Meng 1:48 Tiger I

A closer look at the Tiger I in 1:48 produced by the Chinese manufacturer Meng Models. This kit comes from their World War Toons range, which contains models from the videogame "World War Toons".
Last year I built the King Tiger from this range and had a little foresight about the quality of this kit. A nice feature of all these kits is, that they can be build without using glue.

Let us take a look of the parts which were in this nice looking, satin-matte finished box, but please note, this time I made pictures only of the front sides of the sprues.

The first sprue contains parts from the hull and the turret. The quality of the cast is almost perfect. There are no ejectormarks on the front side of the parts.

Next is the upper part of the hull, also nicely made without any flaws. Just to give you an impression of the distorted proportions of this tank, this part is roughly 9,5 x 8,5 cm wide.

Another sprue which is included contains most of the other needed parts to finish the hull and the turret. As mentioned before, the quality of the parts is fine.
There are neither sinkholes nor mouldlines but I was sceptic about the splitted barrel, how it would look when I had finished it.

The last sprue contained in this box is included twice and has all parts for the running gear and the last missing parts for hull and turret. Pretty nice just as the rest of the kit.

And then there are the tracks, flexible but pretty sturdy rubber or PVC pieces with details on the outer side but no details on the inside. As with the barrel, this tracks did not convince me, I was remembering my King Tiger built, where I broke one of the roadwheels while applying them and had to reattach it.
The small sprue on the right is also made from some flexible material, these rings keep the running gear movable if you choose not to use glue on this kit.

Last but not least there are the decals, with sharp edges and a precise color gradiant, but I will not use them since my sparebook containsa good choice of decals which I may use.

Overall, this is a decent kit, with great details and no flaws except for the track and the barrel, but these issuals are my personal opinion
Another time I was surprised by the quality and the grade of details on this kit, for a fastbuilding kit which did not needed to be glued, this kit is GREAT.

This kit was build with no problems and building this kit made a lot of fun. Now it sits on my desk, already primed and is waiting for me to finish this post, then it is time to give this thing its first coat of color.

Update:
Just a quick shot made with the mobile:

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There is one final closer look at something left that will come online in the next days, as a small hint, a crazy www2 kit is incoming. I made the decision to give some kits from my collection and all new kits which I acquire from now on some closer looks.

Zvezda 1:100 U.S. 155mm Self-propelled Howitzer M109 A2

A closer look at the self-propelled howitzer M109 produced by Russian manufacturer Zvezda for their game "Hot War - Battle for Oil". This kit comes in 1:100 scale as all Zvezda "Art of Tactic" and "Hot War" tank kits.

The kit is casted very sharp, with great details, neither flash nor sinkholes can be found. The plastic used for this kit feels different to the plastic of other Zvezda kits I already built, almost like "real" modelkit polystyrene, and can be glued with normal modelglue like the Revell glue I use.

Also included is a decalsheet with generic tank numbers and markings. Their quality should be good if they are produced in the same quality than other Zvezda decal sets from their "Art of Tactic" and "Hot War" ranges.

The constructed kit next to a M1 Abrams produced by Battlefront Models on which I have taken a closer look some days ago.

The construction went fast and was pretty simple, and the instructions are clear and understandable. Only the muzzlebreak needs to be drilled. If you have never build a Zvezda 1:100 kit, you would not have to use glue to finish it. A quick dirty measurement shows that this tank comes in scale, if you include the machine gun and the barrel.

I built it almost out of the box, only the .50cal machine gun was replaced by a part from the bitsbox, the gun included in this kit seems to be too small.

Zvezda 1:100 Soviet 122mm Self-propelled Howitzer 2S1 "Gvozdika"

 

A closer look at the self-propelled Soviet 2S1 "Gvozdika" howitzer produced by Russian manufacturer Zvezda for their game "Hot War - Battle for Oil". This kit comes in 1:100 scale as all Zvezda "Art of Tactic" and "Hot War" tank kits.

The kit is casted very sharp, with great details, neither flash nor sinkholes can be found. The plastic used for this kit feels different to the plastic of other Zvezda kits I already built, almost like "real" modelkit polystyrene, and can be glued with normal modelglue like the Revell glue I use.

Also included is a decalsheet with generic tank numbers, many more that are needed, but this is nice, I can use them for the Soviet tanks I have build for "TANKS The Modern Age".

Their quality should be good if they are produced in the same quality than other Zvezda decal sets from their "Art of Tactic" and "Hot War" kits I already built.

 

The constructed kit next to a T-72 produced by Battlefront Models on which I have taken a closer look some days ago.

The construction went fast and was pretty simple, and the instructions are clear and understandable. Only the muzzlebreak needs to be drilled. If you never built a Zvezda 1:100 kit, you would not have to use glue to finish it.
A quick dirty measurement shows that this tank comes in scale, if you include the taillight and the barrel.

I built it out of the box, but I am thinking about replacing the headlight on the turret with an anti-air  machine gun as I have seen on some pictures, which was left over from the T-72 construction.

Rubicon Models News for 2019

Rubicon Models showed on Facebook their planned releases for 2019 and as you see, there are a lot of nice kits coming this year, all in 28mm/1:56 scale. I personally want some Volkswagen Käfers, I always liked this car, and my next birthday is coming soon.

And I really want to know what the mystery kit, shown in the center of the second picture, may contain. At the Rubicon webshops (US / UK) you can find some small gems and a lot of exclusive stuff that can be found only there.

I own two different T-34s from them and they are nice without any failures, except for the fact that there is a heckload of bits leftover when both are built. And the antennas may be a little too thick.

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Today's third and last post. Tomorrow all new 15mm tanks will get primed that I can start their paintjobs on the weekend. I still have no idea which colors to use, but I found a good list of camouflage schemes at panzerbaer.de.

Update:
Did I already mention, that their Tiger II kit is on the way ?

Plastic Soldier Company 1:100 M60E3 Tank

A closer look at the M60E3 1:100 model by the Plastic Soldier Company. You can see this kit in another post. Here you can see the sprues containig all parts to build this tank:

The kit is casted very sharp, with great details and no flash. No sinkholes can be found on the sprue, except for two, the first on the main hull and the second in an inner part of the turret but they will not be seen when this kit is completed. I bought a single sprue of this kit without instructions, but you can find them on the web and they are clear and easy to understand.

A very nice extra is the inclusion of two crew members.

The construction went without any issues and the finished kit looks fine. The only thing I did not like are the tracks, I think the gaps (not pictured) are not on the original but I may try fix this. And I messed up one of the smokelaunchers, but this should be fixed with no big problems.

There a some small parts that need some sanding, maybe the barrel will be drilled out.

This will be a nice proxy unit for "TANKS The Modern Age" games, but I think that I will get the M-60 expansion for the game in the future.

Oh, and there will be no useless bits leftover, what I like.