What’s up with this company?
I don’t really see info on that company online. I understand they don’t produce models anymore? That’s too bad because they made unique Canadian airforce models.
How was their quality? Anybody have experience with them?
I’ve built several of their kits. Some are quite basic. Some are pretty nice and good value for for the cost. Their later efforts are certainly better than their earlier product. And like you said, they do produce some kits that nobody else does.
They don’t appear to be prolific as they when they first appeared on the scene. Early stuff was not that great, but their products did improve.
Last kit appears to have been released in 2012, a new tool 1/72 Avro Arrow.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/145022-hobbycraft-hc1393-avro-arrow
As I understand it, a Korean company was in charge of molds and kit production, while the office here in Canada, was in charge of distribution and sales.
Visiting their web page, looks like they have been concentrating more on model railroading - but even there, their website copyright ends 2015.
regards,
Jack
I have only one Hobby Craft Canada kit, the AVRoe CF-100 Mk V in 1/48 scale. Never got around to building it and bought it in 2000.
This site has a lot of good information on Hobby Craft Canada. If you click on model galleries, there are photos of various Canadian aircraft and built details on many.
Hello!
In the nineties in Poland Hobbycraft was famous for kits with really bad quality. There were a few exceptions, like the 1:48 MiG-15. Some of theme were so-so - the 1:72 Skyraider or 1:72 H-21 Flying Banana (all made a lot better by Hasegawa and Italeri respectively). The last notable model by Hobbycraft was the 1:72 Caribou - and it’s OK and nobody did it better since then. But after that I haven’t heard any news from Hobbycraft. I guess they didn’t have enough models worth buying.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day
Paweł
I built a Noorduyn Norseman like this in 1/48th scale about 10 years ago…
It was under the banner of Northway Aviation, Canada. Nice kit.
That’s too bad.
They closed their office too. I was driving by there one day and wanted to check them out.
Yeah, now I am wishing that I had picked up one of their 32nd scale Allison Engined Mustangs when they came out. Now those things are fetching a big price on the usual sites.
Academy has released some of the Hobbycraft kits under their label with new boxes and decals, but much of the line is not there. And some of their kits are still the only game in town in 1/48 aircraft.
Ah, therein lies the reason for the large stashes many of us have. Many mfgrs do not ordinarily re-issue their kits, so if you miss the initial run you are out of luck. When you see kits from those mfgrs you buy it immediately, even though you have a full queue of kits lined up already to go on your bench.
Thats exactly it. Years ago, a kit would stay in production and be available on store shelves for years. Nowadays for the most part, it’s one, two, or three production batches and then that’s it.
Yes you need to ‘grasp the nettle’ (or buy it right now) as we say in the UK. I’ve even been in the position of seeing a kit in an LHS and a chain store one week, gone back the next week after work to find all the stock of that kit gone and on enquiring all stock is sold out across all outlets!