G’Day Folks,
How do the Hobby Boss and Zvezda (Italeri rebox?) offerings stack up against each other? I believe Tamiya’s offering is the latest and probably the overall best, but is it worth the extra bucks?
TIA,
Israel
Tamiya hands down. The Zvezda is the hundred-year-old Peerless Max kit, and the Hobby Boss is overly complicated.
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Tamiya’s is indeed the best, although I think the Hobby Boss kit is pretty good too.
The Zvezda is a repop of a 1970s kit are really, really sucks. It is not worth it at any price.
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Lets put it this way, I binned the half way done Zvezda kit with full eduard PE set, once the Hobby Boss kit appeard on the market.
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Like the others have said the Tamiya kit is nice and easy to build. Personally I like the HB offering, you really only have to change the wheels as they are for the later production vehicles. Lots of am offerings as well.
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Tamiya is a real sweet to build. Hobby Boss more complicated but more accurate and detailed, IMHO.
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Ah yes, all wise words - but for me - the ancient Peerless/Max /Italeri (ultimately Zvezda) is the one! But then, I’m a singularly perverse modeller. I just love the challenge of bringing such ancient kits up to spec; who else would have two Heller AMX 13/105s in their stash?
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I can’t compare, but I’d like to add my 2 cents. I had been building 1/72 planes for awhile and 1/48 vehicles. At some point I realized that you could get all sorts of things in 1/35 and so I tried to give a 1/35 vehicle a try and went with the Tamiya M3 scout car. It was a great starter kit for 1/35. It goes together easy and is kind of robust which for me was good. I’ve learned to be more gentle as I’ve done more. I want to do another one.
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Thank you all. I think I’m gonna get the the HB offering as it’s half the price of the Tamiya.kit.
What’s the difference between the early and late variants?
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If memory serves the HB answer has both early (pre war) and later versions. Look them up on Scalemates. Bunch of links to reviews , pdfs of instructions, aftermarket parts … I recon every kit I buy there. (Nother plus , a lot of “new” kits are reboxes of old (to ancient) kits … same molds different decals … If the kit was decent you can usually find an older boxingfor cheaper than the "new"price. (Get the old boxing, after market upgrades & decals AND a nice sushi dinner for the price of the “new”!
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Tamiya =knock out marks everywhere
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I just had the chance to look at the Hobby Boss kit in-progress last night at our monthly model club meeting. I have to say that I was impressed by how thin the armor was and the level of overall detail.
My clubmate building it was going to use the Zvesda (ex-Peerless Max) kit to replace the wheels and rims with the pre-war / early war truck type rather than the “combat” rims included in the HB kit.
The HB engine is nice for what’s included, but it is missing some detail (carburetor, pully on the generator, etc.), so if a “hood open” display is planned, more work is needed in that area. Still, what’s there is a good, solid foundation.
All in all, I’d say that the HB kit has the advantage over the Tamiya kit in fidelity of detail. The Tamiya kit has the advantage in ease of assembly and the Soviet crew figures are superb (if that’s part of the subject appeal).
Really just depends on whether or not you want a quick, easy build or one with all the detail. If you want the Soviet crew, then the Tamiya kit is clearly the way to go (although I suspect you could put them in the HB kit if you wanted for a sort of “best of both worlds” approach).
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The HB kit has no radio set and IIRC, the Tamiya kit is based on Soviet use and also has no radio set. You would have to source that. The HB Early has the wrong type of wheel, but the late has correct type. For more details see these reviews on the HB kit:
Early
https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/hobbyboss/hb82451.html
Late
https://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/hobbyboss/hb82452.html
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Are there online references to where the radios are mounted?
I agree with most of the others that the Tamiya M3 Scout Car is the best. if cost is an issue, then I suggest you do what I do. For around 20 years I’ve purchased Japanese made kits (and others as well) from Hobby Link Japan. Right now the Tamiya M3 is going for $23.67, versus $42.40 on Scale Hobbyist. Scale Hobbyist has good pricing for Hobby Boss kits though. The shipping costs from HLJ aren’t bad if you ship several items at one time. I recently had items shipped from them via FedEx, and received the package in 3 days!
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The HB kits are very well moulded. The internal skate rings SHOULD differ between old and new types (holes and brackets).
The front wing corners are sharper on the HB, more accurate on the Tamiya.
Parts eg doors are more adaptable, I believe.
Tamiya are dearer too.
Max / Italeri / Airfix etc. only gains by having a canvas top. WITH adaption this can be made to stretch to fit. Wheels are bad.
Cheers
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Aren’t the Tamiya’s doors molded shut?
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Thanks… now I’ve found another vehicle i didn’t know existed that has thoroughly piqued my interest! My poor bank acccount
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As I recall, the difference is the machine gun type (water vs. air cooled) and the inclusion of liquid container brackets on the “late” version. Maybe a couple of other small parts. The real vehicles had more differences, but that’s what you get.
If you are a newer modeler, get the Tamiya kit, or really any Tamiya kit, if you have a choice.
If you are an experienced “looks close out of the box” modeler, get the Tamiya kit.
If you like construction and detailing, get a Hobby Boss kit. (You can detail the Tamiya kit, too, but it will take additional effort to get to the level of the Hobby Boss kits.
I like construction and detailing but I would never buy a Peerless descendant, and would sell it if I had one and put the money towards getting one of the other two. For the effort that upgrading these old kits require, you might as well scratchbuild or heavy kitbash a subject that isn’t covered by a good quality modern release.
KL
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