Heavy-Steel site is that in addition to the late production Jagdpanther and M4A1 expected in December, there will be a MK III Ausf L and a StuG III Ausf G released in February.
Glenn

Tamiya, is really impressing me with the speed they are jumping into this scale. These are very welcome additions. Now If they will start producing more figure kits it will make me very happy. Cheers Kevin

The Hobby Link Japan site says Tamiya's 1/48 scale line is extremely popluar. They have also listed the first three of Trumpeter's 1/48 scale kits as December releases. Also, there are many accessories to go with this line including metal track links for the Sherman and Tiger and soon to be released ones for the StuG. AcuStion makes stencils for these kits when they are released so as to avoid the extra work decalling requires. SkyBow is still in the game and announced yesterday that they have released injection-molded individual track links for both their Tiger kits.
Glenn

Two very exciting new releases, though it is a bit worrying that they are falling into the old sausage wagon routine.

I am not worried about that, those kits have sold pretty well in 1/35. Neither has been kitted in 1/48 and each is a pretty significant venicle. The Mk. III in particular opens up a lot of modeling possibilities as there are about 20 versions of that tank you can do without duplication. As they say, everything old is new again.

More specifically, I am not sure what they could do that would sell that has not been done before in 1/35, usually by Tamiya at some point. Some areas have not been covered heavily in 1/35, like towed artillery, but historically those kits have not been the biggest sellers. I think it is because artillery is pretty fussy to put to gether, and because a 1/35 gun and prime mover is a BIG model.

Size is less of an issue in 1/48 - artillery might be interesting to the average modeler in 1/48 if the kits were bundled - tow vehicle and gun - and included both a towed and deployed options. Here's one that has not been kitted - a M35 Prime Movers and a 240MM howitzer - that would be an intersting and expensive kit - the 240 is a two-load pull. Maybe there is a reason why it has never been kitted.

Tamiya could combine the themes of thank and artillery and do a Priest or a Hummel (that may be harder, as I think they streched the Mk. IV hull for that one), but those kits are not big sellers.

But if you really think about it, we all would be really happy if they did their entire line in 1/48 (which I suspect they will eventually do). I am rooting for the Dragon Wagon, the Pershing and oh, the Duce, but I do not expect them soon.

So expect a King Tiger and some more German tanks as Tamiya tries to occupy the field. It will be interesting to see where they go next.

Konrad

I don't mean worried about it from Tamiya's perspective.




Well, virtually nothing has been kitted in 1/48th.




Don't see why that matters -- the Tiger I, the Sherman, the Hetzer, etc -- all of these have had kits in 1/35th. All but the Citroen, AFAIK.

So, if as you argue virtually nothing has been kitted in 1/48 and if as you say nothing that has been done in 1/35 matters, exactly how is anyting new in 1/48 "old sausage" - that was my point.

Konrad

The kit lines by Bandai, old Tamiya, Aurora and even the Kitech, Zhengdefu and Academy motorized kits (OK, not serious models) make up a fairly wide range of vehicles.