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Tamiya Aircraft Choice


BetaSingh

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Hello all

I have found a good deal on two nice looking Tamiya 1/72nd scale kits, but I do not know which one to get. Both are the same price, £8.99, and they are the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier and the Henschel Hs129. Both seem like nice kits made in the 90s (As I am comparing a WW2 aircraft with a modern one, I didn't know where to put this, so if necessary admin please move) but I really don't know which one is better so all advice and tips about either kit is appreciated, as well as which one you would personally get.

Regards

BetaSingh

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Best kit in 72nd BY TAMIYA in my opinion is their F4D-1 Skyray. It's interesting looking

and is an excellent fit PLUS it's TAMIYA's molding!!!!!---John

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Beta there both good aircraft. As for choosing ww2 vs modern thats a personal choice. As for The kits from what i understand they are decent. You might try cybermodeler.com or scalemates to see what they have to say. Or google the kit info/reviews or builds. That should get you some other modelers perspectives on the kits. Good luck and whichever you choose will be good both to learn and practice new things. By the way im sure im not the only person here who's curious. But how did your P-51 turn out ?

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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IMHO the Italeri AV-8B is pretty poor and not particularly accurate. There are way better kits around and even if £8.99 is a good price, I'd rather spend a bit more and buy the Airfix GR.9 if I wanted a second generation Harrier.

If you don't mind this aspect, then I can say that fit is decent enough, panel lines are raised and there's little detail. It's a simple enough kit to build, I didn't have any particular surprise when I built mine (that was an original Italeri box sometime in the late '80s)

I don't have first hand experience of the HS.129 but at least in the box it looks like a better kit compared to the AV-8B and I've not heard anything bad about it. Personally I'd buy this one as it's a type that I know relatively little and if there's any issue I'd probably not notice, while on the Harrier I'd see them all

Edited by Giorgio N
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Thanks for the advice, and how would the Hs-129 stack up against the Spitfire MkVb by Italeri, as I've heard the MkIV isn't good at all but I do not know about the MkVb, which is also £3 cheaper. 

Best Wishes

BetaSingh

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Any Italeri 1/72 Spitfire is IMHO a waste of money... but mind, I'm a big fan of the Spit so my standards are pretty high when it comes to this subject :D

All Italeri Spitfires are based on a common set of moulds for the fuselage behind the firewall and all share the same problems. Accuracy is not great, again you may or not care about this. Panel lines are recessed, a bit too wide and soft. Detail is decent in the cockpit but the rest is IMHO too soft and some parts are quite bad. The prop on the Mk.IX is horrible but the Mk.V is better. Fit is generally atrocious, the cowling pieces in particular are hard to put together and their fit the rear fuselage is also bad. The thin plastic of these parts doesn't help here. Don't know what the retail price is for the Italeri Mk.Vb is today, in any case I'd rather buy the Airfix Mk.I/II in its place. The Airfix kit may not be perfect but it's a much superior kit in all aspects

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As Giorgio said - the Italeri AV-8B is a rather old kit (first released in '83 or '84, I think), and while the mould has been updated a number of times, there are three better kits around. I wouldn't judge it a bad kit, but when it was released, the development of the Harrier II was not yet finished. I haven't kept track what Italeri updated with the mould, but the Italeri GR.5 Version of the tool didn't really reach the original tool Airfix Harrier. After Airfix issued a new tool, you may probably find their old AV-8B at a similar Price as the Italeri/Tamiya. Besides the new tool Airfix, there of course is the Hasegawa, but that will likely be a lot more expensive. I don't think Italeri ever re-released the Esci AV-8B, and that one seems to be considered worst of all. There was a thread not Long ago on this Topic, search for "best Harrier in 1/72" or similar.

 

IMHO Italeri was best in the 70s and up to the mid 80s (at least in relation to the competition), becoming rather variable thereafter. It's been a Long time since I looked in one, but I remember their Hs 129 as one of their better kits from the 90s, with recessed Detail. Certainly a much more modern tool than the AV-8B, but I can't comment on accuracy and buildability.

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On 27.07.2017 at 9:25 PM, Johnv said:

Best kit in 72nd BY TAMIYA in my opinion is their F4D-1 Skyray. It's interesting looking

and is an excellent fit PLUS it's TAMIYA's molding!!!!!---John

If we speak about models jet aircraft, then for today's time to the best 
set is F-16C from Tamiya!

  On a question a topic starter, choosing between Harrier Italeri in Tamiya's packaging and Italeri's HS-129 in Tamiya's packaging, it is better to choose HS-129.... if of course it is impossible to buy F-16C from Tamiya!!!! ;):):)

 

 

B.R.

Serge

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As for "metalcote" whatever that is I have no airbrush. Might I suggest Tamiya

spray can "Silver Leaf". It's a lacquer spray, with a strong odor BUT it dries fast

and gives a beautiful finish! Just my opinion.---John

29971436383_806b17002b_z.jpgThe Huff 2 by jvandeu53, on Flickr

26804035405_d40910e3cb_z.jpgHun 5 by jvandeu53, on Flickr

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BetaSingh the F4d Skyray's were beautiful aircraft. Looked a bit like a stingray hence the name. Most were a Light Gull Grey over white paint scheme. Some early Prototypes and early test versions were painted in the Overall Dark Seablue. Towards the end of there career they had a Dark engine grey/International Orange (RedOrange) colorschemes. Very little of the Skyray was natural metal. Tamiyas kit comes in both 1/48 & 1/72 scales and is widely acknowledged as one of there best kits. So have little worries about metal finishes with the model. 

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Just as an aside in my honest opinion the most pleasing aircraft

for my eyes is the F7U-3 Cutlass. Fujimi does it in 1/72 and it

was painted in gull gray over white and natural metal finish.

The Fujimi kit doesn't fall together like Tamiyas do but this  plane

impresses me, for looks only, it's performance was less than stellar

hence the name "Gutless Cutlass"---John

36124541192_70c21bc0af_z.jpgCutlass 5 by jvandeu53, on Flickr

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Johnv nice looking cutlass but definitely not one of Voughts best. Not sure but do you know about the cutlass Blue Angel story ? They were apparently testing two cutlasses to see if they should switch over to the type. They were here in chicago doing an airshow at NAS Glenview circa 1954-55. Well one of the Cutlasses lost so much power during the Maneuvers that they refused to fly it again. They left the plane in chicago to basically rot. Glenview didn't operate the type and didnt know what to do with it for quite some time. Eventually it became an airframe maintence practice victim, and ultimately sometime in the late 60's or early 70's became a crash practice bird. The poor bird was Set on fire and chopped open to practice saving the pilot.  I recently built a glenview Corsair and was researching cutlass for a possible future build. The story came up in both searches. 

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Yeah I heard that, even weirder was astronaut Wally Schirra test flew and enjoyed

flying it. He only flew the later model F7U-3 and not the Blue Angels version. He was

a good pilot and studied that plane and taught another pilot the Cutlasses funky habits

an they both enjoyed high speed aerobatics which the Cutlass excelled at. Read this

article.---John

PDF]

F7U Cutlass - EAA

www.warbirds-eaa.org/featured/7Featured Articles - Vol. 28, No. 03...

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