Landships II

plastic fan · General

1/35 FT tank model

Lothianman · Colonel

http://www.cybermodeler.com/news/italeri7.shtml

It seems to be the round turreted one. Too early to say whether this has vinyl, or link and length, or proper flexible linked track, but I will be very interested to see how this turns out.�Italeri usually go for link and length, but they will have problems unless they go for four-way moulds.

The old RPM 1/35 kit (now, rather surprisingly, pretty much unavailable) was not cheap - or so I felt - and one only got the one piece vinyl track even then. One had (at least in my experience) to pay extra for the hard plastic parts to assemble a flexible link track. So I only have one ...

Anyway this Italeri issue must be the first 1/35 scale Great War tank since the Interus Mark V ... wonder what else will be coming and from whom? The February trade fairs may tell us something.

�

Rob · Legend

Splendid news! Really looking forward to this

plastic fan · General

As far as I know it is a new tool kit and has the round turret with the 37 mm cannon. Hopefully they will release it in 1/72 scale.

Paul Bonnett · Hero

This seems to be the long awaited Tamiya one, seeing as how Italeri is now part of their stable. Advertised as 100% new moulds !
Paul

Lothianman · Colonel

Er, wrong way round I think - Tamiya issue some Italeri kits in Japan, of vehicles they don't mould themselves, with a little Italeri label under ther Tamiya one, and some make their way to those shores through global trade. But Italeri don't (as far as I know) issue Tamiya kits in Europe under their own label. Still quite different companies as far as I am aware.

I do hope it doesn't put off Tamiya-san from trying the FT or other Great War armour themselves - although they can be very slow with the releases, their Char B, in particular, with its�flexible link track, and BT series show what they can do with pre-1939 tanks (with only a little simplification to keep the kits easy to build).

-- Edited by Lothianman on Wednesday 30th of January 2013 09:20:53 AM

-- Edited by Lothianman on Wednesday 30th of January 2013 09:21:49 AM

RCD · Lieutenant-Colonel

Great news to see a new WW1 in 1/35 so long as it has French/AEF decals! Hopefully it will not be decked out as a Beautepanzer as Dragon likes to do!

As for 1/72 we do need a FT that is accurate but is buildable rather than the ultra complex PRM version. At the moment I an sticking to the inaccurate HaT FTs because you can end up with a reasonable finished model. There certainly a gaping hole in the market for such a product.

It may be the start of a flow of WW1 models with Strelets' contributions. They now have assigned reference numbers to the St. Charmond, Schneider and MkB medium.

Rob · Legend

Good news on the Strelets releases, hopefully they won't be too far behind. Regarding the RPM version of the FT in 1/72, what is it like to build excepting the track units? Now that aftermarket track sets are available for it I'm rather tempted - although of course ideally a kit shouldn't have to require aftermarket sets to make it

RCD · Lieutenant-Colonel

Rob wrote:
Good news on the Strelets releases, hopefully they won't be too far behind. Regarding the RPM version of the FT in 1/72, what is it like to build excepting the track units? Now that aftermarket track sets are available for it I'm rather tempted - although of course ideally a kit shouldn't have to require aftermarket sets to make it

�I found the wireless version a right pig to make - probably my lack modelling skills. The pieces are very small and fiddly - ended up�making a�HaT/RPM hybrid.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

RCD wrote:
The pieces are very small and fiddly - ended up�making a�HaT/RPM hybrid.

�Hmmm - would that make it a HarPM or an RPMat?� wink

The news of this Italeri kit is pleasing, even if no release date (month) is given in that catalogue. I've only made one Italeri model before (must be nearly twenty years ago), a WW2 Canadian Military Pattern truck, but I thought their detailing good - I just hope the price is reasonable; if I'm not mistaken (which I may very well be), the Tamiya Char B1 mentioned by Lothianman is very expensive - I think I've seen it listed at about �40, which is twice what such a kit should cost (in my view). I suppose it depends on how long a kit has been around to recoup the tooling costs and how big the demand is for a tank that is neither German, Russian, nor American.

Lothianman · Colonel

Quite right about the Char B price - and in fact I checked a few websites. The Char with German mods is �50 as near as dammit in one UK shop but was always more expensive than the vanilla French version. HLJ in Japan have the French one at only a little more than half that price but one has customs duties and Royal Mail imposition charge as well.

What surprised me is that HLJ have some RPM FTs as well, but at almost �28 - and I have no idea whether they contain vinyl or proper independent link track.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

Has anyone looked at Jadar models (Poland) recently? Last year I think they had the 1/35 FT at a fraction of that price.

Have just looked myself, can't say anything about availability, but they have the 1/35 FTs listed at 16.70 in euros - that's around �14.40 at present. The plastic individual tracks were listed at 8.35 euros.

Lothianman · Colonel

Ah! Jadar still do - www.jadarhobby.pl - at about those prices. Not sure if they have all the RPM boxings, I could never keep up, but they do have some and the tracks. They also have some of the Ford T variants for less than 7 euros.

BTW if you are into interwar then they have the various Polish tankettes absurdly cheap.

They are also offering, for less than 4 euros, a special (no instructions, download from below) of the 7.5cm Mk.97 Schneider Field Gun wz.1897 which as any fule kno is the soixante-quinze Mle 1897. This boxing or rather bagging is the interwar Polish variant with pneumatic tyred wheels - mine had the wooden wheels as well and the kit in the photo has both kinds as well as the interwar ?French pneumatic tyred wheels. It's a fairly basic kit and needs some reworking but seems to scale out except perhaps for the trail length which may need adjustment.

http://www.jadarhobby.pl/rpm-35007-75cm-mk97-schneider-field-gun-wz1897-135-p-19835.html

On availability, the little orange bar gives the indication - if it is short then few, you get the idea!

-- Edited by Lothianman on Friday 1st of February 2013 09:57:08 AM

-- Edited by Lothianman on Friday 1st of February 2013 09:57:54 AM

-- Edited by Lothianman on Friday 1st of February 2013 03:07:36 PM

BC312 · Colonel

In the past i have made loads of model tanks usually Tamiya or Italeri and have no problems constructing them. Thank god Italeri are now doing a Renault FT -17 tank. I have just been assembling a FT RPM model, what a nightmare, poor instructions, with bits that don't resemble the drawings, 100s very fiddly parts, parts that snap in two or three bits because they are so fine and the plastic is rubbish, no locating slots or lugs that make sure the bits are in the right place, give or take, even the Ermar models are a luxury compared to RPM. I think am going to give up on this and save the money up for Andy's 'Big tank' FT