Mato: review/opinions wanted

[thestig]

Good evening everyone.

I have read past forum postings regarding Mato tanks, and am aware that overall the general opinion of these tanks has been pretty low. And, a person would be better served purchasing another brand. The majority of the discussions that I read were a year or more old and I’m trying to find out if Mato has improved the quality of their offerings over the years. Can anyone share a more recent experience they have had with Mato’s products?

I am considering Mato because I would leave it to my grandson as a momento of me when I’m no longer on the scene. A metal tank in a metal case appeals to me. You can consider me to be naive, foolish, clueless (whatever), but I sincerely will appreciate any feedback you can give.

Thanks for your time.
The stig. Aka Frank

[Kaczor]

Mato tanks are not THAT bad. A bit overpriced for me

[tankme]

I agree, Mato tanks are not bad...well not as bad as Hooben by far... I have an all metal PZ3 and it has run well for me except for the one sprocket hub that broke. Luckily I had a spare from swapping to the early sprockets on an SU-76i conversion build.

[Kaczor]

I only have experience with their Sherman, but the details of the turret and hull are very good - welds, casting markings, etc.

[tomhugill]

I only have experience with their Sherman, but the details of the turret and hull are very good - welds, casting markings, etc.

Shame about the horrifically oversize barrel, but I guess they gotta keep the BB crowd happy!

[Mithras]

Following out of interest, myself.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Evening,
The First Plastic Mato Sherman did have an over sized Main Gun Barrel Being all plastic, that tank was easy to mod and detail into something more closely approximating the Sherman M4A1with the 76mm that it was supposed to be. The All Metal Mato tanks can be detailed nicely ( tho' the consistency of the metal fittings was weak on the first ones out.) I've seen modelers do major modding even on the all metal ones but that is more than I want to do. The M36 with the M4 Lower turned out really nicely after I fixed the crumbly pot metal of the guards for the headlights, tail lights, etc... The last metal Mato I have bought is the basic M4A3 Sherman with IR. I am really happy overall with it. Some detailing brings any of them to life.
regards,
Painless

In The Mood is In The Mood.jpg (224.67 KiB) Viewed 239 times

Radiomans Side Detail.jpg (307.01 KiB) Viewed 239 times

Side View Driver.jpg (250.87 KiB) Viewed 239 times

[Ecam]

Painless, Mato didn't do the cast hull in metal right? If so I never saw that one. I know of the M4A3 and M10/36 hulls in metal. I've never have worked on a metal hull, can't imagine it to be too much fun to modify. I do have their 76 turret in metal, but only work was paint. Heck, it's hard enough (to me anyway) to modify resin hulls.

[PainlessWolf]

Ecam,
No Sir, the Mato Cast Hull was their first Sherman release ( Came out before the Heng Long M4A3 105mm even ) and it was the all plastic version. I included it in my pics since it was the Sherman mentioned that had the over sized gun tube as stock on it. ( Only for BBs as Tom mentioned ) The barrel shown on mine was made up by Alpha when I started the work to detail the tank and rebuild it into a better version of 'In the Mood'. For 169.00 U.S. when it came out, the all plastic MATO Sherman was not a bad tank. Better sounds than the original Heng Long Sherman ( in my opinion ) Nowadays, all of this is subjective as anything can be built into anything else or better a lot easier than back then.
regards,
Painless