I am building the tristar panzer 38(t), and the cannon construction is so intricate with a ton of detail parts, but it is going to end up inside the turret, what is the point of putting all the pieces together other than to simply build my skills up. These pieces will not be visible at all. I just dont get these kits sometimes.
Some people liek to put full interiors in their kits and this gives them a good start. If you don’t want to build it, don’t worry about the details.
You could do a full interior and then cut away part of the turret to show it off.
…The JUDGES!! lol, I got one from a friend for free today, now I know why…
If you’re never going to see it once the model has been completed, why bother - unless you want to take photos first. This Dragon 1/35 Tauchpanzer IV
comes with a fully- detailed gun and a pretty-well-detailed turret interior, but the turret’s sealed to stop the water coming in, so why bother?
Likewise this Tamiya 1/72 Perkasa-class fast patrol boat:
and this Airfix 1/72 Severn-class lifeboat:
Both feature fully-detailed wheelhouse interiors, but the windows don’t let in enough light for you to be able to see anything, so you might as well leave all the detail out, and just paint everything else dark grey. Of course, if you fitted interior lighting, it might be a different story…
Cheers,
Chris.
The turret interior makes it feasible to construct the hatches movable. Newer dragon kits give you the option to convert most, if not all the hatches, your choice to take the extra steps or not.
Sometimes I use 'em on other builds and the parts end up being parts of other parts… If you decide not to use 'em, keep 'em anyway… I’ll bet ya money that eventually, you’ll find a use for 'em…
Yes iindeed, and on this Dragon 1/35 Pz.IV Ausf.D:
which I built about 18 months previously, I did just that; it has a full-detailed turret interior, which you can see if you remove the crew figures. BUt the whole point of the Tauchpanzer is that it goes underwater. so you’re not going to have the hatches open, so you won’t see the interior. You might, however, see the starfish:
[:)]
Cheers,
Chris.
IMHO some companies have gone a little overboard with new kits. If it is an open top AFV I understand but if not why bother?
80% of the reason I think companies due bother is todays modeler demand a much higher quality of kit then those of yesterday.
20% I think is because it gives the hobby companies good reason to jack up to price.
Just my [2c]
Seeya
Scott
I complete what I have to do when building models even it will not be seen after finishing it. It’s a nice feeling. I once tried not doing everything like not doing a full set of tracks because it will be hidden by the side skirts but it gave me an unfullfilled feeling like I cheated myself. It’s the feeling!
To have fun!
Same thing with the 251D that I’m building–a transmission and gas tanks that are COMPLETELY sealed inside the floor and hull of the vehicle–I mean, there’s no earthly way you’d see them unless you portrayed the vehicle blown up!
Hey maybe that’s the new marketing strategy for the younger “firecracker” crowd–
“Hey let’s blow this one up so we can see the interior work!”
LOL! [(-D]
Heh… You probably ain’t that far off… It’s my opinion that, back in the 60s and 70s, serious modlers spent hours scrounging fiddly bits here and there from this & that to superdetail their builds, because the earlier kits were lacking in detail and there were no or very few after-market parts… I certainly did… There wasn’t even such a thing as a hobby shop anywhere near me as a teenager…
Then as the years passed and more and more modelers were seeing what us “gizmologists” were doing, they wanted to do it too, but without any of that pesky imagination and legwork involved, so they started screaming about it to the companies and the compnies listened, adding new molds with more details and subsequently jacking the prices of the kits up to recover the costs (initially) and then keeping them there (because new modelers were entering the hobby and weren’t any more inclined to scratch-build either)… While they were at it, they noticed that small cottage industries were springing up around the country as the Gizmologists discovered that if they made copies of the completed assemblies of their scratch-built work, there were others out there eager to open their wallets and purchase their work. At the same time, the model companies noticed the number of dollars being spent on the aftermarket parts, so they in turn started adding super-detail parts of resisn, metal, and photo-etched brass and jacking the prices up STILL further, because there’s so many parts now that, even though the new ones are much cheaper to make than the injection-molded parts, and their customers still won’t make their own parts, people ignorant of the facts and just open their wallets even farther…
Meanwhile, we “primitive” scratchbuilders from the past still sit there and continue to use the fiddly bits from every source under the sun, some sheet and strip plastic, a little wire from here & there, and make a 20-dollar kit look like it cost a hundred with about a buck and a half’s worth of “stuff”…
[:-^]
I know that sounds arrogant, perhaps even elitist, and it probably is… But it don’t make me wrong, either…
[:D]
Overall, I ain’t that much of a stickler for accuracy… I’ll put a Sherman transmission in a Panzer IV, and no one will be the wiser unless I tell 'em… I just want stuff to look “busy” in there… But if I can’t see it, I forget about it and keep the parts for making other stuff that will be seen…
I know that we can’t put the Genie back in the bottle though… So go ahead and leave 'em off ByrneOut… No one will notice and your parts box will GROW…
I find that I am very proud of scratching out a 20 year old kit and being able to compete with any modern box shaker.
On the other hand I do remeber the day ( not many years ago) when if you wanted anything aftermarket at all you were going to pay top dollar for it (I.E. ripped off)!
I am all for the companys adding little extras to the kits to spruce them up.
I also think that helpped bring down the cost of AM stuff some.
IMHO
It’s there as an option in the event you (the generic “you” as in “the builder”) want to have more options in terms of using the kit in a dio, opening up the hatches, displaying it as a cut-away, having the turret roof removable, etc. It broadens the appeal of the kit to a wider variety of builders (in theory). But just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to build it up. If you’re going to close everything up, you should build enough of it it serve as an appropriate counter-weight to the barrel so things will behave properly but otherwise there’s no real need to spend a lot of time on it.
DML kind of went overboard a bit (it actually started with Tristar so DML had to follow suit) with their “Super Kit” approach to the 1000+ part kits and has since corrected back towards the “Smart Kit” approach. Having the ability to pose hatches open and actually have something in there besides a yawning black hole increases the potential for just the base kit itself to be used. Does it increase the price of the kit? Marginally…again, they are there as a starting point for those who want to super-detail either by way of scratching or using AM to work on an interior.
I’m not entirely sure I buy the ‘lots and lots of detail, etch and indy links increases the price’ argument. When Dragon first started producing their 1000-piece superkits, their kits were typically 2/3 the price of equivalent, simpler, Tamiya stuff, without etch and with rubber-band tracks.
True, things are closer now, with new-release Dragon stuff being the same price, or even slightly more expensive than Tamiya, but it’s caused Tamiya to raise their game (link&length tracks and turned aluminium barrels now fairly common), and if the higher prices don’t adversely affect sales, ins’t that a reflection of the kits’ true value, as far as the customers are concerened?
Cheers,
Chris.
Build it like you want to. This is why we all have a box (or boxes) of extra parts.
Sorta like aircraft guys, when they (we) detail those cockpits, especially on a build like an FW 190 where most of the insturment panel is impossible to see? Or the bomber guys, who meticulously trick out the entire interior only to have about 2% visible when she’s closed up?
I think every armor guy should build at least one full interior, just to say “I climbed Everest” LOL
As previously stated, it does pay off on an “open hatched” presentation:
there is a definite “point” IMHO
Steve
I’ve never built a full interior but I think I would view it as an acheivement. Even though you really can’t see it you know its there and you know you worked hard on it.
Erik