Great. I loved the original kit back in the day , even tough I had to fill in all the motor holes. I wish they would have made the driver's vision hatch so it could be open and include those cool clear tanker's goggles. Still, I'm happy to see it. Now I hope they do a STZ T-34 with added on armor. I think a lot of us would like that.
I remember about 7 months ago wanting to do a KV-2 and looking for a Tamiya one for ages, but I settled with the Trumpeter one. Still a great kit but I kinda wish I waited for this one.
I made the original kit last year from my "stash" purchased 45 years ago in fact it was my stash and cost £4.00 then! The first kit I'd made for decades. Obviously, the new kit will be superior but I would say the armour texture on the turret sides of the original kit was probably more authentic. At least the commander figure no longer has the questionable pose he had originally and the Russian slogan decals were something Tamiya must have dreamt up because it seems these vehicles had no recorded markings.
Looking forward to this one a lot. I wonder if they’ll go the Trumpeter route and release a German modified one later on like they did with their Char B1.
I’ve bought a few original ‘70’s Tamiya kits lately from couple of local suppliers whom in turn auctioned them off from Japan. These kits were made in Japan with all Japanese language instruction sheets etc. The KV2 is one of them. It’s such a pleasure for me to find differences between what was tooled 40 years+ ago and today. I can only wish Tamiya would be more adventurous like their competitors with the varieties instead of sticking to what they’d produced 40+years ago
Thats my favorite tank...its a refrigerator with a howitzer...i built the Trumpeter kit and its a solid kit but i've been waiting for a Tamiya since they released the new KV1 and they didnt dissapoint.
I honestly wish TAMIYA would produce their models with the grey plastic as oppose to the colored stuff. It just makes the finished model look.. professional and clean. Plus its basically a built in surfacer color to detect imperfections in build.
When the KV 2 entered service the Heaviest Tank the Germans had was the Panzer IV, Panzer III were still armed with 50mm Guns and Anti Tank Artillery Units mostly has 37mm Guns with a few 50L. What held the KV 2 back was a lack of fuel, ammunition, trained crews, and Command failures. That said the Axis didn't' have much to counter the KV series until Long 7.5cm Guns became common in 1942. Wish I had the patience to make the kits, its the best way to get a feel for the tanks construction. Guess the Chassis could be used for a KV-8, or SU-152, but that's up to Tamiya or the scratch builders!
Looks great! Thank God I have a second, original kit to build. I miss the motorized option. Might not be as detailed, but I loved building the original, motorized version. I still look forward to this one.
Yes those textures are nice. The only problem that the turret of the KV-2 was welded from rolled plates. In reality it was much, much smoother. Only parts of the mantlet were cast. As we know Tamiya, this will be priced insanly high, $50-60 hight. And for that money they are unable to give you brass wiire, just the crap nylon. And no turned metal barrell. (You can buy the Trumpeter kit for $30 (in Europe it is only 23€), and buy a metal barrel for $8. The kit itself is as good as this Tamiya will be. For the much lower price than the Tamiya kit you get much more.) I am not exited at any rate.
@@garyparker2969 At least this time they decided to put the ejector pins on the inside of the vertical sideplates of the hull. Not like in their Shermans, where 16 of those things are present in different hights, and 5 more on the engine compartment sideplates. That is fucking embarrassing. All of those are visible in the built model. "Tamiya quality" is became a laughing stock, urban legend like the "german quality" bullshit. That Sherman kit is a real joke, especially for the price. The so called "engineers" made amateuristic mistakes, laughable simplifications (the rear enginehatch is something you don't see even in a 1980s model: molded on grabhandle).
Conclusion for fellow rivet counters: the issue with undersized idler wheels has not been addressed. The segments in the gun barrel are way too pronounced - they should be next to invisible. And at this price tag, photo-etched engine deck grills would have been nice as an alternative. The KV-1 at least provided an interesting turret, but here I don't see much improvements compared to the Trumpeter KV-2, which also represents a vehicle of the 2nd production batch from May/June 1941. A vehicle from the 1st batch (November/December 1940) would have been more interesting, but there's still the high price to consider. If you're after the famous ease-to-build of Tamiya kits, the Trumpeter ones aren't that bad either, and they cost a third of that! Can't say anything about the Zvezda kits, as I haven't tried building one yet.
The strongest of Stronk tank! Made of pure Stalinium by glorious Soviet motherland! Do not aim Comrade! You have but to fire and the hand of Stalin will guide shell to smash the fascist dogs!!
Andy I have the original Tamiya KV 2 and KV I As well as new KV I Outstanding hull texture turret sides , thank you Andy , waiting on the US M18 kit as well Sure would have liked a one piece Slide molded barrel, but that just me, or metal Cheers Andy Keep em coming !!!!!
Theres was 2 different barrel types for the KV2 one smoth one stepped so they could have gave us the smooth one slide Moulded it's More the common barrel used but we always get the stepped one in half's? I'm building trumpeters they have the same in there's but noticed tamiya have done near the exact same as trumpeters kit they way it's all done with the lower Hull n stuff there's a different mantlet o there others kv2 "big turret " on box, kit cast texture looks good trumpeters being still excellent a d £22 to Tamiyas £55 price tag should be interesting to see who goes for what one!
@@josehenriques3301 That is true but don't you think they decided to sell these kits for a premium price without giving you premium parts. They probably decided the split barrel was much cheaper than to engineer a slide molded one.
Hopefully they get a new 75 Sherman the old one from 02 well that was the Reeboks re-released with new stuff but the originals from 87 yeah they need a new 75 mm Sherman
Hi I need ur help iam going to u build a Hasegawa vc125 a air force one scale 1:200 how do I paint the silver strip under the cockpit and under the plain I don't have a air brush should I hand paint it or usea spray can thank you
The old tamiya kits were made in the 70’s and were more toys as they were made to be motorised. They often only looked like the tank and weren’t that accurate their T34 the hull armour is all sloped at the wrong angles because of the motors and batteries . They were also as good as it got for most kits until dragon got into the game. You also have to remember that they were aimed at different markets as most small boys made the kits back then as they were cheap the entire range of 1,35 tanks were less than £5 rather than today’s kits which are aimed at adults and cost £20 to £70 . These days we are spoiled with the kits we get etched metal frets, link and length tracks that fit together and metal barrels that come with them so you don’t have to go aftermarket for resin upgrades(often hours of frustration sanding down removing bubbles and flattening warped bits)or making it yourself.
Uhm, Andy, how do you feel this bugger compares to the Zvezda KV-2, because I honestly don't see (at a glance) a reason to pay like 2x (if the KV-1 to KV-1 price ratio remains the same) the price for less interiour detail (the KV-2 has a partial turret interiour and the KV-1 an almost complete turret interiour), somewhat more detailed exteriour mostly around the road wheels ?
@@Jonhistorymodel Honestly, Andy's positivity could just be because he doesn't know that there's a proper alternative to Tamiya's kit and him being happy for a new run of a relatively rare kit (plus him seeming to be a cheerful person in general). After all, Zvezda's kits seem to only now be making a proper push in the West (let alone across the pond), combined with their previous reputation for cheap'n'cheerful kits with occasionally iffy QC, so even though Andy's showcased kits from them, he may've missed the KV's. As for the Tamiya kit - it's not horrible per se, but at this price point you can get stuff like RFM's Sherman with full interiour and PE parts, so I wonder how soon it'll be until those kits couldn't coast on the Tamiya name and start to be perma discounted :D Ah, and that's excluding how the Zvezda + Eduard PE + other aftermarket parts (including interiour or a ZIS-6 conversion pack) will cost (at least here in Europe) about the same as the basic Tamiya ;)
@@bk109 I cannot comprehend how anyone would want this Tamiya kit when Academy, Rye Field, Border, Meng exist????? I’m a big Miniart fan, I like Dragon and Border for the easier builds. I get Miniart isn’t for everyone. I get people want weekend builds. Academy got you covered AND it’s a lot cheaper than Tamiya. This KV looks like a toy. It doesn’t even look like a scale model. I’m really blowing away. I started on Tamiya, now I just find them horrible and they are getting worse. Great paints, great tools and I’m sure they do great cars but time to end the military miniature series Tamiya. It’s just becoming embarrassing for you now. Salesman are generally friendly positive people.
@@Jonhistorymodel According to Scalemates, the Academy's a reboxed Zvezda, so ... yeah, you see my point on why I can't understand the pricepoint (for the detail level, hence me wondering if I was missing something with regards to pricing/quality). If they put it around 15€ or so (so on par with the older 35xx series Zvezda kits like the IS-2), it'd be viable, but at 50+ like their KV-1 ... hell no. In fact, if you shop around a little, that's literally a Panther + P IV-H (both with turret interiour) money :D As for their paints - I've moved onto Gunze (tried them for the pre-made 4BOs, stayed for the better results even when brush painting), with Vallejo and AK for weathering.
@@bk109 I use acrylic lacquer through the airbrush. I use an Australian brand SMS. I do brush work with figures and I like Tamiya, Vallejo model colour and AK to a lesser extent. I’ve ordered a new brand to try though. They’ll be in shortly
The Trumpeter KV-2 has more snazzy decals including - "Za Stalina" (For Stalin). I don't see what this kit really offers that others already on the market have . No Photo Etch in the new kit or did I miss it? This doesn't look like a model to "write home about."
Looks like a nice kit. But a really poor choice of marking options. They could have easily put more decals in the kit. Not for me though. I have far too many 1/35 kits to build at the moment.
The reason they dropped the rubber band tracks is accuracy. The old kits from the seventies were made to be motorised so they had the rubber band tracks . The second generation 1990’s kits had easy paint and glue rubber tracks but most “serious” modellers would replace them with individual link tracks to make them more realistic (track sag ,hollow guide horns separate rubber blocks etc) . I have to admit assembling the tracks is not my favourite part of building .I recently made a T 35 and cleaning up and putting together 250 ish links took two days about half the build and was pretty tedious.
Russian tank crews wore the blue coveralls from 1930s till early WWII years. If remember correctly, the Russians changed to black coveralls sometime 1942 or a bit later. By the crew uniforms, this could be set as a vehicle from 1930s, the Winter War with Finland, or early German invasion.
I love to make models maan and i make models with carboard but i wanna try these plastic models but its not available in india 😑😔😔😔😔 sad me. Please can u giveaway model kits 😃😃😀
I get why people like Tamiya but this is going to be insanly expensive compared to RFM, Meng, Zvezda, etc where i live... Started my kitbuilding career with Tamiya but I'll pass... Sorry.
It looks terrible. Tamiya is a joke now. Once market leaders they arnt even in the game anymore. You can get one at half the price and twice the quality.
The logic of the manufacturer is incomprehensible, with an emphasis on fascist labeling. At least should be the same in decals. Moreover, there are Russians on the boxart, but for some reason without identification marks.
1 Танк не русский , а советский . 2 Рисовать на декали красную звезду нельзя , а крест нациский в трофейном варианте можно ? Модель эту разрабатывал козёл .
