Tamiya of late has been doing a lot of re-releases and “added value” re-releases with things like weathering sets included. Their latest move, which are now on the shelves, is to re-release some of their kits together with Aber update sets that include a reasonably comprehensive set of Photo Etch parts and an aluminium gun barrel.

So far just three kits have been given this treatment, the Sturmgeschutz III Ausf.B, the Early Production Tiger I, and the Ardennes King Tiger set with the included motorcyclist.

The base kits on these three are pretty good kits to start with, and while the Tiger I still probably doesn’t compare in terms of total detail and accuracy compared to the more recent Dragon equivalents the cost of the Tamiya kit with these updates is still going to be a little less than the DML kit.

Tamiya has done this in the past, some kits with Eduard zimmerit included, and some with Aber barrels and Friul tracks. I’d love to see them include the Friuls again as the one area where these will probably be let down will be the tracks. But even without those it does provide an interesting option for builders and I’d be interested to see how well they do.