Easy way to find out the number of parts in a kit

General Discussion General Modeling Discussion
1

Hello

The other day while I was at my LHS I saw a few very interesting kits, like some Tamiya German Panzers for example. And I was wondering how many parts there were in the box.

Some companies will put them directly on the box (I know Trumpeter does that, and Revell too) but not all of them. Also some reviews web sites will sometimes specify it, but not all the time.

Is there a way, or some available resources, that could put these informations online, for a quick look ?

Maybe just a ballpark would be enough.

For example, I saw an expensive Italeri tank in 1/35 scale and was wondering how many parts were in the kit. I came back home and did some searching, only to find out that this kit was actually a reboxing of a 1970’s kit with not even 100 parts.

thanks !

2

usually I shake the box pretty hard, its by far the best indicator of how many parts. Sometimes the hobby hop owner tells me to stop, but I just buy som glue and paint and he leaves me alone

3

Manny, is that you? [:D]

4

The ones that do, lie. The ones that don’t, tell the truth.

But seriously, whats the use of the information?About the only one I would see is that high count equals longer time to build, more stuff to lose, and probably not well thought out engineering.

Or not.

5

While I find Falcon’s comment funny, I thought the number of parts is an indication of the complexity of the kit, and the level of detail.

I was checking some tanks, and maybe it’s just me but I kinda would feel " robbed " if I pay a lot of money for a kit that doesn’t have at least a certain amount of parts.

But like I said, maybe it’s just me … [:(DD]

6

And if you shake it hard enough, you’ll add to the parts count! [:D]

7

And if it’s a really good kit, and you shake it long enough, it will put itself together for you!

8

No glue marks that way:)

9

Not really. It could just mean that there are a lots of unused parts in the kit. Can we all say Dragon.

I feel a bit robbed when I spend a lot for a kit a good chunk of which is going into the spares box to sit there for years. I know the idea is that its cheaper to produce molds that cover different variants, but perhaps if they didn’t try and produce a variant for every week of that types production, they could do a great kit at a cheaper price.

But of course, I still but them.

Personally, I don’t take any notice of the parts count. Its the finished result of putting those parts together that counts.

10

Thanks, didn’t think of that.

11

Italeri kits are always a crap-shoot; some of their 1980s kits were awesome at the time, a lot of them were reboxed Japanese kits from the 1970s, but many of their current kits are mediocre at best (like their Leopard 2 series).

With a lot of US and western European kits, I’d look for the age & skill level on the box to get an idea of how many parts.