I don't know if I should laugh or cry! I've been wracking my brain trying to decide if I want to convert my early Chamond to a late version! I guess I don't kneed to think about it anymore . NICE!
Just been reading the Pidgin English translation for the Mk.IV kits on 1999.co.jp... Looked at these so many times, so why it didn't stick out before I don't know.
Whoever wrote the original description - Takom / A.N. Other - made reference to Hotchkiss machine guns for the Female.
The translation was the clue, as the Japanese refer to staplers / staple guns as 'Hotchkiss' after the first manufacturer to introduce them to the country, hence Hotchkiss Machine Guns translates as 'Machine Guns Stapler'!
Whether this is just 'blurb', or whether there are Hotchkiss in the kit, we'll have to wait and see. The Takom renders and box art show Lewis Guns, so whether these would a late 'option part' inclusion - as well as Lewis Guns, who knows..? Surely Lewis armed MK IV were more typical, and Beutes [as per the box art] would be often be MG.08 armed???
Whatever, I hope they get the ball mounts right - the Tamiya ones don't include any sighting hole above the Lewis barrels!
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
I'm too looking forward to the Takom Mark IVs. And I hope that they get the rivets correctly... in the side view renders, there's a minor error... Of course not a deal braker, but for that money, I hope it's all right. Proportions from the side views are spot on compared to original data.
Just seen on the Takom website that they are announcing glueless workable click-fit track links suitable for all the major Rhomboids.
They don't look disimilar to the Tamiya click-fit equivalents, and are supplied sprueless in the same manner.
This begs the question, was the 1 month delay in releasing the Male / Female kits just a production delay OR did they change to click-fits for the kits as well as offering them as an aftermarket option?
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
Indeed piet71. Nice linking - it wasn't there last night, only on Takom's site.
Just to confirm. I have just viewed the 'unboxed' kit photos on 1999.co.jp, and the tanks are issued with the complex ultra-detail tracks.
Ok, ultra-detail will be 'the business', but 1000 track parts, ,much effort, many hours, mostly hidden. Bugger..!
I wish the click-fit tracks had been released in tandem with the tanks, so we'd know about track-plate detail and price by now. I might have ordered a couple of sets, as spares for other builds.
PS - I discovered the other day that POCKETBOND are now the official UK importers / agents for Takom. Which a/ comes as rather a slap to Emhar, b/ makes you wonder about ITA's position, as they were one time [ahem] approved sole-supplier for the UK.
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
Although, it was some sort of Japanese national holiday last week, so although HLJ wanted my money [in 3 days - or else], they have actually done sod-all about shipping my order!
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
Although, it was some sort of Japanese national holiday last week, so although HLJ wanted my money [in 3 days - or else], they have actually done sod-all about shipping my order!
What drugs are Takom on?! This kit has click tracks, yet the regular Male / Female kits just released have masochist tracks... Click tracks were announced by Takom the very same week as the first two Rhomboids became available for shipping. Clearly, there has been some parallel development of both tank & click tracks... I wish they'd put click tracks in these kits too.
I cannot see what advantage masochist tracks offer, on a tank where most of the actual linkage is hidden, unless you are going to model a 'full peel' on a destroyed tank.
Frustrated frankly.
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
With reference to "Glueless workable tracks from TAKOM " they list on their box " For MkII/MkIV/MkV/MkIV Tadpole/Whippet " so does this hint at more to follow after the Tadpole ? We can but pray
Paul
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The finest stories of the Great War are those that will never be told.
With reference to "Glueless workable tracks from TAKOM " they list on their box " For MkII/MkIV/MkV/MkIV Tadpole/Whippet " so does this hint at more to follow after the Tadpole ? We can but pray Paul
 Wishful but, not unfounded, thinking. I wonder if they have just seen a gap in the [aftermarket upgrade] market and gone for it..? Tamiya's Char B1 Bis tracks are very highly thought of, as are their rhomboid click tracks, apparently.... BUT only Friuli is supplying any aftermarket rhomboid track worth buying at the moment, and glueless clickers will fit most people's pockets as well as patience levels.
Clearly Takom have either had a change of heart, or decided there would be outright mutiny if they included 5-part masochist track-links in the tadpole kit. The tracks account for 1000 pieces in normal rhomboids... A pity they didn't have glueless clickers in the standard Mk.IVs too. You only need hyper-detail if the whole track run is exposed, like the Renault FT or the A7V Uberlandwagen.
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"You there on the port!". "S'gin actually, but thanks for noticing [hic]".
As there are such a lot of negative comments on the tracks, I have to say that I am looking forward to receiving and building mine. I like the fact that TAKOM did not go a simplified route on the tracks, even as it causes some more work. But this way, they include all parts to build a well detailed model and even a bit more than that. I hope they continue this way.
So, from that reply, there was no such thing? I did wonder myself, having heard plenty about Mk Vs being hemaphrodites, but nothing I could recall about Mk IVs... but then I'm no expert.
1999.co.jp are also listing it, so unlikely to be a vendor cock-up. Here is their link with 'machine' translation.
Depending on the actual sponson sprue inclusions, this could be a great kit M/F option kit [plus it says glueless tracks] or an utter fantasy bollox of a kit.
Except for the so called "markIV hermaphrodite", those models are great!
I've bought the two St Chamond and the MarkIV female and they're both good, my old Ehmars will go to retirement!
The point difficult to accept is the choice they made for the tracks. The multi parts ones are just awful to built even accurate and it is somewhat scandalous too provide it in the box to offer another model just few weeks later. The model isn't that cheap I accept to pay more!
I just hope they will insert the new link in the further models.
regards
Gilles(Lostiznaos)