Perete

Jennifer Franklin
Thanks Mina, that is good to know.

Ben M
That's a good tip on making the decals match

Wicker Man
Absolutely!
I just went crazy with those kits, which are far better engineered, easier to assemble and full of options.
As an old modeller, I just met what I was searching.
Along with Tamiya, Takom is becoming my favorite brand!

Mina Ro Autor
Hey thats a good Iron Maiden song! Up the irons! lol

Jeff C.
Just ordered both kits separately, not the big box. In the last year I've bought at least 15 TAKOM kits. I got all of the Tigers, the 250s and a couple of Stugs and Hetzers. They are truly becoming one of my favorite manufacturers. PLUS, their prices are very good!

Mina Ro Autor
for sure

gorby
You can also get the same effect from using a square section tube like photo 28 in one of my albums:
Flash, mould lines, sink marks, ejection pin marks and a little bit of kit thrown in. | Album by gorby (1:72)

Ben M
Uncle nightshift has some videos on making bases entirely out of styrofoam board. He makes roads, houses, etc. very low cost and doesn't require a lot of fancy tooling.

gorby
There is a better version of that image here:
super-hobby.com/products/Czech-T-72M1.html

Mina Ro Autor
Thanks!

Funny because I have an account there and buy a lot of stuff.

Mina Ro Autor
Thanks Clair, I think I am also going to get some paper mache celluclag and try fabricating some of my own terrain. I have noticed that stock resin terrain is pretty expensive so along with hobby lobby wood bases, I am going to try making some of my own diorama terrain. Thanks a bunch for advice.

Desert Marlin
Simple terrain in Israel...
Iron Dome Battery 1:35 Scale [COMPLETE] | Album by DesertMarlin (1:35)

gorby
Oh I can see the appeal of 1/16 kits, they must be very impressive when built. Much too big for me to store and it would be a bit of a shock to the system to go from 1/72 to 1/16. 😄
I do know someone who is intending to gradually replace his collection with these larger kits even to the point he's willing to sell much of his current stash to fund it. He's building this kit at the moment and loving it.
Panzerjäger I B (Takom 1018, 1:16)

I am quite tempted by the Gecko Universal Carrier, which would also be quite a small model even in 1/16 scale, although the price is well above my budget. Personally I'm happy to stick with smaller scales.

David Taylor
I have built the Pz 1 Ausf B and is a nice kit to build,lots of external detail but no internal detail whatsoever. I have purchased the Trumpeter 251/1 and is looks a nice kit.The Das Werks kit is a little bit more expensive but the level of detail is far superior.

Ben M
I like the idea of 1/16 especially for smaller subjects like light tanks. I'm not much of a German armor modeler, but hey, a Jagdtiger in 1/16 would be fun wouldn't it? If there was an M3 medium in 1/16 I'd buy it in a second. There's even some company that builds 1/8 scale metal armor kits. So far my only 1/16th subjects have been figures and a sea mine, but I do have some 3d print files I could scale to 1/16 within the envelope of my resin printer.

I just remembered I built a K-Wagen in 1/35. It's huge... building one in 1/16th... hmm. Maybe I need a larger resin printer.

Rui S
I Like 1/35 scale and doing dioramas. So if the space is already an issue, the 1/16 scale would be impossible.
Not that the building of this kits would not be more interesting, I think they would, but the higher prices issues is for sure a no no for me.

Ben M
Yeah but... I mean I got a 1/24 scale M2 Light Tank "Mae West" for $14 + $5 shipping on ebay from them. Hard to find a kit of that subject at any price. I agree the detail is lacking, but what the heck, it's an opportunity. My only regret is they didn't have it in 1/16.

I haven't seen the figures, the 3d prints of the armor models are ok, but as you point out, rather basic.

My standards are low because I build a lot of those horrible old Lindberg kits 🙂

Ben M
I imagine the source is here: free3d.com/nl/3d-mod..light-tank-5948.html - but I wouldn't pay $199 to print it myself. The design says it's royalty free, so you could use it as SSMODEL does, and do it commercially without breaking the copyright.

Tony May
gorby: Who knows? Brand loyalty is something I'd LOVE to enjoy in the modern age but nobody makes a full range of the kind of stuff I like to build, unfortunately. 😉

Ben: I forgot all about Lindberg! I built a mess of their stuff pretty early on. I remember the Me-163 was done in something like an hour. lol You're right the Revell stuff didn't fit very well at all & I STILL have issues with Italeri stuff from time to time.

Mina Ro Autor
Speaking of shoddy Lindberg kits. To be honest. 2 years ago my spouse bought me that old horrible T-55 Lindberg kit. Its been re-released many times. Its got options in it to do the Israel tiran version. I have to admit that for a pretty low detail model company, this was not a bad kit. It actually includes the 105mm barrel for the Israel conversion and other bits. All I did was add a miniart working track link set to replace its horrid rubber band tracks that really do not fit and added better after market AA machine guns from the Academy MG set and stowage. With a good paint job and wash it easily can look almost like a current expensive Miniart brand T-55. Not a bad kit really at all. I actually built this kit once before when I was a teen but my first build didn't look even half as good as the one I did recently. We did not have all of these great aftermarket parts and paint washes,etc to make models look so realistic back in the early 90's. The old Lindberg T-80 and BMP-1 kits are not really that bad either and can be upgraded to look acceptable. I think those were the only 3 1/35 armor kits that company did.

John Hughes
I've built a couple of Takom kits so far and found them great. Plenty more in the stash. As to accuracy, I take the view that it is what it is. I'm more about enjoying doing it that being a rivet counter. If others was to build to exact specs, that's fine, if that's what floats their boat (June 1942 version). They just need to accept that most of us do it for fun.
I've just doubled my age estimate for Mina. Must be all that Mr Surfacer!

Mina Ro Autor
One thing about accuracy too. We can research to our hearts content. Now for example, if you are modeling some allied or german tank in WW2, pictures are very limited. You can find docs on when a unit was where during a specific time. You can see a few tanks and the paint schemes some used but not all. You can see numbers on some as well as unit marks but in most cases you can't. Pictures are limited and so tons of speculation from B&W photos as to what the real color of the vehicle was. For instance like Rommels halftrack. People have argued for decades if his sdkfz 250 in Africa was just panzer grey with some dunkelgelb splotched all over, or if it was some other color. In most cases we have no pictures of a vehicle from the other side too. Like Wittmans last tank 007. Many people model his tank with the unit crest on the front left face of the tank when in photos it seems to me 2nd SS tigers had the unit crest on the right, like his older 205 tank. The command tank antennas have also been a point of speculation for years. Regardless, you could go insane trying to be as accurate as possible and still be off the mark. Even the pros in this hobby I think are off the mark sometimes and it cannot be verified either way. You just try to model what you think is correct as best you can or just go for a build that really could never be deemed accurate or not and that's the best anyone can do. I think most everything is speculative and like all of you said, we should enjoy the hobby and not pick apart others work. I think social media in many cases, like everything else, has made a lot of people become armchair generals on every subject and ridicule has gone off the rails (be it talk of hobbies or anything else). Productive advice though is usually always welcome!

Ben M
I've been meaning to try that, thanks for the tip that it works!