It was a very good build, its well designed and its able to come apart into three main piece (Being the lower hull, upper hull, and turret). You should have tweezers for the smaller pieces but its doable with your fingers alone. This was my first Tamiya armor kit, and now I'm moving up to another one of their models.

This was the perfect model for my first model tank. First and foremost, the price is awesome. It was less than half the cost of most model tanks and so I didn't feel bad if I made a mess of things. It was also a Tamiya made model, which means I knew I wouldn't have to worry about fit or detail. So here are a few other things that I liked a lot:

1. Moving parts- I really liked that the turret still moves, and the cannon, AND the tracks! I also decided to not glue the machine gun on top, so that still moves as well.

2. The scale figures- I really enjoyed painting the little guys that came with it. I thought it added a lot to the model.

3. Multiple Decals- It was cool to be able to choose between a few different decal schemes. I don't know the history behind the Japanese Defense Force, but the figurines definitely look American with their gear and all, so I went with the American Army decal scheme.

As I said, the fit and the detail were both fantastic, which is to be expected with Tamiya. I really enjoyed this model, and would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to make a model tank for their first time. The only thing that I might change would be the antennae on the turret. I thought they were a little thick, but that's something that I might change on my own anyways.

Another great model from Tamiya! My Son and I ordered this kit, along with the German Sturmgeschutz IV or "Stug" for short. Plenty of details and parts to assemble. He's learning the steps of priming, trimming, prepping and assembly. Plenty of hours for both of us to enjoy together, which includes researching vintage footage to choose out paint scheme, and perhaps an action diorama. Great model novice and advance modelers!

I don't normally built plastic armor kits, but thought I would give this one a try. It was fairly easy to assemble, but does have some small parts which can be hard to separate from the sprue and cement to the model. It has decals for a couple of different tanks, and I didn't spend a lot of effort into painting this kit. Don't know if I will try another armor kit or stick with my aircraft kits, but if I do, I would certainly check out the Tamiya 1/35 offerings. Maybe a German kit next time.

I have avoided armor builds in the past because of some of the horrible things I'd heard about the difficulty of putting tracks together. This was my first tank, and I have to say, this was actually much easier and better compared to some of the Revell aircraft kits I've put together recently. The instructions aren't very clear on a couple of the smaller pieces that fit to the hull, but if you play around with them, and look up some pictures online you should be able to get it sorted out. The fit was fantastic, and I was very pleased with the moving turret. I built this for my nine year old son (he enjoys watching and helping with some parts of the build, but isn't quite dexterous enough yet for some of the finer details) and he absolutely loves it. I'm going to buy another to do a full out weathering and detailing on. Be patient with the decals, especially if you are used to Revell quality, they seemed to take a little longer to become pliable enough to remove from the backing. Also, I did the main base painting of olive drab with a can of camouflage enamel I had laying around, and it worked out perfectly.