Rubicon models

[jeff72]

Anyone built any Rubicon kits?

I was building 1/35 kits last year but it was getting far too expensive and taking up too much room.

I have my eye on their King Tiger with interior kit and for that scale the detail looks very good,this would be for modelling only not interested in table top games as such.I also found some great Fallschirmjager tank riders figures that would look fab sitting on the KT.

[John Tapsell]

IPMS (UK) has a Special Interest Group (SIG) dedicated to building Rubicon kits. They might be best placed to offer you some guidance. The Rubicon kits I've seen look pretty good - certainly at the top end of the qulaity range for 1/56 wargames kits.

 

You might also want to look at Tamiya's 1/48 scale range of armour (now over a 100 kits in the range). It includes all the major German WWII vehicles including both KTs and the JagdTiger (no full interiors offered though).

Edited April 1, 2022 by John Tapsell

[nheather]

13 hours ago, jeff72 said:

Anyone built any Rubicon kits?

I was building 1/35 kits last year but it was getting far too expensive and taking up too much room.

I have my eye on their King Tiger with interior kit and for that scale the detail looks very good,this would be for modelling only not interested in table top games as such.I also found some great Fallschirmjager tank riders figures that would look fab sitting on the KT.

I have built a few.

 

They are a weird scale, specifically for 28mm war gaming which makes them about 1:56.

 

Being wargaming models they are generally simplified but I would say that they are at the more detailed end of the wargaming models - for wargaming some have a little bit more detail, some that is unlikely to survive much handling.

 

If you are looking for plastic display modelling, rather than wargaming, I would be inclined to look at 1:48 as they tend to have more detail and oddly are often can be found cheaper than the 1:56 wargaming models.  Sometimes you can even find 1:35 models cheaper.

 

For example, a Tamiya 1:35 Kubelwagen is cheaper than a Rubicon 1:56 Kubelwagen - and a lot more detailed.

 

The Rubicon plastic is also a little strange.  It seems to be a very slightly more flexible and more resilient than the usual polystyrene - I sort of like ABS.  Tamiya extra thin will usually bond the plastic but sometime it resists.  Rubicon recommend a weld type glue called Plastic Magic.

 

If you go to the Rubicon forum you can see all the instructions and that will give you idea of the detail and complexity.

 

http://forum.rubiconmodels.com/index.php?board=5.0

 

In summary, as wargaming models they are very nice, as display models I would look at 1:48.
 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

 

 

 

[jeff72]

Thanks for your replies.

If I was going down the 1/48 route I would probably only go for the Afv club offering or just seen a Suyata Panther with full interior but just can't justify paying £40 for that as I will be brush painting the whole model.

[Kingsman]

There is also a Rubicon community on Facebook.  I bought a few as I fancied something smaller than 1/35 but larger than Braille Scale.  Not built any yet.  Yes, Tamiya and other 1/48 may be more detailed but the Rubicon range is much larger and constantly expanding whereas 1/48 seems to grow only slowly. Rubicon also often give you optional variants in the box, most notable their Shermans - but I believe their M3 Medium allows you make any of 8 configurations OOB.

 

That being said, for vehicles with very many variants like the Sd.kfz 251 you buy the base kit and there are a range of variant upgrades sold separately.

 

You will find things like solid moulded lifting rings, headlamps moulded integrally with guards and other simplifications.  Some of these can be easily fixed, like lifting rings, but others are more difficult.  The running gear is usually a monobloc "back" with the rear wheels or bogie backs moulded with the tracks and the front wheels, bogie fronts etc separate.  This greatly simplifies building but sacrifices some detail.  The tracks moulded like that are surprisingly good.  I was advised to use a solvent suitable for ABS like Plastic Magic or MEK.

 

One attraction for me - perhaps perversely - is the lack of after-market stuff in this scale that eats into your bank balance.  So it seemed like a cheaper option.  A Tamiya 1/48 kit with after-market parts can cost you as much as a 1/35 kit with after-market.  Aber do a couple of gun barrels, notably the M3 75mm for M3 and M4 Mediums.  Rubicon used to do some but seem to have stopped, although there is talk of them doing more.  They do several themed stowage sets with useful bits and pieces plus decal sets and crew figures in white metal or plastic.

 

While having been mostly WW2 in the past, Rubicon are now moving into the Vietnam era.

 

Other 1/56 - 28mm brands are available.  Italeri do a few in plastic, for example.  Bolt Action are another wargaming manufacturer, although their kits seem to be even more simplified.  Then there are resin brands like Fylde Armouries.

[John]

I'm a big fan of Rubicon kits. Although I'm not primarily a vehicle modeller I find them to be well engineered and a good de-stressing build. I've built up a small collection over the years:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John