I’ve been sifting through posts on the Trumpeter aircraft kit releases.
I only recently purchased the Me-262a version from my LHS and have not yet purchased any of their other aircraft kits.
As a FSM forum search of Trumpeter has called up various posts that are negative regarding decals / fit / detail / price I would like to ask:
Have Trumpeter kits-of all types and scales-been improving over time in the categories I’ve mentioned ?
With MMD bring Trumpter into the country now at a lower price more people will have a chance to find.
Thad
I know several of their armor kits have been pulling down solid reviews.
As for aircraft…from what I understand, they’re sort of bipolar. Some kits are great, others not.
I can’t speak from personal experience. I’ve got a Trumpy F8F-2 Bearcat in the stash but haven’t built it yet. Though I will say…while the detail looks pretty great…the seam running right down the spine of the canopy is just crazy sloppy for a kit of that caliber.
I’ve only built the 1/35 KV-1’s.They are excellant kits.
I have built a few of their kits, mainly armor, from the beginning to recently. And yes they have improved in quality. I have several of their aircraft kits in the stash, but have yet to tackle one. I have not had problems with their decals, and fit has not been a problem either. My only personal beef with Trumpeter kits would be the price but that has more to do with their importer. And occasionally they do sneak in a great kit for a reasonable price.
Sounds so far that the Trumpeter armor kit design side does a generally better job.
I don’t usually build modern ships, but do any Trumpeter ship builders see improvement in kit design?
Ship wise I’m half way through their USS Gato 1/144, no probs to report here.
Armor, decals suck, mispells etc, fit usually great
Aircraft, unknown
I just put the decals on their 1/72 Fairey Gannet. Kit was probably a B+ in detail and fit, decals are a D-
By their pricing, I’d say they sure think so!
For the few that I’ve built, I wouldn’t say they are quite worth retail costs, but not bad at a discounted price.
I’m just finishing up a Trumpeter Me-262 1/32 (the A1A ‘heavy armament’), and I have the Mig-3, TBM-3, and P-47 ‘dorsal fin’ in the stash up next. I read a ton of reviews on each before purchasing, and got them all on eBay. The Mig-3 is dirt cheap at $30 shipped, the P-47 I got for $45, and the TBM for $65. Retail on these kits are 3X those prices. Go eBay or pay big.
The best take on kit quality comes from one of the Hyperscale reviewers… he stated (paraphrasing), that all the major elements fit great, but just about every part needed some ‘fiddling’. That’s dead on. The fuselage halves, wing roots, and pit fit just perfectly on the 262… almost like magic compared to the Hasegawa 109 I’d finished previously. They did take some sanding/test/sanding/test/etc., but really didn’t require any great work to fit great, and zero putty after the Weld-On 3. There are over 400 parts in the kit, though, and just about every one of them has either a bit of flash, or slightly oversize locator pin, or… well, something, wrong them. Nothing that takes more a minute or two to fix, or even a few seconds, but there it is.
Still a blast to build, though, at least for their modern kits. Read reviews of the SPECIFIC kit you’re interested in, however. They put out some real turkeys, particularly before 2005 according to the reviews I’ve read. There are some fairly negative ones, for example, for the Trumpy P-38 in 1/32. I’d love to build a Lightning in that scale, but I’m going to hold out till someone else does it, or Trumpeter re-tools the kit.
Yes…
The first kit that I purchased was their M1 Abrams. It was such a dog that I shelved it. The next one I got was their KV-I. It was a night and day model from the Abrams, at least for me. I really liked the long upper-piece of track with the sag already on it!
Thanks !
I saw the Trumpy in the box P-38 at Als Hobby in Elmhurst , Il when initially released but balked at the price.
In hind sight, I probably should have picked up the Revell re-release at Hobby Lobby and ground down the rivets just for a quick build to have something in that scale but the kit disappeared very fast from the store shelves.
Really fast !
Reading comments about the Trumpy P-38 posted in the FSM forum changed my mind about the kit and prompted this thread.
As you say,…there’s always e-bay.[:D]
The only Trump kit that I have built to date is the 1/32 Wildcat.i got a great deal on it at my LHS (23 bucks!) and couldn’t pass it up.I think it is a great kit with the only tricky part being the pE hinges which are very stiff and the installation of the folding wing as it takes careful finesse to get the outer wing to snap into place.The wings have acess hatches and fully detailed .50 caliber Browning machine guns.I had to tie the wings back with fine fishing line as the heavy wings will not stay folded on their own! 
Very nice. Could you share a couple of more pics?
Sure! 
No, they have not improved. Too many fussy parts, bad instructions, really hard to use PE hinges, etc.
Just got the M1117 ASV 1/35 sale in the mail. I was impressed by the kit. Lots of small parts. Instructions are well planned out. There is flash though on the parts but the main body fits perfectly.
Cleaning flash is fun and relaxing lol