Tamiya 1/350 Battleships

Kits in general have come a long way since Tamiya released these kits. Both CAD & developments in moulding have raised the bar quite a bit. The only competition though for most of the Tamiya range are inferior knock off clones of their kits.

Tamiya have completely retooled some of their 1/700 ships (Yamato & Musashi) so it is perhaps not beyond the realms of possibility that some of the earlier 1/350th kits could get the same treatment.

Maybe it would need Trumpeter to release a direct competitor though. The though of them doing a new 1/350th Yamato kit that is anything as good as their Hood is quite appealing.

I am no expert and as you are all well aware new to ship modelling.  I have the Trumpeter Hood started and the Tamiya Musashi which I received for free.  Maybe this is not one of the better Tamiya kits but so for my thoughts are as follows:

 I find the Tamiya kit plastic very hard, fit is not that great, less parts then Trumpeter, more filling and sanding etc.  Trumpeter kits yes they have more parts, but I love the soft plastic, easy to cut, glue, sand and much less filling/sanding.  I find the fit of the parts to be excellent and the detail is IMO blows Tamiya away.  Maybe the Tamiya POW, KGV, New Jersey may be better kits then the Musashi.  Don't get me wrong I don't want to offend any Tamiya lovers, but as years move on and tech/molds get better it is hard to compare to the older kits. 

I am not talking accuracy, like I stated I am new to ship modelling but so far I would rather buy the and build the Trumpeter kits over the aged Tamiya kits.  I believe if Tamiya was to make new molds today and release new ship kits they would probably be very good.  Only sad thing for me is I would love to build ships like New Jersey, POW, KGV, Bismark and I do wish Trumpeter also offered current 1/350 kits of these famous ships.

hello panther,

I am currently working on the Biz from Tamiya. This is also my first large ship, and therefore is a challenge. I went to extremes with mine, and have replaced the main deck pieces with balsa planking, it solved the seam problem, but created much more work. On a whole, the kit is missing some details, and some are incorrect. In my limited knowledge of ship kits, inacuracies considered, they are well worth the money spent on them. I am also adding Toms model works PE to the beast, and that makes it so much nicer. For the small amount added for the PE and the price of the kit, it is well worth the money.

jim

The Tamiya kits are great, that is my opinion!  Dealing with the deck is not that hard. The GMM P/E sets are great also, however the ships still build into real conversation pieces, and are the  standouts of all my models.  I have used the GMM on the Big E and it is a work of art. I have built the Bismark, Yamato, Missouri and New Jersey without , and they still look good with extensive radio wires (from stretched sprue etc.) and an intricate fine paint job, and weathering.

If your budget allows it get the GMM sets, if not don't worry.  

Yann, Your Bismark looks great , BTW

I have made a few of them and think that they are good kits.

In their range, I think that the Iowa's & the KGV's were the most recent & I thought that they were a lot better in both detail & ease of construction than the earlier ones. (Both the Bismarck & the Yamato kits are a few years older.....I have only done a box inspection of the Bismarck, but I built the Yamato about 15 years ago) Generally, the only bad thing about some Tamiya kits is the deck gaps that have been mentioned, and this is due to being able to motorize them & needing to get the deck off.

I do think that no matter who makes the kit, that in this scale it looks naked without some PE.

As for Trumpeter. I have got the Essex & the Hood waiting in the pile for when I finally finish my Tamiya POW. Have only box insepcted like the Bismarck, but the standard of moulding looks very good. Trumpeter have come a long way in a short time & their latest kits show this.

Maybe have a look on modelwarships.com. They have build reviews for most of the 1/350th kits from both Tamiya & Trumpeter & you can get an idea from there.

  I've built the New Jersey (modified, of course...I can't help it), and have to say it was one of the nicest ship models to put together I have ever worked on.  Buy one of the Tamiya kits, they are quite good looking.

               Greg

I'm currently building the Tamiya 1/350 Bismarck as my first battleship ever.  The fit is very good, there is plenty of details but it really needs a PE set to spice it up.  I think all ship does anyway.  So far, the only problem with this kit is the putty and sanding required to hide the junction of the 3 parts that form the main deck.

This is my first ship so I cannot compare with other kits but I think these are great kits to begin with.  They are not that expensive compared to the newest Trumpeter Hood lets say and there are plenty of options as for the PE sets available.  I chose the Tom's modelworks Bismarck set cause it was not expensive but I must warn you that if intend to put railling in the exact same spots as the original battleship, the PE set doesn't have enough of them.  I had to buy an additional set of raillings. 

Overall, it will turn into a very nice model with some PE parts and some scratchbuilding and super detailing such as: - adding doors, drilling port holes, some piping, etc...

You can have a look at what I've done so far:

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