Best Plastic Model Aircraft Kit Manufacturers and WHY

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Hello all,

Thought I’d start my first post to this forum by starting a new thread for this often heavily debated topic.

Firstly it was noted in past forums on this subject that many modellers prefer to sit on the fence and not declare either way as to which is there favourite but I find this isn’t at all helpful to new modellers coming into the hobby. So here then is my list of favourite model kit manufactuers and why, in order of preference.

THE WORLDS BEST Model Aircraft Kit Manufacturers

  1. Tamiya: Without a doubt some of the most detailed kits at reasonable prices available on Earth, they also go together really well and offer excellent detail. Purists of the hobby argue against Tamiya only because they don’t like ‘shake and bake’ and prefer kits that require a lot of modelling skills which come from experience. Personally if your starting out, ignore them as reducing areas like kit construction is brilliant, especially when your getting your bearings with paints etc.

  2. Airfix: I hear people puzzling already at my choice for 2nd place, but seriously, no other manufacturer in the world produces kits in such abundance and with such continued commitment to quality. Through the years there kits just keep getting better and better and they offer excellent decals to boot. Releasing the TSR2 the recent Electric Lightning and Sea Vixen in 1/48 has thrilled me to no end as well showing a high commitment to excellence.

  3. Hasegawa: A close rival to Tamiya with excellent dedication to the art and top quality artist work on there boxes, Hasegawa are well worth the extra credits if your in the market for a special kit.

  4. Eduard: I’ll be honest, I really wanted to put Eduard down around 10th place mainly due to there prices but honestly, there detail and commitment to early bi-planes and world war 1 style aircraft can not be ignored. They seriously put a lot of effort into there kits and while there expensive, there simply stunning models. The inclusion of etched metal parts is also a sensational bonus. In all honesty they should probably take 2nd place but I can’t justify the price on some of there kits at times.

  5. Revell/Monogram: Again I’ll hear groans from some modellers out there, but Revell without a doubt supply the most fantastic decals for there kits period. What the kits may lack in detail they make up for in additional details supplied by the decals they provide(2 great examples are there 1/144 Concord, Antonov-An124 and A380 kits), simply awesome value for money and you get at the very least a satisfying result. Also for those who go on about shake and bake, your going to love Revell and I’ve seen many modellers take Revell kits and mod them into sensational replica’s. Finally Revell have models of more civil airliner aircraft than any other manufacturer out there without any doubts at all. Want to build a certain type of B747 or A320 for example? Revell will have the kit you want.

  6. Dragon/Cyber Model etc: This company produces terrific kits I’d like to put them above Eduard but detail wise there not quite there yet. Never the less these kits provide excellent value for money and in 1/48 scale offer some exceptional extras such as metal etched parts and extra decal sets. For someone like myself who likes odd ball aircraft they have produced some very fine kits indeed in particular there 1/48 Ba349D Natter with launch tower is a personal favourite of mine. I also appreciate there focus on the harder to find WW2 German aircraft, which I’ve noticed a few other companies like Revell and Airfix came to the party and started producing there own versions of a number of there aircraft but Dragon was bold and did it first. They also do a nice amount of 1/48 models which is my favourite scale.

  7. Italeri: I really wanted to put these guys around 5th place but seriously there pricing has gotten rediculous with recent kit releases which is sad as they used to be a bargain. For my money though, Dragon wins over Italeri with ease in terms of value for money. The kits do feature some pretty darn good detail and there’s even extra detailed versions of there kits released in limited edition. The 1/48 U2 senior span kit was a very welcome addition to my personal collection for example.

  8. Lindberg: While not the most detailed of manufacturers, there the only company who do aircraft like the XFY-1 Pogo and the X3 Stiletto in 1/48 scale. I applaud them for continuing to produce kits of very hard to find odd-ball aircraft. Experimental aircraft are one of my passions and this company has a long time commitment to keeping the dream alive in this specialist market. Thank you Lindberg.

9: Planet Models Czech: Sadly these kits are rare and due to that fact expect to pay a mint for them, but no where else could I find a 1/48 scale Vought XF5U-1 (commonly known as ‘The Flying Pancake’) model kit. The model kits they produce are of lesser known aircraft and for that they establish a firm place in my top 10, if only they could get there pricing down but honestly, there’s only so many people like myself who enjoy odd-ball and rare aircraft so understandably they only produce limited runs.

  1. Testors: Alas too many Testors kits require serious modification to get them to more accurately represent the aircraft there trying to replicate. However, this being said there is no other manufacturer out there who manufactures one of mine and I’m sure many other aircraft modellers favourite aircraft in the world. That is the SR-71 Blackbird in 1/48 scale. Incredibly they also do the test version as well but I’ll be happy with my Blackbird kit. This kit is where Testors shine and represents the kind of kits they could be producing if they put in the extra effort. These normally sell for around the $80 mark but there worth every cent and there’s a stack of detail kits out there made by third party manufacturers out there to really spruce this kit into a work of art. Also while this isn’t exactly relevant Testors Model master paints are among my favourite modelling paints period.

Well there you have it, that’s my top 10 folks, I have others that I’d like to put in there such as FineMolds and Fujimi, but the subject is aircraft and in these manufacturers are more about Sci-Fi and car kits than aircraft which is a good thing as that top 10 list will highlight there’s a lot of competition in the aircraft kits market.

Finally I do have a list which could probably extend to my top 50, so if this has been helpful and perhaps informative, then I’ll certainly perform another post and continue the rating for those who are interested.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have some very successful aircraft modelling projects in the pipeline.

Spaceresearcher

2

TY for posting. This has been helpful to me as I recently re-entered the modeling hobby after a 30 year hiatus. There are so many new ( to me ) kit mfg’s out there and deciding as to which 1 i wanted to buy has me talking to myself. I personaly want to start with a good fitting kit so I don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time “fixing” it in the preliminary stages of the build. That’s not fun to me.

I recently bought several models that gave me many hours of unecessary ,tedious work trying to get them to appear like the real aircraft, due to ill fitting and unrealistic looking parts etc. I certainly know ,at least in part ,which kit mfg. to stay away from. They are ; GLENCOE, MPC, IMC and WILLIAMS BROS. These where all junk and look like toys. I liked the subjects but I ended up using these kits to experiment with new techniques and by no means are “shelf worthy” kits.

Interesting that you listed high praise for the Airfix and Lindberg. Back in the day , these where mfg,s to stay away from. I guess my kits where older and before they revamped their quality. I bought these in a lot on Ebay and they where mfg. in the late 1980’s Due to your opnion of them here however, I will take a new look at these.

3

This subject is so subjective its real hard to draw a line and list in order my favorite manufacturers. All I can do is look at my stash and what I’ve built thats on the shelf and say, in 1/48 aircraft, Hasegawa is king for me, despite the criticism I give them time to time. I will say I disagree with you on Tamiya being first in aircraft. Seems almost everyone gives them high praise for their shake N bake reputation. But this is not the case in all their kits, and they have the same accuracy issues as all the other Manufacturers out there, and many times their prices aren’t reasonable at all. Not to argue here, just pointing out that I’ve noticed that the ease of assembly seems to make folks forget about the negatives.

4

There are no “best” manufacturers; responsible companies continually strive to “up their game,” with successive kits better than the previous. Tamiya’s latest 1/32 offerings are streets ahead of even their own earlier products.

Hornby are steadily replacing tired old Airfix moulds with new ones, and regularly shake things up with a new item of staggering quality (look at the new 1/24 Typhoon, to see what I mean.)

Trumpeter get a universally bad press, usually due to them having used dud drawings, but their 1/24 Hurricanes are comparable to the Airfix effort, so they can do it.

You’ve missed out WingnutWings, whose prices are rather steep, but their 1/32 WWI biplanes are a class on their own.

5

A couple things to add;

Revell/Monogram can be thought of as several different companies. There are original Monogram kits and a few former Aurora kits that Monogram absorbed in the 70s; then there are the original Revell kits as well as some Renwal kits they obtained in the 1980s; and then there are kits produced after the two companies merged in the 1990s.

Then there is Revell of Germany, which once was an entirely different company that produced some original kits as well as reboxing some Revell (US) kits with more European themes. Revell of Germany also reboxed some Italeri kits. Revell of Germany has since remerged with Revell/Monogram (now know only as Revell).

Testors; this is a company that really has no original kits. They just reboxed other companies’ kits as well as owning the old 1950s era Hawk kits. For a long time, they were the US distributors of Italeri kits and are still often thought of as Testors/Italeri. Many of their original kits were made for them by Italeri. Italeri in turn has obtained molds from the defunct Esci as well as reboxing some kits by Accurate Miniatures.

As for Tamiya, inside several of Tamiya’s aircraft and armor kit boxes are Italeri models. They just charge more.

There are several other examples that make the question “which is the best kit company” a less useful question than “who makes the best F-123?”

6

Glad you found the information helpful Jay Jay, your welcome. With Lindberg keep in mind the kits have not changed that much and detail is not that special but you’ll be hard pressed to find there subject matter in 1/48 scale anywhere else if at all.

7

It can be hard, but you will have to admit that kits such as MPC, Glencoe and the others mentioned by Jay Jay above can be obtained cheap, but that’s where it ends. My list reflects a mix of value for money, detail, availability and obtainability. Kits from the manufacturers mentioned above are obtainable and that to me is of the greatest importance to any budding modeller. Sure a hard to find kit may be great but if you can never get a hold of one of there kits so what?

8

WingnutWings do seem to be putting out some really quality kits from the reviews I’ve seen but I felt until I’ve actually purchased a few of there kits, it wasn’t fair to pass any comments at this stage. Currently there pricey at the local model shops where I live, about 10% more than Eduard kits. I’ve read some great things about them though so I’m keen to try a few at some point in the future. By all means, please tell us all what you like about them.

9

That’s easy, that will be the one by Revtamgawagram.[:D]

But seriously, I understand the OP, just giving his own few on his favourite brands. But I think the most common question by new members of the site, apart from how do you post pics, is which is the best model brand.

But there is really no simply answer. Apart from personal preference, every brand has good and bad kits. And then you can take into account price. I have always been a big hasegawa fan, but recently Revell have been producing kits that look just as good at a fraction of the price.

So while we can all have our favourite brands, when it comes to asking about the best, it really has to be on a kit by kit bases. And even then, opinions will vary and you just have to make up your own mind based on the various replies you get.

10

The history of model kits will show you many companies that licensed there products to other manufacturers as bulk deals with other manufacturers is lucrative and removes the risk of production from there own side of the fence increasing profit even further.

What’s important is where there at today. Can a fellow modeller walk into the local hobby shop and find some nice kits to produce there own scaled aircraft replicas?

I have to disagree most strongly with you on the Italeri/Tamiya statement there. If nothing else in all the kits I’ve collected(that’s in 1/48 scale by the way, I don’t know about the other scales in the Tamiya range), there are massive differences between the Tamiya and Italeri equivalents. I’ve also found Tamiya to be better priced than Italeri of late with far superior quality in there parts and better detail.

Don’t get the wrong idea though folks, Italeri make some very nice kits.

Something I’d like to add is that my list reflects current on the shelf suppliers. Kit manufacturers you can find without difficulty as mentioned I’ve got a host of other manufactures I can list up to about 50 if folks are interested.

Another point I’d like to make in terms of detail is that if your seeking a manufacturer that gives you every single piece of detail you could want and more, alas I have still to find such a manufacturer with perhaps the exception of Finemolds but this list is about aircraft models and I’m not sure about there aircraft range. They do however make the best Millenium Falcon model kits you can possibly find without scratch building one yourself.

If your after a kit that will satisfy most of your needs where you can find your aircraft without spending anything extra, I stand by that list.

However if your after detail down to the last rivet, then I gate to break it to everyone but your going to need to purchase additional 3rd party detail kits to really go balistic or add, manufacture your own details to spruce up the kit. That said, I’ve been more than happy with every Tamiya and Airfix kit I’ve purchased of late and they will suit me just fine. Sure it can be fun to add lot’s of extra details but if there’s a lot of aircraft you want to build you have to ask yourself, do you want to see some great planes on display or spend a whole year on one kit? There’s no right or wrong it’s purely personal choice and if you do have the time to spend an entire year on a single kit and add hundreds of detail add ons and additional decals etc then I salute you and hope you will share such a display with everyone. If you prefer to just make a kit look great with what comes in the actual kit, there’s still no reason why you can’t make it absolutely superb and win model shows the world over. It’s all personal choice when it comes to detail. I’ve seen kits with less detail than there rivals in competitions win, simply because there was something the judge liked.

Finally I’d also like to add an important point: COST. Add on resin detail kits, etched parts, extra decals and other additions are fantastic but your looking at mega bucks. It’s very easy to spend well over $100 on even a $30 in detail sets and at the end of the day is anyone going to appreciate or even notice them besides yourself?

To me the best kits are the ones that give you the most detail, value for money and equally important actually have a scaled version of that hard to find aircraft. Personally I love way too many aircraft and would go broke spending up on detail kits but for a few personal fav’s I’ll add that extra touch. The extra details are icing on the cake if you will, but having a replica full stop is more important to me than not building a kit until I obtain the 100 add ons available etc. As long as you put the time into the kit and get a model you will enjoy and can show off, your winning and congratulations to you all. I look forward to hearing about fellow aircraft modellers builds.

11

I disagree. If everyone votes and those votes show a strong trend, that’s going to be a very good gauge if you will. Good companies deserve to be recognised. My intentions with this post are for fellow modellers to provide there list of top kits and why. Those points are valuable, especially to new modellers who don’t know any better. I’ll never forget an early Fokker Wulf kit I purchased from MPC I think it was and oh the horror at how bad it was compared to a Matchbox kit I’d unboxed before it.

There is a simple answer if you know what your after in a replica. Simply ask yourself, do I want mega detail or will I be happy with a general representation? Work out where in a scale say from 1 - 10 you would like to go depending on the subject matter and go for the kits with well known reputations for that detail. You’ll be a lot happier than purchasing some limited run kits for example with hours and hours of work that you didn’t sign up for nor know about. Other modellers like limited run kits and enjoy adding the detail themselves. Again if you know what you want, knowing the guides to the worlds favourite/top manufacturers is a big help. For example I once purchased a limited run kit of the Australian Hawk LIF, simply because I figured the price would equal a quality kit. How wrong I was. The Airfix kit completely kicked it in the pants for authenticity to detail, correct shape and scale. Worst of all, the Airfix kit was less than half what the other kit was. (The Airfix kit was recommended to me by a gentleman I met later after purchasing the limited run kit. When I showed him, he laughed and was glad I showed him as it saved him the trouble of finding out like I did).

Since then I’ve checked out Airfix many times before other manufacturers as there quality(particularly with there recent releases) has been 2nd to none for there incredible price point.

I’m hoping the list will share some valuable information with other like minded modellers. It’s also great to read what other modellers think of recent kits from these manufacturers.

12

Yeah, as everyone else has said every company as some ‘champion’ kits and some ‘dog’ kits. Tamiya’s recent stuff is state of the art but there are some of their old kits floating around that although the box says 1/48th scale are actually ‘box scale’ and closer to 1/50th.

As said many times above you’re better off looking for reviews on a case for case basis rather than judging entirely from the company name.

PS: If I may give a shout-out to Academy and Minicraft which you didn’t list- not Tamiya or Hasegawa quality for most of their kits are pretty good.

13

I’m with Gamera, Academy has some good kits, particularly their recent releases. I can’t wait to get started on my 1/48 F-4C from them. I’ve got a couple that are in the on deck circle. The office might need some AM help, but the exteriors Another mfr that is worth taking a look at is Hobby Boss. They have some unique subjects.

I’m with Rob G: best is subjective, but a lot easier to answer when the question is limited to a single aircraft in a specific scale. Revell of Germany has impressed me with some of their offerings.

Finally just because a certain manufacturer comes with a universal thumbs up doesn’t mean that everything that they box is a gem. The unfortunate fact is every manufacturer has some duds out there.

14

Gee, no mention of Wingnut Wings in that top ten. What a surprise. [^o)]

15

Yeah, the “best company” question is a pet peeve of mine. What good is it to decide what company is the best if they don’t make the genre, kit or the scale you want? I’d make the blanket statement that every company has their dog, but I haven’t found one from Fine Molds. But again, I’ve not built any of their aircraft, only their WW2 IJA tanks and Star Wars kits. Those kits are all nice.

16

Or Accurate Miniatures (you can still find their stuff)

17

I’m a geezer and LOONG time modeler, for entirely personal reasons I try as much as possible to buy American, (even if it’s only an American company selling foreign made kits, just about everything now it seems.) I like Revell/Monogram, especially Revell Germany, but a factor of MAJOR heartburn and disappointment for me is some of the dismal quality of parts as boxed.

Warps are not uncommon with any of the companies, just some much more than others. I can easily enough correct a manageable warp, but when I have to use heat guns, steam and or boiling water, that’s just basically unacceptable and the kit goes back for replacement. My dealer says he doesn’t mind, that’s the only way to make them take responsibility and ensure better quality.

Many years ago I bought the Monogram 1:48th F-105, on opening I found one wing panel warped midpoint with a measured 30+ degree bend, root to tip, plus the airfoil shape was completely flattened in the center. A 1:32 F-14 canopy was short shot, missing a significant portion of the port rear canopy frame, it was repaired by scratch building the missing portion as a splice, but it should not have been required.

A 1:32 F-15 canopy was short shot, missing about 15% of the right front side, dealer arranged for replacement. Plus on that one the fuselage had a badly warped fuselage top, at the left wing attach point. It was repaired with heat and appropriate implements, but that should not have happened.

Too often I see things like wheels with big sink marks at the wheel/tire point, very awkward to repair and leaves a less than good appearance at best anyway.

My point is: quality control begins with proper oversight and inspection methods. Even if the product is molded and boxed offshore where the major concern is: “you box quick, send America, that good enough,” the product has their corporate name on it and someone is going to purchase it. Someone took the sprues out of the molds, boxed them and shipped out, they can see the problems if they care to look. Far too many of these quality problems are so easily prevented, but continue to show up with disappointing frequency.

I will commend R/M and Revell Germany for some great subjects bought recently, all were of exceptional quality with entirely serviceable kit parts. My complaints aside, Revell overall represents the best value for the buck, when the kit is delivered in a good state it is a pleasure to build and can yield good results. When it’s fraught with problems it’s either frustrating to correct, or it has to be returned for exchange. Either way, that doesn’t set well with me.

Patrick

18

Way too subjective a subject. All our colored by our own personal biases & experience. If one is looking for a kit of subject X, there may be only one game in town, while subject Y has new and old tooled kits in that scale across the price spectrum. If you build 1/32 WWI biplanes, of course Wingnut Wings is gonna be your cup of tea. If you want 1/48 4 engined US bombers, your cup of tea is Revellogram, and so on and so forth. Every company has their gems and dogs in their product line- well maybe not Wingnuts & Accurate, so while we have personal preferences, what may be best for you, is not best for me. And vice versa… Subject selection, engineering, cost, availability are all personal choices.

19

Not all of Accurate Miniatures’ kits were made by Accurate Miniatures. Their 1/72 scale UAV Predator was tooled by Platz and also released by Italeri. They also reboxed the 1/100 line of US helicopters originally made by both Revell and Tamiya. Dig around enough and you’ll find a few 1/72 scale Accurate Miniatures kits are the 1930s biplanes and WW2 fighters that were made by Monogram decades ago.

20

Rob, I forgot about those. Now that I think about it, they also rekitted Monogram’s 1/72 F-4 family. I love the detail those kits had, but for some reason they mismolded the windscreens so that they don’t fit. Didn’t have that issue with the originals.