I decided to try an armor build for a change. I picked up a 1/35 Dragon King Tiger, Ardennes version. Holly cow, there are a lot of freakin pieces. It looks quite daunting! I’ll definately build this beautiful model one of these days, but I thought I better start out on something not quite so complicated. Does anyone know of a good quality armor kit that would be fun but not too complicated for a newbie armor builder? I really like the looks of the Panzer IV’s, particularly the earlier versions. Thanks
If anything, Dragon’s new “early” Pz IV series (C,D,E) have even more parts (1000+) and are a more complex build than your King Tiger.
Arguably, Tamiya’s kits are an easier build, and still well detailed. Tamiya’s Pz IVD kit dates back to the 70’s but is still a reasonable kit for a “first” armor build. See here for an example
There are many older Tamiya kits that are cheap and easy to build. I see that you did not mention accuracy in your post! The new Trumpter Russian KV’s are very easy pretty cheap and look great. Italeri made a little Panzer Pzkw. Ib kit 222 that is very nice. Look on Ebay for it.
Tamiya updated their Panzer IV kits in the 1990s with two very nice new tooled kits. I would suggest one of these two. They are the PzKpfw IV Ausf. J (35181) and the PzKpfw IV Ausf. H
I recommand the Tamiya Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. D. It’s an old model but turns out very good and relatively easy to build. That was one of my first armor also not so long ago. My seventh build is a Tiger I late from Dragon just like your Knig Tiger, it has a lot of tinny parts and I’m in the middle of the build, you should be able to tackle a kit like that after a few Tamiya models no problemo.
If you’re interested in Mk IVs you may want to try one of the Italeri Panzer Mk IVs, perhaps theF1/F2/G kit which gives you several options to build. Straight out of the box it builds into quite a beauty.
A Tamiya T-34. They build really fast and easy. And everybody needs a T-34 in their collection.
Anything else by Tamiya is always a good build, but I’ve had trouble with The Panzer 4 schurtzen, so I’d steer clear of all PZ4 variants until you’ve built a few.
As the above have stated, you may want to take a look at some of the Tamiya PZ.IVs, but as dood_dood mentioned, and as I’ve suggested to many, the T-34’s from Tamiya are great builds. Plenty of detail, go together really well, and fairly cheap to buy.
I am also a newbie ( to armor ). For my first kit I chose Tamiya Panzer IV D. Great kit. Nothing hard about this one. Built it in one weekend. Just put my future coat on. Learned alot about tanks without a lot of headaches. This is exactly what I was looking for in my first armor kit. When building your first kit you do not want to get discouraged by a bad kit.
Wow, seems to be a concensus! Looks like I’m gonna hunt down a Tamiya Pz. IV D. Then if I catch the fever, I’ll head over to the Russian side and build the Tamiya T-34.
Good luck with the tracks. The T-34s are a piece of cake to join. The PZ4’s are a little more delicate, but not difficult (although I have 2 PZ4s with torn tracks because of my lack of a delicate touch.)
Since you are new to the armor thing, I suggest keeping with Tamiya for a while. Their kits are “easy”. They fit together and generally involve the minimum of appropriate parts. As time goes on and you feel ready step up to Italeri, Dragon, and AFV.[:)][2c]