During a search of the cataloge of a webstore I found some kits from Hobby Boss. I have never seen these kits. Has anybody seen/build them? And what are your opinions about them?
Never heard of em.
Sounds like an LHS.
No, I really think it’s a manufacturer, chinese maybe linked tot Trumpeter. www.hlj.com has some kits of them. They have a special parts brake down that makes them easy to build.
Luckymodel.com recently added their products available online. They have 1/72 aircrafts, 1/48 armors and some 1/35 individual track links for armors. I have no idea if their aircrafts are good or not but their 1/48 armors seems to be pretty good as per the sprues you can see at luckymodel.com They have PE sets with them. The artwork on their armor boxes looks like what Trumpeter put on their boxes.
Hobby Boss is a new Division of Dragon. To my knowledge, none of the aircraft kits have been released yet, at least in the USA. They do show some very interesting new aircraft kits, but the early reviews of their 1/48 Armor releases are not glowing.
Regards, Rick
They have been advertised in Model Airplane International by Creattive Models Ltd for months. However if you go to their web site there does not seem to be any mention of them. www.creativemodels.co.uk Nor have I seen any reviews in any magazines. According to the advert they are new tooling and cost £3.99 each. P40B/C Hawk-81, Spitfire Mk Vb, F4U-1 Corsair, F4F-3 Wildcat, F4F-4 Wildcat, Bf109G-2, MiG-3, P-51D Mustang IV, P-40M Warhawk, Bf109E-3, F6F-3 Hellcat, P-47D Thunderbolt.
Trumpeter, actually. And not really a “division,” as we’d generally think of it…it’s…difficult to explain. Hobby Boss is basically just Trumpeter with a different name.
Anyway, I’ve seen all the Hobby Boss kits, and they’re almost all quite good, particularly the 1/48 T-34s (they really dropped the ball with their Shermans, though). The aircraft are molded with the least amount of parts possible. The control sticks are even molded into the floors of some of the cockpits, which are molded as part of the lower wing half! Nicely molded, too. I think the Spitfire had really thin prop blades…like toothpicks. Other than that, they all looked nice to me.
Thanks J-Hulk, it’s good to have a contact in Japan.
The SBX Model Shop have just advertised that Hobby Boss kits have just arrived. http://www.sbxmodelshop.co.uk/
There are a few more than the list I put in my first post (Fw 190, Hurricane). According to the blurb they are made with new technology that enables wings to be made in one piece. I expect that we will be hearing more about these kits in a month or so.
Thanks for the correction Brian. I knew it was Trumpeter, but typed Dragon for some reason.
Regards, Rick
Was at Hannants London today (my LHS). They have Hobby Boss arriving in a few days. As said, they are part of Trumpeter, nice kits, well detailed, for £3.99, but a minimum amount of parts. On the kit they mentioned (sorry, can’t remember which), the main planes are even moulded in. However, this does not mean poor detail apparently. Could be an interesting new part of the hobby, this, kits that are quick and simple to make, but still well detailed, and so, excellent for those who prefer painting to assembly, or those who just want a Q&D kit for say, kids, or wargaming.
I bought a couple of Hobby Boss kits. No cockpit detail, just a stick and seat, but nice exterior detailing. The fuselage is one piece, the main planes, again, one piece. Easy to slot together. Basically, great for kids, as an introducton to the hobby. Anyway, I’m going to assemble a couple, and post the pics later.
I have come to the conclusion that ‘Hobby Boss’ models are actually the ‘EasyModel’ (pre-built and painted range, by Trumpeter) in kit form - one piece fuselage and one piece wing etc. The skinny prop blades of the Spitfire tend to confirm this because theirs is the same. If the Hobby Boss Spit’s canopy is slightly too wide then I’d be certain.
Michael
looking at the box art only it looks academy (just the box art i mean)
I received a couple of Hobby Boss 1/72 kits through the mail today. They were cheap and I wanted to see how they stacked up.
The packaging is interesting. There is a vac-form plastic organizer in the box. As the major assemblies ( fuselage, wings, cowling ) are one piece, they have been secured in the package with small dimples. There are 3 sprues holding the other parts. Two of the sprues are the clear parts, one closed canopy and a multi-part open canopy. The molding is very clean.
There are no landing gear doors, and the way the kits are engineered you would have to build them gear down. I’m thinking these two planes don’t have gear doors anyway. One kit ( P-40 B/C /Hawk 81 ) has the guns and pitot tube molded with the wing subassembly, which could make for easy breakage. The cockpit has the seat and stick molded in it. This could make things tricky if you wanted to detail it. I have already envisioned cutting the sidewalls off and replacing them with sheet styrene or soda can aluminium so I can add PE sidewalls. The FM-2 actually includes the floor windows!
The two kits I purchased ( FM-2 and P40 B/C ) lacked any underwing stores, but I suppose I can scrounge them from another kit. The tail wheels are also part of the one piece fuselage. Decals and paint schemes are included for two aircraft. I haven’t compared them to any scale drawings, but the one built for Finescale scaled out correctly.
I’m pretty impressed with the level of detail despite their simplicity. Maybe not up to the superdetailer’s standards, but you could build up a pretty decent fighter collection in several months. Squadron mail order is already listing quite a few prop planes, including most of the major WW2 types, and some jets and helicopters. Though they may disappoint some, I think they show promise. They could easily be built and painted by a younger modeler in one sitting. I’m looking forward to brushing up my skills on them as I have been away from the hobby for some time.