I will forgo any lengthy text instead letting the photos hopefully speak for themselves with my thoughts in bullet points below.
First impressions:
* Sturdy box with glorious boxart
* Very full with plastic goodness
* All sprues and extras individually bagged unless duplicate sprues which are bagged together
* Staples, darned staples - the worker in charge of staple restocking must have a very prominent place in board meetings
Thoughts upon looking through contents:
* Lovely crisp plastic with no flash, burring or warping anywhere
* Lots of parts and very small ones too which will mean a very very detailed finished model out of the box
* Clearest parts I have ever seen, If my cars windows were made from the clear plastic in this kit they would be better than they are now
* Nice amount of photo etch to detail up the kit further
* surprisingly good decals with ultra close carrier film (as good as Cartograf)
* I have seen a review which concluded the following issues; 1 - Large number of ejector holes
2 - Sink marks on large fuselage section
3 - Soft detail on lesser parts
Well upon looking through my example I can say that; 1 - Given the level of insane detail the ejector holes are small and not really that many
2 - Larger parts are perfect, no imperfections at all
3 - Crisp detail on all a parts, large and small - seen or unseen.
* Extra clear cowlings are usable at best
* Included engine plumbing to make Paul's eyes water
* Very nice figures - 3 included, 2 seated and 1 standing
* Show stopping bomb bay and nose section
* Options such as propeller types and weighted or in flight wheels
* Stunning surface detail and superb shape to fuselage sections
* Great attention to detail such as the wooden circles used on the interior of the real bird to attach fittings.
* Tamiya are certainly showing off with the wheels and landing gear struts
This being my first look at any Tamiya 1/32 kit I am blown away and see what all the fuss has been about. I am glad to see that Tamiya have been sensible with the ability to pose the kit. Previous releases such as the Mustang feature Landing gear that can be up or down with the turn of a screw, stands that clip to removable panels and removable cowlings. Thankfully this kit only features magnets in the engines to ease construction and screws to hold what looks to be a very strong central spar in place.
Highly recommended and look forward to future variants.
Take a look!
