Just picked up the new Tamiya 1/48 Tiger I and M4 Sherman...
Popped into Tamiya World today, and found the new 1/48 Tiger I and M4 Sherman kits on the shelves. The official release dates are November 30 (Tiger) and December 15 (Sherman), but Tamiya World was having a pre-release sale today (Nov. 27). Although I haven't been
too excited about this recent foray into 1/48 by Tamiya, the boxes just looked too cool to pass up, and they
were having a special pre-release sale, so I picked them both up for the total price of 2,800 yen (about $26 USD). The Tiger was 1,500 (about $12 USD) yen and the Sherman was 1,300 yen (about $14 USD).
The kits look great in the boxes. Plenty of detail, and the molding is sharp and crisp. The Tiger even has one of its sprues molded as a template to help modellers correctly recreate the track sag from the drive sprocket and the run around the idler for the link and length tracks (which are excellently reproduced).
Other observations:
The Sherman continues Tamiya's never-ending trend of open, bottomless sponsons. Why oh why leave them open?? The Tiger's sponsons are closed! No big deal to fix on the Sherman, but I've always wondered why Tamiya leaves the sponsons open on some kits. To save money? Seems pretty cheap to me.
Some tools are molded on in both kits. They look OK to me, but I know some folks can't stand that on a kit.
Both kits have die-cast hulls, which seems to be a proud selling point for Tamiya, as they go on and on in the literature and on the boxtop about how the "Die -cast chassis provides realistic weight and extra impact to small size scale model," and "adds extra weight and enhanced realism."
Sorry Tamiya, but I don't see how a "Die-cast chassis enhances realism." On the Sherman, you won't even see the chassis at all when it's finished.
To me, all the die-cast chassis adds is the need for an extra type of glue for construction (you have to use cyanoacrylate to glue the plastic parts to the metal chassis). No big whoop, but to me, the metal chassis is entirely meaningless.
The only other fault I can find with these two kits is the lack of figures. It would have been nice to have a couple in each kit, but I suppose they'll be sold separately.
Anyway, although I didn't think I was going to buy any of these new 1/48 kits, I did indeed succumb to the tempation and picked both of them up. I'm just a sucker for a pretty box!
They are quite small, but still bigger than 1/76 or 1/72 (of course), and if space constraints or aircraft compatibility are your main concerns, I think you'll love these detailed new kits.
I think they'll be available in Europe and the US by late December, or so said the Tamiya boys.