Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Second World War => Topic started by: jony663 on January 20, 2017, 11:23:20 AM
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Or so said my wife about it down in Aberdeen MD.
This is a first look at Craig's (from Gaming Models) new FT-17.
Suitable for WWI , Inter-war Perion and WWII.
http://lebanon1982.blogspot.com/2017/01/renault-ft-17-oh-so-cute.html
So does anyone else have a need for these speed demons?
Jon
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the correct name of this small tank is "Renault FT" ... not FT-17 >:(
nice mini ;)
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Sorry, Jon, it's an awful model. I think there is a case to be made for inexpensive models, but not for terrible quality.
Am I allowed to say this here?
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Tim I do not mind the criticism but can you explain what is so awful about the model.
Sorry, Jon, it's an awful model. I think there is a case to be made for inexpensive models, but not for terrible quality.
Am I allowed to say this here?
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Thank you noted.
the correct name of this small tank is "Renault FT" ... not FT-17 >:(
nice mini ;)
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Tim I do not mind the criticism but can you explain what is so awful about the model.
I think he means that the rivet heads are way over size, the track units lack detail on the sides and too exaggerated on top. But everyone has their own taste. In 15mm I'd go for Peter Pig and in 1/76 I use the Revell/Matchbox ones or 1/72 the HaT Industrie models.
And there are some nice ones on the market in 15mm (and other scales & sizes)
A real one showing the actual size of the riveting.
(http://tank-photographs.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/belgium-army-1940-renault-ft17-tank.jpg)
Battlefield models one has smaller (but still too big) rivets
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zaRWIucNN-w/UhbGxbNxRtI/AAAAAAAAChQ/hwCxqDru8Sk/s1600/2013-08-23_renault-ft17.jpg)
peter Pig
(http://www.peterpig.co.uk/FT17round.jpg)
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Rivets can be an issue with early tank models. On some micro armor the rivers are huge, going from memory of GHQ. Peter Pig does nice work.
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Hi Jon,
Here are my criticisms. I apologize for being negative, but there's just a lot wrong with this model.
The rivets have already been mentioned by dadlamassu. They are so wide and high as to be only correctable by cutting them off and perhaps using rivets from Tichy or another company. That would be enervating enough.
The ridges or cleats on the track are similarly bad.
The shape and slope of the back deck is appallingly incorrect. The muffler looks very off too, but it could be a result of the deck mistakes.
The slope of the track towards the back does not seem steep enough - he may have got the size of the rear sprocket wrong or perhaps the front idler - the tracks should be above the front sloping driver's access hatches, not below them.
There are huge rectangles sticking out for side vision ports which were just slits.
The support beams on the unditching tail are bad and it looks like an afterthought.
The turret looks oddly small, despite the enormous "rivets".
Even expanding your photo to its full size, I can't tell if the turret is hexagonal or round. Hard to see, but the turret top looks quite misshapen.
The turret commander's station looks pretty coarsely cast - it should be smooth uniformly smooth, it isn't.
The thing projecting out from the turret to the right doesn't look anything like an SA18 gun. It is grossly thick and is just a cylinder which is a pretty poor representation of a defining characteristic of the FT's armament.
On guns, the Gaming Models fellow seems to have trouble with that. When I first heard of these I went to their catalog and he had like 5 models of the T-35 Soviet battleship tank, 2 more than there were, with every combination of 76.2mm gun on the main turret he could thing of - there was only one. That was two or three years ago I last looked.
It irritates me that someone can take money from good folks in exchange for such bad castings.
The Battlefield ones with the hex Berliet turrets posted by dadlamassu are very, very nicely painted - possibly for German use with the dark grey? But I think the suspension length is a little short, the front idlers should be forward more. With the vertical instead of gently sloped driver's view port it looks a little shorter than it should be, but I would take this product any day over the Gaming Models one. The rivets are not as grievously oversized either. :)
That Peter Pig model certainly does the business as well.
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Really nice tank,a must in any collection or wargames table :) they should have made the rear structure optional as it was not always used.I think the Germans removed it from some of their captured ones,(that fought in Paris 1944).
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Really nice tank,a must in any collection or wargames table :) they should have made the rear structure optional as it was not always used.I think the Germans removed it from some of their captured ones,(that fought in Paris 1944).
Probably not expecting trenches.
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Still some retained it,maybe to store all the kit,etc.