Model Railroading > Shunsaku Tamiya

Things you don't think about. Shunsaku Tamiya passed last week. Yes, Tamiya is a family name and has now passed on to another third generation. Shunsaku Tamiya was the president of the company from the mid-seventies. Grandson-in-law Nobuhiro Tamiya is now president.

Shunsaku took his father's sawmill into plastic kits of military subjects in the early sixties. They rapidly expanded. Shunsaku is noted for buying a Porsche and totally disassembling it to make his kit more accurate. According to the NY Times obituary, Tamiya has frequently been investigated by Japanese, USA, and Russian security forces because of the accuracy of Tamiya military models.

As I look across my workbench, I can see lots and lots of Tamiya paints, tools, and other modeling materials.

ct.nova

Fascinating, thank you.

I very much like using Tamaya paints and especially their two types of puddy.   And, do not forget their masking tape by far and away the best tape for models and paint work.

Richard.

He, along with many other Japanese business leaders really, really learned the art of continual quality improvement and competition based on quality of their products.
Good for him, and a wonderful contrast to the continual buying up of small companies by their larger competitors such as Testors being folded into Rustoleum here in the US.
I for one will have no problem paying higher tarriffs on Tamiya products, their quality is that much better than the competition.

I saw the story about his passing, sad news, but enjoyed the little tidbit in the article that said he would organize a kids day at some modeling type convention I guess and just watch the kids with a smile on his face as they wandered through looking at all the models.

I didn’t realize the company was a family name, love learning about those.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone