Introduction

The Tamiya Char B was released to much acclaim last year. It allowed modeller's to believe that Tamiya was going to continue to produce high quality 1/35th scale armour kits. This detail set from Trakz is just that, detail through installing new parts, it does not convert the vehicle into a different version.

contents

The set is supplied in a small plastic bag with a cardboard header. No instructions whatsoever are supplied, but once you look at the contents, they are fairly self-explanatory, being direct replacements for some of the kit parts.

I know very little about this vehicle, so again this is more of a preview than a review, hoping to just show what you get, and perhaps you can get an idea of whether or not you think it's worth purchasing.

What is worth mentioning in my opinion, is there is very little differences between these parts and what you actually get in the set. Firstly, the small cuploa structure atop the turret is offered in two versions. The first has the slotted vision holes uncovered, the second has them covered. Given that the Tamiya one allows you to model either option with a moveable plate......... the only reason for it's inclusion is it's slighty better cast texture which Tamiya has never been very good at reproducing. It also has six small ventilation holes in the top, which you would need a drill to reproduce, and rivets around the base, which could also be easily reproduced. The next part is the mantlet for the main gun. This actually is identical apart from the adition of five rivets.The other two parts included are both also the same as the kit parts apart from the fact that the structure with the rings is produced as one casting, whereas it's produced in two halves by Tamiya, which would mean you would have to remove the joint. The other small housing again has some added bolt detail around it's base. That's it.

conclusion

Apart from the ringed structure which means you don't have to remove a seam, then there's very little here the beginner couldn't reproduce. Given that fact, I really couldn't recommend this set at all.