belugawhaleman

They still have the private warehouse as they call it.

It's their Brummbar kit. (35353) Couldn't find it anywhere.

Just had ,this week, a very pleasant experience ordering an item from Hobbylink Japan. The item....A hard-to-find Tamiya kit. But first, let's back up a bit.... Over the weekend, I got an email from Tower Hobbies that a kit I wanted to buy was back in stock only to find out on Monday that this was not the case it was marked as "currently not available" and now the message is that the next shipment is expected in September.... Ok, so I could have waited a bit, but I wasn't aware of this shipment until this morning....and I already ordered from HLJ. The price at Tower Hobbies will be $ 56.000. The price I paid at HLJ was $ 27.00 US. Shipping, of course, is a killer at $ 25.00 US for FedEx but the combined total will be less than the price for the model at Tower Hobbies. Meanwhile, my order order status at HLJ has progressed quickly, the staff there has answered my email correspondence quickly and professionally and the item will soon be on its way. The last time I ordered from them shipping took forever, but Covid was big at that time. I hope that won't be the case this time. Anyway, it's not like I don't have plenty of kits to build in the meantime. This kit has been out of stock EVERYWHERE! so I'm glad I found one.

I wonder if solutions lose their potency over time? Walther's Solvaset is usually very strong and it it sort of worked with the STAR decals. The last time I used it was with my panzer 38(t) build the decals being Tamiya, and it worked very well. Sometimes I press the decal down with a paper towel or swab dampened with hot water...this works Well. Last night on my Stuart I pressed down on the decal with the tip of one of my silicone rubber brushes I got from Ammo/Mig this helped the decal to conform to some raised detail on the kit.

The decals are by STAR DECALS.

Yup, got another one. This one came from Tower Hobbies today. From Tamiya it's their Russian Heavy Tank KV-2 (35375). I've heard good reviews of this 2021 release and despite its weird looks, I decided to give it a go. Oddly enough, whenever I see this tank, I'm reminded of a parrot our family once owned. Ramon, (the parrots name) was an ungainly, gaunt, bird with an enormous head and beak. It never could be taught to speak and was afraid of people. This tank's big turret and gun - very like Ramon's head....to me at least. Anyway, the kit looks good. The tracks are the Tamiya link & length type with great detail and the turret has nice metal texture detail.

Glad to see you're building this kit as I feel it's one of the coolest looking designs of the second world war and I'm sure you'll do it justice. I may leave the beaten path of countless purchases of Tamiya armor to buy this kit....it's just that cool! Anyway, I've been having decal issues as well...the Star Decals that I've used Lately, well, are weird. They, at first, don't appear to soften with decal sol, but if you press down slightly, (I use a ammo rubber brush) they conform to details nicely. They also lie very flat.... I kind of like them and I have a lot of them. I have a set for Korean war "easy eights" that has a two-tone camo option for a Sherman..... Funny, I thought all Shermans were greenish......well anyway, On with your build!

Thanks.

Working on this little Tamiya M3 Stuart at the moment. Seen here. still in gloss coat, with decals applied. The decals are Cuban national markings from Star Decals. They went on ok. The one decal on the Side looks silvered, but is not. The decals on my AMX 13 looked the same before the flat coat and turned out fine. Still have to put the tools and M1919 on and finish painting the tracks. Then spray it with flat.

Very nice Mark. Well done!

For sol, I've used walther's Solvaset with good results. Also Tamiya makes decal sol in various Strengths.....Mark fit... Try one of the stronger ones.

What type of decal solution are you using?

You did a wonderful job on the Spitfire Peter, it looks great!

I got the product quicker from BNA in Australia than I get items from Kitlinx in Utah partly because Kitlinx sits on the order for several days before shipping out. BNA shipped the next day...really in less than 6 hours in this case.

I had some circle templates as well, but apparently I lost them both when I moved. I also have a Dspiae circle cutter, but I thought I'd give the Quick Wheel stencil a try. I have ordered from BNA before, but that was when the pandemic was at its height and shipping was at its worst. This time things were faster.

A surprise came in the mail today......... Ordered on August 10th......from BNA Model World in Melbourne, Australia, and delivered today , the 18th, my order came. That's pretty darn quick! Quicker than Anything that I ordered from Kitlinx......and that's in Utah! Anyway, the item is from Quick Wheel. It's their QW-249 wheel stencil for the Tamiya Hummel (35367). This should work with the Nashon kit as well as both kits share the same wheels. I've never used one of these Quick Wheel things before. I've been using a 20/0 AIT sable "mini liner" brush, and it works very well for the purpose. I noticed that on the Hummel and Nashorn kits from Tamiya the line between the rim and tire is not as well-defined as on other kits...so I thought I'd give this Quick Wheel stencil a try. We'll see how this works out. Once again, kudos for BNA model world.......A great business to deal with. Not only for their shipping, but for their service. Emails and questions were answered quickly... Very pleased.

I really like those bases. My models end up unceremoniously placed on a coffee table Looking sadly out of place.....I'll have to look into those bases. I really do like the Tamiya kits.....trouble free, great quality, and NOT Chinese..... Silly, I know but that kind of matters to me. My next purchase will be a non-Tamiya kit perhaps. I saw that the Brothers Sprue have a long sought for kit in stock. I will buy this thing....if still in stock..next week.

It's hard for me to say, the Master barrels I have purchased have been for the most part been less costly than my Aber barrels but then the Master barrels have been less complex than the Aber. I guess my closest comparison would be my recently purchased Master M118 Hellcat barrel to the Aber KV-1 barrel, both simple one-piece items, their price was about the same.

Well, I've been thinking about buying this one for some time, and yesterday I decided to go ahead. Today from Tower Hobbies came Tamiya's 8.8cm Pak43/1 auf Geshtzwagen III/IV (Sd.Kfz.164) Nashorn (35335). This was released in 2014 and shares the lower hull and running gear of their later Hummel kit but nothing else. This kit, unfortunately, does not have the nice link & length tracks of the other kit.....it has the "rubberband" style tracks. Still, it's a very nice kit according to the reviews and a quick look in the box confirmed this. It has the barrel molded in one piece, so an Aber barrel is not needed I think. The muzzle brake is separate and is made up as three pieces. Nashorn ,by the way, is German for rhinoceros. Anyway, I have loads of kits right now to choose from and yes, I do agree I'd better get on with building some!

Interesting choice........odd looking bird! Will be watching.

Nice work John and happy birthday!

Ok..not really a meme, but a classic Thurber doodle.

My Gosh....that Jeri Ryan was really...loaded for Bear.

Thanks. I'm still grinding my way through the Stuart right now, but the Hellcat will be near the top of my list as it looks like a great kit.....some of the details of the kit look really impressive. The grilles on the engine deck, inside the turret, and fabric cover for the gun mantlet especially stand out.

I have a Barrel from Master on the way from Sprue Brothers as well....ordered it yesterday.