Hello everyone, welcome to the M103 Heavy tank build blog.
The following blog will be based in the opinions and observations of a humble modeler.
I do not claim to be an "expert" or a "rivet counter." It's a hobby.
First, I'd like to thank Mr. Jim Starkweather and Mr. Darren Baker over at Armorama.com for giving me the chance to review this kit.
Now that the formalities are out of the way, let's begin with a little history on the kit.
Back in Oct. 2013, Dragon Model's announced at the 53rd annual All Japan Model show that they would be coming out with the 1/35th scale, M103 Heavy Tank, "Black Label" Smart kit. Needless to say the Modelling community was a buzz with excitement. Then in February, 2014, the kit was released. That's when things got interesting.
The "experts" came out of the closet and total ripped this kit apart for not being "accurate" and some went as far as claiming that Dragon was "misleading" modeler's.
And so began a very heated, very nasty debate on varies Internet modelling sites, including, Armorama.com on the kit's short comings which still is on going, but has died down from what it was.
Now, the goal with this build/blog over the next few weeks is two fold.
First, this will be an Out of the Box build with no after market parts added to the kit.
Second, to point out some of the issues with the molding of the kit in general, pot marks, component fittings, overall ease of build, etc.
I hope you enjoy the build.
