First Armor Model

What scale do you prefer?  Any particular era?  How complex are you used to doing your aircraft?  How experienced would you consider yourself? Own an airbrush?

T26E4

What scale do you prefer?  Any particular era?  How complex are you used to doing your aircraft?  How experienced would you consider yourself? Own an airbrush?

Not sure on scale: 1/35 maybe.

WW II

Fairly complex. Have used AM and minoe scratch built parts.

Mid Level

Yes I have two airbrushes.

I can heartily recommend Tamiya's M4 Sherman Early Production. 

What it has going for it:

Pretty inexpensive (IIRC it's among the cheapest of the Tamiya Shermans)

Apart from standard Tamiya Sherman issues (no sponsons, etc), engineering is excellent and there are pretty much zero fit issues.

It's dead simple. I built one of these as my first armor kit in something like 15 years. Got through main construction in one night at the bench.

VVSS suspension ran tracks under tension, so no need to worry about track sag like with many German or Russian subjects. The rubber band tracks that come with the Sherman aren't the greatest I've ever seen, but they're completely fine.

Only swap I might suggest would be a metal barrel for the 75mm gun. I believe I used a Jordi Rubio barrel on mine.

That's a good recommendation. Pretty much any of the later Tamiya offerings, say 90's to present. I would consider the Cromwell too. Very easy to break teeth on. One-piece tracks that are easily glueable except for poor Stikpusher. LOL

Others to consider:

• Pz III L
• StuG III B
• T-34's
• JS II

Very funny tigerman ;-) But yes I do agree that the Tamiya Sherman and Cromwell are excellent first armor kits. Also any of Tamiya's T-34s as well.

Mid level with a little aftermarket might be one of Dragons T-34/85's.Fairly straight forward,some brass and I think a barrel,and for me the easiest of the Magic tracks

Adding to those, maybe Trumpeter KV-1 tank or Tamiya StuG IIIB or Tamiya Pz III ausf N.

If you're looking for a companion piece for your Blitzkreig build, Tamiya has a couple of kits that would work great. They make an outstanding little Pz.Kpfw II Ausf. A/B/C in both 1/48th scale and 1/35 scale. The 48th scale kit would fit well with your aircraft if you build in that scale.

The 4th scale kit runs $22 http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=TM32570

The 35th scale kit is double that at $42 http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=TM35292

The tank is a personal WW2 German armor favorite of mine, probably because I grew up building the old Pz.Kpfw. II F/G.

I would recommend Dragon's King Tiger kits (the ones with zimmerit). They are a challenging enough to be fun, but not too challenging. They have good detail, and build into impressive models.