US M41 Walker Bulldog

this is a great kit. part fit is incredible, as always with Tamiya. nice detail on the weld lines, and the barrel halves glue together very nicely, resulting in a good, straight barrel. the tracks are a bit tricky to paint, but there's plenty of references online as to how to paint them. I used acrylics, then dry brushed with some enamels. coulda been better, but this was my 1st crack at em. but, this is a fun kit to build, and can be built quite quickly. another plus is, if you don't glue the commanders feet to the bottom hull half, the turret is easily removed, so if you seal up the holes in the bottom of the lower hull half, it makes a nice little hiding place for small items.

This is my first model tank I've ordered and completed. I chose Tamiya because of the price of their products and I've read that they are simple without leaving detail out. The pro's for this item are that its great for a beginner, simple, not a lot of parts, not a lot of time to complete and the directions are straight forward and easy to follow. Complete construction took me 1-3 days, about 20 hours total without the time having to wait for the glue to settle. The only con is that the figures do not come painted but I expected that and also some parts are very tiny so be careful when cutting them off the sprue, The figures come in dark green once fully assembled and the paint for them needs to be applied yourself. Overall its a great product for the right price.

While the finished product looks impressive, I was slightly disappointed in the Tamiya US M41 Walker Bulldog kit. First off, almost the entire bottom of the tank hull is one molded piece, with very little for the builder to do. Wheels are glued on, but that is about it - I prefer to build the suspension and lower hull, but this kit doesn't allow for that. Also, the suspension that is part of the mold has no detail on the back side, which was a little dissapointing. Also, the one piece treads are lacking detail on the inside, looking rather artificial. On the plus side, the kit does come with two crewmen, and if you prefer quick builds, the overall time to build was much less than other tank kits that I have done. I personally, prefer more pieces than this kit offered.