I love to build WWII armor and I would like to build Japanese armor, but, there isn't any! ..The Pacific theater played such a huge role in the war why aren't there more Japanese subjects. Tamiya has a few old tanks in their catalog. I'm sure the Japanese would have had artillery and soft skin vehicles, etc. Is it a sore spot with the Asian manufacturers..where most of the finest kits come from? Just curious. #42

I guess it's supply and demand... not much demand. You're right about Tamiya--they still produce the Type 97. The only other manufacturer I've seen is RPM Models from Poland (Type 79), and EAGLE CZ (who produces the only soft skin vehicle I've seen). Fine Molds used to produce several japanese tanks. Check squadron.com or ebay.

Happy hunting!
BARtender

dragon released a kit that is based on windtalkers, it has us marines and japenese infantry. apart from that i cant think of any others.

Cheers,
Paul

for vehicles in 1/35 go to www.hlj.com/cgi-local/category.cgi. click on 1/35 and than imperial series.

for figures I am sure that the warrier range (www.modelmecca.com) has some.

Cliff

Fine Molds makes (made) several high end WW2 Japanese tanks. I've seen one with an original price tage of $139.99. Japanese just didn't use that many tanks.

Hola!

Warriors has released several Japanese figure sets in the past few months.
A couple of them are WA 35451 and WA 35461. Check them out at http://www.Squadron.com or at http://www.modelmecca.com

Anders

Japanese is one of my interests too and the lack of subjects is unfortunate.
Sabot is right on the prices FineMolds charged but they have slowly come around and now they can be found for $40.00 or so;I'm currently working on one of their small two man tankettes,Tamiya quality,with PE and a full interior.
Here is a source for more Jap figures. HTH
http://japanesearmorking.com/

Grizzly

hey guys your right, aside form old tamiya kits fine molds is the place. I think i might be able to help as i did for the gundam guys as i live in japan and every shop carries the entire fine molds line, especially the one i frequent. all i ask is an email and a tank name and i'll hunt it down. my addy is [email protected] . I'm changing my policies though, i'll send you a yen price, the estimate in usd, and postage guestimate, which is usually $10 to the states and $16 to canada. after that send money and i send kits with receipt of payment. Sorry guys i have been stuck with kits too many times. good luck stug

Just out of curiousity, how much are Fine Molds armor kits there? The only one I've ever seen has an original sticker price of $140. And, is the kit really worth that much? Heck, I could buy 3 top line Tamiya kits at MSRP for that amount.

i,ve seen them from 3000 to 4000 yen at my local shop. meaning its at most 38 USD. I'm actually impressedat the difference in prices since moving here to japan. i'm paying on average $20-$40 dollars less on kits from tamiya, bandai, fine molds, and hasagawa. Like i said i'll be more than happy to price kits for anyone, but i won't purchase or send anything til i get the money to pay for the kit. good luck stug

For figures, you can often find the wonderful AIRFIX JAPANESE INFANTRY multi-pose kits on Ebay. They are discontinued, and not as frequent as the Brit, Germans and DAK, but I just bought a set last month for around $30.... but have seen them and the US Infantry kits go as high as $60.

As for the level of interests, I once asked this of someone in the industry... here is more or less what I was told....

"The senior staffs of the vernable Japanese firms Tamiya, Hasagawa, and a few othe felt somewhat at a loss for how they should portray their role country's in WWII.... most felt that the market would be small, and German's sell better anyhow... so why drag up our wrongful and inglorious past by putting it in plastic to remind the world?"

Thankfully, that opinion has seemed to have changed with several recent releases....

ok ijust got back from a shop here in japan the most expensive fine molds japanese tank was 3500 yen which is 30 usd at today's yen rate. so does that help any of y'all out there...stug

I may have to take you up on the offer. I don't build WW2 Japanese armor (although I did build a Tamiya one back in the early 80s). I'm just curious to see why they charged so much for the Fine Molds tanks. How would you like payment if I did ask you to get me one? Do you have a rundown of the various ones readily available? I *hate* to send you back to the hobby shop. Do they have an amphibious tank?

I don't know about an amhib tank. they have 2 mediums tanks. A type 1 and type3 for 30, and several of the smaller tankettes and lite tanks for about $20. E-mail me and I'll get you the payment options, but i do have a paypal account as well and money order is fine as well you can the money order in USD, as we have an American Bank in the local area.If your Email me at [email protected] and i'll reply with the specific if for payment. good hunting stug

Rob--Fine Molds used to make only resin kits and they have since switched over to injection molded styrene. Are you sure that the kits that you have seen weren't the resin ones? I have never seen a Fine Molds kit for more than $60 and that high price was because it was in my local hobby shop. I have the entire line of Fine Molds plastic armor and they are simply beautiful. I got them all through HobbyLink Japan for an average price of $30. They make the Type 1, Type 3, Type 97 Te-Ke, two version of the Type 94 TK, and two versions of the Type 95 Ha-Go. A couple of the kits come with full interiors, most have PE, all have beautiful rubber band tracks, but a couple come with both rubber band and single link. The only exception on the tracks is the Type 1 and Type 3 can be found in special boxes that come with ModelKasten tracks instead. If anyone out there has any interest in Japanese armor do yourself a favor and get a Fine Molds kit. They are EVERY bit as good as Tamiya kits. In regards to the amphibious tank, these are only available in resin. Yellow Cat makes one and I think Pit Road does as well.

Stug--Can you get Yellow Cat kits in your local hobby shops? If so could you look for their Japanese amphibious tank and there Japanese WWII APCs for me and let me know what those run. If you can get those, we will definately have to work out a deal because I have wanted those kits ever since I first saw them built by Jim Hensley.

For finding Fine Molds products I would suggest looking at: HobbyLink Japan. Even if you don't buy the kits from them you can see a full listing of what is available and see pictures for a lot of the stuff.

Another site that may be of interest is: Washington Armor Club. Jim Hensley is a member of the club and his favorite subject area is Japanese armor. The link will take you to the page that has links to all of his Japanese models (well at least the ones that he has posted) and he tells you what he has used for each kit.

In summary, besides the old Tamiya kits Fine Molds has a nice line of kits, Yellow Cat makes great resin stuff, Pit Road makes some wonderful resin stuff and also some all metal kits, the Japanese Armor King has some nice stuff, and finally MR Models has a couple of conversions for the old Tamiya kits.

Useful links:

HobbyLink Japan - a good vendor that carries tons of manufacturers' products including Tamiya, Fine Molds, and Pit Road.

Rainbow Ten - a great vendor that carries many manufacturers' products including Tamiya, Fine Molds, Pit Road, and is the only place I know of to get Yellow Cat stuff. These guys have extremely fast shipping too! Their site is a bit hokey, but it is worth looking at them. You can get GREAT deals on kits produced in Japan such as Tamiya. I purchased the Tamiya T-34/76 Chtz version that goes for $30 - $40 here in the states for 2000 Yen which is about $17 and shipping was around $5 and the package arrived in 8 days.

Japanese Armor King

MR Models

Washington Armor Club -- Lots of useful Japanese references, build up articles, and photos of completed kits.

HTH

Thanks to everyone who replied! I think I know where to go now for Japanese kits. Jeff

im still out there looking for the yellow cat kits, i thinkl the scan of the box will keep funny looks to a minimum. but as soon as i find a source for them i'll post a reply in this thread, they seem to be a nice set of conversion to get mt paws on for y'all.. good hunting stug

Yes Adam, it is a plastic kit. I think it's the HA-GO version tank that has a retail of $95 at Great Models. It looks like it's been in the shop for forever (shopworn shrinkwrap). The original price was $139.99, but when I arrived in the area (Sept. 01) it had a sale sticker partially covering that price with a new price of $99.99. Just recently (around Christmas) they put another sale sticker on it for $69.99. I do believe the side panel of the box shows that it includes individual links.

Rob--O.k. I know what you are talking about now. That kit is one of Fine Molds' first efforts in plastic. They are great kits, but the newer ones are the exact same kit with different box art and a hell of a lot cheaper. With the older kits you are paying for the fact that Fine Molds' first kits were very limited production while their newer kits are much more mass produced. If you go to HobbyLink Japan and do a search on 1/35 "Type 95" you will see every version that they ever released. They have the earliest kits which run anywhere from 8000 to 9800 Yen (USD $55 - 83) while the new Type 95 kits all run 3500 Yen (USD $30). I'm starting to confuse the many Fine Molds kits that I have at home so I don't want to tell you what's in the box before I have a chance to actually open the box. I know that the new kits have PE and a few white metal pieces, but I can't remember if the new (cheaper) Type 95 kit has single link or rubber band tracks.

HTH