It says ex-Skybow kit. What gives? Did skybow get eaten up by AFV CLUB?
I saw that and was wondering the same thing. Maybe they bought the molds?
I’ve heard skybow is good, what about AFV club?
AFV is is pretty good. I like their stuff, but if your a real stickler for perfect accuracy in a kit well… they’re still good kits. I got an M-10 and its impressive. The only thing I don’t like about it is the lack of driver controls. Everything is molded well. I’ll see if I can post up some pics of the parts trees.
Ok heres some pics of the kit.
Here you can see the overall kit.
These are the decals and spring loaded Al barrel. Yes the gun recoils and the breach block moves.
These are the vinyl tracks. They are quite nice.
This is one of the suspension trees.
Here are the instructions. Clear and in english.
Hope this answers your Q’s about AFV.
Detail wise they are as good or better than an average Dragon kit, but you’ll pay for it. They are not as prolific either, but who cares as long as they produce nice kits. The one real knock, is that they don’t offer indy tracks which is what most modelers desire. Not quite the value of Dragon but a good deal none the less. I have their 251/D with Pak 40. The pak 40 came with a PE shield which was better than the Dragon kit. I dumped the Dragon after seeing a comparison on Perth’s site.
AFV Club’s Centurion Mk V looks terrific. I’ve seen shots of their upcoming M40 SPG as well. I’ll get one or two of those! While not immune to major mistakes (M36 Tank Destroyer engine deck), AFV Club is still considered a heavy hitter, going toe-to-toe with DML in the SPW wars!
No indy links is fine for their US subjects, IMHO. Shermans and such had live tracks anyways (no sag).
Sorry I don’t have the news about Skybow. They sold their 1/35 stuff to AFV Club but I thought they were going to concetrate on the 1/48 line. The AFV Club boxing may be some distributor arrangement of the Skybow Tiger. Only guessing though.
My LHS told me that AFV is the best for 251 family.
I also heard that their American tanks also really good.
The reason they are expensive is because they are not as big as Dragon, that is why we are paying a rather more money for it.
But then again, if their quality, molding and manual is good, I dont mind paying more a buck or two.
Hehe, Tigerman, you should check out the price for Legend Production of their full resin Merkava kit.
Outrageous I’d say.
Ben
For that reason, I don’t get resin.[:)]
From what ive heared is Skybow are getting help from AFV Club in distributing there 1/48th kits, at the moment Tamiya are getting 1/48th kits out fast but Skybow need to catch up some ground so some of there old 48th kits are being reboxed by AFV to allow Skybow to get there Panthers, Jagdpanthers and Fireflys out
the Skybow Tiger is way better than the Tamiya kit
Some of AFV Club’s stuff is excellent, some is decent, others a mix-match of parts. Their M48H is the Academy M48A5 turret and the Academy M60A1 hull with AFV Club M88 individual tracks and some original AFV Club turret and hull detail fittings.
The suspension on the AFV Club M10 seems overly complicated with the addition of vinyl volute springs to give the appearance of working suspension.
The AFV Club Wiesel, M88/M88A1, towed artillery and M41A3 tanks are very nice kits. The ex-Skybow M41A3 is better than AFV Club’s original M41A3 kit, but now AFV Club owns both sets of molds.
Of course it comes with molded on zimmerit that is better than any I’ve seen.
Not meaning to threadjack this but here are some sweet shots of an in-progress build of the new AFV Club Centurion V
http://www.network54.com/Forum/110741/message/1150106465/Aussie+Centurion+in+progress
Good to see these little skybow kits getting more exposure. Its not uncommon for two companies to share moulds. If I were to ever go the 1/48 route, I’d probably start with these kits.
Threadjack. That might be a new one for the forum dictionary. [:D] I’ll have to check out the Centurion.
Nice, I’m impressed with the fenders. Keep a thread for it, I want to see where it goes.[:)]
It depends on which Skybow Tiger model you have. The “Late” Tiger has zimmerit molded on, the “Early” Tiger does not. The Tamiya Tiger is an early Tiger and would not have zimmerit applied if you intended to build it as any one of the kit’s marking options.
The surface texture detail on the early Skybow Tiger is superior to the Tamiya Tiger. Very nicely done.
Thanks for correcting me Rob, I forgot the versions were different between the 2 brands. If I were to build a 48, AFV’s Tiger Late w/zim would be at the top of the list.
I’m currently building the Skybow M38A1C (jeep) with 106mm RCL. The accuracy of the components is super (steering box and linkages, engine, etc.) and the fit is excellent. The plastic is softer than that of Tamiya, Italeri, or Academy. There are also more sink marks to fill, and many in bad locations. Ejector pin marks are an issue on some parts, but parts glue-up and seam hiding is easy. The kit looks great out of the box, but with an openable hood and engine to look at, it cries out for that little extra detailing necessary to really push it over the top as a classy build. I ordered the Eduard detail set, and a turned 106 barrel from Model Point. Now that I’m into this build, I have no hesitation towards buying some of their other four-wheel offerings.
Gip Winecoff
Accurate Armor has Skybow 1/35 kits on clearance right now - about $10.00 for the walker bulldog, a couple of different trucks and their jeeps