Tamiya oldest 1/35 armour available?

[Rodders154]

There are some excellent Tamiya 1/35 scale kits available that are decades old and I was wondering what the oldest ones currently available were.

I have built some of the real cheap ones such as the Panther and Panzer 2 and to me, they are excellent value for money.

I would also like to see the Land Rover Ambulance reissued anybody else have a Tamiya kit they would like to see again

 

 

Airfix kits of the same vintage show their age but the Tamiya ones don't seem to

 

So does anyone know the oldest mould currently available in hobby shops (not 2nd hand retailers)  and what Tamiya kit would you like to see reissued?

 

Rodders

 

[D1fuN0]

Afternoon All 

 

Ahhh man I would love one of those Land Rovers again  

I recently started looking at getting kits I had when I was a kid, and have purchased the Quad & 25 Pounder and SAS jeep so far, that Land Rover, the 88mm gun and the Hamomag are the rest. 

As for oldest kits, I saw the Schwimmwagen, Kubelwagen and 6pdr in a shop the other day, and I believe they are still producing some of the figures from the first ten releases. 

 

Mad Steve 

[phildagreek]

Tamiya armour was my intro into AFV modelling some 30 odd years ago, I don't recall the first ones I built but it was probably a Panzer of some sort. My taste in subjects has moved on, I don't really do WW2 now but Tamiya has maintained a good quality. Usually well designed & produced with good instructions they try to keep the price low as well.

i must confess to grabbing up any early Tamiya armour I can find, I'm particularly weak with the M113 family & spend time browsing evil Bay for 1/35 Tamiya.

i would guess their earliest ones would be WW2 & probably German.

 

[GrahamS]

Ooo, never had the Land Rover, but the 88mm flak gun (Christmas present circa 1975??? Thanks mum and dad), M113 and the SDKFZ  complete with gun crew all sat in exactly the same position all provided my AFV diet. 

 

Would quite happily undertake those again along with an eight wheeled German thing that I can’t remember the name of, but always fancied.

 

Graham

[PhoenixII]

Graham, that'd be the 8 Rad Puma SdKfz ????

[Richard Humm]

Looking at Hannants' catalogue, the oldest is probably the Centurion (1971) which is up for a limited reissue, then the Panzer IIF/G which was also from 1971. The 88 mm Flak 36/37 from 1972, the SdKfz 251/1 from 1973, and the SAS Jeep and the 3.7cm PaK 35/35 from 1974 would be next. I think the Walker Bulldog and Panther A are also from the very early 1970s but reissued without motors in the middle of that decade.

 

The Schwimmwagen and Kubelwagen that Mad Steve mentioned seeing recently are more likely to be the new tools from the 1990s, though the 6 Pounder would be from 1971. Tamiya do limited runs of some older kits from time to time, the M13/40, SdKfz 232, M3 Lee and Grant and Kettenkrad being among them. The M3 Stuart also used to get rolled out fairly regularly, but the new tool will probably put a stop to that, in the way that the other kits that have been replaced by new tooling have disappeared from the reissue cycle.

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

First 1/35 scale kit I ever built was the Tamiya King Tiger, imagine my surprise to find it contained an electric motor in it as well !

 

I have come over all nostalgic  

 

cheers Pat

[Kiwidave4]

The Centurion and the Chieftain both date from the early seventies, and seem to have been in constant production - they are certainly easily obtainable from a variety of retailers.

 

I have built their Saladin of similar vintage ....well no I haven't;- I got a couple of them pre-built (poorly) and motorised, but found they were so innacurate I had to scratchbuild everything! 

 

At the price the Chieftain is still my pick over the Takom offerings. It is fairly accurate and easily converted to any Mark. 

[stevej60]

The Centurion is out on re-release now I picked one up last Month from my LMS it's even in what I think was it's original box.

[mini man]

The landies  were  great,also the Chevy lrdg  truck.

 

 

[Threadbear]

The exceptional thing about these old Tamiya kits is the way the mounds have stood the test of time. The finesse of some parts such as suspension and the tools may not be up to current standard but the fit remains exceptional and whilst a different subject, these kits in the early 70s must have blown Airfix Frog and their contemporaries away. I feel Airfix even now aren’t up to their standard. Tamiya are the best for ease of construction and detail as the best overall modelling experience. 

[Rodders154]

Tamiya armour has brought my mojo back.  I was finding 1/72 to small for me nowadays and I impulsed bought the chieftain from hobby craft and was very impressed with the kit.