BY BILL ENGAR

#A313 -- NICELY DETAILED KIT -- INCLUDES FOUR FIGURES WITH TWO SEPARATE RIFLES -- 117 PARTS -- MODEL GLUE REQUIRED -- MAY BE PAINTED IF YOU WISH -- MSRP ONLY $21.99

Atlantis Models has reached deep into its historic tooling bank to re-release another classic Aurora tank model.  In the formative years of the armor modeling hobby, Aurora’s tank models had a reputation for accuracy and detail.  As 1/35 and 1/72 scales emerged as favorites for armor modelers, 1/48 scale was forgotten for a few decades.  However, in recent years, 1/48 has emerged white-hot at the perfect balance between detail and practicality for building a collection of iconic tank models.  Atlantis Models grows its collection of 1/48 tank models with the release of the most common Japanese medium tank of WWII.

Atlantis' Chi Ha Japanese WWII medium tank kit utilizes vintage Aurora box art.

The finished model is 4.5” long and has 117 parts including a pair of black soft vinyl tracks.  MSRP is a low $21.99. 

Styrene plastic parts are molded in a desert-tan.  Two black soft vinyl tracks are included.  Wheels may be installed to move if you wish.

The kit has diorama possibilities as four figures are included.  A tank commander may be posed standing in the tank’s top hatch opening.  He’s a full-body figure and may also be posed outside the tank if you wish.  The other three figures are armed infantry in combat-poses.  One has a handgun, the other two may be posed holding rifles.  The rifles are molded separately and one of them has a bayonet.  The figures are of decent enough quality that you would might even want to save them for use in another WWII diorama project if you don’t wish to pose them with your Chi Ha tank model.  This kit begs for the modeler to add a base with some tropical vegetation to make a South Pacific island scene circa 1942.

The Type 97 had a unique multi-angled hull well-captured by Aurora originally.

Hull and turret bottom are included on this sprue in addition to hatches and muffler parts.  

The Type 97 tank has a number of distinctive characteristics depicted in the model.  The hull top was designed with many angled panels and almost resembles a German armored car with distinct front and rear fenders.  The turret has a slight offset from center.  Large rivets were used.  With a little weathering, this will make a most interesting model.

Road wheels are nicely detailed.  The bell-crank suspension depicts springs and linkage molded into the hull sides.  Note the rifles in the top-left corner.

Four figures and the turret top are included on this sprue.

Nearly 2/3 of the 117 parts are wheels or wheel retainers.  If you wish, the wheels and tracks may be built to move.  The Type 97 tank had an interesting “bell-crank” suspension.  Four large springs on each side essentially absorbed small bumps and obstacles. 

Here's a closeup view of the interesting suspension of the Type 97 tank.  With a little weathering, this will look very cool on the finished model.

Options for three tanks are included with the decals.

Instructions are comprised of a single two-sided sheet with vintage artwork and English text describing assembly.  Three schemes are included.

Engineering on the kit was good and we could detect no major sinkholes or ejection pin marks that will cause trouble.  Being a vintage kit, the modeler can expect some parts cleanup and minor use of filler putty.  Some ejector pin marks and sinkholes on the figures were apparent but even these appear minor and should be simple to fix if the builder cares to do so.  The vinyl tracks had some flash that can either be cleaned up with an X-Acto knife or covered with mud-weathering.

Box side includes a short history, kit specs, and a list of recommended paint colors.

We were impressed with this kit, which includes extra figures and weapons that will make a nice diorama or accessories for other projects.  In 1/48-scale, it can be part of a larger scene that includes countless choices for the WWII Japanese aircraft model of your choice.  The 2Modeler guys give this kit four enthusiastic thumbs up and recommend it as part of your 1/48 armor collection!

SPECIAL THANKS TO ATLANTIS MODELS FOR PROVIDING THIS GREAT MODEL KIT FOR US TO REVIEW AND ENJOY!
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BONUS FEATURE!

THE 1/48 AURORA ARMOR KITS

Aurora is well remembered as one of the innovative companies that built the plastic model hobby.  By the mid 1950’s, they had introduced a number of popular plastic aircraft models and were adding ships and some trucks.  In 1956, they added a small line of armor kits.  They chose 1/48-scale (also known as "quarter-inch" scale) which was just emerging as popular for aircraft models.  Join us as we take a trip back in time.  Special thanks to BoxArtDen for providing permission to use their awesome restored images of the original fantastic Aurora box art.

Aurora's first tank model was the Patton.

The German Panther succeeded the Panzer tank during WWII.

While Aurora’s early aircraft kits were known for being simple and inexpensive, a different philosophy was utilized for the armor models.  The first kit, the Patton, cost the company more money to tool than any other kit up to that time.  Longtime armor modelers recollect that these kits had excellent accuracy and detail for the period.

The Stalin heavy tank was in the process of initial deployment as WWII in Europe ended.  Several were photographed participating in a victory parade.

Like the Stalin, production of the British Centurion began as WWII was winding down.

Aurora sold their initial trio of armor kits until 1959 when a British Centurion tank was added to the line.  These battle tanks became known as Aurora's "Big Four."   Aurora released additional armor subjects in 1959 including an M8 munitions carrier.  Based on the Walker Bulldog, the M8 was a very interesting choice for an armor kit since it didn’t come with a big artillery gun.  And it’s been pretty much ignored by kit manufacturers since.  Later, Aurora released it with a Lacrosse missile launcher.  The 8” Howitzer kit also debuted in 1959.  The "Long Tom" was a heavy artillery gun of 155 mm caliber that was also a new kit that year.  The "Long Tom" was used during WWII and the Korean war.

The M8E2 weapons carrier was later released with a Lacrosse missile launcher.  This is a fanciful pairing as the Lacrosse was only deployed on a launcher based on a standard Army truck.

The M8 munitions carrier was an interesting choice for a model kit.  This utilitarian vehicle was based on the Walker Bulldog light tank.

"Long Tom" was another 1959 kit.

1959's Aurora Howitzer was later combined with the munitions carrier in this later square-box kit.

As the 1960's dawned, the plastic modeling hobby was exploding in popularity.  Aurora became known for its figure models.  The Universal Monster figure kit line was a surprise mega-success.  It was five years before Aurora decided to expand their armor kit line with the debut of the Japanese Chi Ha medium tank and German Tiger.  It's notable that at this point, each tank of Aurora's "Big Four" was a single example from the different major military powers of the era.  Even in the early 1960's, it was apparent that modelers had a particular interest in WWII German armor and two German tanks were now part of five main battle tanks that Aurora offered.  Enthusiasm for WWII German armor endures to this day in the modeling community.

This is the original art for the Japanese Medium (Chi Ha) tank kit.  Atlantis uses later artwork that debuted with the 1969 re-release of the kit.

By 1964, Aurora knew that WWII German armor was popular with modelers.  They added a second German type to their product line in the form of the Tiger.

Modelers enjoyed Aurora's 1/48 tank models enough that the line was expanded again in 1966 with the addition of three new kits.  These releases demonstrated Aurora's philosophy to present modelers with unusual subjects that might even be considered risky.  The Swedish "S" tank illustrates this.  The Stridsvagn 103 was unique with a low profiled turretless design and a very aggressive wedge-like appearance that actually enhanced crew survival.  The M109 Howitzer was a tracked heavy artillery gun.  The British Centurion kit got a companion in the form of Aurora's Churchill tank, a heavy infantry tank which debuted early in WWII.

The Stridsvagn's gun was fixed to the hull.  Elevation was changed with a highly adjustable suspension that lifted or lowered the entire tank's hull.

Aurora's Churchill model kit debuted in 1966, 25 years after the real tank.

In 1968, over a decade after Aurora first released the Patton tank, they finally debuted an M4 Sherman.  This iconic tank of WWII was no doubt a popular request by modelers.  The Sherman was the most common Allied tank during WWII.  It remained in service afterwards with a total of nearly 50,000 made.

Putting a large howitzer on a tank chassis allowed it to be placed inside hostile territory instead of at the front lines.

Aurora's Sherman joined its Patton tank in 1968.  It was re-released a few times with new parts until 1976.  It was nearly half a century before Atlantis Models released it again.

Aurora's MBT was unique in that it debuted in the company's square box.  Aurora began putting its kits in square boxes in 1969.

Following the Sherman, Aurora only released one more tank model, the MBT-70 Main Battle Tank.  The MBT-70 was a project intended to counter Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact armor.  It was reasoned that an escalating Cold War conflict would emerge with tank battles in Europe and a popular scenario was that the Soviet Union would invade Western Europe through Germany.  The MBT-70 was a joint project between the United States and Germany since it was assumed that the West German Army would be required to have full tactical readiness with the latest technology tank at the East German border.  Similar to the prototype Cheyenne helicopter, Aurora released the MBT-70 before the real tank was fully developed.  Like the Cheyenne, the MTB-70 was cancelled.  As it turned out, the requirements of the American and German armies did not allow a common tank type to be acceptable to both.  The German military arranged development of its Leopard 2 and the United States developed the Abrams.

Aurora's tanks had a few re-releases after they first debuted and there were some tooling changes with the tanks remaining in their catalog until about 1976.  Unfortunately, an overextended Aurora company closed its doors.  Market changes and some risky products that did not pan out got the best of the company.

Atlantis Models' 1/48 Sherman tank.

Monogram Models bought Aurora's tooling library.  It was said that the main reason was to keep the molds from being purchased by any competitors thus preserving Monogram's market share.  Monogram did re-release a few Aurora models afterward but none of the armor models since they had their own armor kits in 1/32 and 1/35 scales.  Revell and Monogram merged in the 1980's but the Aurora tank kits did not see the light of day.  A resurgence of 1/48-scale armor occurred in the 2000's when Tamiya decided to re-release some of their old kits that had been done in that scale prior to the popularity of their later 1/35 kits.  At the time, armor modeling was enjoying growth and a number of manufacturers such as Academy, Dragon, Trumpeter and others released kits of subjects that had never been done as well as improved versions of old favorites.  1/48-scale armor rode this wave with many re-releases and a number of new kits.

ATLANTIS MODELS RE-RELEASES AURORA'S CLASSIC 1/48 TANK MODEL KITS

As the 2010's dawned, Atlantis Models was a small model kit company with a line of UFO kits.  Peter Vetri and Rick DelFavero had built Megahobby into a major online model kit retailer but they always wanted to produce their own kits.  Early on, Atlantis made arrangements with other companies to create kits from their vintage tooling and a few old Aurora kits appeared thanks to a cooperative agreement with Revell, who was under ownership of Hobbico at the time.  In 2018, Revell employees were shocked when Hobbico couldn't make payroll and this parent company suddenly imploded.  Revell's vast tooling bank was up for liquidation.

2021 saw the re-release of Atlantis Models' M109 Howitzer.  Note that Atlantis uses classic Aurora box art for many of their tank kits!

The Patton was released by Atlantis in 2019 as one of their first armor kits.  These kits hadn't been available to modelers in over 40 years.

Revell of Germany found a buyer and they purchased all of Revell's newer tooling, kits that had been released since roughly the 1970's and 80's.  The sheer size of the tooling bank made it impossible for them to purchase it in its entirety and transport it to Europe.  Legacy tooling from literally hundreds of vintage models that had not seen the light of day in decades went up for sale.  With other companies scrambling to purchase other Hobbico assets, there were no takers for the legacy Revell tooling which included the Aurora tanks.  Potential buyers finally included scrap dealers who could purchase the tooling for its value on the recycled metals market.

The Sherman is part of the Air-Land-Sea set.  As of posting, it's been discontinued but can still be found easily.

The 8" Howitzer is a nice kit at a bargain price of only $21.99 MSRP.

Thanks to a good relationship with Revell executives, Atlantis Models was able to acquire the Revell legacy tooling and in mid-2018 announced the first of many upcoming releases.  Atlantis literally saved hundreds of historic model kit molds from being scrapped.  Since then, the company has been releasing a "new" kit every couple weeks or so.  The pace is reminiscent of the good old days of the hobby when you could walk into your local hobby shop every week or so and see a kit you hadn't seen before.  

At time of posting, the Japanese Medium Tank (Chi Ha) is the latest Atlantis tank kit.

Atlantis' Stalin tank has been discontinued but it can still be found from various sources.

Atlantis was able to purchase Revell's tooling at a low price and they don't have to amortize the cost to develop the tooling.  They can offer the kits at prices way below their competitors.  In spite of this, they always check the tooling carefully, make test shots, and adjust the tooling as needed to be sure that the kits are easy to build and parts fit together relatively well.  We've done several comparisons between previous releases of the kits under their original manufacturers and a fresh Atlantis release and in most cases, the parts look better in the Atlantis release.  Their boxes and decals are always well done; in most cases, Atlantis' decals are better than any previous version of the kit.

Try an Atlantis armor model today!  You can't beat the low prices.  in 1/48-scale, there are numerous diorama possibilities.  They're great for a modeler who has never built an armor kit before.  You can learn weathering skills without worrying about making mistakes on an expensive kit.  They're great gifts for new or younger modelers.  Being historic, they make a great nostalgic experience or or just fun for a leisurely weekend build.

VISIT ATLANTIS-MODELS.COM OFTEN.  YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THEY'LL ANNOUNCE AN EXCITING RE-RELEASE OF A FORMER AURORA TANK KIT OR OTHER VINTAGE MODEL!

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