Combat said:
I am not familar with the 1/35 stuff that has been mentioned in several posts. What is it and why exactly is that considered more historically accurate?
1/35 is the most common scale of injection moulded plastic models used to depict military vehicles and figures. You buy the model as a kit and assemble and paint it, then apply the decals that represent the insignia etc.
There are many plastic kit companies, the most common being Tamiya and Dragon, together with older companies such as Airfix and Monogram. The use of small plastic parts enables a very detailed model, however the accuracy varies somewhat between manufacturers and moulds.
The are some companies such as Minichamps and more recently Dragon that have produced premade
diecast tanks etc in 1/35 scale and these are much more detailed than King and Country and Forces of Valor etc. I would recommend that Firebat collect these as they are accurate and collectable and will also fit in exactly with his existing 1/35 plastic figures and vehicles.
I assembled plastic kits for many years and I guess they encouraged my interest in military stuff. If assembled and finished correctly you end up with an excellent example of the real thing.
However there are a number of serious downsides to injection plastic kits.
Firstly, the production costs are high, so you need to produce each mould in the thousands to expect a reasonable return. Therefore it's not a material that King and Country could use.
Once assembled, plastic model kits are virtually worthless and some upmarket kits can cost as much as a King and Country tank. Also I found they were very delicate and almost fall apart in your hands after a few years as the glue fails over time and you end up with bits falling off and getting lost, especially during changes of residence.
The other downside is that they take a good deal of time and effort to assemble well and the end result depends a great deal upon the ability of the builder.
