Hello,
Anyone have an opinion which company produces the highest quality model kits? My main focus is WWII aircraft.
Thanks
The later releases from all the major companies are good. Companies such as Hasegawa, Revell, Monogram, Fujimi, Tamiya, Academy, Special Hobby, Hobbycraft and others have been in the business for quite a number of years. Many of the earlier releases left a lot to be desired, so any given brand can have really good kits as well as some that are pretty sorry. You can’t say any one company is the best or all the kits from that company are good.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Welcome to the Forum [#welcome]. High quality manufacturers would include Tamiya, Hasegawa, Accurate Miniatures, Trumpeter & Dragon/Dml, just to name a few. But all of them make the occasional Dog & some of the second tier sometimes make a jewel. Really better to ask a more specific question regarding a particular aircraft & scale. Then you’ll get lots of helpful opinions as to who makes the best kit for that AC.
Regards, Rick
yeah I agree with the above. Rick, which do you consider the second tier?
Tanky, to me anyway, second tier would be Revell, Airfix, Italeri, Hobbycraft, & Academy, just to name a few examples. They all make some excellent kits, but are spotty on average.
Regards, Rick
if you wants to work in 1/72, there are some excellent and inexpensive kits from czech republic, But all of them are limited run kits with multimedia accesories included, the choice depends of your skill. ok, the brands are special Hobby, Pavla, Azur, Eduard, etc.
The trouble is determining what is a new release. One thing I have never seen is a database listing model manufacturers, kit numbers, and the vintage of the molds. (I know it is complicated by the manufacturers swap molds around from time to time.) You would think someone would have put together such a database. Does anyone know where I could find it, if it indeed exists? There is nothing worse than ordering what you think is a new tool only to get a twenty year old reissue that was a dog to begin with.
I would agree with Rick, better to ask specific question around a particular kit. Welcome to the forum[#welcome]
To be honest, Hasegawa has been on the dissappointment list for the last couple of years. The detail is great but the fit quality has been slipping. I am building a 1/72 F-14 with many fit issues and the ugliest seam in the canopy you have ever seen! I have heard that the canopy thing has been a trend of theirs for a while now. But I do agree with all of the other companies listed as the top tier.
mpatrick,
As far as selection and dedication to great model kits, in my experience for
price and accuracy there is no better WWII model kit than one by tamiya.
All kits i’ve built come with great decals, pilots or other figures, almost perfect
fit, nice panel line detail…In addition the model is packaged well allowing for less
damage, they come with good detailed instructions for building and painting, and
several clear options for different decal and paint schemes. An advantage to tamiya
is they also have their own great acrylic line of paints which airbrush and thin well
so you don’t have as hard a time finding color matches. You could always go with
some super detailing as well but it is often not necessary to produce a nice model.
Tamiya also releases its own magazine which frequently details how to build certain
specific models and how to apply techniques using tamiya products…(very smart)
A second and close choice would be hasegawa. You’ll find the same quality but
without figures included. They also make nice modern kits as well…The problem
with academy/mrc and trumpeter is the best kits worth modelling (ie Blackhawk helos, etc)
are generally more expensive kits on average…where you can buy a tamiya model in 1/48 over the
internet at www.squadron.com free shipping over $100 or www.internethobbies.com from about $10-$25 and still have a fine kit.
I built a japanese zero and a british harrier which came out great and were both about $12 each.
The fw190 as well as the corsair f4u are also nice choices. Kits which range over $18 usually are
worth the extra as they have positionable flaps and extra details. The cheaper ones usually do not.
Squadron also sell just about every single thing you need to build a kit including all the paints and a
super selection of decals…
Accurate miniatures in 1/48 are loaded with detail but you need more advanced modelling skills to build
them well. A Avenger I built also lacked clear directions/instructions which made it more difficult than necessary
to build.
My over all opinion is that I’d rather be challenged with a well designed and thought out kit. A kit which because
of its many fine details and parts is challenging to paint and build. Not mess with a kit with which has poor fit and design
or a lack of details. There you’ll find you spend most of your time sanding and filing and dealing with kit deficiences rather than
assembling and painting, and decaling (the fun parts)
In the end, $25 will get you a lot further and a lot less headaches with a tamiya or hasegawa air kit in 1/48 than something from
revell monogram, itelari, testors, model master, etc… Those kits on average are unfortunately inferior in many respects…Stay away from them unless you know for sure a particular one is very good. As I said before a bad hasegawa or tamiya is usually
and good itelari or revell in many cases…and its much harder finding a dog in tamiya than one in italeri…
I will agree with the others that not every kit is perfect but i’ve been building tamiya kits since I was very young and i’ve never had
one I didn’t enjoy…Their armor in 1/35 is second to none as well.
But that’s just my humble opinion…no ofense to many of you very expert modelers who can make any dog kit look like a diamond.
Some guys just love a challenge like that…but I don’t like to recommend kits unless they’re really well designed.
I just bought the new 1/48th Hasegawa P-40E (all new tooling) because of a recommendation here and am very impressed with it. It’s going together very easily, at least at this stage. Fit is very, very good everywhere, and so far it seems like a top-of-the-line kit. (I also have the AMTech P-40E which I know is an older, but retooled kit from another manufacturer’s molds. I opted to build the Hasegawa version for my project.)
But I have to say that I agree with what the the others have said here: You can find dogs among all other brands. There’s always been a lot of dye switching and re-boxing among manufacturers–has been for decades in fact–so it really does pay off to ask what’s new and what’s not, what’s good and what’s not. I’m not aware of any database that contains this kind of info.
Then there are those modeling subjects that have had only one manufacturer. One subject that comes to mind (a personal favorite) are the early B-17’s by Academy (or is it Minicraft?), first isssued in '89. If you want to build one of the the early B through D B-17s, they’re the only show in town (I don’t count the old Execuform “male drape” vacuform kit, which was inaccurate in amny ways). Fortunately, these are good, accurate kits with only a few minor problems. But I can sight others that aren’t and will require lots of additional work to accurize.
So good luck–but ask around here for opinions before you buy a specific kit. What can it hurt?
–Ken
Tamiya and Hasegawa have been the top dogs for years but there are several companies that now offer good quality kits for much more reasonable prices and are better in terms of value for your money. These would be companies such as Revell Germany, Academy etc. As has been said though check the specific kit by either asking here or checking review sites such as Modeling Madness because even Tamiya and Hasegawa have some dogs.