Unboxing the Italeri Ferdinand

Source: http://www.dom1n.com/newsy/ferdinand-italeri-unboxing/

Hello everyone,

as you might remember, model kit making company Italeri launched recently a cooperation with Wargaming, introducing some of the vehicles, that can be found in the game, as special edition kits with various accessories. Dom1n managed to get his hands on the Ferdinand kit and here’s how it looks inside the box. The kit itself consists of two main parts – the hull and the superstructure. Those are already fitted together apparently.

For fullsize picture, right click and press “view image” (hosted on Imgur)

The good thing is that the glue is a part of the kit.

There are also some bonus codes.

There are instructions on how to paint the vehicle, so that it looks like in the game

There are also the emblems and inscriptions from World of Tanks, the flags are however missing

The kit itself

Tracks are made from rubber

The unpacked superstructure

The bottom

Overall, it looks like a pretty nice model :)

How it “fits”

Various parts

The surface

41 thoughts on “Unboxing the Italeri Ferdinand

    • that’s the best part, putting it all together!
      the more components, the more you enjoy putting it together and the final result!

      • This looks extremely easy. Even as a newbie who has made about a dozen models this just looks ridiculously easy.
        Probably for first time modelers. Wouldn’t a 1/72 be better in that case though…

    • Actually, the gun is a 2 piece…left & right halves. Probably be better to find a metal barrel for it instead.

      • Possible, but it may not be easy.
        A 88mm L71 in 1/35 for a ferdy, hmmmmm. Im not sure if it would be easy or hard to get one.
        In my experiance two peice plastic barrels work fine. Ive not had many problems myself.

        • http://www.modellbau-koenig.de/militaermodellbau_135/umbausaetze/sonstige/88cm_pak_jagdtiger_umbauset__i51_10263_0.htm

          It’s not hard to find extra-equipment like this. Especially for popular tanks like the Ferdi or other german tanks.

          Yes i know that the barrel is for the Tiger 2, but it looks the same on Ferdinand. And if you would spend more time for searching than me (~1min), you will find a barrel for the Ferdinand aswell.

          The problem with a barrel of 2 platic halves is that you will see where they were put together. Especially, if you paint it with an airbrush. You will even see the points where you touched the model with some glue on your fingers.

          Some models are delivered with an aluminium barrel inside.

          • Not if you fill the gaps with “green stuff”. You’ll never see the join if you do it right.

            And use superglue instead of plastic glue if you want it to minimize the fingerprints.

            • Really don’t use superglue unless you really want to start leaving fingers instead of fingers prints on the plastic.

    • No, it only makes one gun. Its a two peice molding, because its easier to make the molds/fit it in the box or sprue. Looks like a nice kit, if thats just a normal italeri ferninand thats some good detail. Ill see if i can get one, i work in a model shop after all ;-)

  1. Man, gotta get one of those…I’d love to have a Ferdi in my collection, and the LeFhB2 arty code would be nice too.

  2. I’ve got this model too and I wonder if it’s used with the same old 30+ years old molds.
    If so, I’ve built the same model back in the early 80′s. The details are decent but not as good as Dragon or Tamiya models have. The rubber tracks are rubbish. There are a few pieces that have small issues with fitting but nothing major. It’s a decent model and why complain when there is a nice bonus SPG code with it.

    Have to admit that I’m more interested in what WG will do together with Tamiya.

    • Yeah, im waiting to see if we can get more than a arty bonus code. Some wot versions of the kits would be cool also. Lots of the vehicles in wot span multiple variants, so one of the “custom” tanks that we get may make a cool kit. I cant wait to see what we have in store from tamiya.

    • Dude, nobody beats Tamiya. NOBODY.

      National pride aside, I’ve had some terrible experience with Italeri jet models in the past… The pieces barely fit together and I’ve had to shave down quite a bit of the excess plastic to do anything with’em. Definitely was not a brand a fledgling model maker should buy.

      However… Looking at the actual pieces myself, it looks pretty good. Considering getting one myself…

      • Ive been building for five years, and work in a model shop. And yeah, looks ok. And yeah, tamiya is awesome! The fit and quality is top notch. But the price man! Worth it though may be, i can afford the price :-[

        • I concur. Tamiya for ease of build Dragon for level of detail and wow factor. I have many of both makes in my stash so have compared kits myself :) This is a very old and miserable Italeri kit btw. Italeri make some nice kits, especially the newer molds but most of their old stuff is not great. It was good enough in 1970 but not now, it’s not even cheap.

    • Chances are the codes will be used up before a lot of them are even opened.

      I still see far too many codes going up for sale, either someone internal is pulling codes out of the DB, or WG hasn’t fixed the brute force scanning problems.

  3. Uhm, this model is not a Ferdinand, it’s actually the follow up “Elefant”
    The biggest give away is the cupola ontop of the superstructure, and the machine gun emplacement on the front.

    These are “small” things, but it will sting in the eyes of anyone who knows the difference between the two vehicles. The original package this model comes from, it is also called Elefant, i think the only Ferdinand model i have ever seen is being produced by the over priced Dragon Models label.

    I personally think this is a big screw up, and i am wondering who’s fault it really is. Either they knew, but didn’t care. Or they were oblivious to these facts.

    Ferdinand:
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Ferdinand3.jpg
    Elefant
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Elefant_USAOM-01.jpg

    You can clearly see the difference.
    (Lol i feel like such a nip picker xD)

    • FFS, this kit was released in mid sixties, they didn’t care about nitpicking and modellers were happy they can build kit. The only screw up is selling very old kit for such high price.

      • The kit does contain the front plate with the machine gun emplacement.
        Which is no wonder since Italeri used to sell the same model as an Elefant too.
        Maybe they mixed up the tanks a bit, so what. It’s an old model from a time when people must have been happy just being able to build something.
        Besides it’s easier to sell it as a Ferdinand since there isn’t really an Elefant in WoT.
        Like said, it’s a decent model, not a masterpiece..
        (I would’ve normally gone for a Tamiya or Dragon version but the code, heh)

        (Italeri Elefant; http://www.armorama.com/photos/review/7287/header.jpg )

    • You can buy a 1:16 Ferdinand, can’t remember the maker though but it needs allot of work. The same company also makes a 1:16 T55.

    • The one you build is a Ferdinand not a Elefant and there’s a picture of one over at the WoT forums. Not seen inside the box but I presume that Italeri just did what many other vendors do. When they produce a kit with real-life variants that think ahead and add parts upfront.

  4. Need banana for scale.

    Dehrp.

    Anyways, looks nice. But if glue was used in it, its not really my thing though because i am not a dainty delicate kind of guy.

    I stick to the snap on versions.

  5. Can someone confirm if they are making deliveries to Germany if you buy it from their online store?

    • Most likely, they use UPS. But I guess it would be better to check out Italeri’s
      online page for that.