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Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 10:48 pm
by MrChef
I haven't bought anything Tamiya since my Frog back in the 80's. Just the other day the order for my Tammi Leopard tracks came in and well BAM! That's some quality stuff, I'm well satisfied.
But, one starts to think and ponder...
6 Tiger I's so far. 4 Taigen and 2 Heng Long. What to do,,,what to do???
I know that I have No desire for a Mato. I'm too aware of it's flaws and the money would be better spent somewhere else...
And then I remembered one of my connections had this available in his collection that he has been progressively liquidating-
Full option and never even cracked the plastic wrap...
And the slippery slope here is that it's a nice deal.
I won't divulge pricing yet though as we will start firming a deal this evening.
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 12:05 am
by Dogberry
Feel the force welling up inside, buy, buy, buy
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 12:21 am
by Panzermechaniker
The Tiger 1 was the first FO Tamiya I built. Still my favourite too. It's an excellent kit and a lot of fun to build especially after your HL and Taigens. I thought about building another one but that would just be silly
Problem of course with Tamiyas now (not so much the Tiger) is with the demise of the AAF museum sourcing replacement parts is costly and frustrating. I see you found TTP. I have had good experiences with them but when you are sometimes paying over $100 for a sprue just for one piece with shipping it makes me much more careful driving around the field with my discontinued Tamiyas. They are very tough tanks though despite being much lighter than say a metal Taigen
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 2:33 am
by r32
The Tiger is Tamiya’s first full option tank designed from scratch (the King Tiger and Sherman were retrofitted for full option) and there are nice things and not-so-nice things in the Tiger.
The nice things:
The screws to that allow you to open the hull are well concealed
The entire turret and hull top can be opened and the space you have to work with is cavernous
It has prototypical torsion bar suspension
The hull is plastic but reinforced with steel plate from within
Track tension is easily adjustable externally and huge improvement over the King Tiger
The not-so-nice
The earliest release came with gearboxes that made the tank too fast. They can be identified as having white gears. Later gearboxes feature a black plastic cover and have gears made from nylon, cast metal or brass gears. Those became a standard Tamiya tank gearbox for quite a while.
The gun recoil gearbox is bespoke to the Tiger. It is a poor design as the rack can warp easily if your gun barrel hits stuff. It was never used in any other tank.
The gun barrel elevation arm is plastic and can strip. Metal ones are easily available aftermarket.
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:01 am
by MrChef
r32 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 2:33 am
The Tiger is Tamiya’s first full option tank designed from scratch (the King Tiger and Sherman were retrofitted for full option) and there are nice things and not-so-nice things in the Tiger.
The nice things:
The screws to that allow you to open the hull are well concealed
The entire turret and hull top can be opened and the space you have to work with is cavernous
It has prototypical torsion bar suspension
The hull is plastic but reinforced with steel plate from within
Track tension is easily adjustable externally and huge improvement over the King Tiger
The not-so-nice
The earliest release came with gearboxes that made the tank too fast. They can be identified as having white gears. Later gearboxes feature a black plastic cover and have gears made from nylon, cast metal or brass gears. Those became a standard Tamiya tank gearbox for quite a while.
The gun recoil gearbox is bespoke to the Tiger. It is a poor design as the rack can warp easily if your gun barrel hits stuff. It was never used in any other tank.
The gun barrel elevation arm is plastic and can strip. Metal ones are easily available aftermarket.
Thank you for sharing this r32
Dumb questions since I'm at such an early stage, does the kit come with a metal or plastic barrel? and if not metal does someone offer a good metal barrel aftermarket?
And as per replacing the plastic gun barrel elevation arms with metal, could you share a link to a company that you'd suggest looking at for these types of parts? I'm only familiar with Heng Long and Taigen Tanks so I don't quite know where to look for Tamiya aftermarket and upgrade parts.
Thanks
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:04 am
by MrChef
Dogberry wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 12:05 am
Feel the force welling up inside, buy, buy, buy
Yessss my master...
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:10 am
by MrChef
Panzermechaniker wrote: ↑Tue Dec 16, 2025 12:21 am
The Tiger 1 was the first FO Tamiya I built. Still my favourite too. It's an excellent kit and a lot of fun to build especially after your HL and Taigens. I thought about building another one but that would just be silly
Problem of course with Tamiyas now (not so much the Tiger) is with the demise of the AAF museum sourcing replacement parts is costly and frustrating. I see you found TTP. I have had good experiences with them but when you are sometimes paying over $100 for a sprue just for one piece with shipping it makes me much more careful driving around the field with my discontinued Tamiyas. They are very tough tanks though despite being much lighter than say a metal Taigen
This is very understandable.
BUT think of it this way, What spare sprues of parts do you have for the Tiger I? Ha ha! I'll be able to share the burden and split a sprue or two with ya
TTP's pricing was excellent and by that I mean literally $100 less than Axels for the same tracks. I even contacted Axels and inquired about the pricing being so high and they reaffirmed that the market was driving the price that high. Spoke to Antony the next week at TTP and we worked it all out at a much more reasonable deal.
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 4:16 am
by MrChef
So collective question to you all. What radio/receiver combo and how many channels should I be looking at? It'll be my first time buying one since 1986
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:20 am
by Kaczor
The Tamiya Tiger is the only one on the market that has the turret and its rotation axis in the correct place on the hull
Taigen and Heng Long have the turret incorrectly moved forward by a few cm.
Re: Tamiya quality is a slippery slope...
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 6:33 am
by TankDriver
The universe is telling you to give that kitty a home! I love my Tamiya Tiger
Like you, I started with HL & Taigen (but do own a Mato with Clark board) and it took me a while to pull the trigger on a Tammy, but am glad I did.