LSP_Ray

Yup, knew that, but couldn't resist. You know what they say, 'Every one's a comedian.'

Thierry is correct! The first Panther had nothing to do with what you can find anywhere now. They had a completely different logo, too. And BTW, if by some stroke of luck you find one of the above Panther kits, Tamiya is looking for a copy for its company museum as no one thought to keep a copy! They would pay big bucks for one assuming they haven't found one yet.

Article is posted! Great work as always, Mike!

$121.00! Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously, Tamiya wrote 1/35th gave the proper width to fit batteries and motor into a Panther lower hull. They were a ways away from thinking about figures yet.

I have mentioned this before, but I think it is purely an error. Reading Tamiya's book on their history, they claim 1/35th came from the dimension required for the batteries to fit, width-wise, in the lower hull of their first armor kit, the Panther. And as Tamiya always stuck with one scale for their different models in a series (their earliest models were of ships and they were praised for keeping them in one scale, not 'box scale'), they stuck with 1/35th. But I do not believe it. For one, there was already early tank models out there in 1/32nd by Airfix and Monogram and if they were that worried about keeping things in a same scale, you would think they would have picked 1/32. Also, if you were that worried about fitting in batteries and motors, why would you base the scale on one of the largest tanks you will model? To make the point, their first Panzer IV kit was also motorized and the lower hull is too wide to get the batteries to fit! If they had gone 1/32nd, I believe it would fit. So, 1/35 was a mistake all around. Having said that, I bought one of the first, if not the first, 1/35 aircraft: the Pend Oreille Bf 109G-6 kit as I wanted to be able to do a dio with 1/35th figures and vehicles.

Article is posted! Great job!

Very nice! Looks like a big step up from the classic Monogram 1/48th kit!

Beautiful! This one is going onto the website, too!

Turned out splendid, Kev!

I agree with Ron. Would never see panel lines in that scale.

Article is posted! Great job!

Looking at your pic of the real thing, it looks like whoever drew the instructions got the set upside down.

1.) Corsair. Even though I probably couldn't see the runway in front of me with that big nose. 2.) P-38L for that twin engine goodness plus with the tricycle gear I can see in front of me! 3.) F-86F.

Neat stuff. Some of the prices aren't too bad. The items I looked at were $10 for 20 fittings, and PE washers $8 for a pack of 168. Some of the fittings are $1 to $1.50 each though; that would add up!

For me, it would be Corsairs. I have 6 1/32nd Tamiya F4u's, plus 2 Trumpy F4u-4's, plus a 1/48th Tamiya F4u-1D.

The sail looks good. Are you going to stain them?

Yes it is; good solution

Same experience here!

Wow, that looks spectacular!

Well done! May I post it on the website?

I don't think the RFM Tiger is that bad, you just need to be aware of the little issues. For figuring out the features of the Tiger you want to build, probably the fastest way to figure it out is to check out Thomas Jentz & Hilary Doyle's book, "Germany's Tiger Tanks Vol. 1: D.W. to Tiger I" page 83. There you will find a handy chart of monthly production numbers along with ranges of each external modification. You will have to do extra reading, or read through Byrden's website to figure out internal changes, but the table will get you started. For instance, Trumpeter's late Tiger with the Pilze crane mounts, means it will have been produced between Jun-Aug 1944.

I don't think clear parts are that hard to paint really, especially if you lightly sand them first. The problem is sanding and working with the clear parts as they are typically brittle. So, if you need to remove details, like the Pilze crane points on the late Tiger if you want to do a slightly earlier version, it is kind of a pain. The Pilze crane attachment points are one of the latest items added to Tigers, and the Trumpy kit has them, as well as the rain drains in the commander's cupola. So, it looks like Trumpeter tried to do a 'final' production model Tiger. Problem is Trumpy used Bovington's early Tiger I '131' for some of it's research so there are some early details. Also, according to Byrden, they used Rye Field Model's 1/35th late Tiger I as reference that also used 131, so probably a mix of both. It's best to decide which Tiger you want to do, make an educated guess as to when it was produced, and go from there.

I always enjoyed the Seattle/Renton shows. Sorry I won't be attending them for a long while being in Arizona now.

While, yes, he is a Tiger fanatic it is always good to know any information out there. Some of the errors are small and easily fixed. Always better to know up front and not after you have finished it. It's up to you to decide what to fix and what not to. In my opinion, Trumpeter's biggest error is to use the !@#%^ clear hull and turret parts without providing solid color parts. I hate dealing with clear parts!