[jim81147]

Which kit manufacturer's would you stay away from? I know some of you guys really enjoy the "challenge" of putting something together that is not even close to what it should be , but I am not one of those guys. Maybe when my skills develop I will look at it differently. Mostly I model armor and formula cars. Almost all my kits have been tamiya's and they are , IMO , very nice kits , but I see a few different vehicles I would like to do that are not tamiya's.care to share your experiences? Thanks.

 

[gkscalemodels]

Which kit manufacturer's would you stay away from? I know some of you guys really enjoy the "challenge" of putting something together that is not even close to what it should be , but I am not one of those guys. Maybe when my skills develop I will look at it differently. Mostly I model armor and formula cars. Almost all my kits have been tamiya's and they are , IMO , very nice kits , but I see a few different vehicles I would like to do that are not tamiya's.care to share your experiences? Thanks.

Hi !

Wow , that's a really good question . It has been my experience that most plastic styrene kit manufactures today design their kits for assembly pretty much the same . I think the real difference starts to show in how well the instruction assembly manual can be understood, if it is user friendly , and how many accessory options within the kit can be utilized , and their ease of assembly . If the individual model kit is designed well , fits well right out of the box , is accurate to scale , and the assembly process is easy , then it will be a good kit to build . I believe that most current manufactures today , especially the big ones , try their best to follow those rules . If a manufacture or an individual kit dosen't follow those rules , it won't be around very long . All of this changes though when you start adding conversion kits , conversion accessories , special parts , etc . Then real experience and skill becomes paramont in the assembly process . You also might want to go to your hobby shop and ask some of the " regulars " who hang around there which companies and kits do all the above and which do not . Also check with the I.P.M.S. members who hang at the local shops . They live for good kits and manufactures , and will give you chapter and verse on manufactures and kits .

GK

 

[John P]

Well, I'm primarily an aircraft modeler, so I can't help you with cars and armor. But for planes, I find Svezda kits (sold by Italeri) each generally have one flaw so great it makes me want to throw the kit away, so I've stopped buying them (provided I can tell it's a Svezda kit in the first place).

Czech Models are also a pain, with ill-fitting parts and difficult assemblies, and resin cockpits that are too big to fit in the fuselage.

Trumpeter ranges from exquisite to "did they even look at an original?" so you might wanna check kit reviews before buying one of their kits.

Aside from those two, I can't think of any maker I stay away from. Not everyone is as good as Tamiya, Hasegawa, Dragon and the latest Eduard kits, of course.

 

[djnick66]

Thats a tough question, because most companies have been around a few years or decades and have some real dogs in their kennel. Tamiya has some of the best and worst armor kits... Avoid like the plague their 1/70s ex-motorized stuff. its total POS. On the other hand, they have replaced many of those kits with state of the art new versions. Sadly they continue to sell a few of the dogs alongside the new kits. Revell is the same way. They sell their very first kit, the 1952 USS Missouri right next to their brand new 2008 Bullit Mustang.

You may find only one company makes a kit you want... With Formual cars there arent many companies... and Tamiya is the best.

Companies that are generally poor - Academy (excellent detail, worthless accuracy), Heller (bizarre engineering, poor fit), Minicraft (cheap Korean copies of other companies kits), Zhengdefu (cheap Chinese copies of other companies kits). Revell Germany usually has pretty good kits but they sell some old Revell USA molds past thier prime. Italeri is hit or miss. They are a company that in some ways have gotten worse. Their 1970s vintage M-47 Patton is excellent but their brand new Italian P-40 tank is crappy, overpriced and inaccurate.