Dissapointed with Tamiya Quality.

[AlwynTurner]

I was intrigued by the comments about the Tamiya kits, as out of interest I looked up the price of a Tamiya kit for a JS2, as I am starting to scratch build one. The prices range from £850 to over £1000 pounds I am hoping to build a JS2 including IBU2 Pro for around £250 all in, and this is for a tank with very few complexities and fancy extra parts for the outside. I just cannot see how their prices are value for money for this particular tank but that is my very biased opinion. I am very surprised that Heng Long have not produced a JS2 or JS3 as it would be no more complex to manufacture than the KV1, and they would probably price it at around £150 - the T90 is a case in point.

Alwyn

[silversurfer1947]

You can get one from Germany for about £680 - still expensive. The fall in the value of Sterling has not done model makers any favours. Even in the heady days when a euro was only worth 70 pence, that would still be £570.

Edit - mixed up my currencies. At 809 euros, it is expensive even in Germany.

[tomhugill]

Mine was £410 plus postage etc when I got it, blame brexit

[ausf]

Mine was $700 with the Futaba Attack Tx/Rx included.

If you take into account the time and labor, your real expense will be well above the cost of the kit and in the end, the resale won't be anywhere near what the kit would fetch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for scratch building, but why not build something that isn't already available?

[AlwynTurner]

Hi Ausf, Your points are good and valid, the thing is my time and labour is free and I've got lots of it, whereas everything I buy comes out of savings (which hopefully will have to last a long time). I did the thing with the Nashorn, my M7 Priest, and my Universal Carrier which definitely aren't readily available, I just fancied the look of the JS2. I got hold of a suitable and very cheap set of donor KV1 bits which I could use as a base, and it is only available from Tamiya at silly money prices which I can't afford. Next build after that will probably be a scratchbuilt Centurion which is only available from Chris Ludwig, again for very significant amounts of money.

In terms of resale, I build my models for the challenge and pleasure it gives me, not to realise resale money. The Nashorn kits I'm doing are just to raise some extra cash for my next builds, give others the chance to have an unusual and unobtainable tank, and recoup some of my investment in design and prototyping.

Don't get me wrong, if you have the spending money available to buy the Tamiya kits and you appreciate their quality and durability, then good on yer, but for me those prices are unaffordable and for me unjustifiable.

Alwyn

[Rad_Schuhart]

Ok, after buying the tamiya metal idler with bearings and waiting one week, they told me that the part is out of stock and they wont have it again, so Im back to the starting point...

Options:
1) Darryl Turner idler: Way too expensive for me
2) Impact idler: I've read a couple of cases of misalignement and I had bad experience with those guys.
3) Install a couple of bearings in a stock idler.

...

I think I´d take the 3, but due to I dont have the tools and the skills for doing it, Im going to need somebody to install it for me. I will pay for the parts, shippings and the work. Any volunteer around here?