I started this one several weeks ago. It has been nothing but trouble. It was probably half my own darn fault, as Tamiya has spoiled me with their beautifully-fitting and crisply-detailed kits. But apparently Tamiya has a skeleton in the closet! This 1/50 scale kit had overdone surface detail, canyon-wide recessed lines, vague detail and fit, ill-fitting parts, and a detail-less and/or oversimplified cockpit and engine (did I leave anything out?!?). The gunner has a console that looks a lot like an upright piano, I still haven’t figured out exactly what it is supposed to be. Or maybe the gunner’s job was simply to play dramatic music during battle?! The windscreens were way too thick. The cabane struts had to be lengthened to avoid having the top wing angle down. The outer pontoons and their struts, well, I’m still reeling. In the end, it looks rather toy-ish, and I suspect you’ll be seeing it up on Ebay for cheap! I cannot recomend this kit. This may have been state-of-the-art in the late 60’s, but this kit should be sent back to the 60’s.
To its credit, the abundant decals, although too bright, went on well, and had none of the thickness issues that modern Tamiya decals can have. To my knowledge, there are no aftermarket items available for this kit.
I would have to agree on the rear gun. Other than that, are you sure you took pictures of the ill-fitting kit? It looks rather nice to me. Excellent work on an apparently difficult kit. [tup]
i am looking at the pics on my new phone so they are not too big but looks good to me. testing thjr phone and practioicing with this microscopic keybosrd. i wll take a closer look when i gety home
Like it, and you did a good job on it, but the actual plane IMO is ugly. I agree, the best thing to do would probably have been to leave the rear MG off.
Really a very nice build Mark. The Pete was one of Tamiyas very first kits & in the odd-ball 1/50 scale to boot. Building some of these elderly old kits really makes you appreciate how far kit technology has progressed in the the last 40 years. The Pete is one I really wish Tamiya would re-tool in a modern 1/48 kit, but I doubt that wish will ever be fulfilled [:(].
Truly excellent work, Mark. You mode something from (next-to-) nothing. I saw this kit last weekend at the local model show and almost picked it up, but went for another kit instead. After reading your review it sounds like that was a good thing.
The gun does look a tad toy-ish, but the fit and finish came out great. Another beauty, Mark.
Bummer that it’s a hard build, I like the Pete, and I’ve heard it was actually a pretty good airplane for its time. Nice job. Lose the gun, my daughter hates them anyway.
I love the look of this airplane. I think you completed an impressive build of this difficult kit. I was unable to locate any update sets for this kit when I was building my Tamiya Pete so I photocopied a 1/72 Eduard photo etched detail set for the Pete enlarged to 1/50 scale and used this as a basis for scratch building details for my kit. Thanks for sharing the great looking photos.
