Hi Gang,
10+ years ago I attempted to build a Maquette (I think) German 140/1 scout tank, with little success (kit was a nightmare)
Anyone since that point in time ever make a better one? I saw one on eBay from “VM” which is russian, but the seller posted pocs of the sprues, and they look good.
Next, a Somua S35. There is an old Heller kit floating around eBay, any better options, or is that kit ok?
Cheers!
Dragon do an excellent 140/1, and the prototype version with the 7.5cm L/24 gun.
Tamiya have just released a nice Somua.
Tamiya recently came out with a new mold Somua S-35. I have a Heller S-35 kit sidelined from a few years back. It’s not a horrible kit, but it has typical Heller challenges as well as some accuracy issues.
The 140/1, is that based off the Czech 38T tank? If so, I’m pretty sure Dragon makes one. And if so, Tri Star did one as well. Which means that Hobbyboss now has the molds.
The VM kit is a rebox of the Maquette kit. Avoid it. Italeri also did an SdKfz 140/1. That might be an option.
There is a 3-way review (Dragon/Tristar/Italeri) in the October 2008 issue of FSM.
EDIT: Oh, never mind, it was a different variant. AFAIK, Tristar didn’t do a 140/1
Italeri is the only one i am aware of that is not related to the VM kit which several other companies have re-produced.
I must have confused the 38t aufklarungspanzer with the 38t flakpanzer regarding the Tristar kit. My apologies.
Dragon did do one. I did a search and could only find the Flak 38 version, which both Dragon and Tristar/HB did.
Cheers stik.
…typical Heller challenges…<<
I’m sorry, can you explain that? I’m not familair with Heller kits. And I will stick with Italeri kits, not a fan of Dragon
.
From Scalemates:
VM- Maquette- Alan Hobbies- Tiger Model- Ark Model- Eastern Express- MSD
My, daddy got around…
Heller kits tend to be kind of funky in engineering and fiddly in fit. Also their plastic is typically quite brittle. At least in the few kits of theirs that I have built. Mind you for their age, they are fairly well detailed, and not as clunky as kits of a similar vintage. They can be comparable to older Italeri kits. But if you can find a kit of the same subject by another company, especially a newer molding, you will probably save yourself some headaches. But in some cases, their kits are the only game in town of a particular subject. Modeling skills are helpful [;)]
Yep, just about when I wrapped up a project with the AMX 13, Tamiya brings one out.
The great thing about Heller is/ was that they were a really big company that made quality kits, in France, for a French market. So thats where we all found first generation kits of Fouga Magisters, Mirages, Ouragons, Mysteres, and more weird aircraft from the Thirties than one can imagine. If you model IAF and in particular the earlier wars, heaven!
Their WW2 warships are 1/400 which is a really nice scale.
Given an option I’d go with Tamiya. For one thing, the decals in older Heller kits are crap by now.