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Full interior kits - advice needed


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Guys, I have managed to get my teenage son into modelling, which seems to be quite a victory these days. He's taken to it really well once I realised he didn't share his dad's passion for aircraft and let him build AFV's. I'm very pleased with what he does and want to encourage him to continue, not least because it keeps him away from the dreaded Xbox for a while!

 

However he wants me to build something with him, which is great, but he wants a tank which is not my thing. He has been showing me reviews of lots of models and builds to try and get my enthusiasm for one of them, and three caught my eye, all of which have full interiors. The extra detail interests me but from what I can see once you finish the build, it is all hidden inside and so looks like, well, just another tank from the outside. Aircraft have access panels, open cockpits, bomb bays, engine cowlings etc so that you can show it all off, but I'm struggling to see, aside from some (necessarily) tiny access hatches, what can be done on these vehicles. I am not a fan of the 'cut a big hole and paint the edge red' display method, and I am certainly not one of those modellers who is happy because he knows it's all in there even if you can't see it. So if you kind people can share any advice we would love to hear it.

 

The three kits that attracted my attention are (all 1/35)

Meng British Heavy Tank MK.V

Takom King Tiger

Miniart SU-122

 

All are fairly expensive models (at least over here in Australia) so I would prefer not to have to go for aftermarket, however if that was to aid displaying the interiors, it would be good to know about it.

 

Cheers for looking

 

Les

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In that vein, Hobbyboss AAV's (lots of different kits to choose from), Tamiya M10 (just released), M8, M20. Italeri LVT's. 

 

By design most have sometype of crew protection which limits our viewing access.

 

HTH

 

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yeah it's a complicated relation.

 

on one hand there's the clear plastic option. on paper it makes good sense but we all know how tricky handling the clear parts are.

 

on the other hand there are kits with full interior options but i have no idea how many of them are designed by the kit mfctr to be posed open, at least to a degree. by the looks of it takom KT has some leeway in this department, as in you can chose not to fix the hull top and bottom as well as the turret roof and makes it possible for an interesting display indeed. mind you i have NOT build the takom KT, it's just my observation from this build:
 

 

as for the other full interior kits available on the market; i have no idea! searching for build wips may help in decision making.

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That Takom Tiger kit looks fantastic, thanks for the video!

 

My son kept on talking about the Meng Mk.V kit we had seen at the LHS, even though they had the Takom Tiger too, so we went and got the Mk.V. Looking through the instructions there are loads of hatches that can be left open, plus someone put me on to AFV Modeller issue  88 where they have a diorama of a Mk.V under construction on the build line. That settled that, we can legitimately leave parts open! Depending on how we get on with it, we may go and get that Tiger later on.

 

As for the MiniArt SU-122, an online build we found tends to indicate that radical surgery would be the only way to display the interior in any meaningful way, so that one will be dropped from the list.

 

Now, we have the Meng Mk.V, which we would like to do in the colours of the one in Bovingdon (which for us is conveniently located on the other side of the world). Meng have chosen Vallejo colour callouts, so can we have Mr Color, humbrol, model master or Tamiya equivalents for

 

70.876 brown sand

71.012 dark green

71.015 olive brown

 

Thanks for all your help

 

Les

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  • 3 weeks later...

Probably late to the party here, but Academy makes an early Tiger I with full interior:

s-l1600_2.jpg?v=1456135724

Great kit, tons of details, not a bad price either and you wouldn't have to worry about zimmerit with it being an early Tiger. Careful though...armor modeling becomes addictive...LOL!

 

Cheers!

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Gents, my wallet has respectfully asked that you stop posting such temptations! They all look really great, and I have to confess that even as a dyed-in-the-wool aircraft modeller, this AFV lark is seriously addictive stuff. The Meng MkV is an utterly fabulous kit, and has seriously changed the way that I do modelling. However, I am still approaching it like an aircraft model in some respects, with (I think) over complicated painting and masking techniques and obsessively painting stuff that will not be visible.

 

Maybe I have to practice on a few more kits...... like the ones mentioned above....

 

Les

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