I know there are at least two T48 members living in Japan, and according to Rainbow 10, the Tamiya 251 Ausf D was released yesterday. I am very much interested in reading about a comparison between the Ausf D from Tamiya, and the Ausf C from AFV Club? Yes, they are different variants, but still, how do the two compare detail wise? Should one await the Ausf D from AFV Club if one is going to get a few Ausf D's for various projects, or is the Tamiya kit right up there with AFV Club in terms of fidelity of detail?
And if you have a chance to put one together (some of us are fast builders when it comes to Tamiya!), what does it look like?
Dave Reed (Login dave37167) Registered Users 68.53.50.9
My thoughts exactly....
July 17 2009, 8:31 PM
Jihn, Looking at the instructions on Hobby Search...it seemed VERY basic....I mean the radio and instrument panel have no raised items...just the decal there...Things like that.
Either this is A-what they have to do to keep the price down, B- rushing it to market, or, C-giving the detail market to the AM companies. Take your pick.....probably all 3 in different amounts. I just hope it is accurate and fits well......
Dave
but we had surmised that before. There is no trailer brake connection, and the driver's pedals are molded with the floor. Assuming the basic shape is accurate, it should build easily and the weapons sprue can add a number of details. The lack of any details on the instrument panel or radio is a disappointment, but with the roof in place, the decals may look fine. Hauler will have PE faces for both anyway. The link and length styrene tracks should be popular. I suspect this was held to a strict development budget to reach a price point, and the idea of beating AFV Club to the market and skimming off the initial cream no doubt figured in the schedule. As much as I hate to see Tamiya molding to a lower standard, and what that portends for our scale, after you put a Hauler PE interior and exterior on this puppy, it will probably look almost as good as the forthcoming AFV Club version.
From a read of the instructions, it appears Tamiya is counting on the infantry weapons sprue to supply all the required parts to finish the interior. However, there are no MP40 magazine holders, no spare glass vision blocks, apparently no roof tarp hoops (usually carried on the upper right side) and the instructions do not appear to show where to mount the upper side pack rails, even though they are on the sprues. That's unusual for Tamiya, and I suspect a rushed schedule contributed. Also, there are no interior details for the drivers' armor glass vision blocks, front or side, unless they are molded in place. This will have to be a PE/resin set from Hauler, but the final result will probably very nice.
The shortcuts are disappointing, as they may point to Tamiya's losing interest in 1/48, and with no other suitor knocking at our door, that will hurt. Time will tell; the cynic mught say Tamiya felt they could skimp on the '251 D as it would sell no matter what. It will very likely be dimensionally accurate, but the AFV Club model will certainly beat it for included details. Note that the molded-in-place stowage boxes on the floor will make it very difficult to convert this kit into any variant that does not have all four stowage boxes installed. The Pioniere vehicles would be OK, but some of the SP gun mounts will not fly without a completely new floor piece. All solveable, but at an added price. It is what it is. let's build.....
...maybe some of the simplification is down to trying to attract more people to the scale, non-modellers, the, shall we say, 'less' demanding hobbyists? A bit disappointing as you say but it doesn't necessarily mean Tamiya are losing interest, if that were the case then surely they'd just drop the line.
I'll be going to the LHS to pick up a copy or two. Looks like a simple enough kit and I'm not too unhappy with that since I tend to get bogged down in details as it is.
At the risk of sounding like a Tamiya cheerleader, comparing the instructions for the comparable 1/35 251 D kit to the new 1/48 kit, the new Tamiya 1/48 Skid-fizz looks very similar to the larger offering; there are no spare vision blocks in that one either as far as I can tell from the instructions, although it does appear to have separate interior vision block detail for the forward looking vision ports and some other small parts not found in the TOTS kit, but that could be moulded in place on the back of the part. To me, this kit does not look any more simplified than the Marder was, and after building one of those, carefully adding back all the detail that Tamiya left out of the 1/48 version, it turned out you could not see most of it anyway under normal viewing conditions because it was either too small or too far down in the shadows. Actually, the instructions are almost the same, step by step, so unlike some of the others, this kit really is pretty much a miniaturization of the larger model.
One point of confusion that may not be helping matters is that it appears that the good folks at Hobby Search neglected to scan the last page(s) of the instructions; the final steps missing from the 1/48 instructions that can be found in the instructions they have posted for the 1/35 kit cover the attachment of the front fender assemblies and the equipment rails. I suspect there is also some more information on the final detailing using the supplied infantry equipment on those page(s) as well. Actually, since there are some additional rifles and such on the 1/48 infantry equipment sprue, the 1/48 kit can have rifles in the racks, a detail missing from its larger cousin and one that you will be able to see.
One point of interest that the similarity of the mouldings in the 1/48 kit to the larger 1/35 version raises is the possibility of a Kanonenwagen there is even one in the boxtop painting (hint, hint, methinks). Replace the sprue with the floor, fighting compartment front plate and figures in this kit with one containing the floor, gun and front plate for the Kanonenwagen and you have it. I think it may be premature to begin the gnashing of teeth over any loss of interest by our favorite TOTS manufacturer, who continues to provide us with the best overall line of kits in the scale by far and away.
There are a few indications in the kit that the SP gun version is in the works. A couple of extra parts and mounting lugs that have to be shaved off for this version.
they show a lot. Konrad made an excellent point in that this little feller seems to be a scaled down copy of the 1/35 kit, which I never built, though it is in the eBay stash to be sold. I still would prefer they add detail, not simplify their kits further, but Konrad is right: there are other variants in the works. He's no doubt right about the early model '251/9 Kanonenwagen, as Tamiya has done this before, but I also noticed some tabs on the forward upper sides that could be for a later '251/9 Stummel with the added raised side plates (or more deliciously, a '251/21 with the triple MG 151s....).
John, your shots show very well how nicely this kit goes together. I actually prefer the suspension assembly to the AFV Club with the added rings (of course,that could be because I managed to break most of the rings getting the parts off the sprues...).
Well, you know Jan Sobotka at Hauler is slaving away, and will no doubt have the PE and resin available by the time Tamiya USA has the kits for sale in the 'States. Nicely, if simply, done, and a great gap-filler indeed. Now, about those M2/M3 halftracks.....
I cant wait ,yes from johns pics i can see there is something else in the wind a stummel would be fantasic , a 251/21 drilling and a 251 /22 that would be on my wish list ,the after market boys will be able to make heaps of conversions as there is 22 odd sub tpypes so there should be something for everyone bring it on .johns a lucky bugger getting one so quick ,that will slow down the shermans have fun wayne
and the nice thing is that for contests, many of these conversions/variants can be used on the AFV Club ausf D where the extra included details will help in competition. If Tamiya were to do the /22, it would mean a new 1/48 Pak 40 and that can't be bad. The old Bandai Pak 40 is acceptable with some smaller detail added, but a new gun to modern molding standards would be better. It would also indicate Tamiya was about to release a new Pak 40 for the infantry. We'll see how this contest goes: AFV Club's ausf C is noticeably cheaper from most outlets than similar Tamiya kits. Maybe they'll be selling their ausf D for less with better details.
I think we have a Trumpeter-Hasegawa situation here: AFV Club loads its kits with a lot of the smaller details while Tamiya does the basic shapes well and depends on the aftermarket for the extras that some of us want. My bad..... The point about the box illustration is good too - several of Tamiya's kits have been featured as background items in previous kit box covers. IF they do the early Kanonenwagen as they did in 1/35, this could be reworked to fit into the AFV Club ausf C kit, if you need an earlier vehicle. They are going to sell a BUNCH of these.....
It does look very accurate in overall appearance, and no doubt they will skim off the cream, having gotten to market first. Much of the small detail that needs to be added is simple to do, like the missing roof hoops - just three strips of .010"x.030" (.25mmx.75mm) styrene with a couple of small chips across them for the holding brackets. For the missing armor glass blocks, you can make a simple mold from the AFV Club '251 parts using silicone bathtub caulk and mold the pieces from 2-part epoxy, or convert the Tamiya '250/3 GREIF into the '253 artillery spotter with the roof and crib all the spare glass blocks from that.
The Tamiya kit is overly simplistic and lacks finer details. I'll go
for the AFV Club kit as it'll be 1) more accurate 2) better detailed
AND 3) cheaper. And it also will look a whole lot better thanks Bill's
gorgeous resin link tracks:-)
If Tamiya wants to generate bigger sales with interesting subjects they
should again come up with something Russian, say a 1/48th scale version
of their very nice JS-2 Stalin kit - or even better - their T-55 (as this
would also attract more "new" modelers to TOTS). With some early German
and French tanks behind plus a Type 97 for the domestic market they can't
make much mistakes...
).