The Little World

Well, which came first; the chikin or the tamago?

Did Tamiya get a good reputation by building precise model kits or did they build precise model kits because they had a good reputation? At what point did they say to themselves ” We must make excellent products above all…”. Did they have a modelling adolescence in which they made imprecise ones?

I first encountered them as a kit maker in 1970 and was immensely impressed by a tank kit they produced. I couldn’t get over the detail that they’d put into the external surfaces – used as I was up until then to the Aurora and Revell tanks and vehicles. If they did have an adolescence it must have been long prior to that.

The level of detail and degree of precision with which they have approached the Birdcage Corsair is amazing. It is not the sort of thing that would ever support brush painting in the normal sense – this is airbrush territory all the way. The chief effects will largely be lost in such a small scale – 1:72 – but the models are as good as an instruction tour of the real thing.

I am particularly impressed by the fact that they have included alternate fuselage parts and canopies to allow a spread of coverage for other models in the series – of course a lot of makers try this, and then you find that you’ve got a handful of spare airframe or nose components kicking about. But not all makers can get the basic fuselage and wing combination as precise as this.

Ask me about the Airfix Mosquito with the vertical tail that doesn’t quite match the fuselage alignment*. This leads to a series of compromises when attaching wings and tail that amount to a plastic conference and trading session, rather than any definite transaction. Tamiya have gotten it right from the first.

* Brace yourself for language…