An Italian resin company, Brach Models, has come out with a kit of the 11/39 tank and includes an aluminum barrel and decals. The price is 95 euros, or at today’s exchange rate about US140.00 - is this reasonable?
regards,
Jack
regards, Jack
For me personally this seems excessive. At this time I could never pay that much for just a kit. I can understand some of the new ship models going for that price but not an armor model. But if its a kit you can’t live without and you’ve got the excess cash then by all means.
I think the old Tamiya kit even with ally barrels, PE, & Fruil tracks would be less than that, are they claiming that it is more accurate, or can’t you find the Tamiya kit?
I do have a shelf-full of resin kits, (when I once had cash… [:(] ) they are conversions, accessories & some kits that aren’t available anywhere else.
As above, if you want it, & you got the cash, go ahead, & have a learning experience. [:)]
No thanks. The subjects that interest me are easily available in styrene.
If this is the only kit of this particular vehicle and you want it really bad, then go for it. Who knows when one of the big boys will release it, if ever.
For me personally, I think the most I’ve paid was around $40 for a kit. I buy off of ebay, shows, trades or onlines, so I never pay full retail.
Thx for the input guys…
To my knowledge there is no styrene version of this kit. The Tamiya kit is of the M13/40 which is a further development of the M11/39 - the turret was made larger to accept the main gun (upgraded from 37mm to 47mm) and the duel machine gun placed in the hull. It is a bit obscure subject in that only about 100 of these tanks were built. It interests me only in that the North African Campaign is my most favourite of WW2.
regards,
Jack
Your topic title question is too vague to really answer properly. How much would “you” pay for a 1/35 resin kit depends on what the interests of “you” is and what the kit is.
For example, I am a modern armor builder. I wouldn’t pay $140 for a WW2 resin German armor kit, regardless of the quality or specific panzer mark. I would, possibly, pay $140 for a resin US Cold War M103-series heavy tank. I wouldn’t pay for a resin kit if a decent injection molded plastic kit existed either.
The price of the above listed kit is in the ballpark for quality resin full kits (non-conversion kits).
I agree with Rob. I wouldn’t buy it since it isn’t my interest area.
The price is about average for a quality, accurate full resin tank kit though.
LoL… well no I wouldn’t expect someone to buy a kit they are not interested in regardless if it is resin or styrene. That is why the subject title isn’t specific, I wanted opinions on resin kit prices and if people do fork out that sort of cash if the subject interests them. I only introduced the M11/39 for those curious in what I was considering.
regards,
Jack
That’s a great-looking kit of a subject I’d love to build, but I wouldn’t go that much for it because within ten minutes of my purchasing one, someone will do one in styrene that’ll look just as good and be easier to build. I had a bunch of really nice all-resin kits years ago and sold them all for close to what I paid for them (some more, some less) and I’m glad that I did because all but one have come out in plastic and are or would be easier to build with no resin block dust!
That kit does look great though!
All I can add here is that I do believe that the price is heafty for a kit but most resin kits are expensive, Brach do have a fantastic reputation for quality. In these days I would pay the price myself but it would have to be a subject I absolutely “Have to have”. While the argument is there that by the time you buy extras for a plastic kit it has become expensive, there is also the case when you buy a modern Dragon release that there is everything you need in the box but I have noticed that they have become expensive now.
I suppose at the end of the day its down if you can afford it then go for it.
Terry.
Ditto what Tigerman says.
$140.00 is alot of money
Scott
I have to agree with my uniformed brothers Rob & Gino. If it is in an area I like, it is unique with no styrene conterpart…I would go for it…otherwise, I pass
Rounds Complete!!
For me it would depend on what it was a kit of and the quality of the molding. I have paid close to that for 1/35th styrene kits, so for the right kit, yes i would. But being that i only build WW2 German armour, i can’t imagine a kit in resin that i can’t get in styrene.
I collect garage kits (figures) in 1/8 - 1/3 scale and most start around $90 but most average at $120 or higher and some only have a few parts.
Same goes with replica movie props from $10 for something tiny to several thousand, If you get into studio scale models then you start at about $300 and go up.
I also used to make replica movie props as a hobby and even got to work on a few actual props for one of the Star Trek shows.
Remember these are usually limited runs and the cost of silicon molds and resins are expensive and everything has to be cast by hand not stamped out by a machine so it takes time to fill the mold, place it in a pressured container till it cures then demolding and some clean up.
Now this tank model was probably designed on computer then grown or CNC’ed then clean up was done by hand then molded in silicon so there is still hands on labor there, some parts may have even been scratch built.
Resin will yield a lot more detail all around since the molds are flexible, you see this in all the aftermarket parts available these days and yes in some cases there is a fair amount of clean up along the seams if the molds don’t sit right…
The down side of resin is loss of detail due to air bubbles in the casting or the molds wearing out and possible warpage (usually fixable with a dip in some hot water).
$229…
Resin armor kits are exceedingly expensive and I have yet to see a reason why they are so. Maybe the resin is expensive? If so, wouldnt it serve them better to just get a machine to do their molds in plastic?
Smeagol,
The simple answer as to why resin kits are so much more expensive vs. styrene kits is economy of scale. Styrene injection technology is enormously expensive (getting the molds done alone is a multi-hundreds-of-thousands USD investment depending and involves a lot of complex machine tooling and equipment in the process), so you have to have a very broad market base and demand to support that type of investment to make producing a kit worthwhile. That’s why there are only a handfull of “major” kit producers globally. The “big boys” have an established broad range of products with varying degrees of profitability (it’s why you see lots of variants produced off single molds whever possible) and also have established distribution networks and broad market appeal for their wares. All of that combined together makes it possible for them to spread out their costs of production and offer kits at the prices we see today and still make money as a viable business. The small market player in their garage or small shop simply can’t compete on that scale as the challenges to their entry into the market space are just too high so they opt for alternative production methods like resin.
That’s because resin can be used to produce subjects relatively cheaper than those in styrene in terms of capital outlay and materials costs but they still require a lot of “man hour” investment in terms of creating the masters (usually a 100% or nearly so scratch-build exercise depending), doing the molds, producing the individual kits, etc. That’s what makes it ideal for producing “niche” market products like upgrades, kit conversions, or the odd-ball/limited-interest subject. A single individual or small team of people can do the entire resin production without being a full-scale industrial enterprise like a DML or Tamiya…but their overhead and production costs per kit are still going to be relatively high. It’s also why they typically are limited-run items or only produced on an as-demanded basis and why they also tend to go in and out of production frequently depending on who/where they are being produced.
HTH! [B]
Jack,
There’s only one kit I’ve seen that I’d lay out what I consider ‘big’ money for: Accurate Armour’s Diamond T hard top wrecker. It’s a subject that interests me, and it costs roughly $250 USD delivered. Like others, I place a value on that kit based on my desire for the subject and justify it because noone else produces it. Having window-shopped several manufacturers of limited run resin and multimedia kits, your price of $140 seems very much in the ballpark.
I don’t find resin kits to be trustworthy enough to pay that much for… I find that they often have broken or warped pieces, and that its very difficult to correct any flaws that the kit may have, like pieces that just don’t fit. If you can find a cheap or old kit in styrene for which you can find some extras (tracks, PE, resin updates, aluminum barrel etc.) and are willing to scratchbuild, then that’s what you should do because chances are you’re going to have to do some scratchbuilding, adding and modifying to the resin kit anyways. And most kits exist in styrene already, even if outdated. And if that particular kit doesn’t exist, chances are you can find something close that you can modify with the help of a resin conversion set.
The only resin kit I’d pay a high price for would be that New Connection Models Raumer-S