Tamiya USA on Facebook: 1/16 R/C M1A2 Abrams Full-Option IR RC Kit Announcement.
#52
What's that? You want moar?
What I am hearing is that the Abrams is quite simple and quick to build - Tamiya dived into the parts bin for quite a bit, good from a reliability and performance standpoint but nothing too groundbreaking. They skimped on giving it a scale articulating track tensioner in the style of the Pershing, but braced the hull around the highly stressed first return roadwheel with a beefy cross brace.
They didn't skimp on roadwheels and they are rubber rimmed unlike the Type 10, there was the obvious improvement in the packaging of the electronics along with an interesting bass tube pipe for the speaker box, and improved lighting fixtures (fiber optics have always been finicky). The plus side is an updated M2 and a new mold 30- caliber, pictured. The Type 10's 50 has more detail though!
Its disappointing that Tamiya only offers a choice of decals of two tanks from the same platoon, and next to no stowage. The Pershing came with heaps of C-ration boxes, ammo boxes and jerry cans. There are heaps of photos online that show Abramses heavily loaded down with all manner of external storage.
That's all for now
What I am hearing is that the Abrams is quite simple and quick to build - Tamiya dived into the parts bin for quite a bit, good from a reliability and performance standpoint but nothing too groundbreaking. They skimped on giving it a scale articulating track tensioner in the style of the Pershing, but braced the hull around the highly stressed first return roadwheel with a beefy cross brace.
They didn't skimp on roadwheels and they are rubber rimmed unlike the Type 10, there was the obvious improvement in the packaging of the electronics along with an interesting bass tube pipe for the speaker box, and improved lighting fixtures (fiber optics have always been finicky). The plus side is an updated M2 and a new mold 30- caliber, pictured. The Type 10's 50 has more detail though!
Its disappointing that Tamiya only offers a choice of decals of two tanks from the same platoon, and next to no stowage. The Pershing came with heaps of C-ration boxes, ammo boxes and jerry cans. There are heaps of photos online that show Abramses heavily loaded down with all manner of external storage.
That's all for now
#53
Totally agree, but many vehicles after the initial push had NO markings to protect intelligence on movements etc. and had little storage. If you need the tarps and tools for the OIF berm crossing, Value Gear has a good variety of stuff for stowage. I have played with the static kit and it screams for detail but should be one hell of a battler!!!
#54
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: St Augustine, Fl.
Posts: 212
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We need some scale 32 ounce water bottles lol. All the tanks in my unit had cases of those an MREs on them. The round 5 gal orange cooler, and bags of sunflower seeds were always there too
#55
#56
Yes, but its getting to the stage where its looking like all the presentation photos that you've been seeing. I should be getting it back these couple of days for final fitting-out. The close up of the gun mantlet illustrates a weak point of the design. The hinge is accurate but fragile and broke just from handling. The Leopard 2A6 had a much more robust hinge for this cover plate. I will probably end up using some fibreglass or cellophane tape on the backside underneath to let it remain flexible.
Paint was a custom mix of 4 parts of desert yellow, to 3 parts white, 1 part dark yellow, as Tamiya does not have acrylic paint that matches the TS-46 spray can color called for in the instructions.
Paint was a custom mix of 4 parts of desert yellow, to 3 parts white, 1 part dark yellow, as Tamiya does not have acrylic paint that matches the TS-46 spray can color called for in the instructions.
#58
#59
I would also hope for crew figures. It would have been nice if Tamiya had added a crew figure as they did in Type 10 and Leopard,etc. Maybe they could upscale their modern stowage set seen in 1/35 Abrams and Bradley kits. Some of the value gear stuff I have will do nicely though.
dave
dave
#60
Anyhow I got it home, here it is, next to my Heng Long Abrams. The machine guns have yet to be painted, but I'll be going ahead with the decals and clearcoating in the next few days.
#61
No I won't - most of my tanks bar the Danville Panther are parade-ground fresh or lightly weathered only, just how I like my tanks to be. I like how the turret top is secured with two cam hooks on either side - very sturdy. The aforementioned mantlet hinge flap won't last one battle day when you have to keep popping the turret on and off to change batteries.
Anyhow I got it home, here it is, next to my Heng Long Abrams. The machine guns have yet to be painted, but I'll be going ahead with the decals and clearcoating in the next few days.
Anyhow I got it home, here it is, next to my Heng Long Abrams. The machine guns have yet to be painted, but I'll be going ahead with the decals and clearcoating in the next few days.
#62
Lack of detail was my original complaint with the tank. Same reason I probably won't buy one. For the price it should be the Cadillac of 1/16 Abrams and it's just not IMO.
#63
I think I posted this on another thread, but I wonder if the whole kit was done years ago. By this I mean that at one of the Japanese hobby shows they had an actual Abrams, a few years ago and no I do not have a link, but I am sure others here know what I mean. So put it on the shelf until it is ready or General dynamics gives the ok, as Krauss-Maffei did with Leo 2. The kicker for me was Type 10 which didn’t have the road wheels as a seperate tire. Why? Any way here is the Abrams, a lot of us want it and will buy it but as above post mentioned it should be the Cadillac of tanks. So to me it looks like a upscaled 1/35th kit, which is fine, but the give me the stowage and crew upscaled as well. On the petty side at least the Pershing had separate grab handles on the bins. Don’t get me wrong I will buy it but might wait for aftermarket to catch up before I build. Would like to closer picks of idler tension system.
dave
dave
#64
While we are sitting here complaining about lack of stowage or accessories, do remember that it is actually the Pershing, and to a lesser extent, the 105mm and Super Shermans that were anomalies when it came to extra accessories. None of the German tanks so much as came with an extra jerry can, or token bucket to hang off a rear tow hook. Same goes for the Leopard 2A6 - they didn't even bother with a cupola machine gun. And those are things you can get relatively cheaply off Heng Long/Taigen/Verlinden, etc. You can see some of the stowage on the Heng Long.
To strike off buying the Cadillac just because you didn't like the color of the leather stitch threads on the seats, is sort of missing the point, in my opinion. Give me a plain Jane tank with solid mechanicals any day, I will take my time adding stowage as I like, especially when aftermarket companies like DKLM or Axels start getting geared up to answer the demand for more detail.
To strike off buying the Cadillac just because you didn't like the color of the leather stitch threads on the seats, is sort of missing the point, in my opinion. Give me a plain Jane tank with solid mechanicals any day, I will take my time adding stowage as I like, especially when aftermarket companies like DKLM or Axels start getting geared up to answer the demand for more detail.
#65
There will be , metal/rubber tracks , sprockets drilled out,new front idler tension system, voyager will have a few brass set??. And there are others. Tell you what if Mr Tamiya wants to send a full rc to Canada( Brogfelt) I will build it and give a full non objective review. No strings attached. Lol.here is the selling point for me. I want to hear the full range of sound for the turbine engine. You have the model built mate can you give us the sound. Sorry should have said Tamiya, tiger 1, king tiger, Sherman modified m4a3e8, Pershing and js-2, for now
Last edited by regsbyg; 10-29-2017 at 05:41 AM. Reason: Too many beers
#67
You are the Man, man. That is so sweet. Thanks for posting. Love the sound, sold. Bring on all the after market stuff. Christmas is coming and can’t get here quick enough.
dave
dave
#71
If you're into IR battling - hold your horses till I figure out whether the Abrams is afflicted with the same IR characteristics as the Type 10 had. Initial testing shows that it lacks about half a foot of range within the dark orange bit below compared to a Tamiya Leopard 2A6. For obvious reasons I cannot test the 30m range, but I would expect similar differences.
Last edited by cleong; 10-29-2017 at 10:17 AM.
#72
Pretty amazing for sure.
#73
The Cadillac reference has been completely misconstrued. What I was trying to say if you are going to pay Cadillac money, the tank should be worth the money. Stowage wasn't in my reference. Stowage is a personal preference. My complaints are with the actually details on the vehicle. For the money I'd be getting no mud holes in the sprockets (same as HL), all molded in handles with poor detail (same as HL), blast panel details are not correct (same as HL), older APU being used on an M1A2 (same as HL), molded in fender rods (same as HL), no external soldier phone on the back of the tank (same as HL), missing ammo trays behind the smoke dischargers (same as HL)... I'm stopping there, but I could keep going and going about the detail issues. I am I making my point clear? These are just ones I can see from quick looks the pictures of the kit. My point it that the details on the kit are on the same level as the HL offering or just slightly better in some cases for a lot more money. The Tamiya Abrams in 1/35 is an old kit and generally regarded in the model community as one of the worst representations of the Abrams currently available. Dragon, Academy, and Meng are producing much better kits these days in 1/35 of the Abrams. It just seems like Tamiya took their flawed 1/35 kit and just scaled it up. All in all it just seems like a half baked release. I would think that if a company was going to spend as much money as it costs to produce a tank in this scale that they would want to produce the best kit on the market and improve upon the current offerings not just re-hash an outdated kit. The kit does have some advantages over the HL offering: better crew served weapon detail, molded on deck texture, better suspension, photo etch grills, and of course the electronics if you are a fan of the Tamiya control package. In general I regard Tamiya as a good company. I've bought their 1/35 kits over the years and bought a Hornet R/C car in my early teens.