Factory Replacement Parts?

There is a company in Japan called Rainbow Ten that you can order Tamiya and Bandai sprues from. The link is

http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/

I have never ordered anything myself, but one of the guys in model club has used them several times and reckons that they are efficient and fair priced. Recently he got the pak 40 and 2 wheel sprues for the Marder 3M. The 3 sprues plus airmail postage was less than 1/2 the cost of the whole kit here in Australia.

Hope this helps

Happy Modelling
Peter

I've gotten good service on replacements from Tamiya. Also, at one point, the sold me the 'turret sprue' without the kit so I could do a conversion.

Ron.

I have requested replacement parts from Hasegawa, Airfix and Revell Monogram on several ocations and received the part within 3 weeks. Only once did I have to resort to making my own because the kit was out of stock.

Tamiya, Hasegawa, Bandai, and Fujimi have all been great along those lines here in Japan. Tremendous customer service. I've always gotten what I've asked for, often for free, and very, very quickly. I've never made such requests when I lived in the States, but based on the above posts, it appears that at least Tamiya is on the ball overseas (outside of Japan) as well.

They've replaced parts for me for free--even after I screwed them up. Great service, too!
Gip Winecoff

I personally haven't had to use the service .... but I have heard that Tamiya U.S. is quite good to deal with on this issue.