The Japanese company Tamiya has been the mainstay for modelers of all stripes since the early 1970s. It's long held the leadership position among producers of injection molded plastic kits for quality, attention to details, and clear instructions. For many modelers, Tamiya can do no wrong. Others feel just as strongly that the kits have faults, though less glaring than most of the company's competitors. And kits of the same or similar vehicles are generally higher priced than those from Italeri or DML. The bulk of its AFV products are 1/35 scale but they’ve also produced a few 1/24 and have been increasing their output of 1/16 figures and vehicles since the late 1990s. Tamiya's AFV kits can be categorized into "before 1990" and "after 1990." A number of early 1970s tanks were motorized, and scale compromises were made in designing the hulls so they could accommodate motors and batteries. These kits can still be found and they're fun for kids to put together.

Tamiya's M4A3 Sherman made its debut in 1981 and has been rejiggered to produce subsequent variants. The most common complaints about all of these kits are the lack of sponsons over the tracks (which means you can see through the bottom of the tank if you leave the hatches open) and the hollowed out backsides of the roadwheels. While Tamiya has offered additional figures and stowage for the newer Shermans, they still haven't dealt with these two fundamental flaws.

The M3 and M5A1 light tanks and M8 GMC howitzer suffer from dimensional problems with the hulls and to some extent with the turrets as well. The most egregious error, however, is found in the rubber band tracks, on which the end connectors are molded to each link, and do not connect the track links together!

The M10 tank destroyer and M36 Jackson also have problems veering between 1/35 and 1/32 scales. Cookie Sewell wrote a good article for Fine Scale Modeler on how to fix these problems, but that's likely to be a moot point with the release of Academy's versions of these kits. Typical of Tamiya's tendency to be a spoiler, the company reissued these to coincide with Academy's releases.

Tamiya's halftrack series hails from the late 1970s. The most significant drawback on these kits are the solid spoke and idler wheels. The Tank Workshop and K9 offer resin replacements that capture the original look much better (through the resin track with the Tank Workshop set is no real improvement over the kit's rubber band track). It should be noted that the M3A2 halftrack was a "concept car" that never went into production, so it needs to be backdated to an M3A1 or to an M3 without the pulpit and with the .50 machine gun mounted on a pedestal. Verlinden produces a decent detailing set for this purpose.

The wheeled vehicles such as the jeep and armored cars are essential kits. The earlier jeep came with a trailer and several figures, and for a while it was surpassed by Italeri's offering (with the exception of the figures, of course). But the 1994 jeep is a gem of a kit with little need for additional detailing. It's probably as close to a perfect kit as has ever been produced. The two armored car sets and the 2 1/2 ton "deuce and a half" cargo truck are also fine out-of-the-box builds.

"Tamiya on steroids" might be one way to describe the company's fascination with large utility vehicles like the Dragon Wagon and Famo. Again these kits were acclaimed as virtually flawless, albeit considerably expensive.

As the company moved into the new century, it launched a series of 1/16 remote control AFV models, including a Sherman howitzer and Pershing. The Pershing also appeared as a 1/35 kit in the summer of 2002. This time, Dragon played the spoiler, reissuing its seven year old Pershing which had gone out of production despite rave reviews.

Early on Tamiya produced sets with eight figures. Unfortunately, not all the figures’ actions meshed well. In the “U.S. Infantry ETO” kit one figure strolls nonchalantly, while a couple other are firing weapons and two are running. Likewise, differences in uniforms meant some figures were suitable for one period of the war, while others weren’t (for example, the buckled service boots didn’t appear until the fall of 1944, so they wouldn’t be appropriate in a July Normandy setting).  Figures prior to the “U.S. Army Assault Infantry Set” are rather soft in detail; boots are oversized and hands don’t grasp weapons firmly. Faces are blandly sculpted. Equipment is detail less and weapons are clunky. However, with replacement heads, hands, weapons and gear and some careful painting, these figures are still serviceable.

Spurred on, perhaps, by competition from DML, Tamiya offered a nicely detailed, cohesive half dozen GIs in the “U.S. Army Assault Infantry Set” in 1994. Tamiya separately released the weapons and equipment sprue that came with these figures, as well as the new two tank crew figures that graced their M4 Sherman offering. Since then, however, the only new figures have come with their vehicles. The drivers for the jeep and 6x6 2.5 ton truck are nice, as well as the soldiers included with the Dragon Wagon and armored cars. One of the most exciting aspects of the two new Shermans released at the end of 2001 was the inclusion of new infantry figures in winter dress.

In 2004, Tamiya began selling sets of built and painted kits and figures. At the same time, the company focused its attention on its new 1/48 scale series, which appears to be quite popular. Its late 2005 offering of the "Red Ball Express" edition of its U.S. 2 1/2 Ton 6x6 Cargo Truck continues the company's approach of re-releasing older kits with some additional accessories. In 2011, the Stuart M5A1 and and M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage were reissued with some older figures—and the same botched rubber band tracks where the links do not connect to one another.

Nonetheless, while more-skilled modelers complain about the lack of new products and the re-pops of the old kits, the clarity of instructions, precision fit, and manageable number of parts make Tamiya products particularly good models to get younger kids into the hobby.

Figures and Equipment

Armor

Halftracks

Wheeled Vehicles

Artillery, Wheeled and Tracked

Limited Edition Kits