Tamiya Yamato 1/350 Scale Build Review and Pictures

Tamiya Yamato 1/350 Scale is a beast of a model kit in terms of its overall size. They tend to be quite an expensive kit but can be picked up second hand from time to time.

This purchase was the latter, it came at a low price off an auction site. At the time I never really thought much of it. But some weeks later when I began the construction I noticed it had been started a bunch of parts were missing.

That said all you can do is get on with these things and make best what you have to work with. This was an old version of the kit, so not as slick as much newer releases.

However, it still fitted together really well even if some of the parts were a little clunky. As the actual Tamiya Yamato 1/350 Scale kit was quite cheap I also opted for a wooden deck. This came from some far off place in China.

As this took some weeks to arrive there was plenty of time to essentially get the model all but ready. As a result of this for a few weeks, there were plastic boxes stacked up with sub-assemblies in them waiting to be fitted.

Paints And After Market Parts Added To The Yamato

Paint wise this again was not really all that difficult. Tamiya Neutral Grey, Black and Green. Also, all you needed was some Hull Red and a tiny splash of gold. All the other call outs needed can be mixed from these colours.

There was no photo-etch applied to this model. Purists may be shocked at this but splashing out on a ton of aftermarket parts seemed pointless given the condition of the model.

An element of rigging was added, but this is a new practice for me so it was basic at best. Besides the instructions in my view supplied by Tamiya with this kit were hardly clear.

Tamiya Yamato 1/350 Scale Conclusion

Model builders always rave about how great Tamiya models are, well it is hard to see what all the fuss is when it came to this kit. Again I am told the Yamato in this scale is their flagship of large scale ships.

Having tackled a Revell Bismarck at the same scale it is my view that the Bismarck by Revell was much better than this kit. That said this does make into an impressive model and I think the one I made was moulded in the 1970s or 1980s.

You do not need a lot of resources to build this and get something half decent. For people who are thinking of tackling a big ship project, I would argue this easier than doing a modern carrier for example.

Budget wise, if you do not want to spend megabucks you can build this right out of the box. However, if you have a little extra money instead of going for expensive PE sets treat yourself to a wooden deck.

Buy this Model Online