Landships II

compound eye · Colonel

Takom Male / Female preview from PMMS

thorst · Colonel

That looks great, thank you for the link! Looking forward to the kit!

Pierantonio · Lieutenant-Colonel

As I wrote in another modelling forum they appear as very nice kits but I think they have even too many parts for a "normal" model display. They will be nice for an out of order tank but for a running one I think Tamiya did a better work.

The multi parts Male sponsons are a very good start point for an easy conversion to Supply Tank.

More then 1.000 parts for tracks are a real nightmare in my opinion. They suggest to glue only the main plate but the real tracks don't rest on the side plates so the part on the inside is visible.

I think the correct way is to glue only the outer guide on the main plate and then these on the side plates.

It seems they made some confusion on side profiles they can easily correct before production.

HEINZ was a Male with German guns and different shields (not included on the box but easy to reproduce).
FLIRT II was a Female (now preserved in England).
LODSTAR (4098) is different tank from that preserved in Bruxelles Army Museum christianed LODSTAR III (4093). I had no reference on this tank but another guy wrote the forst Lodstar has #8030.

Bye

Pierantonio

-- Edited by Pierantonio on Tuesday 5th of August 2014 06:34:27 PM

compound eye · Colonel

1000pcs does seem excessive, yes.

To my mind they could have cut that number more-or-less in half, as the inner & outer links could easily have been moulded as two single 'U' shaped pieces instead of four halves. Styrene does have inherent flexibility.

I think it is just going to be more of a chore that a challenge. Pour a beer, put on some music, clip the link parts into different cups and glue two link halves and one track plate at a time, worrying about taking an emery board to the exposed sprue cut once both pairs of links are on the track plate and the well and truly cured.

It is really no more hassle that Model-Kasten tracks with a plate, 2 pins, and separate guide horn per typical link.

Certainly, I don't think that job would sway me toward the Tamiya, which is a rather compromised kit.

TinCanTadpole · Legend

I would agree that moulding the two guide rails in two pieces each is unnecessary; five parts per link, with 89 links per track (if they are accurate in pitch) means 890 parts needed - not as bad as 1000, but still hefty. As Compound Eye said, probably more of a chore than a challenge.

More puzzling to me is why the German photographer figure included with the female kit is wearing a pickelhaube? (in late 1917/1918!)