First ever Tank
- Thread starter meirion658
- Start date
HI Meirion well prefer the lastest tanks in my opinion
chrisb
chrisb
Yep,I agree with Alan...
Tamiya for ease of build. :smiling3:
My personal favourite of their's is the 1/35 M48 A3 Patton.
(You can get it for a good price too)
Tamiya for ease of build. :smiling3:
My personal favourite of their's is the 1/35 M48 A3 Patton.
(You can get it for a good price too)
G
The main suggestion would be to choose subject you actually like the look of. If you look at, say, a Tiger and think “What a clunky, ugly square, unappealing thing” then don’t buy a Tiger kit 
Ease of assembly probably points to Tamiya, yes, though others aren’t far behind — Takom kits assemble very well too, as do modern Zvezda ones (not their reboxes of older kits), for example. OTOH, stay away from brands like Trumpeter (fit not so great, sometimes many small parts for no apparent reason), AFV Club (many small parts for detail reasons) or Gecko (as AFV Club, except the small parts also include a lot of etched brass), to name a few.
Ease of assembly probably points to Tamiya, yes, though others aren’t far behind — Takom kits assemble very well too, as do modern Zvezda ones (not their reboxes of older kits), for example. OTOH, stay away from brands like Trumpeter (fit not so great, sometimes many small parts for no apparent reason), AFV Club (many small parts for detail reasons) or Gecko (as AFV Club, except the small parts also include a lot of etched brass), to name a few.
I'm joining the previous suggestions: check Tamiya catalogue (on line) or Scalemates and chose the tank you like best.
As an additional suggestion, dismiss the "early" Tamiya kits, as they are too old and they are not exactly "to scale" as they were designed to be motorized.
As an additional suggestion, dismiss the "early" Tamiya kits, as they are too old and they are not exactly "to scale" as they were designed to be motorized.
This would be my suggestion…
Try the Tamiya M4 Sherman. It’s an easy build and being (mostly) Olive drab in colour you can have fun with fading, washes, weathering etc without the added complication of a 3 colour camouflage finish of say a late war Panther or Tiger. In this way you can have fun experimenting a little and concentrating on trying some techniques. Also, because the Sherman has ‘live track’ the vinyl tracks will look acceptable straight out of the box (after painting them).
Obviously a great deal of this will come down to whether you like the look of a certain tank or not, but from a practical point of view this would be my choice. Tamiya M4s are also relatively cheap!
Paul
Try the Tamiya M4 Sherman. It’s an easy build and being (mostly) Olive drab in colour you can have fun with fading, washes, weathering etc without the added complication of a 3 colour camouflage finish of say a late war Panther or Tiger. In this way you can have fun experimenting a little and concentrating on trying some techniques. Also, because the Sherman has ‘live track’ the vinyl tracks will look acceptable straight out of the box (after painting them).
Obviously a great deal of this will come down to whether you like the look of a certain tank or not, but from a practical point of view this would be my choice. Tamiya M4s are also relatively cheap!
Paul
In the middle of building one
I thought John had one of these is the shop: https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/1-35-flakpanzer-iv-ostwind-6594-italeri/ Italeri are not as crisp as a Tamiya but, they do make a nice model. This would be something different.
Good choice Meirion!
Have fun!
I'm returning to modelling after a major absence. Always wanted to build a tank but never got round to it! Having worked at Bovington, the home to the UK's Armour Corp I couldn't resist the Challenger 2. (Having had the things deafen me for a number of years). So on a whim I purchased the RyeField CH2 TES version!!! (Before I joined this site).
THEN I read it's not really a good kit for a starter!!!! Hey ho - I have all the time in the world now. So after my Sea King I'll dive into the CH2 and just go for it!!! The working track links I think will be the biggest challenge, (No Pun intended).
THEN I read it's not really a good kit for a starter!!!! Hey ho - I have all the time in the world now. So after my Sea King I'll dive into the CH2 and just go for it!!! The working track links I think will be the biggest challenge, (No Pun intended).
Doug and Merrion if you build aircraft you can build afvs tamiya are a good jumping in spot but don't offer any challenges if thats what you want from the hobby ,all the kit manufacturers suggested will give you a start but at the end of the day in Doug's case who was it thought they cold define something as not suitable for starters ,you build aircraft whats the difference you open the box examin the parts study the instructions and off you go using common sense most boxes say something like recommend for 14+ im sure we all went past that along time ago ,oooh it had some flash so what ,dont touch kits from trumpeter you might have a couple of fit issues so what ,dragon seem to have gone out of favour in the past year or so why because people doomed the company for their poor instructions?No such thing as a bad kit just some are better than others just crack on and enjoy your selves its gluing bits of plastic together there's a learning curve to all of it from start to painted finish just ride the curve. Dave
PS is there any truth that tamiya now mark their boxes with 4+adult supervision recommend :tongue-out: :tongue-out3:
:smiling3:
Definitely can't go wrong. It may be an older Tamiya kit but built up it will look like a Panther :smiling: :thumb2:
G
That’s certainly a decent one to build as a first tank kit. It’s got many faults in terms of accuracy and detail, but as you say, it’s Tamiya so it’ll be easy enough to build. Better one of these and for cheap than an accurate but expensive kit that turns out to be way above your current skill.
I hope that's not how it turns out for me!!!!
The Tamiya 1/48 armour is very nice to build.
G
Happy days then Ian .
I think it would be nice if maybe a few of us did a back to basics build.Say get one of the Tamiya early range and build from the box without aftermarket.Just good old fashioned modelling.Im sure Mr.John Race might join me in doing a golden oldie Tamiya Russian kit.Now wheres that T34!!!!.
Rich
Rich
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