Leopold Hasegawa German WW2 Canon Model kit Built and painted 1/72

Here, the Leopold gun! a kit built by my father, which I and my brother painted. We didn't buy the crew of Hasegawa, which was about half the price of the cannon itself, but instead reused some various model kit men;

Hasegawa Cruiser Tank Crusader Mk III 1:72 Revell Review Model Kit

This friday we will speak of a classic kit, the Cruiser Tank from Hasegawa;

Boxes; The first release box have all the flair of the 70s, the second one is just dull (I never liked the grey on Hasegawa's kits, maybe due to seeing them so many times). The artwork has more realistic colours in the second one, but in overall is not very exciting. The Revell box is typical Revell box, realistic and nice, more proper with desert colours, but it has been done like if it was a modern tank, and the driver looks like a Iraqi tank crew!

THE KIT - 9.0

One of the smoothest, easiest and nicest models to build I have had the honour of building (and that's quite a feat considering I've built around 200 model kits!). Everything fits perfectly, and if you are in a modelling spree, you could finish it in 2-3 hours! a perfect tank for a novice, and all the same with good accuracy. 

The only dark points you see after carefully comparing with the real thing, is that the turret is slightly squashed, and it lacks some angle on the roof of it. The real turret would be much higher. The front lights are big and they don't look like the real ones, so if you are one of those accuracy maniacs you will have a nice extra work replacing them. But knowing this was released in the 70s, you could say it's one of the best models of that decade!

Instructions are very clear, tracks are fantastic, soft and easy to assemble and adapt to the wheels (how nice it would be that all tanks had the same quality of tracks!) and decals are ok, but you will have to use some decal micro film or varnish or they will be flying off in a couple of months.

As always with hasegawa you get a nice little pilot, although he is in a very weird pose.

PRICE-VALUE RATIO - 8.5

Released since the 1970s, and if you ask me, at least in constant production from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s. This kit should be dead easy to find (although now you don't see much AFVs Hasegawa kits on shop, maybe Revell has bought all moulds, I don't know). But all the same Revell kits are easy to find, and quite cheap. And looking for it on eBay and finding it for less than 8 pounds can be easy, so a very good value here.


 Overall;

This is a important tank, besides having a interesting design (I had to check twice when I was kid to make sure it was a WW2 kit!), much different to the conventional tanks of WW2, it is a easy kit to do, cheap and easy to find, so stop reading and go and buy it! very appropiate for wargaming too. 

If you have enjoyed this review and want to say thanks, the best way is to click in one of the advertisings in the blog. Every little help will be appreciated. 
This is the Crusader I built, some 15 years ago so not much in way of weathering and similar, age provides that :);

Here you can get inspiration on other builds, gathered from the net;

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next battle!

Hasegawa G.M.C. CCKW-353 Gasoline Tank Truck 1/72 USA Army General Motors Company

My first Hasegawa review, the M3 Grant.

Let's see the boxes;

BOX ART >> As usual, with the second everything is brighter, and it loses a bit of character. Although the image is sharper, the resulting colours are wrong, the green becomes too pale and makes it look strange.

THE KIT - 6.5 >>

An old kit (first released in the 1970s) which still looks good to this day. Instructions are clear, it doesn't have too many pieces (59), can be built quickly, and it doesn't have any super small or super-complicated pieces. One of those models you enjoy making.

As normally with Hasegawa, you get nice metal axles, that gives the model a sensation of die-cast once built (beware, as they are too long and they will have to be cut). This is something that all model kits should have in my opinion, a good and functional model kit is doubly  good.

The bad? well, the chassis is slightly warped, so you will have to heat it slightly, or leave it under a big weight overnight to try and correct it.

Perhaps the most notable setback of this model is that the engine seems too big in comparison with the wheels and the overall body, and it is also a bit more square than the real thing. I maybe like it better as the model is, but I can understand who says "that's an odd looking GMC!".

EXTRAS - 7.0 >>

A  driver and two crewmen are good extras, maybe some petrol cans/barrels would have been nice (such as Hasegawa gives with the Isuzu truck (plus a small wagon), but it seems that only their fellow Japanese get such treatment :) ).

POSSIBILITIES - 2.0 >>

If you have bought the tanker version, I'll assume you don't want to reconvert it into a normal GMC or other GMC types, so we'll stick to this version, which leaves two choices, hence the 2.0 score. Besides green, you can paint it yellow.

Although it is not the same version, it is just to give you an idea of how it would look more or less.

PRICE/VALUE RATIO - 6.5 >>

You shouldn't have problems in getting it for around 10 GBP shipped, maybe less in retail stores or getting it in a eBay auction.

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HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE - 7.0 >>

"The historical importance score is determined by how many were built, and how much operational service they had, and how much influence they had on the conflicts they were involved in"

Tanks and airplanes need petrol, so both for wargaming possibilities and diorama, it is a useful piece. Not the most important vehicle in WW2 but a necessary one.

WARGAMING - 8.5 >>

Lovely for wargamers. Probably very handy if the wargaming rules requires logisitics representation, and very sturdy.

OVERALL - 7.5 >> 

This model kit serves nicely it's purpose, and even if it is not the most fully detailed GMC on the market, it is the only tanker version. 

In one phrase; Get it when you start to get bored with the typical things.

                 IMAGES OF FINISHED JOBS

Comparison with the GMC dumper.

Model kit made by myself.

Official build by Hasegawa.

Hasegawa M3 GRANT Medium Tank Mk.1

My first Hasegawa review, the M3 Grant.

Let's see the boxes;

BOX ART >> All Hasegawa boxes are quite the same, here the box art is maybe better than average, although they show you different men from what you get in the box.  I've never cared too much for the blue-grey around the box (I prefer the green older one), but that goes for all Hasegawa boxes. Forgetting the typo on the title (Gramt instead of Grant) a good box all round.

THE KIT - 4.8 >>

A standard good kit, which starts to show  it's age a bit (beginning of the 1980s). It is a simple kit to build. This is a kit I first made when I was starting in the hobby, and I did again recently (and is still available in shops).  It has good detail, but perhaps it needs a few more attachments, such as a machine gun, and the box on the back should be better done. For those who like to glue (or not to glue them) all the bits like shovels, axes, etc, you will be disappointed as they are in one piece with the main body.

Generally everything fits ok, but with so many reissues some parts of the hull are starting to leave gaps, so you will need a filler or a sand them thoroughly until they fit.

But now, it comes the terrible revelation; this kit has half the proportions all wrong. Yes, I didn't notice until I made this review, but you have only to compare with a real wartime picture;

The turret is far too flat, and the whole body seems too high. I am not picky with these things, but this is just very obvious, at first I thought it was another version! they also suggest that you glue the  visors on the turret in a wrong position. 

EXTRAS - 5.0 >>

They don't give you too many, but you do get two drivers. The problem with them comes that they are American, and even if the Grant was built by the Americans, it was the version made for the British forces. So you can use the drivers for other american tanks, or simply paint them as Britsh and say that they have borrowed some gear from their American friends.

POSSIBILITIES - 3.0 >>

There is not much you can do with it. If you want to escape the plain green for Burma and the desertic tone, there is just some additions to the desertic ones, like this;

And some other variations with two tones of browns, or another one like the one above changing brown for green.

PRICE/VALUE RATIO - 8.0/5.0  >>

Don't be fooled; if you see it for more than 8 pounds, don't buy it, or at least try and compare with other physical retail shops. I bought mine recently for 6 €, and I think that now in a retail shop it isn't very much expensive, but if you search by eBay, the cheapest shipped is 11 GBP.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE - 7.5 >>

"The historical importance score is determined by how many were built, and how much operational service they had, and how much influence they had on the conflicts they were involved in"

After reading too many books about the North African campagin, maybe you tend to maximize the historical weight of some of the types, but the M3 Grant was very important at a stage in the war when the British army didn't have anything capable of blasting the german Panzers. So, even if the type had several problems, and  was soon substituted, it had it's time of glory.

WARGAMING - 7.5 >>

A sturdy and fast build, it is very good for wargaming, although the inaccuracies with the turret and hull will annoy the perfectionists.

OVERALL - 7.0 >> 

It is a nice model, and if you forget the turret proportions (I have now the proportions of the model kit recorded in my mind, and it seems more natural to me the model than the real one!) this is a very nice kit. If you seek more accuracy, there is the Mirage kit, which for 14 GBP shipped roughly you will have lots of detail and no big inaccuracies. For wargaming and newbies in the hobby this kit will be good enough. Then there is also the Airfix one, but it is 1/76 and I think it has even bigger inaccuracies than this one.

                 IMAGES OF FINISHED JOBS

Model kit made by myself.

Another depiction made by Miniaturas Aconcagua