Apologies Chas - and I just got new prescription glasses. The reason for publishing this on the news page even though it's old news is that a lot more people read news stories than forum posts. The news story has 1444 views while this thread has only 513 views. Open invitation to all members - if you see a news worthy item that Jim or I seem to have missed there is a send us news button at the top right of every news story.

Well, I missed the news the first few times. So I for one is happy it made it to the "official" news section.

They complement each other rather than competing, the only real cross over is the Type 97 Shinhoto (Fine Molds Ho Ni is a different version). Since Fine Molds aren't a mass market company anyway they aren't much of competitor for Tamiya, though they seem to have got their hands on a fair amount of my modelling budget. As to the 1/48 strategy, Tamiya's releases in that scale have slowed down and virtually stopped recently. David

Hobby Link Japan is once again accepting pre-orders for the vehicles

My main beef with all of this is no other companies are releasing affordable Japanese tanks. When I first read the thread I was really excided but the once again let down by Tamiyas reboxing technique, I hate it my hopes have been brought up then they come crashing down once again esp. their reboxing of older Italeri kits. I think it time for other companies to start releasing new Japanese tanks esp. the amphibious tanks.....that would rock. And on another note how bout some more figures to go with them. I mean now the bigger companies are producing 1/350th scale battleships with exquisite detailing dont you think they should spend a little of their time on tanks as well?........Pardon me for the rant but I think it is a legitimate arguement........

Aboslutely a legitimate rant. Fine Molds came out with a 57mm armed Type 97 medium tank recently. Most of the kit parts are from their Shinhoto. Maybe Fine Molds will get more exposure to the market and feel confident about making something like a Type 89 Medium or the Type 2 Kami. The problem is that while WW2 Japanese aircraft and ships/subs are popular (because they were good), Japanese vehicles have a less than stellar reputation. People tend to like building kits of fearsome things (hence more people building Panthers and Tigers instead of Panzer I). Fortunately, Fine Molds seems to be a good model manufacturer.

WoW I wish I knew about Fine Molds earlier but I will now purchase their kits, and they do look very finely detailed. I kills me to think what their out of production kits will cost now esp. on E-Bay.......And as far as the issue as Japanese tanks as not being fearsome neither were Italian tanks and now there are more then there were ten years ago like the Tamiya M13/40, but I do admit it is lacking in number of kits aswell. And the Japnese military was espically feared early in the war esp. by China and other Pacific Island nations but the Russians and the U.S. had the tanks to stop them but the U.S. did not have adequate numbers to deal with them early on, lucky for the Japanese!!!!

I enjoy modelling the Ha-Go, and have a deep respect for their ability in combat. Like Alex said, they were feared early on in the war in places like the Phillipines (to the M3, the Ha-Go was more than a match), and at Milne Bay (where two Ha-Go's were deployed and killed tens of Autralian infantry) and Malaya. I think if people learn of these less known, yet important battles, they will be more interested in modelling the AVF's and infantry which took part in them. I hope that through my own modelling, people will become more interested in these fascinating little tanks. Chas

AFAIK Fine Molds is a small-scale producer and their prices even in the Japanese market are high. Compare the prices with Tamiya's (who are hardly cheap either) on Japanese online sellers, it's quite eye-opening. Even more eye-opening (and eye-watering) was the cost of the first Fine Molds stuff to reach the UK - the Type 95 was GB£75!!! Which is why I went without until recently when they became more affordable. Fine Molds seems to use the same sort of production methods as Hasegawa where they issue batches and then go quiet for a while, instead of maintaining a continuous flow like Tamiya. So it pays to wait and watch. David David