i recently purchased a nice looking kit of a T-72B from WSN??[%-)] anyway, it was cheap and i felt the need to make improvements if i had to. when i got home i didn’t notice the little “motorized” logo on the side. the kit dosen’t look all that bad. better than some of the old italeri kits. but who would want to spend hours building up a kit, painting and weathering it, then slapping batteries in it making sure your real careful and not getting fingerprints on it, just to watch it go forward? is there reasoning behind this?
complete destruction of the model, since we all here strive to make the most realistic models why not make one thats really realistic in a destroyed way…by the way my next project is a knocked out T-34 [}:)]
Motorized kit were originally developed to torment cats. [:P]
Later it was theorized that small children were actually much more efficient at destroying models than cats, but this was never proven…
This just proves that those motorized model kits were designed to be toys for kids. Unfortunately, that’s how some societies see modelers… grown ups playing with toys…
Tamiya has a 1/25 Tiger I that was originally meant to be motorized. I remember that it had a detailed interior and operating hatches. I can’t imagine building this thing and just letting it go scooting across the floor and smack into something.
i second that!
works nicely on cowardly dogs too.
The Tigers weren’t made to be motorized. It came with a detailed interior, separate torsion bars, etc. It was their Panther and Jagdpanther that were motorized. I think the Centurion as well.
Back in the 1970s and into the 80s, Tamiya released up to three versions of the same kit. One was static, a second one was motorized and the third used a dual motor gearbox and came with a wired remote. The original M1 Abrams came with a three motor gearbox to turn the turret as well.
Around 2002-03 Tamiya released a series of their newer 1/35 scale kits with remote control. I’ve still got the M1A1 in the collection.
Fun.
C’mon; there’s something cool about a fully-tracked vehicle climbing over obstacles on the floor. For those of us who have some of the ancient kits with motors - well, we build these for fun and leave the PE to the static kits. Obviously the two-motor, wired remote control - or wireless radio-control - are more fun than the single-motor goes-forward/reverse-only tanks. But, what the heck.
Rob, are you certain about the Tiger? The one I saw had slots and whatnot on the engine bulkhead that had nothing whatsoever to do with the interior detail, as a matter of fact, a buddy who built one complained about having to construct a new bulkhead because of the gaps. Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty decent build despite the age of the kit and whether it was originally designed to be motorized or not.
If it were motorised, the gearbox/motor assembly would have been in the front, and this would have intruded into the driver/radio operator’s positions. The engine detail was pretty sparse as I recall, with only the top of the engine represented, mounted on a post.
They had a motorised 1/25th T-34/85 as well. I believe the Centurion had internal detail.
Fair enough, that makes perfect sense. I guess that it was just sloppy engineering on Tamiya’s part. Thanks for setting me straight.
[#ditto]
That and if you can find a nice flat area, they can be good to use with a high-powered air gun as a moving target. [:P]
Tom [C):-)]
To get modelers to buy more plastic and putty to fill these "/$?&$%* holes everywhere. And to make sure we buy the aftermarket kit that corrects the shape of the hull because they designed it to accept the batteries.
All old editions models in 1-25 and 1-24 scale were at static and motorised versions.
Between motorised You can find one or two engines version.
1-25 from Tamiya Tiger I,T34-85,Su 100,Panther A,Jagdpanther(not sure centuorion,M60 but probably too)
Tamiya`s copies from Academy- Panther A,Jagdpanther and new Panther G and Jagdpanther early/late.
Old Bandai 1-24 models -Panther,Jagdpanther and King Tiger (all with interior too).
Most of this old models are aviaable now on E bay.
Find just now
rare M60
poor condition but it`s
here is an oldie I built in 1972-maybe '73?-- 1/25 tamiya tiger I with the dual motor setup – 2 speeds forward,2 reverse,2 speeds left and right + 360 deree pivot–at the time I thought it was the coolest thing-- it was the last model I built till i got back in this hobby about 2 yrs ago-- the model has suffered much abuse and a few parts are now missing or broken and i made the control unit to be able to plug into the rear plate using mini phono plugs – unfortunateley I lost that also[:(]-- a few pics–
I’m thinking it’s all those modelers who worked on the old Godzilla movie sets. [8D]
Nothing more than toys and a gimmick to sell more kits if you ask me. I get enough fun out of actually riding around in tracked vehicles to get no enjoyment at all out of chasing little plastic ones around the rug booing vroom, vroom behind them.
well let me clarify. obvisiouly it would be fun to have different speeds, traversing and things like that. this kit i have takes two AA’s with an on/off switch. like i said i didn’t notice it until after i brought it home and ripped the plastic off of the box. the kit isn’t great at all. looks like a lot of sanding and gap filling, but if your really into the hobby for fun, and have the right tools and patience, you could probably make a nice kit out of it. as far as taking off the upper hull to continue replacing AA’s? i rather pull that junk off and make it a static model. it has some great detail, but just needs a little love in the assembly. speaking of traversing and two speed tanks. i used to have a M1 when i was a kid. wasn’t a put together model, but it had little foam shapped “missles” that it would shoot if you pressed the fire button on the remote. didn’t take me long to realize that if i stuck un cooked spaghetti inside the barrel, the air pressure would shoot it out like a sabot. lol. real fun with the kitties around the house.
About 20 years ago I built Tamiya’s motorised 1/35th M60 (A2 is it, the one with the 152mm gun/ Shilleagh missile?) Was less than impressed with its snail like performance over a short length carpet. Took it out in the garden & the thing could barely move through short grass and stalled on anything resembling an incline.
Guess that with the batteries, that the thing was just too heavy. OK, I wasn’t expecting Christie like performance, but I found it a total let down & it ended my interest in motorised tanks. Tamiya’s Clodbuster was much more fun in the garden, till I got banned for trashing the flower beds[:D]
treadwell submitted this: “here is an oldie I built in 1972-maybe '73?-- 1/25 tamiya tiger I with the dual motor setup – 2 speeds forward,2 reverse,2 speeds left and right + 360 deree pivot–at the time I thought it was the coolest thing-- it was the last model I built till i got back in this hobby about 2 yrs ago-- the model has suffered much abuse and a few parts are now missing or broken and i made the control unit to be able to plug into the rear plate using mini phono plugs – unfortunateley I lost that also-- a few pics–”
Can this be the 1/25 Tiger that I was referring to in my previous post?? Is it possible that I may have been vindicated?? Perhaps I wasn’t mistaken after all! Tamiya just might have modified their old kit with the new interior and omitted the motorized crapola.