Courtesy of www.perthmilitarymodelling.com :
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/dragon/dr6260.htm
Looks like the Tamiya kit will finally be seeing some competition. Personally, I won’t be picking one up, as I still have the Tamiya one waiting to be built.
Like you Zoran, I have the Tamiya kit waiting as well, but, hey what’s another 88 right?
Steve
I’ve got the same problem? Have the old Tamiya kit yet to be built, but, it would be nice to have the Dragon in a deployed configuration, and the Tamiya, in a towed version!!! Hmmmm! Might have to consider that. Semper Fi, Mike
I built the old Tamiya many moons ago and the Dragon review looks favorable. May have to pick her up.
Thanks for the info but seen too bad … it is a winter 88mm kit …
Yes, I also have the old Tamiya one yet to be built.
One question, what type of vehicle would be towing the 88, and who makes a good model of it? I’ve seen pics of a halftrack but didn’t know which one (3, 7, 10 ton etc). Thanks.
Hey all!! jcheung5150 , here’s a couple picts that may give you an idea. This looks like a great kit but I’ll have to pass for awhile— too many pre-orders I gotta pay for first. The last pict looks like a good conversion though!!
Tamiya’s Famo and AFV’s 11 ton halftrack should make good haulers.
The normal towing vehicle for the 88 was the Sd.Kfz.7 8ton half track (Tamiya kit # 35239).
With the other H/T kits available, the Sd.Kfz.11 5ton H/T was too light and the Sd.Kfz.9 18ton was overkill and wouldn’t normally be used.
Cheers
Terry A
I built the Tamiya kit a loooong time ago and it has since been damaged in a couple of falls. I will probably pick up this kit and I am seriously thinking about buying the AFV Club offering as well. Because I’m model brain damaged like that…
shiny metal!
Dragon has been offering some great addtional parts lately
Right. The SdKfz. 7 was the most common hauler, but the SdKfz. 8 12t vehicle was commonly used too. (It was also just big enough to mount the gun on, in a pinch.) The Famo was so big that it didn’t have to tow the gun – you could mount the gun right on the vehicle.
But as you say I don’t think there is a kit for the SdKfz. 8.
I’ve had a chance to look at the Dragon kit, and I can assure it’s leaps and bounds over the Tamiya offering. They provide you with the necessary parts to backdate the kit to a Flak 18, including a second turned barrel. There’s a nice PE fret, and turned 88 ammo and casings. Although the model is shown on the boxart as deployed, it comes complete with carriage.
I tell ya fellas, between Dragon and Trumpter, Academy and AFV Club, if I were Tamiya, I’d be worried about my position in the 1/35 armor market.
Jeff
Very nice touch.
I wonder why they didn’t provide the gunshield as PE?
And rightfully so. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if I saw Tamiya buckling under the hard times. This is exactly what I don’t understand. if other asian companies can do it at a fair price, why not Tamiya as well.
Well that’s actually a simple question…
Dragon, Trumpeter, AFV Club, and Academy are NOT in Japan. Dragon and Trumpeter are Chinese companies, AFV Club is Taiwanese, and Academy is Korean. Labor costs in Japan are considerably higher than these other countries, as a result, kit prices are going to be higher for Tamiya. What we’re seeing is actually a double edged sword for Tamiya; They’re losing the price war because their kits cost more to produce. That means less profit for them, or raise their prices to keep their margin. The other companies are undercutting their prices because they want to sell more kits, and because they can afford to sell cheaper. The result, the percentage of profit is probably the same or greater than Tamiya’s because of the lower production costs. Couple into that new kits, better tooling, and more features (like turned barrels, etc) and you’ve got serious problems if you’re Tamiya. Unless Tamiya exports it’s production to one of the countries mentioned above (highly unlikely considering their diplomatic statuses with these nations), the writing is on the wall. Tamiya will not lower it’s profit margin to remain competitive unless it really starts to hit them hard. The venture into 1/48 armor is an act of desperation if you ask me.
China has also been deliberately forcing the yuan down against the US dollar and other ‘free-flow’ currencies like the yen and the Euro. what this means is that Chinese products are available cheaply to US and overseas consumers, but imported products are still inflated. This creates an inbalance in trade, something the US has been complaining to the Chinese about for some time. In fact, the US is seriously considering China as a manipultive trade partner, because the yuan has been pegged at about 8.25 against the US dollar since 1997.
Ok, so it was simple question in essence.
Jeff
Very well put, Jeff.
Do you have sales figures to support this assertion?
It is true that the military vehicle market is much more crowded now what it was before (a good thing), and that the Asian manufacturies outside Japan greatly benefit from the very low wages earned by their “workers” (slaves), but I think it’s more than a small step from there to claim that the writing is on the wall for what is still the industry leader in plastic model manufacture.
Nor do I understand the perversity of wanting that company to “buckle.” I don’t take my hobby so seriously that I have any animus toward any of the manufacturers. In fact, the more, the merrier for the hobbyist.
Yes, I was having a very hard time understanding Zok’s previous “buckling” comment as well.
Along that line of thinking, should I hope that Porsche “buckles” in the current economic environment, just because I personally think their autos are overpriced (for me, anyway)?
Ah well, I suppose I’ll just have to accept it as one individual’s opinion, and get back to enjoying the hobby of modelling.
By the way, although I will probably never be able to afford a Porsche, I still admire the company’s fine products and sincerely hope for their continued success.
But that’s just me. [;)]
Back to the actual topic of this thread:
Thanks for that link, Zok.
I was able to see both the Dragon and AFV Club 88s up close, and they both look great. I’ve never built the Tamiya 88, but as Jeff said, the Dragon kit (as well as the AFV Club kit) is state-of-the-art.