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RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

japanesenostalgiccar.com

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Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#21

Post by radpanda »

> Famously, while creating the model kit for the 1976 Porsche 934 Turbo RSR, Tamiya-san sent his designers to Porsche’s Zuffenhausen factory several times to get the measurements and details just right. However, despite repeated trips there were still doubts about the kit’s accuracy. So Tamiya bought a Porsche 911 and completely disassembled it to get every detail correct.

I don’t know anything about Japanese tax law but if an American did this I’d assume they were just trying to get a sweet tax deduction on a new Porsche. “Oh sure, that was 100% a business expense”.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#22

Post by spankibalt »

Never cared much for building models (mostly Plasticart) after my day school year in the GDR, but there was a small railway modelling shop that also sold plastic model kits, especially after the fall of the Iron Curtain. That shop has a large hand in igniting my love for all things design and illustration. Beautiful box tops! Albeit back in the day I was partially to Dragon Models (DML).

RIP Mr. Tamiya

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#23

Post by Aeolun »

I built my first Tamiya car just a year ago, with my son and his friend. The thing that most impressed me is that the shop provided the tools, the space and a racetrack that you can immediately try out your newly bought car on. And all of them, no matter how crazy, cost only around $10.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#24

Post by bigstrat2003 »

whartung wrote: post #12
rightbyte wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never mastered painting them. It was really hard to paint with these old oil based paints if you are as old as me or older. I struggled with that too. The water based one sold by e.g. Games Workshop I bought years later was way easier to work with.

Oh boy, yea. I tried to put together a helicopter (probably an Apache) a few years ago, and got a couple of those classic Testor paint bottles to help finish it. I had to put it all away. The fumes from the paint, my reaction to it was nothing like I remembered. I had no issues with them as a boy. But, today, yea they were making me loopy. I’m surprised the AQMD in California still allows these. I’d like to try again…

If you don't have anything near you, I would look for acrylics designed for models online. Games Workshop sells them, but there are other brands (Vallejo, Reaper, etc) which are also quite good and generally cheaper. And they will, as a rule, be more pleasant to work with than the acrylics you get at Michael's/Hobby Lobby.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#25

Post by louthy »

In the 80s I had the Tamiya Grasshopper [1], which was the greatest remote control car ever (opinion).

I remember attaching three battery packs (instead of the standard one)—to make it drive at roughly 8 billion miles per hour, in the process ripping the tyres to shreds and pretty much ruining the car—because it couldn’t turn without flipping several thousand times.

Still, for those initial few seconds, it was glorious.

RIP Grasshopper and RIP Shunsaku Tamiya

[1] https://cdn.thingiverse.com/assets/8b/e7/0c/d6/a0/IMG_6201.j...

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#27

Post by jumpingMullet »

louthy wrote: post #25

In the 80s I had the Tamiya Grasshopper [1], which was the greatest remote control car ever (opinion). I remember attaching three battery packs (instead of the standard one)—to make it drive at roughly 8 billion miles per hour, in the process ripping the tyres to shreds and pretty much ruining the car—because it couldn’t turn without flipping several thousand times. Still, for those initial few seconds, it was glorio…

The Grasshopper was good. An underpowered version of the hornet with a 380 instead of 540 motor. The longer run time on the old 7.2 battery was a benefit. Watching YouTube of the current cars, they are actually overpowered and in a way unusable. Many videos degenerate into how high can I jump this thing before it breaks.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#29

Post by VTimofeenko »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

When I grew up I would spend hours looking through all the plastic model kits at the local hobby store. I just loved building plastic models. I never mastered painting them. The most advanced I got was rattle-can style spray paints — maybe masking a bit for a camouflage or what-have-you. Only when I got older and got back into plastic model building did I make the leap to air-brushing and really finishing models corr…

I'm kinda in the same boat. Built quite a few kits back in the day but never painted them (at least to a quality I would admit to). I picked up a ww1 British tank some time ago and hope to finally get it right. When I was in the store, however, I'd say the majority of customers in the model kit section were teenagers.

Maybe there's just more hobbies available these days so fewer folks end up building the models.

Re: RIP Shunsaku Tamiya, the man who made plastic model kits a global obsession

#30

Post by burnt-resistor »

He and his work will be missed.

I remember the awesome picture instructions of Tamiya models. They were and are better than IKEA instructions.

I fondly remember working on a Tamiya model on my grandfather's garage workbench (around the San Jose / Los Gatos border) with the garage door up while snipping, gluing, and sanding each bit according to the meticulous instructions.

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