I am requesting help with another soldiers wishes. He would like to model the yamato, he has been looking online hobby shops and the 1/200 scale nichimo or the tamya 1/350. Which is the best kit for the money, and what aftermarket should be used to enhace the kit. Again thanks for all the support with our request for information.
capt bruce wheeler
bruce.wheeler1@us.army.mil please use this e-mail if you can help us out
I know Gold Medal Models makes a nice PE set for the Tamiya kit but I don’t know what’s available for the 1/200 Nichimo. While I’ve seen the Nichimo done up in shows (and they really stand out in 1/200!) the builders have told me it was more work in doing the Nichimo kit right (bigger scale means more detailing) then the 1/350.
While the Nichimo has the potenial to be a more impressive build, for bang for the buck, I think the Tamiya 1/350 is the better bet.
What about the Doyusha 1/250?
Doyusha 1/250 is more of a remote control model due to the simplicity of the molding compared to the Arii 1/250, Nichimo 1/200, or Tamiya 1/350.
Note the Nichimo and Tamiya model only deal with the final sortie configuration with all the heavy AA.
Life-Like produced a 1/350 kit which could be built to represent the Yamato as built, 1944 mod, or final sortie.
Larger the model, the more the PE will be. So 1/350 upgrades are much more reasonable than 1/200. Unless this will be a very long term project to amortize the cost of the adders.
Having recently inspected a 1:200 Nichimo new in it’s box I would have to come down on the side of the Tamiya as a static model.
The Nichimo is undoubtedly impressive (hell, it’s over 4’ long!) but suffers from the age of the tooling and the fact it’s been designed to be powered and sailed. The kit does contain metal stanchions and railings, though I couldn’t see how comprehensive these were, along with the props shafts, switches and battery contacts (for 8 x D cells - 12V).
I reckon it’d look fantastic on the water but need a lot of extra work to display on the shelf. Need a big shelf too!!
Michael
GMM does make the PE detail set for the 1/200 Nichimo.
-Jesse
Hello, My name is Paul and I am a Yamatoholic… I can speak about the Nichimo 1/200 Yamato. I purchased mine in 1973. You can see it on modelwarships.com - search for Paul Bishop and Yamato. It developed into a love hate relationship. It just sucks up detailing since it’s so big. When it’s finished it is ponderous and really something to look at tho. I have one of the two Gold Metal Model photo etch sets on mine. It is also radio controlled. It really boils down to what you want - if you want really big - go with the Nichimo - it’s 53 inches long and does indeed take up a lot of shelf space. I have mine in a separate case. The Tamiya 1/350 scale is really more reasonable for most people and can be built into a very nice model. There are a few good reference books out there that are a must (Anatomy of the Ship Yamato, and two by Gakken - number 2 and 11 - I could be wrong on one of those numbers tho). You can find these on e-bay. Hope this helps, Paul
A few months ago, I finished building the ARII 1/250 Yamato… (actually, I will never be finished building it, because the more I learn, the more I ad to it)
Anyways, here is a link to my build… I may be able to help you out in getting one if interested…
/forums/664505/ShowPost.aspx
Chris