Relatively new to these parts, but not to modeling. I was wondering why those who care to share have chosen 1/48th over 1/35th? For me, I am pretty much hooked on them for one reason: Common scale with my aircraft models - adds a real sense of scale to my displays and allows me to combine subjects (an A-36 Apache and M20 Armored Car for example with a Division fires officer discussing targets with a squadron commander).
Also, does anyone believe that Tamiya's 1/48th MM figures are a little small? When I look at them next to their figures that come with aircraft (the pilot for a MiG-15 for example) they see smaller - maybe the pilot is big?
Finally, while I love the Tamiya range for its ease of construction and pure build pleasure, I have picked up Hobby Boss's T-34 with interior and am stunned by the level of detail with the kit. I would love to include interior detailing in other kits as well - a full interior (at least the driver's and fighting compartments) with my recently purchased AB-41 would be great. Are there interior detail sets available for this scale? I appreciate all replies and opinions and wish everyone the best this season.
Cheers,
Matt
For me, I am pretty much hooked on them for one reason: Common scale with my aircraft models - adds a real sense of scale to my displays and allows me to combine subjects
Exactly! IIRC, that's the reason our esteemed leader (that's YOU, Garfield) started this website.
Plus, the finished dioramas don't take up nearly as much room.
Case in point: Hasegawa is coming out with an F1M2 Pete floatplane that will include a tractor (at least in the introductory kit). I can envision a waterside diorama that would include the Pete, tractor, a fuel tanker and maybe a Kurogane. No one could do this in 1/35 or at least not easily.
Also, does anyone believe that Tamiya's 1/48th MM figures are a little small?
This is well documented. For whatever reason, Tamiya has decided to make it's 1/48 figures closer to 1/60 than 1/48. This isn't too much of a problem when those figures are the only ones used, but when you start mixing and matching (even with Tamiya's own aircraft figures), you start getting problems.
I would love to include interior detailing in other kits as well - a full interior (at least the driver's and fighting compartments) with my recently purchased AB-41 would be great. Are there interior detail sets available for this scale?
There are some interior detail kits from the likes of Verlinden, Gaso.line and others. Not any for the AB-41 that I know of yet, but some one might do one.
and all the benefits of good detail with compact storage size, and easy large diorama compatibility with railroad & aircraft, etc.
It's a logical scale. Also, you have an option of a fast build versus a long one.
Why not? George Bradford and I, among others, have felt this is the best overall scale for modeling military vehicles. It's small enough that you can have a decent collection displayed in a small place, and large enough that the individual models can be detailed decently should you decide to do so. Though many of the Tamiya kits are simplified OOB, they can all be detailed as far as you care to go, allowing the beginner and the pro as much leeway as possible to build the models you want exactly the way you want.
I agree with most of the above reasons, but as Bruce stated above they are kind of simple OOB, so if you are planning on entering comps with them be prepared to buy a lot of AM, as you will most likely be competing against 1/35!
The handling of 1/48 military vehicles in contests is widely variable. In some shows, the 1/48 entries are lumped in with 1/35 scale stuff. In others, 1/48 finds its way into the 1/72 scale categories.
I have also seen an increasing number of contests with categories created specifically for 1/48 military vehicles.
Finally, some progressive-minded IPMS chapters have adopted AMPS-style open judging. There are a few with which I am familiar in the eastern United States, for example those in Pittsburgh and central Pennsylvania as well as Richmond, Virginia.
As some others have mentioned in the past, the best thing that we can do to ensure that TOTS gets the acknowledgement that it deserves is to put as many quality models on the tables at as many different contests as possible.
I myself just wish there were more "mainstream" kits of Japanese, French, and Italian subjects. I know Gaso.Line makes a number, but my preferred medium is styrene, so I suppose with time and as the market expands these will appear. Maybe a little bit off topic, but has anyone noticed an almost palpable dislike among many armor models for 1/48th scale armor? On other sites I have posted on in regards to 1/48th, there are more than a few replies that basically state how betrayed they feel by Tamiya for making armored vehicles in this scale, how much they hate the scale, and how much they hope it fails... I really don't get the intense dislike for 1/48th scale by the 1/35th crowd... I never hear anyone treating 1/72nd or 1/76th like this. Cheers!
I think it's called fear. Fear of Tamiya going over completely to 1/48. Fear that all other model companies will put more resources into 1/48. Fear that 1/48 will become the scale of choice for AFV modelers.
This happens in all types of different hobbies. One of my other hobbies is photography. In photography, there is the constant fear that Canon or Nikon or Sony or whatever brand that you do not use is going to come out with a better DSLR system that everyone is going to flock to, leaving you with an obsolete and undesirable system.
Usually these fears are unfounded and there is little to worry about. However, every once in a while there is a paradigm shift. I don't think that's going to happen in AFV modeling, however.
Sad really, that 35thers should feel so threatened! If they thought about it, they already have enough kits and accessories to keep them building for hundreds of years! Each! And yet they want more.... And rather mean-spiritedly, they don't want anyone else to have anything new either.
I agree with the fear quote and especially since many of those most "anti-1/48" tend to have the biggest stashes and build the least. I was once relayed a story of how an acquaintance was dressed down in a LHS for purchasing a Tamiya 1/48th scale tank. He said the guy layed into him about how he could support such an afront to the armor community... Imagine that! He bought the kit and left quietly. If it was me, I would nod my head in an understanding manner, turn around and buy three more - just to rub it in. Anyway, after I finish the remaining 1/35th scale kits in my stash (3 more remain), I will make the complete switch. Cheers!
Hi All;
Bruce and I have championed 1/48 scale ever since Tamiya ALMOST went that direction back in the 70's with the Hawk/Tamiya Crusader.
Unfortunately Tamiya "backed into true armour modeling" by producing motorized children's kits that were bigger so they could hold batteries. This scale eventually was refined as 1/35, a scale that had no history or following.
As Tim has pointed out, 1/48 has been around for hundreds of years and thus is TOTS purely by longevity.
Finally, I can UNDERSTAND 1/4" to the foot = 1:48 scale.
Somehow I find it frustrating to work with 8.71mm to the foot for 1:35 scale.
I've just found this forum, and as a fan of 1:48th modelling this is a good find. For me, I'm not so much of an aircraft modeller (yet) but I've found that 1:48 is the only scale I can take to and fully appreciate.
I've modelled in 1:72 for years but the lack of detail and small size for figure and vehicle modelling just became far too frustrating. I spent a couple of years building up a small 1:35th collection which provided the detail, but the size of any reasonable diorama or vehicle display was too great, I couldn't display much with the limited space I have.
When Tamiya launched their 1:48th range, that was the perfect solution for me; all the detail of 1:35th but in a far more compact package. Perfect where nothing else will work for me. I find the modelling and finishing skills are akin to 1:35th, and similarly good results can be acheived, just scaled down. Incidentally I sometimes take to the wargaming table for skirmishes and 1:48 is perfect for this too.
Just to stir the pot with Dan, let's just take Tamiya's Panther G (1/48) as an example: Kit - $24; Hauler's PE sets; Fenders, Exterior Details, Kisten (rear stowage boxes); Schurtzen, total $37.80; PB turned barrel - $6; Friul tracks, or WWll Productions- $30-33. Grand total - around $100. That's the delux package for the 'perfect' model. Dragon's Panther G: plastic parts are so well detailed little PE is needed, where PE is needed it is included, turned aluminum barrel also included; indie tracks always included. Total cost, around $60-65 for 'perfect' 1/35 model. Let's not kid ourselves; we may not all be 1/35 fans, but to build a (Tamiya) 1/48 kit to the same standard as a 1/35 (Dragon) can, in the end, cost more than the larger scale kit. Granted, not every modeller will want to add every bit of AM, and some are content to build OOB, but these are ballpark figures for those with AMS.
The costs of aftermarket items are going to be roughly the same, lump of resin to lump of resin, square inch of etched brass to sqaure inch of etched brass, whatever the subject matter. The costs of researching, mastering, moulding, packaging, distribution etc don't change because of the scale of the product; apart from, of course, the likely number of sales it might achieve in its given market. And that is the crux of the matter. If Dragon, or Italeri, or Airfix, or Hasegawa, or Bandai even, thought there as money to be made, they would be in there like long dogs!
Tamiya have forged this new market as a response to the over-saturation of the 1:35th scale market, so they can return to the mass appeal of the staple subjects, the Tigers, the Panthers, the Shermans etc, without any competition. They have the financial wherewithall to churn out new kits as fast as they have done (what, over 60 kits in 4 years; maybe more!) and have established themselves as the leaders in this Brave New (small) world. They are the pioneers.
Now come the settlers, with Hasegawa and Italeri setting out their shops in the dust of the great Mr T. Of course, once in a while, we come across the bleached bones of Bandai kits, who trudged out into the desert all those years ago, but they just didn't take enough water with them. And then there were the SkyBow guys who started out with such high ideals, but from the west coast, and they ran out of steam before they got across the Rockies. Perhaps AFV will be able to start laying tracks ( OK, half tracks) where Skybow left off...
But we are still in the Wild West period right now. We still have lots to do yet, but it is an exciting, envigorating time to be in this particular hobby. Yeeeee Haaa!!!!!
Tim
PS How can you tell a pioneer? He is full of arrows.....
As a child, the most affordable and available armor kits were the old Aurora 1/48 scale kits. My first tank model was the MBT70, which I still have (albeit rebuilt with the help of a donor kit in the 90s). I believe I built the entire Aurora tank line with the exception of the Japanese Type 97 tank kit. My parents were born in Indonesia of Dutch descent and lived under Japanese occupation during WW2, they would not have bought a Japanese tank model for me.
I discovered a Bandai T-34/76 in 1987 and loved it. I spent a few years searching for other Bandai kits. When Tamiya introduced their new range of 1/48 scale kits, I was hooked.
