Dragon's 1/72 Elefant

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

Hi folks![:)]
Checked out Dragon’s new 1/72 Elefant kit today. looks great in the box! Excellent moldings and fine detail.

The only disappointing thing was the belt-style trax. Although they were very well detailed, and appeared to be quite flexible, they still looked they’d sproing in a very unrealistic way unless the modeler came up with a very clever way to induce the appropriate sag.

It sells here for 950 yen ($860 US).

But other than the trax, it looks like a great kit to me!
Ah, even with the trax it still looks great!

2

Brian,
not exactly J-Hulk scale, tho, is it? [:D]

of course, i was a bit surprised to see a 1/35 tank is smaller than a 1/24 Winston Cup car! [:I][:o)]

funny how obvious the obvious is when it’s right in front of you!

can you tell me the length, width height of either the real Elefant or the 1/76 version?
i know the 1:1 is a big boy . . .

ed.

3

Wow, for $860 US dollars that had better be some incredible kit. Does this kit include metal details? I know that the 1/72 Panther does. I know I’ll be picking up all their 1/72 German tanks if they are that good.

4

Yeah, you could almost buy two of the 1/16 Tigers for that!!
Wow!

5

My wife could buy 20-30 pairs of shoes for that kinda of money. Oh, I hope not. [xx(]

“It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.”-R.E.Lee

6

I think he meant $8.60, but it is still funny bever the less.

7

Whoops![:I]
Yup, that was supposed to be $8.60! My small, rapidly fading monitor is so bad, I can hardly tell periods from commas from nothing at all!

There is no metal in this kit at all, unlike the Panther.

The real 'fant was 23.3 feet long, 11 feet wide, and 9.8 feet high, according to Aberdeen Proving Ground’s book Tank Data.

I do build the ocassional 1/72 or 76 kit, if it’s good. I have the Fujimi JS-II sitting right here, in a nice little diorama. I’ll take some pix and post 'em hereabouts. I also have the Fujimi Tiger I late and Porsche Tiger II, but they are woefully inadequate for posting, I’m afraid!

8

so a 1/72 Elefant is smaller than 4" x 2" !?!?!
gracious!
then a 1/72 Sherman would fit in a matchbox!
seems wrong, but at an inch per 6 feet . . .

ed.

9

Nah, that’s about right, WW!
I have Dragon’s 1/72 Jagdpanther right here, and the hull meaures right at 3 5/8" long and 1 7/8" wide.

It is, after all, small scale!

10

That’s why I only do 1/35th or bigger on armor kits. [:D]

Eric

11

Don’t knock the guy off small scale AFVs…! Amazing things can be done at that scale! Shame he does larger scales too, though…

LOL

12

i’m not knocking the smaller scale stuff.
but w/ my bumble fingers, it’s not really an option!
[:)]
ed.

13

I have a buddy who does some really great 1/76 armor. He refers to those who do not appreciate the joy of building the wee beasties as “sizists.”
Funny thing is, this guy’s almost my size!
You readin’ this, G? [:D]

By the way, speakin’ of very wee bitty beasties, has Kaiyodo’s and Dragon’s series of 1/144 scale armor made it out of Japan yet? They’re great! I have a healthy collection of 84 of the rascals deployed around the desk. They are pre-painted, but now you can get them unassembled as well. There are even aftermarkert metal barrels and decals! And conversion kits! And garage kits of the Maus, E-100, Karl, and other wacky armor.

Tiny fun!

14

Starting to appear on shelves here in the UK. They look real neat! We need figures now!

15

One of the guys doing the resin conversions and full kits has done some excellent German WWII and modern JGSDF figures. A series called “Mini Military Figures” by a guy called Kamide Korokoro. Not his real name, by the way.
He also gave me some excellent 1/144 Maybach engines and engine packing crates he’s thinking about marketing.
Hopefully some of that’ll get overseas!

16

That would be quite cool!

17

I know the CanDo pre-built King Tigers and Jagdpanthers are in Edmonton. On the Dragon 1/72 armor front, I just noticed on their site that they’re producing a Ferdinand too. (seems the logical step). They’re also producing a coouple of M1A1’s so modern armor modelers arent left out.

18

I really enjoy the 1/72 armor kits. It gives me something small and quick to work on in between others. And I dont really have to worry about using detail sets and resin and this and that and is this right is that right. I just build em straight from the box just for the quickie enjoyment. And they usually look great too. I bit of a surprise for anyone interested is the Revell Bradley. Its really quite detailed and very nice looking for a 72 scale. I bought 3 of them and 2 of the M1s , which are nice too. I just wanted a nice Iraqi War scene without takeing up a 3 foot space.

19

whats the best 1/72nd kit of the Tiger 1, the kingtiger
and whats the dragon Panther like and whats the metal bits? i would like to try a 1/72 kit

20

Hi, Jon!
I’ve heard the Revell Tigers are very good. I’ve only built the Fujimi Tiger I Late, and it’s very good, with excellent link-n-length trax. The Fujimi Tiger II is an old kit, but they re-released it with link-n-length trax. Not bad.

The Dragon Panther features a metal hull, as used in their pre-built models. Everything else is styrene. Great little kits, and nice, cheap little build-ups, too! I have the Jagdpanther, and it’s very nice.
Strangely, the pre-builts are about the same price as the kits…