I have a ton of 1/700 kits in my stash, and they’ve been there since 1988 or before, when I stopped buying kits. The range of quality back then went something like this, I believe:
Tamiya (the best)
Skywave
Hasegawa
Fujimi
Aoshima (better than nothing, but not by much)
At that time Skywave only produced accessories kits, like their Drydock or IJN weapons sets, and smaller ships such as a submarine tender or landing craft. Aoshima had a wide range of kit names to choose from - but the quality, at best, was sadly lacking. I still have a bunch of them - I just can’t say why. I just had to get them all, I guess. And my skills at that time had developed to the point where I thought I could do at least some justice to their poor quality.
That was then.
Now I’m back after about a 15 or 16 year sabbatical, and I notice that Skywave has a lot of larger ship kits, and a lot of those ships I remember had been produced by Aoshima in the past. I’d like to assume, seeing as they’re priced significantly higher than even Tamiya kits, that they aren’t just the old Aoshima kits repackaged - can someone confirm that these are indeed from new - good - molds, and worth the purchase price? Worth being a relative term, of course. [:D] But basically I’m curious about the quality of the Skywave ships such as the 1/700 Chokai, to be specific, versus other 1/700-scale ships.
The old Japanese Waterline Consortiuum of 15-20 years ago has folded. The companies have begun competing head-to-head with an accompanying increase in quality.
You are right about the old Aoshima kits – they were better than nothing, but often not much better. The PitRoad/Skywave product line does not have in their pedigree the Aoshima products – they are their own work or are developed in concert with Trumpeter.
Some of the current PitRoad/Skywave kits do have in their pedigree some of the old Skywave kits. The USS Callaghan destroyer can be traced to the old Fletcher 2-fer Green Box kit.
Note too that Tamiya has taken over some of the old Skywave molds (O-Class destroyer, the Gato, and Zerstroyer).
Aoshima has done some rework on some of their kits. I understand that their Bismarck is much improved – but the Dragon is still the preferred model (in plastic)
The Hasegawas really haven’t been improved. Some have been reboxed with a whole hull & brass in a ‘High Tech’ fashion.
I also haven’t seen much in the way of changes to the old Fujimi IJN line – They have been doing modern USN – bit they seem to be overpriced (IMO).
Tamiya has made some upgrades to their Yamato and have made several new releases – but again no major rework on their destroyers, cruisers and service craft. They really didn’t need too much.
If you look at the breadth and overall quality of the PitRoad product line I think you will be impressed. Yes, some kits are better than others, some are a bit dated, but overall quite good
Should you decide you want to upgrade your IJN battleships now is a good time indeed. With the exception of Fuso & Yamashiro (to be released in February of this year) all of the IJN WW2 battleships have been retooled. Some, with different versions (Yamato & Musashi). The new versions of the BBs are big improvements over the old ones. You will still need PE to make them stand out but the molding and weapons systems are vastly improved over the old molds. The line up of makers has changed from the old consortium as well. Yamato and Musashi are redone from Tamiya, Ise & Hyuga by Hasegawa (huge improvements), Mutsu & Nagato by Aoshima (more big improvements), Kongo, Kirishima, Haruna & Hiei are redone by Hasegawa. It is a great time to be a battleship builder!
Speaking of Aoshima…I just got their Illustrious in the mail from ebay. All I can say is…hoo boy! Instructions are 100% in Japanese, including paints. I’m gonna have to do some serious researching for this.
Judging by the number of AA guns included, it appears to be in its 1940 configuration. In spite of this, Corsairs and Avengers are included (along with 4 Swordfish and what appears to be Seafires). Looks like I’ll be ordering some Fulmars and Swordfish from White Ensign Models!
Speaking of White Ensign…The only decal included in the kit is a Red Ensign! Oh man…
I suppose if I were 6 years old I could build this baby up in a weekend, sans any details or paints. Due to my budget and very limited work space, I really can’t build more than one model at a time (I got a Sovremenny on my workbench right now). So it’ll be awhile anyways before I can start the Lusty. I’ll use that time to do research.