Inquiring minds want to know your recommendations. I am not interested in the interior if it matters.

Miniart has cast textures on the appropriate surfaces and Takom does not. Miniart has individual track links and if I remember correctly Takom is link and length. I have no Idea if this makes a difference for you, but I figured I’d pass it on.

Cheers,
PH

Thanks, that helps. I am curious to know if one or the other has a better fit on the upper hull parts.

Both have multi piece upper hull assemblies but I don’t know if anyone has built both to compare. I’ve heard different people say they’ve had fit problems on both kits and others said they fit well. Without knowing the modeling habits of the builder, I seldom take “fit problems” as a reason to avoid a kit.

I can tell you with the Miniart lower I’ve been working on, you have to remove the mold lines for perfect fit and mold shift does cause a small need for filler, but it hasn’t lessened my enjoyment of the kit.

I agree. Because both kits have a similar type upper hull I didn't know if one had a better way to join the hull parts allowing for a better fit or were they both just glue the 45-degree bevels together.

I have assembled two Takom M3 upper hulls. By going very carefully and slowly, I was able to make the joints meet extremely tightly. I only used putty in a few small areas.

Built the Takom M3,

and the M31.tracks are complex, but come out fine.+

It appears there's large fit issues or gaps on both your M3's there Carl.

The M3 has a gap between the plate with the driver's vision door, and below.

The M31 has a massive gap from the hull side to the first of the angled plates.

Can you comment on what caused those?

Good choice of a next subject Greg !
I've built the Takom kit, the Lee early version. I ended up with a few hairline gaps on the non gun side that putty took care of.
Yep Paul, it is L&L tracks.
I do have the MiniArt Grant. Inspired by Paul's build the dang thing jumped into my basket during a paint run at my not so local hobby shop. (no Lees in stock)I've yet to tackle it but it is an impressive collection of plastic in the box.
Have fun what ever route you go !


3 out of 3 beers for the MiniArt kit based SOLELY on Paul's build.
The Grant does have a nice collection of tarps & such though.


2 out of 3 beers for the Takom kit. no cast texture where needed (but that's what modeling is all about) and a golden opportunity to misalign hull panels if you don't take your time. Great decal options ! And lightyears better than Academy's and the ancient Tamiya kit.

Gaps are in the fit of the parts, have since filled the gaps, nbd

I can only confirm that.

From a pure kit perspective I can tell you that the MiniArt kit is very accurate having only a few minor detail on the interior kits.

Takom's upper hull parts are well-engineered, but assembling them is hair raising, as you must work very slowly and very carefully, allowing parts to set firmly as you go, if you want evrything to fit snugly. I spent several days getting mine together. Can't really see any advantage over Academy's one-piece molding. If the makers were determined to do separate panels, it would have been helpful if they had an inner structure to glue them to, rather than having them float in midair while the glue sets.