So imagine my surprise when I spotted this at Imperial Hobbies today... I wasn't even aware it was out yet.
The box is sturdy, corrugated cardboard, and is also packed with a separate compartment for the hull tub, turret, and vinyl tracks (vinyl... ecccch...) I find it a little ironic that you get a full-colour marking and painting guide considering green is pretty much the only colour the tank came in.
Now as incredible as this sounds, trumpeter have gone and made the armoured vehicle world's equivalent of a Costco store (i.e., a big stupid box) look sexy. Dig the turret:
The hull sides are separate parts you glue to the hull tub. I expect anyone who's ever tried to work with the old Tamiya kit and replace the fenders will find this of interest:
The sprue with the hull details features louvre detail underneath the air intakes. The fenders are very nicely detailed and while there has been some comment as to whether they're the correct width, they are 1mm narrower than the old Tamiya fenders:
A closeup of the two different types of screens you get:
In addition to the vinyl tracks (vinyl... ecccch...) you get styrene link & length tracks, with pre-moulded sag for the top run (although I'll probably still use aftermarket tracks anyway):
The turret details sprue - I tried getting some better closeups but they didn't quite work out. There is an attempt to capture the slight depressions in the sides of the trunnion covers, and the cutaways in the recuperator housing for the bolts are present. The recuperator housing is also way more accurate in shape than the old Tamiya part, and it also features weld seam detail on all sides.
I've already started glueing together some of the larger assemblies and the kit's a real pleasure to work with. Some gaps in places, yes. Detail-wise this kit in every way compares favourably to anything Dragon/DML have produced recently, and if it were not for some minor engineering letdowns Trumpeter might even have lapped their Hong Kong counterparts with this kit.
Threaded Mode
