Many of us depend on FSM’s “Workbench Reviews” for help in deciding our next project. In the current issue, Larry Schramm’s review of Trumpeter’s 1/32 P-38 contributed greatly to the fact that I’ll never buy this kit! I don’t know about you guys, but I still consider a “C note” a lot of money. In Larrys written review he sights no less than 10 major faults with this kit. Faults that would annoy me with a $20.00 kit! Engine detail you’ll never see. Props out of shape. Instruments out of scale. Booms don’t fit on the wings. Wrong weight suggested for balancing the tri-mount. Where is the price of $119.95 justified for this kit? Did this start as a $20.00 kit in China and the importer taking a big chunk? I believe I’ll ask my retailer what he had to pay for the kit. I think I have a ligitimate gripe here. After all, if we are willing to pay lots for a little, think where we’ll be when others get on the bandwagon? [:(]
I recall reading, many years ago, that FSM’s workbench reviews deliberately didn’t take price into account when reviewing a kit. Because “value” is something subjective, they figure it’s better to just tell us about the kit itself, and let us decide whether it’s worth the listed price.
Although in this case, I’d decide the same as you. [:)] I mostly build armour, and if I ever spring for one of those giant 1/15 scale tanks, it’d better be accurate, complete, and full of detail. Or really cheap. [:p]
M.
Well it is your pennies you decide.
Personally I never have waste more than 25$ for a kit but that’s me and my problem…
For my money I have seen many good kits some brilliant others bad…Mind you 1/32 cries for aftermarket scratchbuild and detailing…So it is a platform to start with.
As everything that comes from China it starts out its journey as cheap medium quality ends up as overprised bad quality…
Ah, the eternal question: is a high-priced (yet flawed) kit worth it?
While problems like the ones mentioned about Trump’s new 1/32 P-38 are certainly frustrating, I still feel kits like this are indeed well worth the price tag. Why? It’s a very big, very well-detailed kit of a wanted subject… Does it have flaws? Sure! 10, in this case. You have to weigh the pros and cons and decide for yourself if it’s worth the price (which you did).
There is, however, nothing a little extra work can’t fix concerning any of the 10 “major faults” in the P-38 kit. A little extra work I’d be willing to put in to have a great-looking 1/32 P-38 in my collection.
I understand that the rationale here is that at such a high price, a kit should be “perfect” as it is, sitting in the box. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a “perfect” kit, in any price range. I’m not advocating the acceptence of mediocrity by any means; just the acceptance of reality.
You will notice that throughout the history of the plastic model kit, companies have not “guaranteed” the accuracy, detail, fit, or anythng else about their kits, other than that all the pieces are included in the box and are not broken. Sure, they may tout their kits as “accurate” and “easy to assemble,” but these are very subjective terms. There is no ISO standard for "easy to assemble, " I’m afraid. Perhaps there should be.
All we can rely on are reviews, word-of-mouth, and our own examinations of the kits themselves when deciding if a kit is “worth it.”
I’ve bought Trumpeter’s 1/35 Hind E and 1/16 T-34/76 Mod '42, and strongly feel that both kits are well worth their prices, even with their “flaws.”
Appreciate the response to my current post (expensive P-38). It sometimes boggles my mind as to how much “perfection” some manufactureres put in to their kits. I’m in my mid-seventies and have been building most of my life. (Strombecker anyone?). I do find that Trumpeter is way in the lead as far as high-priced kits, and will do some research as to the various mark-ups that gets tacked onto their kits before it reaches our retailers. I’ll try a comparison with Tamiya…kits that rarely give problems. Another kit, Accurate Miatures comes to mind as close to perfection.
I just forked out a good chunk of change for Classic Airframes’ 1/48 F-5A Freedom fighter (a bit over 70 dollars Canadian)
Its got lots of nice resin bits, and whats in the box looks accurate, however, there are some things that I think the builder shouldn’t be expected to compensate for when asked that much for a kit.
After seeing the very spartan (and quite likely incomplete) decal option for a Canadian F-5 in the kit , I felt the need to buy aftermarket decals to compensate.
The decals I bought also included a nice resin inflight refueling probe. IFR probes are a very common fixture on F-5s of most variants, that the makers of a 70+ dollar kit should not have overlooked.
The kit also lacks a tail hook. An easy enough item to scratchbuild, but again, a common enough feature on the aircraft that it shouldn’t have been overlooked by the manufacturer.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slamming my new kit, I like it and I’ll do the touch ups needed to get it to what I want. However, the more a company demands for their kit, the more a modeler should be able to expect from it. The more I spend on a kit, the less I like having to compensate for oversights on the manufacturer’s part.
Aftermarket stuff gets expensive, and when you’ve already shot a good chunk of money at the kit itself, you’d like to know that most of your aftermarket purchases are for conversions to variants you want instead of corrections you felt were needed to make box stock look right.
I think Brian (J-Hulk) hit the nail squarely on the head with his reply. Yes if you really want a specific kit and scale then the flaws are just an accepted (and correctable) part of the deal. Personally I’ll get one, flaws and all. Why? Because I WANT ONE. The size and subject are where some of my interest lies.
Here here Brian(clap clap). You nailed it pretty good I think.
I too am a frequent victim of sticker shock these days. In part it’s due to my age
(I’m 42), because I can remember the days when I first started modeling when you could walk into any 5 & dime & pick up a Revell 1/32 kit for about $2.50. An
expensive kit in those days (early 70’s) was $20.00, & most kits were available for less than $10.00. Often the paint would cost more than the model if you used
spray cans. I just cannot get my mind around the fact that there are model kits
out there that cost over $100.00. For me to pay this much for a model it would
have to be the holy grail of kits. Isn’t there an aftermarket set available for the old Revell 1/32 P-38 kit (which can be had for a mere $17.00) that could bring it up to scratch? Model prices today just blow my mind. It’s really too bad that the
hobby is being taken out of the reach of young kids these days by the inflated
price tags on so many kits out there.
You took the words out of my mouth. I quit plastic building and went into RC for about 10 yrs. and found that it was too expensive. Yet when I returned, I found that plastic kits don’t cost much more than the RC kits when the RC kits used to be 50% to 75% higher. I too am shocked at how much kits are now. Plus aftermarket goodies, a guy could easily plop in a few Ben Franklins on a model.
How much is a model kit worth? It all depends on how badly you want that subject in that particular scale. With some of the really pricey kits, you’re not necessarily paying for greater accuracy as much as for the size of the model and the quantity of detail. Our reviewers report what they had to do to assemble a model in what a serious modeler would consider acceptable shape; you decide whether that expense and effort is worthwhile for you.
I think the key phrase here (and perhaps for any hobby, or maybe even anything in life!) is “to each is own.” Some people refuse to pay a bundle for a kit, and some people will readily pay.
On the subject of the “perfect kit,” it’s true that Tamiya and Accurate Miniatures (just to name two) offer some “near-perfect” kits, but there will still be someone who will find something to gripe about.
My favorite complaint that I often hear leveled at Tamiya is that the kits are so good, so close to perfection, that Tamiya is in effect taking away the challenge (i.e., “fun”) of model building, and actually contributing to the degradation of modeler’s skills around the world!
To that, I say, “poppycock!”
To me, modeling is so much more than just assembling the parts graciously constructed for me by a model company. Call me lazy, but I really do appreciate a good-fitting, well and accurately detailed kit. Why? (As if I have to ask…) Because I prefer focusing what skills I have on turning that collection of parts (graciously constructed for me by a model company) into something that is solely my own, for better or worse. That’s what turns a model into, for lack of a better word, “art.”
Getting back to the topic at hand (sort of), even if a kit is near-perfect, I usually find something I can improve on, add, or change, so I never feel that my skills are deteriorating. (You wanna keep your skills razor-sharp? Build at least one Skif kit a year.)
Hmmm…what was my point here?
Oh, yeah!
“To each his own!”
I for one appreciate the reviewers info, both on the successes and opportunities of a particular kit. When I tackle my Itialeri (sp?) Sm-79 Sparviero and or my Airfix BAE Hawk 100, I am glad to have some reference to the kits high (and low) points.
As far as the $119.95 price tag, well only the marketplace will tell on that…it is a little (??) rich for me, but to the long-suffering 1/32nd P-38 enthusiast, who has only had the 1960’s era Revell-Monogram kit, that price point may seem very reasonable. Whether he or she (the modeller) wants to tackle such a kit, flaws and highlights, is up to him/her.
I for one appreciate the reviewers info, both on the successes and opportunities of a particular kit. When I tackle my Itialeri (sp?) Sm-79 Sparviero and or my Airfix BAE Hawk 100, I am glad to have some reference to the kits high (and low) points.
As far as the $119.95 price tag, well only the marketplace will tell on that…it is a little (??) rich for me, but to the long-suffering 1/32nd P-38 enthusiast, who has only had the 1960’s era Revell-Monogram kit, that price point may seem very reasonable. Whether he or she (the modeller) wants to tackle such a kit, flaws and highlights, is up to him/her.
I find it really strange that you should say this. What are you comparing your figures to? You can’t realistically compare a 1/32 scale kit with that of a 1/48 or lesser. Trumpeter, in fact, on a product to product of equal scale kits, are by far one of the cheapest options around. Agreed, they do have some very high priced kits, however, that’s just due to the nature of the kit. You couldn’t expect their Leopold or Faun to be 20 bucks. Even with the example of the Leopold, the amount of detail far exceeds that of Dragon, yet the price is only $10 more. I have a strong suspicion that if Tamiya released a kit of comparable size, it’d be much much more expensive. Also, take a look at comparable kits. The Famo and trailer versus the Faun transporter. Tamiya was almost twice as expensive. I’m not trying to bad mouth Tamiya (I personally believe them overpriced) but I do not see how you can interpret Trumpeter as the high endpoint of a price scale, especially for the level of detail that they provide.
FYI, the author of that last article complained about the engines not being visible, but the fact remains that full engine kits ARE included with the kit. As J-Hulk pointed out, very little extra work would have been neccessary for these problems. I for one, have NEVER had a kit that fell together with NO PROBLEMS whatsoever. There is no such thing as a perfect kit.
Once again, to each his own.
Don’t forget that you also have to buy a piece of furniture to display this monster-I just just don’t get these larger scales-1/24, 1/9, 1/32 are these models or weapons?
Recently I was commisioned to build 2 resin Kenworth oilfield rigs. These kits in 1-87 scale retail for around $160.00 each! (that’s right folks for a finished vehicle that is about 4 inches long). They are from an outfit called Narwag. Now the fellow that wanted them payed me $125.00 each to build them as well. So, if someone wants something bad enough and has the Drachmaes in hand, they will buy. Who’s to say what determines the value of something. I realise my own sense of values are far from some others. By the way, I can buy kits of equal quality for around $40.00 in my opinion.
Interesting topic…and one that comes up regularly in the forums. I agree with Brian all the way. I think he covered everything very well. And I also agree with Elfkin that I appreciated the reviewer not pulling any punches, even if it was a cheaper kit, I’m sure he wouldn’t have reviewed it any differently…and that is what I want/need out of FSM’s reviews. Will I pay $120 for the model? No, for my own reasons, one of them being that it is a bit too large for my shelf. I already have their 1/32 A-10 on the bench as well as the Trumpeter 1/35 Hind. However, I did not pay the MSRP on any of those kits!!! Even though I may have paid $90 each, I think that those kits were worth it. As far as Trumpeter being too expensive in general, I recently purchased the 1/48 Dolphin for $18.00. With that said, I would say that I spend way more on tools, supplies, and reference materials than I do on kits themselves. Honestly, I feel that it is important for a business to keep their prices up with the market, and if the market will hold it, than why not? BTW most of the big Trumpeter kits include resin pieces and PE parts…after you factor those in, you get close to the same number buying a 1/48 kit, than buying the extra PE, and Resin. Not bad for the size of the beast.
Your right about that Heath. I haven’t paid suggested retail for ANY of my Trumpeter kits (including all 4 of the WW2 carriers). A little searching will come up with a decent price in short order. Someone is always willing to sell cheap.
The thing that upsets me is that these aircraft were designed 50 or 60 years ago in some cases. There is a lot of information around, and a few examples of many designs. There shouldn’t be a lot of inaccuracies in the kits. I don’t see many kit companies racing each other to be the first on the block with some kits in certain sizes. Some of the guys have said older kits in their areas can cost as much as the new kits, but I shouldn’t have to replace a lot of parts, especially the cockpit, to have a better model with the new molds.