BY DICK ENGAR

Well, tread-heads, “aircraft target” modelers or whatever moniker you prefer, rest assured that you have not been forgotten.  There is only one problem.  Dem Brudders never built much armor as kids honing our skills!  I have to admit, I never built any armor in my life until 2010 when armor builder extraordinaire Mike Mummey challenged me to take on a project and was kind enough to send me a Hobby Boss Danish Leopard which I finished in time for IPMS Nationals in Phoenix.

​Now I have nothing against armor building.  In fact, as I have mentioned in various articles and to armor aficionados and master armor builders denigrating me for not participating in their “only true form of modeling,” no one ever gave me a tank model as a youth, when I would still build anything, and I never felt the desire to build armor in my older age.  Surely I would have been more than happy to build any tank, artillery, Jeep and the like back in those carefree days of yore, and I certainly do admire well executed tanks, soft skins or artillery pieces built by others, but I just never had the opportunity to build one myself when the modeling hobby was booming in the 1960s and 1970s.  Therefore I must turn to others for help in looking back to the saga of military vehicles in plastic.

James Guld (L) and John Tate (R) are Master Modelers who have won many awards with their armor models at the IPMS/USA Nationals (ASM photo)

Fortunately Dem Brudders have two friends in the modeling world that happen to be excellent writers as well as national champion-caliber armor builders.   They are James Guld and John Tate.  Both live or have lived in New Mexico and both have been very involved members of an excellent IPMS club in our own Region X called Albuquerque Scale Modelers (ASM), hosts of several IPMS National Conventions in days gone by.
 
So, I would first like to introduce to you James Guld, a past President of ASM, who graciously agreed to share his own experiences with armor building as a youth. 

So, here goes the epistle of James, who self-titled his account The Wayback Machine:

“Over dinner one evening at the IPMS Nationals in Omaha, Dick asked John Tate and I to try and recount how we got into armor modeling. Well for me it wasn't a straight shot. My first kit was actually a model of the B-58 Hustler. I forget who made it but I believe it was 1/72 scale and I was about eight or nine years old. I didn't build anymore until a couple of years later.

​ I began building again at about the time I became friends with Jay Bazel. He was a couple of years older than me, but we were great friends throughout grade school and on into  high school.  We did everything together from playing baseball, building models, racing AFX cars, and later to more illicit activities which we'll leave out!!  This all happened in the late 60's and early 70's at the Jersey shore on a small barrier island called Long Beach Island.  Back then we had one dedicated hobby shop, Tag-along Hobbies but we just called it Tagg's, which was the owner’s name. They carried model kits, trains, AFX cars and toys for “little kids”. There were other places to get models like Grant’s department store, the local 5&10, and even the local drug store had an aisle of models. In fact it was this local drug store that first started carrying the Monogram armor line in 1/32 scale done by Shep Paine. 

​When I first started building kits I mainly did ships and cars. I just built them and didn't paint them. Then for my tenth or eleventh birthday someone got me a tank kit. It was a large scale, 1/25 Tiger I which I believe was the motorized Minicraft kit.   All I remember was being overwhelmed by the number of parts in the kit. I did finish it, but, wow, it took like a week, which seemed a lifetime back then. I remember having a lot of trouble putting the roadwheels together and getting the tracks on. It's funny how you remember these sorts of little details!!
 
At about this same time, I remember getting some of the Aurora 1/48 scale armor kits. The only one I remember building was the Churchill kit. 

At the same scale as common car kits (1/25), this tank model measured over thirteen inches in length.

I was still more into cars at the time. It was car models that I first started painting.  Of course like most of you I did rattle can paint jobs at first, but then in seventh grade, I got my first airbrush and compressor by Badger.  ​

Buy a model kit and take a short stroll to the beach.  The Haymarket at its Jersey Shore location

​At the same time, seeing those Monogram kits at the drug store, I truly became hooked on armor. I would just go to the drug store and sit and stare at the box and be just totally blown away by the dioramas.  I built them all over the next few years but for some unknown reason they just didn't quite look like the box side pictures. Like most other armor modelers from our age group, the great Shep Paine was my inspiration for both armor and dioramas. Thanks, dude.
 
The next big step happened in eighth grade when a new hobby shop opened in town, The Haymarket, which is still in business. They were in a small location for the first couple of years and then they moved to a larger store, which is their present location.

This is where I was introduced to Tamiya armor kits and later to the 1/32 scale Airfix kits including the Multi-pose figures, which to me were the greatest thing since Pork Roll. ​

​

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Monogram's Panzer IV was released about 1970.  At 1/32 scale, it is noticeably  larger than a comparable Panzer IV in 1/35 scale.

Revell re-released the 1/32 Panzer again in 2014.  Though not as detailed as modern kits, it still has a lot to offer a modeler who has never built an armor kit.

The Hay's also started having model contests, usually once a year. This is where I started building for competition. Back then, more kids built models up through junior high school. I remember it was like ninth or tenth grade when it became “uncool” to build models but I continued on. I didn't stop until graduating from college.
 
I didn't start up again until 2002 after moving to Santa Fe from New York. My brother-in-law was still building and got me back into it. Now I basically build armor, dioramas and figures.  I have done one plane, a model of the B-17G that my father-in-law flew on.  Other than that, I have done one boat and one car. I love dioramas and wish I had the space to do more.”

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Well, there you have the history of armor modeling development from James.  He ended his report by stating:  “Most modelers probably have vastly different views on politics and religion but we do have one thing in common. We love to build models. Maybe we should send a Make-N-Take package off to Washington to get those clowns to learn how to work together!“
 





Now it is time to turn to The Epistle of John, as provided by John Tate.  He self-titled his essay “My Hazy Recollection of Armor Modeling,” through the eyes of an eager young modeler in the late 1960s and early 1970s:

Aurora's tank kits scaled in at 1/48, which happens to be a very popular scale for model aircraft.

"First of all, there weren't a lot of armor kits around in those early days; airplanes, cars and ships dominated the shelves of retail stores (kits were plentiful everywhere, from department stores to supermarkets) and hobby shops. The old standard model manufacturers were king- Revell, Monogram, Hawk, Aurora and Lindberg -  and if you went to a hobby shop, Airfix and Frog. The Japanese were just making inroads into the American market back then, with nice airplane and ship kits by Hasegawa, Fujimi and Nichimo.

But armor?

The first armor kits I remember were Monogram's 1/32 tanks, stacked to the ceiling at Toys R Us circa 1970. The same dramatic artwork found on the airplane kit boxtops was present on these kits, and the Panzers and Shermans from this series were a must-have for all the kids on the block whenever the "Battle of the Bulge" movie showed up on TV. These were simple, accurate kits and back then, no one paid much attention to vinyl tracks--there were no alternatives and the trick was figuring out how to melt the pegs in the holes without melting the whole track and road wheels, which I did several times. But who cared- it was more neat battle damage, like the cool shell-holes in the armor shields on Monogram's Sturmgeschutz.

In those days, there were also a few armor kits by Lindberg, such as a box-scale kit of a Josef Stalin tank. Aurora was in the game, too, and had a cool gimmick--inside a sturdy, square box with dramatic box art was a vacuformed diorama base and a tank model that once built, contained a see-through tube from the hatch to the hull bottom, with a color film insert that showed a tank getting blown up if you held it up to the light. And like the Monogram kits, these weren't bad models- easy to build and semi-accurate, all in 1/48 scale. The only downside was that these Aurora kits came with the same pesky rubber-band tracks, though - the eternal bane of an armor modeler’s existence.

Lindberg's M-46 Patton tank model from the early 1970's.  It's a 1/32 scale kit.

Airfix had a nice line of 1/76 armor kits, fairly accurate although a bit more difficult to put together than their larger cousins; Hasegawa had a similar line in 1/72, and they were easy to find at dime stores and hobby shops. The common thread here is that model companies hadn't yet settled on a standard scale for armor kits, the way they had with airplane kits (1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scale).

​Enter Tamiya with their incredible line of 1/35 constant scale armor kits. For the first time, a kit manufacturer decided to step across the line from toy to replica, and in a big way--Tamiya burst on the scene with dozens of Allied and Axis armor kits and figure sets, plenty of items to make cool models and even cooler dioramas.
 
However, Tamiya hadn't quite left the toy world behind, since most of these kits contained interior motorization parts and keyholes in the hull bottoms of their tanks. And the old vinyl tracks were still with us, the better for a motorized Tiger Tank to scoot along a kitchen floor.

​But starting in the early 1970s, Tamiya set the gold standard for armor models, and crafted a dynasty that was not seriously challenged until the 1990s when Dragon appeared on the scene.  Tamiya's kits weren't cheap, but modelers learned to love them and ignore the motorization bits; for a quarter century, if you wanted to build an armor kit, you got it from Tamiya.

Renwal had a line of armor kits in 1/32 scale.  There were many moving parts and details were on the clunky side.  Note the location of the exhausts and engine hatches--the turret is actually pointing towards the back end of the tank in this box art!

​Tamiya did a lot of Allied armor, but they really set the stage for the German armor mania that still holds sway in armor modeling today- so many cool panzers, so little time! That armor modeling is a significant part of the hobby today is due entirely to Tamiya's decision to introduce, and market, their huge line of popular 1/35 scale kits.

There was one more diversion from the True Faith of 1/35 scale- Bandai. In the mid-1970s, Bandai decided to market an extensive line of 1/48 armor kits, almost rivaling the extent of Tamiya's line but taking things to an even better plane, since Bandai’s products were no toys, but highly detailed, accurate replicas with full interiors. 
 
Another nice feature was that you could now have an armor piece made at the same scale as that line of 1/48 aircraft models already on everyone's shelves. I still remember building a Bandai Opel Maultier truck- it was one of the nicest model kits I ever built from that era, and looked like the real thing when I was done. 

​For a while, Bandai armor kits were everywhere- I remember begging my dad to take me to K-Mart since they had the whole line in stock. The Bandai kits had one unfortunate flaw, those pesky rubber-band tracks, but that was hardly noticed given the otherwise great quality of these kits.

Bandai of Japan is best known today for its extensive line of Gundam kits.  But the company built its expertise with nicely detailed armor kits in 1/48 scale.

​I am not sure why, but Bandai eventually lost out to Tamiya, and their 1/48 armor line disappeared from hobby retailers; by the 1980s, Bandai kits could only be found at swap meets. But they still had a legendary reputation and for many years, their 1/48 U.S. Jeep was one of the most highly-sought-after model kits, since 1/48 aircraft modelers used them in dioramas. But the battle was over- 1/35 had won, and Tamiya was the “lord of the battlefield."

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As a codicil to John’s final comments about Bandai, I did some research as to why their once-successful armor line seemed to disappear.  Well, Bandai is very much alive and well and, according to Arthur Ward in his book Classic Kits, published by and available from HarperCollins Publishers, is a Japanese company that has successfully built up a business across several lines of products and is the top selling toy manufacturer in Japan and the third largest toy producer in the world after Mattel and Hasbro. 
 
According to several Internet sources, the Bandai toy company was founded in 1950 and started expanding to include export sales as part of its business in the early 1960s.  Slot car racers and  AstroBoy related products were big hits in that decade.  Bandai Models was established in 1971 and the 1/48 scale series of armor kits filled a niche in that area of modeling for a few years as described by John previously.  

​Nevertheless, these armor models did not represent the apex of Bandai’s success in model kit production, as in 1980 Bandai introduced a series of models based on a Japanese TV show started in 1979 which introduced Gundam to the world.  This anime series featured giant robots or mecha called Mobile Suits or MS.  The protagonist MS were the Gundams and, according to Arthur Ward, Bandai has produced “dozens of these fantastic creations in a variety of scales and complexities and has sold 300 million Gundams!”  It makes sense why Bandai de-emphasized its armor related military vehicles and accessories when the Gundams became such mega-sellers. ​

Prior to Gundam, Bandai found industry success with its Space Battleship Yamato model kit line.  The Yamato is arguably Japan's equivalent to the Starship Enterprise.

​Bandai was also well known for producing products related to the Kamen Rider and Power Ranger series of shows.  For those in the U.S. not as familiar with the former character, Kamen Rider or the Masked Rider was a weekly Sci-Fi TV show which ran in the early 1970s which generated several sequels and comic books.  Kamen Rider battled a terrorist organization to keep them from brainwashing innocent victims.  I lived in Japan during the Kamen Rider craze and could not resist dressing up like him and riding around one evening as the picture attests!

Brudder Dick in Japan, circa early 1970's, dressed as Kamen Rider.  Perhaps the streets of Osaka were a little safer in those days thanks to his vigilence.

​Bandai is still very involved in model kit production and besides the Gundam line, is producing some outstanding Star Wars kits.  But that is a subject beyond this article.  And it is clear that Bandai lost all motivation to continue its 1/48 scale armor kits since 1/35 scale ruled and manufacturers like Tamiya, Dragon and Hobby Boss were prolific in their production of those kits.  Yet, none of these three companies nor others seem to want to try to touch Bandai’s epic hold on Gundam.
​
Greetings; it’s Brudder Bill interrupting Dick’s otherwise excellent post about the history of armor modeling.  I think I built a small handful of armor kits in my young years.  Most remembered is Revell’s SnapTite Panzer IV in 1/48 that I picked up at a pharmacy about four blocks away from the house.  So now, you know where my armor-building skillset lies compared to John Tate and James Guld. 

​I recall buying this model kit for a Super-8 movie I filmed about a teenager who “borrows” a time machine from an inventor/scientist, based on our high school chemistry teacher, Dr. Brown.  Vehicle of choice for traveling through different time periods was said tank.  I believe the Middle Ages and Old West were involved, after a quick stop to 1943 or thereabouts to acquire the tank.  By the way, a friend and I produced this movie in 1976, nearly ten years before Back to the Future.  Those who know me well will not be surprised to learn that plenty of gunpowder was involved for special effects. If you were a teenager in the Middle Ages (or 1976) with a WWII tank, what would you do?

​Revell also released a Sherman SnapTite tank around the same time, and Monogram had a Patton and Tiger at or near the same 1/48 scale.  A few years back, Revell released the Sherman, Patton, and Panzer in their Combat Crushers series, a perfect introduction to armor models for youngsters.  The Panzer even has the Schurzen side armor shields upside down!

​Building a second Revell Panzer in its Combat Crushers guise circa 2013 interested me in other 1/48 armor subjects that are less toy-like, and I was happy to learn that Tamiya has had success in recent years reviving that scale.  ​A number of new kits and re-releases in their 1/48 armor line have shown up in hobby stores.  I guess it's a little ironic that Tamiya's 1/35 kits triumphed over Bandai's 1/48 offerings back in the day, but Tamiya now sells a growing 1/48 scale line of tank kits alongside its enduring and iconic 1/35 armor models.

Revell screened the "Aftershock" graphics upside down.  Compare the location of the "schurzen" side armor to the Panzer photos earlier in the page.

Check out my review on Tamiya’s 1/48 Army Staff Car elsewhere on the site.  It is unfortunate that somebody doesn’t re-release those Bandai armor kits.  I’ll bet they’d be popular as are Tamiya’s 1/48 subjects.

Another niche of armor modeling I enjoyed that didn't do a whole lot for my building skills was Roco Minitanks.  These models, in 1/87 or HO-scale, came pre-assembled and were molded in either olive drab or sand-colored plastic.  Detailing was pretty good and I had a small collection.

For a while in the early days, the Hasegawa 1/72 armor kits competed with 1/76 offerings from the likes of Nitto, Matchbox, Fujimi, and Airfix.  1/76 is OO scale, a popular railroading scale in the UK with a metric-standard mashup of 4 mm equaling one foot.  1/87, or HO scale caught on in the USA for model railroading, and so 1/76 scale survives as a small niche only for armor enthusiasts and releasing new subjects in that scale is the domain of smaller and limited-release manufacturers.

This Roco Honest John missile and launcher was a favorite artillery model of mine back in the day.  And I didn't even have to build it.

Revell of Germany has re-released a number of former Matchbox 1/76 scale kits in recent years along with some very nice 1/72 scale kits.

Armourfast is a new manufacturer of simplified small-scale tank models that go together in a hurry.

I think I built one of Hasegawa's 1/72 armor kits as well back in the day, and  maybe an Airfix kit or two.  The previous marriage between small-scale armor modeling and model railroading has dissolved in the recent era as the Roco Minitanks line in HO scale has been discontinued, and the major model kit manufacturers have abandoned any brand-new releases in OO scale, or 1/76.

Airfix's 1/76 line probably survived at least in part because they insisted on classifying those armor kits as 1/72 scale on their boxes between the 1980's and mid-2000's.  Since the Hornby acquisition of Airfix in 2006, red boxes containing their vintage armor kits proclaim a little more honesty with 1/76 scale listed.  Of course Hornby's bread and butter is OO Gauge, or 1/76 scale model train sets.  Revell of Germany has re-released a number of 1/76 Matchbox armor kits and they list 1/76 on their box.  Okay, It's really not a huge difference, and probably not as noticeable on your model shelf as the difference between a 1/35 scale model and a 1/32 scale model thanks to the relatively small size of the models in the first place.

Airfix Panzer IV listed as a 1/76 kit in this early release.  Note the dramatic box art!

Airfix Panzer IV.  It's the same box art with the same plastic--represented as a 1/72 scale kit.  These were sold during Airfix's second incarnation from the late 1980's until the mid-2000's when Airfix went into receivership/bankruptcy.

Smaller scale modeling.  Dragon released a few armor subjects in 1/144 scale.

Small-scale armor modeling has flourished in the 21st Century with manufacturers such as Trumpeter, Dragon, Italeri, and Revell of Germany releasing many nice 1/72 scale kits on an ongoing basis.  It's no small coincidence that these  manufacturers also happen to make airplane kits (targets) in the same popular scale.

UPDATE 2023:  ATLANTIS MODELS RE-RELEASES SOME OF AURORA'S HISTORIC 1/48 ARMOR KITS

Aurora had some truly awesome box art for their armor models that debuted as all-new kits between 1956 and 1969.

Throughout the 1950's, model builders began to enjoy a growing assortment of new plastic model kits.  Manufacturers were just beginning to experiment with the notion of constant-scale.  In 1956, Aurora Models began a small line of armor subjects in 1/48 scale.  This matched their new lineup of 1/48 aircraft kits.

At the time, these armor kits were truly state-of-the-art.  Even though the 1956 Patton tank was not a large model compared to other Aurora releases, the tooling for the kit cost more than any of Aurora's previous models.  If Aurora had developed a reputation for rushing the first kits of a brand-new aircraft to hobby shop shelves before their competitors at the expense of quality and accuracy, the tank models were engineered much more carefully.  They were considered by modelers to be fairly accurate and nicely detailed when they were first released.

Atlantis Models also released their Sherman tank as part of the Air-Land-Sea collection set.  They also re-released the Stalin tank.  Both of these have been discontinued as of 2023, but they're still easy to find.

As we know, Aurora experienced many ups and downs and they came up with a dozen or so armor kits in 1/48-scale.  they consolidated their offerings and their armor line was put on the back burner.  After the 1970's, the kits disappeared.

A resurgence of popularity of 1/48 armor in the 2000's saw re-release of many early Tamiya 1/48 armor kits and new tank kits in this scale have been released.  Atlantis Models, originally a small model kit company with a unique line of UFO kits, acquired a considerable amount of Revell-Monogram kit tooling after parent company Hobbico imploded in 2018.  Included in this treasure trove of vintage model kit tooling were Aurora's 1/48 tank molds.  None of these historic kits had seen the light of day since Aurora's demise in the late 1970's.  Atlantis Models has resurrected a handful of these kits.  We'd love to see the entire line including some unusual subjects such as the MBT-70 and M8 munitions carrier.  Atlantis Models' armor kits are excellent low-cost subjects for dioramas, gifts for young aspiring modelers, or fun-builds that will provide a nice nostalgia kick or leisurely weekend project.

 (Back to Dick to wrap things up:)  Many thanks to James Guld and John Tate for sharing their knowledge of the evolution of armor kits.   Along with Brudder Bill, all of us who contributed to this article hope our readers enjoy this latest foray back through the mists of time.  Hopefully this will motivate some of you to procure one of those old armor kits you built as a youth and turn it into a masterful work of historic art using your now well-developed and matured modeling skills!

What goes around comes around:  This kit, newly tooled in 2014, includes a motor!  If we thought we had outgrown motorized models in the 1970's, Tamiya has decided to bring them back!  Where can I get mine??!!

In addition to the motor, the kit comes with individual-link tracks!