In-Boxed: 1/35th scale Yanmar YT5113A Tractor from Hasegawa

Something a little different but no less appealing today with Andy Moore's in-box review of Hasegawa's new Yanmar YT5113A Tractor in 35th scale. A model that in the right hands could be made into anything the modeller's imagination can think of - hopefully Andy takes this one on...

In-Boxed: Yanmar YT5113A Tractor
Manufacturer – Hasegawa
Kit Number – WM05 (66005)
Scale - 1/35
Price -  ¥2560 • US $24.50 • £19 • €21.50 •A$34.05 AUD  from Hobbylink Japan

In today's review, we'll be pulling our boots on and getting out into the fields to do some farming with the help of Hasegawa's latest release, the Yanmar YT5113 tractor. This comes as an expansion to the range of construction machinery kits that Hasegawa have been releasing over the last couple of years, all of which are also in 1/35. Agricultural and construction machinery may seem an odd choice at first, but these actually make great subjects in their own right, as well as opening the door to all sorts of diorama possibilities.

Yanmar are a Japanese engine and machinery manufacturer founded in Osaka in 1912. Like many Japanese industrial companies, they have a very diverse range of products, from marine engines to climate control systems, and of course the agricultural equipment were looking at here. Their tractors aren't widely used internationally, but are a common sight in Japan.

The YT5113A began as a concept design in 2013 as part of a project to mark the company's 100th anniversary. Overseen by industrial designer Kiyoyuki “Ken” Okuyama, the first production YT Series tractor hit the fields in 2015 emblazoned in it's vivid Premium Red colour.

The Kit
The kit comes in a standard top-opening box with nice artwork by Tankro Kato. Inside you'll find 212 parts in a variety of colours, spread across 12 sprues. In addition to the plastic parts, you'll find a set of rubber tyres, four poly-caps, a comprehensive decal sheet, and the instruction manual.

Sprue A
The first sprue holds chassis and transmission parts along with the door frames. Although the kit is designed to be painted, each of the sprues are moulded in the correct basic colours. Not everyone's cup of tea, but at least it's a visual reminded of which paint pot to pick up.

Sprue B
More going on here than the last sprue. Further chassis components including some very small and sharply moulded detail parts. You'll also find the front weight, the front grill, the rear-view mirrors and the wipers.

Sprue C
Another black sprue, this one holds the main engine block and gear box, the rear window frame, roof trim and the exhaust pipe.

The chassis and transmission parts are very finely detailed, despite the fact that this area is almost hidden on the finished model.

The kit is fully licensed, so all the appropriate branding is present, both on the decal sheet, and moulded in place on the parts.

Sprue D
The final black sprue holds most of the remaining small details for the chassis including the wheels hubs and the rear three-point linkage. The roof-mounted LED cluster spot lights are also on here which should look great when painted and fitted with the clear lenses.

Sprue E
The mid-grey sprue holds the cab parts including the main cab floor and side consoles, the instrument binnacle and steering wheel, and the rather fancy looking operator's seat.

The cab interior is very well detailed, with all the various controls and screens included. It all appears to be a very good match to the real thing.

The assorted graphics and placards that cover the control panels are all included on the kit's decal sheet.

Sprue F
The light grey sprue supplies the cab roof lining and the anti-slip boarding steps. The steps feature some very fine rivet detail and, like the rest of the cab interior, the roof lining matches the real tractor very accurately

Sprue G
This is the chrome sprue and supplies those parts that feature a highly polished finish on the real tractor, such as the Yanmar emblem and the headlight inserts. For the most part it looks like you should be able to remove these components without too much visible damaged to the plated areas, but I won't know for sure until the build gets underway. The plated faces for the rear view mirrors are very welcome, and will be a definite improvement over simply painting the mirrors silver.

Sprue J
The brightest sprue in the box, this holds the red body panels. There isn't all that much bodywork in truth; just the bonnet, roof and rear fenders. It should be possible to paint all these parts before they're attached to the main build, which should avoid any fiddly masking. The real colour is a deep candy red metallic for which Hasegawa recommend a mix of red and gold. Although accurate, that seems a little too 'hot rod' for a tractor, so I might try a toned down version for my build.

Sprue K
If you thought the bodywork was vibrant, check out the wheels. Yanmar clearly like a little bling on their tractors, and I guess gold rims compliment the candy red body well enough. Hasegawa have moulded these in a metallic gold, but they'll obviously look much better painted.

Sprue L
Like the front wheels, the rears feature large lugs around the rim of the wheel to hold the tyres in place. I'd advise cutting these down, or at least rounding off the corners to avoid damaging the soft rubber of the tyres when fitting them. One nice touch with the wheels are the separate inserts that mount from behind and carry the bolt and hub detail. As these need to be a different colour, they can be painted first then attached after the wheel itself is painted.

Sprue N
The clear sprue is quite large in this kit, as most of the cab is glazed. The large side doors can be posed either open or closed and decals are supplied to add the black border to the glass. All the glazing is clear and distortion-free and features the correct convex shaping.

Sprue Q
Like the other models in the construction/agriculture range, this release comes with a driver figure. Clearly Hasegawa felt that the wheels and bodywork weren't garish enough on there own, and have moulded the figure in metallic gold as well. Fortunately, they do give slightly more restrained painting instructions in the manual. The quality of the sculpt is very good with nicely rendered facial features and realistic folds and wrinkles in the fabric.

Lastly, we've got the four chunky vinyl rubber tyres. These are well moulded with a realistic tread pattern, but they don't feature any sidewall manufacturer logos. Not a huge loss, and you'll probably want to muddy these up anyway.

Decals
The decal sheet is what you'd expect from Hasegawa. That's to say, sharp and well printed, with good colour density and minimal carrier film. All the tiny data and warning placards are included, as is the heater wire for the rear window, all of which should add a nice level of detail to the finished build. You even get a choice of two dashboard screens, showing different operational states for the tractor.

Okay, so that's what the box contents look like. Everything is up to the quality levels you'd expect from Hasegawa, and I've no doubt the kit will go together without problems. As I mentioned at the start, you may think a modern farm tractor is an odd choice of subject, but I can tell you that, once you get the kit in your hands, you realise what a cool little model it will turn into, and I think you'll be surprised at how interesting the construction/agri range from Hasegawa is. To give you some idea of what to expect from the finished kit, I'll leave you with a couple of photos of one of the other models in the range that I built last year. This is the Hitachi road roller (kit no. WM02), and it was the fun I had building and weathering that kit that led me to ordering the Yanmar.

Andy Moore 

You can see more about this kit on the Hasegawa Website. 

This kit is now available from Hobbylink Japan at This Link