Kangnam 1/400 Tirpitz

Can't help with this kit, sorry, but I feel your pain as I am currently laboring over a 1/600 Kangnam USS Missouri. Thankfully the deck fit (mostly) on top of the one-piece hull, but as for the rest ... good thing my wife bought be a Dremel a few years back!

Hasegawa did produce a Shinano.  However, it was manufactured over a decade before new research into that ship showed us that it was wrong in many details. The Tamiya 1/700 Shinano is much better.

Bill Morrison

The HMS Vanguard is going to be released in plastic and in 1/700 by Flyhawk. It is supposed to be a full hull optional kit.  I have no doubt that it will be exceptional.

I once built the 1/430 model by Hasegawa but it was awful. Details were very poor, cranes molded as solid pieces, the superstructure was poor with no details whatsoever.  I also have a 1/700 Vanguard in resin, which is alright. Its major flaw is that it is waterline only, which I despise.

I will go with the Flyhawk kit once it is released.

Bill Morrison

This kit is  neither a copy of the Heller or scaled down from Tamiya. I have the Kang Nam 1/400 Bismarck that I built a long time ago. The KN kit is much better detailed than the Heller kit (although the lines of the Heller Bismarck and Tirpitz are better).  I do prefer the Heller kits because of the overall shapes and the ease of detailing.

Bill

OK troll, but it's a really old and useless thread.

 

 No interest. Hmmm..  

 

 This forum has declined. 

Interesting.  

The Hasegawa kits were actually 1/450 scale (or thereabouts - the actual scale seems to vary slightly, e.g Vanguard is about 1/430). The range definitely included the Bismarck/Tirpitz, Yamato/Musashi, Missouri (probably issued as other Iowa-class ships), Akagi, and HMS Vanguard (this one was also issued by FROG in the UK). I think they also produced a Shinano.

According to Rajen's List (http://www.quuxuum.org/rajens_list/shiprevs.html) the Hasegawa Bismark/Tirpitz kits are wretchedly poor (and the Tirpitz is basically a reboxed Bismarck) so the Kangnam kits probably aren't based on these.

I have the Akagi, which, as you say, is an excellent kit. Other than the odd scale, I can't find much fault with it other than the moulded-solid undercarriage legs on the Zeros (incomprehensible since the B5N Kates have seperate undercarriage parts!)  On the other hand, the Hasegawa Missouri kit (which I was recently given by a fellow modeller) is very basic (though it appears fairly accurate in outline) and is downright crude in some areas - the Seahawk floatplanes are particularly bad. I don't really recommend this kit to anyone, though I will attempt to build mine as it was a gift (once I find some suitable references for detailing it)!
I've seen a Musashi kit at a collector's fair and it didn't look too bad, definitely more finely detailed than the Missouri, the seaplanes and AA gun turrets for example looked fairly good. Not sure if there is any difference between this kit and the Yamato.

The HMS Vanguard kit is one I've been trying to find for a while. It usually fetches fairly high prices as it's the only plastic kit (in any scale) of this vessel, the last battleship of the Royal Navy. The scale is an almost perfect match for the post-war cruiser HMS Tiger produced in 1/420 scale by FROG. (and in fact FROG issued the Vanguard under their own label for a while, along with a number of other Hasegawa kits)

I believe Hasegawa made a 1/400 Bismarck and Tirpitz many years ago - long before the 1/700 "Waterline Series"  brought so many people into the hobby, and before Tamiya made 1/350 a popular warships scale.  I think that small Hasegawa series also included a Yamato and Musashi, and maybe one or two others.  By modern standards they didn't amount to much - few parts, little detail, and great emphasis on their little electric motors.  In (I think) the early seventies Hasegawa made one more 1/400 kit:  the carrier Akagi, which was much, much more sophisticated.  (It was a terrific kit for its time, and still holds up pretty well by modern standards.)  For a few years thereafter, the Hasegawa ads and catalogs treated all those 1/400 kits as being in one series, but I have the impression that serious adult modelers virtually ignored all of them except the Akagi.  The others seem to have disappeared.

I wonder if the Kangnam Tirpitz kit may be a reissue of the old Hasegawa one. 

I´m still not sure where the Tirpitz comes from. Definitely not the Heller kit, because that one doesn´t have all the little hatches, vents etc. on the sidewalls. The Kangnam looks like a Tamiya copy, but I´ve read elsewhere that the boats and smaller details are very simplified, so at least it seems to be no exact match.

I have the kangnam Jew Jersey and Missouri and these are PERFECT copies of the Tamiya ships with no loss of detail or anything. Easily the best battleship kits in 1/400 except for the 4 French ones from Heller which are on par. The Bismarcks and the Missouries seem to be legitimate kits and no "bootlegs" like the MHM or Lee products, in Japan they are distributed by ARII, and Tamiya is said to have once had a 1/400 New Jersey in their catalogue but I´m not sure if that is true...

Whatever, the Iowa class ships from Kangnam are cheaper than their bigger Tamiya sisters and you can´t go wrong with these!

 I can't tell you about historical accuracy, and I haven't any benchmark to compare as far as ships, but as a modeler with some experience I can say that I am enjoying the build and for what I paid for the kit I am enjoyinng it. No, it is not too bad.

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so although they have their problems if i am understanding you guys correctly

the kangham's are not too bad

i know i have some aircraft kits by them and the are cheap and  not the best but pretty good

 No apologies needed. Thanks for your response.

 As far as the MiniHobby Models, I am familiar with them as I have the USS Arizona and the problems you mentioned I encountered as well.  However, I have enjoyed both of these kits. Big Battleships are cool. Now if I can find some more, like the Hood, Yamato, Musashi, Iowa etc. I'll really be happy. If I can afford them : P

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Apologies - my advice was really intended to anyone interested in building a 1/400 Tirpitz who hasn't bought a kit yet. I also build on a limited budget (rarely spend more than £10-15 on a kit, and don't usually buy aftermarket parts) so I appreciate your problem!
The Heller and Airfix 1/400 Bismarck/Tirpitz are currently widely available and cheap this side of the Atlantic (you can usually get them for £15 or less) but I should have realised they're probably not so easy to find in the US.

The only 1/400 USN kit I know of is an Iowa-class also produced by Kangnam, I believe it represents USS New Jersey in post-war configuration. This is also probably a copy of the Tamiya kit.
Revell produce a number of "box scale" kits in close to 1/400 - the USS Arizona and various auxiliary vessels.

As far as inexpensive 1/350 and 1/400 kits go, Mirage produce a very good range of WW1, WW2 and Cold War ships in 1/400 (mostly subs, destroyers and smaller ships), which are all very affordable, though they don't currently produce any USN vessels. Minihobby (branch of Trumpeter) produce quite a few 1/350 kits which as far as I know are Tamiya copies, they are not as good (flash/sink marks and poor fit) but much cheaper.

EPinniger wrote:

I'm fairly certain that this kit is either a copy of the Heller Tirpitz or at least based on it (or maybe a scaled-down Tamiya 1/350 as honneamise suggested) - in which case the poor fit is due to the copying process resulting in some parts being slightly larger. If you want a 1/400 Tirpitz or Bismarck, I'd probably recommend getting the Heller kit if you can find it (unless this kit has some accuracy issues - I'm not sure, I know there are problems with the Heller 1/400 Hood)

 Well I've got a good start going already, and overall I am pleased with the kit. I'm guessing the Heller would be a tad more expensive, no?

 What I really want are more US WWII ships in these scales, but I can' t find anything local and I don't posses a credit card or bank account, so there goes ordering online. The only other ship I have is a 1/350 Arizona. Money is very tight, so I have to buy cheap.

 What are some good inexpensive brands in these scales or do they not really exist? I got both of these at the HobLob with the 40% off coupon deal for about $25 a piece.

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 honneamise,

 That is the basic problem. The deck pieces aren't fitting into the hull very well. There are three pieces and the bow deck is a little sideways, the stern is a good fit, but the superstructure deck is too wide and slightly too long. Lot's of bit and pieces Dremel work. The rest of the kit so far that I have complaints about is some ejector pin marks, the guns that go into the turrets on the secondary armament don't line up and are squeezed, making them look crooked, requiring a VERY careful reaming of the holes with a tiny drill bit, or X-acto, I haven't tried yet.
 The rest of the kit looks good so far, other than needing some am love like handrails etc.
 
 I don't have too much experience with ships, especially in this scale, so I am not much of an authority, and don't really have a benchmark to go by either. I last built 1/700 scale ships in elementary school. Since then I have mostly been into armor since my 20's.
 Wish I could be of more help.
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I'm fairly certain that this kit is either a copy of the Heller Tirpitz or at least based on it (or maybe a scaled-down Tamiya 1/350 as honneamise suggested) - in which case the poor fit is due to the copying process resulting in some parts being slightly larger.

If you want a 1/400 Tirpitz or Bismarck, I'd probably recommend getting the Heller kit if you can find it (unless this kit has some accuracy issues - I'm not sure, I know there are problems with the Heller 1/400 Hood)

What exactly are your problems? I don´t have this kit but consider buying one. It looks like a scaled-down version of the Tamiya kit. I once had the Academy-copy of the Tamiya Tirpitz and it was awfully difficult to get the decks between the all-too-tight one-piece hull. Are you referring to a similar problem?  

 *Bump*   .