What do you think? Are diecast wheels, hulls and/ or turrets in 1/35th scale in our future? I was just thinking that it might be a marketing strategy.
Steve[^]
I hope not. From what I have seen, die cast is not as sharp and crisp as injection molded plastic. I think the die cast chasis on the Japanese LAV and the road wheels on the Leclerc are just marketing hype and a way for Tamiya to justify (in their minds) charging more for the kit. I can only imagine what a die cast Tamiya kit would cost. The die cast stuff would be much harder to work with and to modify than plastic or resin as well. I will stick with plastic kits.
[#ditto] Die cast is what you make toys out of for 4 year olds!! Our hobby is so much more than that! Most people just don’t understand the level of precision, dedication and hard work that goes into building an accurate representation of a historically important machine. I love Tamiya quality, but I think they are so far off the mark it’s not even funny anymore![soapbox]
While it is not clear to me why Tamiya started using die cast parts in their recent 1/35 releases, I don’t believe that it is to justify the high cost of their kits. It is already a known fact that manufacturing costs in Japan is way way to high as compared to that which in China. The minimum hourly wage in Japan is somewhere between $8-$10 compared to about $2-$3 in China. Tamiya will never be able to match Dragon’s or Academy’s price and this is something that we must live with. The only reason that I heard so far about those die cast parts is to add weight to the kit. The Leclerc by the way has also die cast wheels.
God I hope not. I find the stuff to be a pain in the neck to work with, and I cannot see any advantage whatsoever
I believe their marketing hype also mentions “the feel of quality” or something like that. Maybe they think a heavy kit is a quality kit. I think it is a load of fertilizer. If they want their kits to be heavy, why not include metal plates that could be glued to the interior of the hull, similar to 1/700 waterline ships? What seems a little bit disappointing to me, is that given their choice to make die cast lower hulls, their level of detail is a bit off. I think that Dragon’s die-cast 1/72 Panther’s have a lot more detail than what I’ve seen from photos Tamiya’s 1/48 lower tank hulls,
Andy
Well if they do I won’t be buying them, I want more detail not less.
I Agree man.but still i wont buy their metal chassis kit the price gets raised alot.if tamiya makes full or even half metal kits ill have nothing to do with them(that will be a sad day)
When i do a kit i try to make plastic look like metal! Not metal look like metal thats more stupid than snap together
Look what happened with the tamiya 1/48 sherman with die-cast lower hull. As soon as it came out companies started producing resin REPLACEMENTS for it and they sold well. If they do start more die-cast stuff I expect the same thing will occur. Seems kinda backwards.
Start with a great plastic kit —> make a die-cast hull for it —> sell kit with die-cast hull —> people buy replacement hull [D)][banghead][?][?][?]
I highly doubt Tamiya will do a half or full metal tank hull. Secondly The Leclerc is one of the best modern tanks they have made so far. The wheels look very impressive and do give it as they say some realistic weight. And I really doubt they are adding metal so they can make more money I mean please, they make enough all ready and are widely known for their quality, I believe quality is in their best interest so things like wheels, tracks, grills and guns yes cool nice heavy pieces like they are on the real thing adding good quality material to their widening range and more realism of their main battle tanks range which now stands at 5 (I’m hoping to get lol). So don’t worry about die cast models, because they won’t. Anyway they are doing well, why change the way they do their models? Plus they are concentrating more on their finished models (Master-Work) range and getting more modern tanks made to be bothering about building very expensive machinery to mould big metal parts.
Richard,
The die cast moldings do not actually require expensive machinery. Basically pot metal in a molten state poured into an investment casting, far easier and cheaper than injection molding, which requires a precision mold made from tool steel.
Steve
Oh ok, I belived metal was dearer like resin. Oh well you learn something new everyday lol. Anyway still, I think they will stand by what makes it more detailed.
Tamiya’s trend appears to be toward the “heft” approach. Therefore, I expect virtually all future NEW tanks they market to have metal parts in the running gear area. They started it with their quarterscale tank hulls ( these cast hulls come primed to accept paint, by the way), and presented the same option with the French MBT.
They have proven to be innovative, trend setters over the years. I think this latest quirk is here to stay for awhile. Now it’s only a matter of time before other companies will follow in their path.
As long as the quality is there along with an affordable price, they will get my business…but only over on ebay. [:D] Dragon is emptying my wallet these days.
Meh, tamiya’s release plans for 1/35 scale armour is abysmal anyways, die-cast parts won’t affect it that much one way or the other. However, considering the slew of negative comments on diecast 1/48 hulls, I would wonder why they would create even greater problems for themselves by pumping this trend into the 1/35 scale area.
While I’m not a big fan of the die cast chassis included in some of their kits, I really like the metal road wheels inlcuded in the Leclerc kit. The detail is just as sharp as injection-molded styrene, and there are no parting line seams to sand on these wheels. That’s the big plus, as far as I’m concerned.
Tamiya still touts the “realistic weight” afforded by cast metal parts, but that has no meaning to me.
Some very interesting observations going on here. As far as diecast metal being for toys, I remember back in the sixties and seventies some pretty sophisticated all metal race cars, tanks etc. that were “toys” but exhibited high levels of detail.
We already accept turned aluminum barrels, fruilmodel and karaya track, moskit exhausts,photo etched brass replacement parts etc. in our quest for accuracy and realism. I use all the above and it would be hypocritical for me to down an addition of metallic components to any kit.
As stated above, if the quality is there, it really doesn’t matter to me about the ratio of styrene to metal in an indivdual model, I’ll buy it if I like it.
Steve
Whilst I haven’t built a model with diecast parts yet, I have to say the idea doesn’t appeal to me at all; it makes any sort of modifying, reshaping or adding detail much harder.
Of course you could say that if the kit’s quality and accuracy is high enough you don’t need to modify the parts - but what about “kitbashing”, for example converting a tank into a recovery vehicle, or updating a vehicle to represent a newer version?
Granted, lower hulls and wheels don’t usually need modifying for this sort of thing, but it’s still a concern. And I believe some of the Dragon 1/72 kits actually have complete diecast hulls (though I doubt any company would try this in 1/35)
[:)]Some types of diecasting is very expensive i.e pressure diecast. It is also very acurate and should be free from any blemish. It also requires more expensive tooling than plastic.
However i have not seen the items that are being spoken of here so I assume they are of the pour in the pot type.[2c][;)]…Kenny
Actually, I believe the quarterscale hulls are injection moulded; there are no recess bubbles, or fill failures as are common with the pour process. If you’ve ever assembled white metal items these hulls will give you no problem. Yes, they do lack fidelity of detail, but not because of process limitations, but rather because Tamiya simply didn’t sculp them on the master.
maybe some model co do this on purpose
make 1 bad part knowing full well that a cottage industry co will make a correction . thus helping the whole trade ( 1 hand washing the other )
i think this has been going on for years[2c]