Hi, folks!
I went over to Tamiya World today to check out the new stuff on display at their “Tamiya Showcase.” I took a few (bad) pix of the new 1/48 Tiger and Sherman kits, and had a chance to ask them about Tamiya’s future with 1/35 and 1/16 armor kits.
First, the pix (which you’ve probably already seen in sharper focus elsewhere!):
Tiger I (Early)
M4 Sherman (Early)
Sherman close-up
The detail is incredible on these little kits, so if you were afraid that detail would be lost in 1/48, I can assure you it is not. The link-and-length styrene tracks in particular are excellent, and look better than Tamiya’s 1/35 belt offerings.
To be honest, though, I’m a “bigger is better” kind of guy, and 1/48 is just too small for me, even though I ocassionally enjoy a 1/72 or 1/76 scale armor kit. These do fit perfectly between 1/35 and 1/72, though…and if size and price is your criteria, these little babies will be great. Then of course there’s the compatibility with 1/48 aircraft for dioramas, etc.
I asked the Tamiya representative about the company’s future in 1/35 and 1/16 scale armor. He said that for the time being, all resources are being focused on the new 1/48 line (the same team that works on the 1/35 line is working on the new 1/48 line), but that they have not abandoned 1/35 altogether. There will be new 1/35 releases in the future, but for the time being the 1/48 line will be the main focus.
As for 1/16 scale RC tanks, nothing is in the works for the forseeable future, but static kits of the Pershing and Leopard 2A6 will be released.
So, there you have it, from the horse’s (Tamiya’s!) mouth.
And here I’ve been, hoping for a new 1/25 scale series the whole time…
Well, personally, I’m not thrilled with 1/48 scale armor, but previously Mr. Tamiya said that the whole point of the new 1/48 line was to bring the highest quality kits to the consumer at lower prices. He said that to continue improving the detail and quality of Tamiya kits in 1/35 scale would result in even more expensive kits (just look around on this website and others to hear the continuous complaints of how expensive Tamiya kits are), so the decision was made at Tamiya to bring that same level of detail and quality down to 1/48 scale, where the smaller size means lower prices.
This isn’t conjecture on my part, by the way, this is what I heard Mr. Tamiya say himself.
So there we have it…Tamiya now hopes to create a new “standard” armor scale, in 1/48.
They’re certainly beautiful kits, to be sure, but I just like my armor bigger than that. [;)]
I have to say, I love the 1/48th scales. I am currently working on Tamiya’s 1/48th scale Kubelwagen and the detail ia very surprising. I also bought the Kettenkraft for the stowage and it is also molded well. I can’t wait to get my hands on the Tiger I.
I’m with Moses on this one. I grew up building the old Aurora 1/48 scale tanks and still have many of them. I loved the Bandai kits when I first discovered them and try to grab all the ones I can find whether they are in a Bandai, Fuman, Frog or Academy box.
These kits have already made the prices on Bandai/Frog/Fuman kits come down on eBay. Why pay $30+ for a Bandai Jeep when a miniaturized version of Tamiya’s outstanding 1/35 scale one is coming for around $15?
I bought the Kettenkraftrad with trailer and Goliath. Great looking kit! This is going to be the year of the re-birth of 1/48 scale armor!
Come on Tamiya, how about your new M1A2 in 1/48 scale? I’d buy half a dozen.
Personally, I’m disappointed, but not surprised. When I got back into modeling, about a year and a half ago, my genre of choice was WWII armor and vehicles while my scale of choice was 1/35. It had become quite obvious that Dragon, Academy, and even a couple other manufacturers were beginning to produce 1/35 kits that had just as much quality (I’m speaking only of molding here) as Tamiya and doing so at a considerably cheaper price. Since my goal remains to build every vehicle and varient that ever fought in WWII in 1/35 scale, I suppose that the other manufacturers will be getting my money for the forseeable future.
I would like to see a new MBT-70. I have four of the Aurora ones, two original tooled ones and two retooled ones.
As far as losing sales, I think Tamiya has realized that the 1/35 scale market is over saturated. As stated, Dragon produces 3-4+ variants of a given vehicle where Tamiya will only produce one or two and at a much cheaper price. Hard to keep up with Dragon’s volume releases.
When Tamiya completely retools or creates a kit from scratch, it tends to cost a lot of money. Their quality is high and so is their price. As far as losing sales, people will buy a Tamiya product even if there is a better one on the shelf sitting next to it. I don’t know why this is. I’m even guilty of it. I was looking for a model of the new VW Beetle and chose Tamiya over Revell of Germany. Great kit, but it was slightly more.
But I digress. Yes J-Hulk, I’d love to see them tool down their HMMWV, M113A2/A3, M1A1/A2, M2A2 into 1/48 scale.
It will make a great boon for mixing aircraft and vehicles but thats the only advantage I see to it. I really hope that 1/48 isn’t the wave of the future.
1/35 or bigger for me.
I admit though, it will be interesting to see if the rest of the mfr.s either exploit the void left by Tamiya or try and jump on board with the 1/48.
Meh, as usual the Shermans are slab-sided. Am I the only M4A1 lover in the universe? [:)]
I don’t know how I feel about this. I liked the idea of things like jeeps, kettens, and kubelwagens because I thought they were accessories for aircraft dioramas. I like the level of detail in 1/35 scale, but I also live in a cramped apartment, and the smaller footprint of 1/48 scale is tempting. I guess I’ll give it a try and see what happens.
I do think aftermarket options will be a nonissue. If people buy the 1/48 scale kits, AM companies will see the opportunity of jumping into a new market, and produce accessories for them.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of combo (tank & aircraft) diorama ideas are people having? I don’t see much potential there, other than the aforesaid accessory concept. How often would you see a tank on an airfield, or a Tomahawk taxiing past a tank park? Tank vs aircraft combat usually takes place at ranges that would be inconvenient for a diorama…[:)] But then, just because I don’t see much potential, it doesn’t mean there isn’t any. Maybe I just lack sufficient imagination.
-Famous photo of a German column rolling past a downed allied plane at Normandy. The invasion striped wing hung up in a tree and the rest of the wreckage along the side of the road. I think Tamiya uses this photo as a reference for a diorama in their catalog.
-Gliders and jeeps.
-The usual kettens, kubels, R75’s and light tanks along airfields.
-Wonderful photo of a captured Japanese 95 parked at an allied airfield in an issue of Allied & Axis. You see a couple of US aircraft in the background.
-88’s in flak positions on the edges of airfileds along with sdkfz 11’s.
-Downed planes from both sides at Kursk.
-Great photo of a sdkfz 223 being loaded into the German ME321 or Gotha 242.
-Wirbelwinds at Luftwaffe fields
-Hummv’s and Blackhawks
-Apaches and Bulldogs
-Opel fuel trucks and ME’s
-Deuce and a halfs and B26’s
-I have a great photo of an aussie standing on his bren gun carrier and a B26 tail gunner yacking at each other.
-I’ve seen a couple of pics of russian T-34’s in amongst ME’s and FW hidden under the trees as the airfields were overun. Same with American vehicles like M8 greyhounds and Shermans.
All would make very interesting vignettes and dioramas for those inclined to work in that scale. I think no one has put the two together more often is because the scales were not available to do so. But as they become more popular, I bet you see more and more of this type of thing. Vignettes of Russian planes doing low fly bys over T-34’s at Kursk on their way to pound german armor have been the subject of more than one photo. And in the past I’ve seen several threads here on this forum trying to either find a way to get them to fit or use forced perspective in an attempt to combine the two. Now they don’t need to. WW2 Modelmaker has a very cool WW1 diorama by Per Olav Lund that has a german airplane flying over the trenches and includes figures, a horse, and a tank. It is very awsome. Only a matter of time for someone to do something similar for a WW2 or other vignette using these new scaled vehicles and future releases.
And the piece de resitance…Model shipyard makes a 1/48 scale LST 542…I’m talking 81" of pure hit the beaches of Normandy with a whole tank platoon diorama screaming to be done.
As for the potential of a new market for the PE mfr’s or resin after market, I thought about that too, and thought wow, what a gold mine, but then again, its such a smaller scale so the need for that toype of detail that they cater too might not be there as well as that is an awful lot of retool and new product line to get into and carry stock for. I suppose someone will get into it though.
I can see some established aircraft modelers, who build 1/48 scale aircraft anyway, possibly picking up some 1/48 scale vehicles to make a few dioramas. However, I think it’s less likely that the established 1/35 armor modeler will not only build some 1/48 scale aircraft, which they normally would not build, but also change their armor scale at the same time. Some will do it, but I don’t think that many will.
I can understand Tamiya’s explaination of the reasons behind this move, but I also have some doubts as to its complete accuracy. Tamiya would never come right out and say, “we can’t produce 1/35 scale armor and sell it at the same price that (insert manufacturer here) is able to do.” It’s that whole “save face” thing. I honestly believe that because Tamiya no longer has the monopoly on the best people, equipment, and practices, they are actually avoiding head-to-head competition in favor of moving to an area that others aren’t using.
i like tamiya for their quality but they are trying my patience with all this 1/48th stuff[:(!][:(!][:(!]
personally, i think most of the pro-1/48 and pro-tamiya talk above is just by people who’ve been taken in by the tamiya marketing machine.
tamiya must be pretty desperate as they are clearly getting their butts kicked by trumpeter and dragon in the armour dept and probably hasegawa with aircraft.
as i said, i like their stuff but they strike me as a company resting on their laurels, living on former glories etc etc
but then again, that’s just cynical old me[}:)][;)]
The cost of labor is so much higher in Japan than China, that the price is no doubt factored into the kit price. Hence Tamiya has an impossible task of trying to compete with Dragon and so on. Thank goodness for Dragon and some of the other companies to continue to feed our armor appetites in 1/35. I for one don’t mind paying less for quality kits that are just as good as Tamiya is.
