July 31, 2026

Video Build Review: Tamiya's 35th scale US Light Tank M24 Chaffee European Theater.

Clayton from Workbench Hobbies has made a great review of Tamiya's new 35th scale US Light Tank M24 Chaffee European Theatre kit. We look at the kit contents & how it goes together in his review...

Video Build Review: Tamiya's 35th Scale US Light Tank M24 Chaffee European Theater.

US Light Tank M24 Chaffee European Theater
From Tamiya
Kit No #35391
1/35th scale
Price: $29.80 USD from Hobbylink Japan
The Subject: The US Light Tank M24 Chaffee in the European Theater
The M24 Chaffee was developed during the closing years of the Second World War to replace the increasingly outdated M5 Stuart light tank. While the Stuart had earned a reputation for speed and reliability, its light armour and 37 mm gun were no longer adequate against the changing demands of the battlefield. 
Rather than simply upgrading the Stuart, the Americans designed the Chaffee from the ground up. It featured sloped armour, a modern torsion bar suspension, and, perhaps most interestingly, a lightweight 75 mm M6 gun adapted from the cannon used in the B-25 Mitchell bomber. The result was a fast, agile reconnaissance tank that offered crews a significant improvement in both firepower and protection without sacrificing mobility.
Power came from a pair of Cadillac V8 petrol engines driving through a sophisticated transmission, giving the Chaffee impressive reliability, a smooth ride and a top speed of around 56 kilometres per hour. Although officially adopted in 1944, the first Chaffee’s didn't reach Europe until late that year and saw their first combat during the Battle of the Bulge. As a result, they arrived too late to influence the outcome of the war, but those that did reach the front quickly proved themselves to be highly capable reconnaissance vehicles.
The vehicle's story didn't end in 1945. The Chaffee went on to serve throughout the Korean War and remained in military service with many nations for decades. Operators around the world upgraded the design with improved engines, modern fire-control systems, additional stowage, and a variety of local modifications, with some countries keeping the Chaffee in frontline service well into the 1990s. Few tanks designed during the Second World War enjoyed such a long and successful career.


The kit:
It’s always exciting to have a new Tamiya kit in my hands even if I am a little late to the party, so today I’m going to take a look at it and share some of the history of the Chaffee.

Tamiya’s plain white box art is instantly recognisable and is always so hard to resist.
Tamiya's 1/35 M24 Chaffee European Theatre kit finally gives modellers a modern, state-of-the-art representation of this awesome little vehicle. Make no mistake, this isn’t a rebox like the 2015 kit Tamiya was, using Italeri plastic; this is all newly tooled and looks really appealing indeed.
I remember as a kid standing in the hobby store aisle, studying every side of these boxes – agonising over the choice I’d make… and looking at this box reminded me of how enjoyable that was.
Tamiya instructions are always easy to follow with 38 steps in total.
The kit comes with a separate flyer covering a brief history of the tank and the three schemes and marking callouts presented in full colour.
Looking at the parts on the sprue is always one of the things I enjoy most about buying a new kit, so I'll share with you some of the things I like with this one.

Tamiya seem to be able to get the feel and flow of the fabric elements in this build, which traditionally has been a tricky thing to do. Organic, flowing elements add so much to a model, so I wanted to point those out.
The flow of fabric carries over to the figures and the thoughtful way they have been engineered. The uniforms look beautiful, and the two halves should piece together where a natural seam line would sit. The uniforms are in the late-war US tanker winter style. The faces are fairly generic and quite expressionless. I always feel the faces in these Tamiya kits are a bit of a missed opportunity. I must also note the sculpts in the hands were quite poor.
The Chaffee had quite prominent weld seams, in particular round the turret joins. This is an element I feel Tamiya have missed the opportunity to create something special with; very little thought has gone into the sculpting and moulding of these details. It all just feels a little sanitised or maybe a box-ticking exercise.
The turret and the hatches have a very light cast texturing to them that could be enhanced by stippling putty. In fairness, the finish on the actual Chaffee was reasonably refined compared to some of the other tanks of the time.
Being renowned for the user-friendly build experience, Tamiya has moulded all of the tie-downs and loops into the track guards and other areas to simplify the build. This is an area that could use an upgrade for those modellers looking to level this build up.
The tools and the radio are nicely resolved and should look good under paint.
The engine deck and the roof of the casemate is moulded in one piece with a reasonable level of detail. All of the tie-downs are moulded directly to this piece and present as lumps rather than actual looped tie-downs. In saying that that is standard practice for a lot of manufacturers.
I am still a little underwhelmed with the lack of thought that’s gone into the weld seam detail.
The floor section and walls are the standard style of construction for this type of thing with a reasonable level of detail on all of the parts.
It’s a shame the tiny grab handles weren’t attached to the sprue gates the other way around, as they will require very careful cleanup; however, the scale and refinement in the part looked quite nice.
The tracks come in the kit as a link and length style and look a little underwhelming; however, I'll reserve judgement because parts like this can always look strange in green plastic. There are a lot of ejector pin marks on the underside of the track; however, a lot of these may get covered with wheels, so again, I'll reserve judgement.
The wheels are the usual style with the two halves of the wheels coming together, and the drive sprockets come with the Polycaps to provide some movement in the part when fitting the tracks.
A small piece of stainless photo-etch comes in the kit with a bending jig to simplify the process.
You have the choice of 3 marking options – 1 from the Italian campaign and 2 from vehicles in late-war Germany.

Building the kit:
In the interests of a thorough review, I’ve built the kit and will share some brief thoughts. I am planning on building this one out of the box and producing a tutorial series with the beginner in mind, so stay tuned for that one!

My typical style of construction begins with the floor and walls for the underside. My parts were slightly warped but could be manhandled in place using a quick-setting modelling cement.
As mentioned, the etch and jig combo works well; however, the metal is very soft and is prone to getting knocked and bent. Generally, not an issue if you intend on weathering your model. If not, take extra care.
One thing I will say is if it isn’t fitting properly, check that you have cleaned your parts properly because the tolerances are tight, and any remaining sprue gate will affect the fit.
The suspension setup is adequate, and the way the connection points are engineered makes it just about impossible to get wrong. The suspension is fixed, however, so it will need to be on level ground.
When installing your wheels, be mindful that one set of the wheels has connection pins for the tracks – they will be towards the rear of the model.
The link and length tracks have a suggested build order in the instructions. I, however, chose to build them in small sections and leave them with an open point so they can be removed for painting.
After I suggested Tamiya kits are idiot-proof, I fitted the wrong mudguards on the wrong track guard piece, so be sure to use the correct piece combinations. I have to pull them off and swap them around after the build.
The various handles and guards need to be cleaned with a blade, so great care must be taken there not to damage them. The guards from the headlights also stood out like a sore thumb and looked horribly oversized to my eye.
In terms of a build experience, this really is a user-friendly little kit that can be easily finished over a rainy weekend, and the little bits and pieces I have pointed out as potential shortcomings probably aren’t going to bother the weekend modeller and could be addressed by the modellers with a little more experience.
For those of you looking to upgrade the Chaffee, this represents the perfect platform to do that at a reasonable price point from what I can see.

Conclusion
I don’t know too many people who don’t get a little excited when Tamiya announces a new kit, even if the subject isn’t something that necessarily appeals to them.

The completed kit with a coating of primer over it, ready for colour...
As most of you know, the Tamiya build experience is something a lot of other manufacturers fail to replicate, which makes Tamiya just about the perfect choice for modellers of every skill level – a really enjoyable build from start to finish.

Check out Clayton's video of this review & build on his "Workbench Hobbies" YouTube page.

Clayton Ockerby

See more of Clayton's amazing works on his YouTube Channel, his modelling portal "Workbench Hobbies" or his Facebook page
More info on this model can be found on the Tamiya website.