I know that there are three brands available: Italeri (Leopard 2A5, 2A6), Tamiya (2A5 and 2A6)and Hobbyboss (Strv.122 and 2A5DK)… I’ve found reviews of the Tamiya and Hobbyboss kits. The Tamiya is outstanding, the Hobbyboss kit looks nice, but couldn’t find an exhaustive review, so I can’t tell how good it is, I wasn’t able to find any review of the Italeri kit, so I don’t know anything about it. My LHS’s owner told me that the Italeri kit is as good as the Tamiya one… How he don’t?.. The Italeri kit is the only one available in the shop, and the owner knows that I’m able to order it from an on-line shop, but he won’t allow me to open the box and take a look of what’s inside it… Is there some info about the Italeri kit?.. I was thinking about purchasing an Strv.122 from Hobbyeasy… It’s 16.00 bucks for it, 25.00 for the Tamiya kit and 23.00 for the Italeri kit… So any help should be appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance. Most regards.
José
I have A5 and A6 for both Tamiya and Italeri, in addition to a A4 from Italeri/Revell. The difference is actually night and day in my opinion. The tamiya kits had better details and used relatively softer plastic. The italeri kit requires a lot more sanding and filling and I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed the vinyl tracks that’s in two pieces, just like the other lvtp4 kit i have. The tamiya kit also has a good selection of aftermarket detail sets available. so if you can really get one for just 25 bucks, get the tamiya one.
As long as ITALERI keeps insulting us with those HORRRRENDOUS 2-piece vinyl abominations that they call tracks,[yuck] I will run, not walk, to any other manufacturer offering a comparable kit–especially if it’s TAMIYA. You just can’t go wrong with TAMIYA’s kits! At least their vinyl tracks hold paint and are one piece. Of course you can always use a set of aftermarket tracks, but why incur the cost if you can get a great kit AND tracks? GO WITH TAMIYA!
Hi ZE,
Must agree – I have the Tamiya 2A5 and though I’ve not built it yet, it I was blown away by the parts. I have the Lion Roar PE set for it and frankly there are replacement parts for plastic details that are not worth the effort of removing the plastic to use. The moldings are tack-sharp and gorgeous. In this age of Dragon and Trumpeter, Tamiya has taken a back seat but something the others have not quite grasped yet is Tamiya’s policy of buildability first. The sheer building pleasure of a Tamiya is hard to find elsewhere, and the point about tracks is well-taken – vinyl is easy to work with, details well by standard painting methods, and you can finish the hull before mounting them, unlike some of the priority issues involved with link-and-length tracks on other products.
I notice you ignore the Ertl 2A4 – very wise. The less said about it the better.
Cheers,
TB379
Not having seen the Hobby Boss kits, I can steer you away from Italeri and towards either the Tamiya 2A5 or 2A6. The 2A6 is slightly updated and has some neater features than the 2A5, but are virtually the same model kit.
Thanks for your replies… I was thinking about buying the Tamiya kit… but you can only build a perfect Leopard 2A5 or 2A6 from the Tamiya kit (only 2A6 markings are provided in the kit)… I’m thinking more about a modernized version like the 2A6EX… From the Hobbyboss Strv.122 you can build a Strv.122 (Swedish version, there are only marking for this version in the kit, and a lot more available from Echelon), a Leopardo 2E (Spanish version… I like this version, and decaks are available from Echelon, but the color scheme is green overall), a Leopard 2HEL (Greek version… I think there are no decals available, and they’re painted in a four-color scheme, something like the MERDC color scheme) and a Leopard 2A6EX and the kit is very cheap (16.00 bucks in Hobbyeasy), with a lot of spare parts for all these versions… Take a look here and you’ll see what I’m talking about: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10052484 I’d only need the decals for all other versions except for the Strv.122, of course… I’ll buy it and build an Strv.122, with the L44 main gun… If the kit is not good enough (It looks nice in the pics, but having it in my own hands, is another thing), for a 2A6 version, I’ll surely buy a Tamiya kit no matter the price. Thanks again for your advices. Best regards.
José