Im not going to add more fuel to the fire but I am curious about prices across the pond. Im assuming that most of you guys are from the USA. I was looking at the prices you were quoting $15 - $21 dollars for your models. Not sure which brands those prices are refering to but the equivalent prices here in the UK would work out at between £10.30 - £14.42 which dont buy you a great deal of model over here. The model Im currently building is the Dragon 251/16. Originally marked up at £29.99 ($40.74) but was on sale at £19.60 ($28.53). To me, for how much detail is in the model, that was quite a bargain - not sure how that compares in the USA?
Antony, that price range is just about exactly what I pay for DML kits other than recent releases, which I don’t buy anyway. Run of the mill Dragon kits at LHS’s run about $35-$45 US, I pounce on sale items that dip below $30, but i think that is pretty rare. I got my DML Sherman M1A3 76(w) for $30 at a black Friday sale, that same shop has one on the shelf for $50.00 this week.
I have recently started checking out AFV and Academy stuff, hence this thread, and note a $30-$35 US price range, but I don’t think that was a markdown or otherwise a bargain, just an everyday price.
Most of the newer DML stuff goes for around $80+ in NZ and around $70+ in Oz. You can get some of the older Dragon ones for around $35 on special at my LHS in Sydney.
I scored about 6 Acadamy tanks including the M7 Priest for around $30 each of a local (Orstralian) ebayer.
I do most of my shopping of Squadron specials, Ebay and sometimes Hannants in the UK.
Haven’t done any AFV models but I’m keen to get a Bronco A34 comet, having seen a documenatary on it.
Tamiya copied des kit’s FAMO and its trailer in the 90s.
By copy, I should say, pirated.
They are cheap today because they’re not of current standard.
Older does not always make them cheaper. For example, Tamiya’s aweful flak 36 was reboxed with their equally aweful DAK figures and sold for the price of new model kits just few years ago.
You can go to Tamiya USA official website and pull their MSRP prices. Like I said, what you get them for does not always equal to their suggested retail prices.
Your local hobby store can sell older kits at lower prices because they also obtain them at lower than suggested dealer’s prices from time to time, from individuals or other businesses. Generally speaking though, they sell them more expansive than other sources where you could obtain the same products, because maintaining a store means rent, electricity, advertisement and many other expanses that all add onto their merchandise.
A body of information is necessary to make the better choices. Opinions without the fundation of sufficient knowledge are meaningless. If one is to give advice in a specified field, he sure does need to know about what he’s talking about, or what he says or believes has no credibility.
Do you go to a machinist to ask for advices on open heart surgery?
I have to say that, man, I am just DYING over here! [(-D]
Some people just don’t get it! [banghead]
LMFAO!!! [(-D][(-D][(-D]
Interesting tidbit if true, but utterly irrelevant to the quality of Tamiya kits from the 1970’s. I know what I was build when I was a kid, and it was junk compared to the now cheap 1970’s Tamiya stuff I buy now.
On the first point, most definitely true. For example, it seems like full interiors, aluminum barrels, and indy link tracks have become a standard. If one doesn’t want those features. i.e. satisfied with hollow tanks, filling open sponsons, actually gluing a barrel together, and accepting of the limitations of rubber band tracks, it’s wonderfully convenient to not have to spend the extra money on it.
On the second point, if I were itching to build a flak 36, there’s no doubt that Tamiya would catch my eye first, but if the price was jaw dropping and Dragon, AFV club or anybody else was cheaper, I’m there. The whatever’s cheapest rule in that case might go against Tamiya.
I hadn’t intended to convey that I was challenging the accuracy of your Tamiya MSRP quote. My appologies.
What I meant is that there are very few things that one has to buy at MSRP, models included. That’s why it usually makes more sense to discuss retail prices. Yes online people have can ofter charge less for the reasons you cited. No dispute here. On the other hand, the online places from which I shop charge enough for shipping to more than cover the price differential between themselves and my local hobby shop. Pehaps I’m fortunate to have such an inexpensive LHS.
You ducked my question entirely. I haven’t read evey post that Hammer has ever written. That disclaimer aside, out of the posts that I have read, I don’t see how a lack of experience with RPM would have made him in any way the less qualified to answer than myself who at least has one in the stash.
With respect to your question, it is a rather ridiculous comparison. Any person who has built a number of models, even if that person has not heard of every kit maker ever to produce a kit, obviously has a lot more experience with model building than a machinist does with heart surgery.
But with respect to your “foundation of knowledge” criteria and heart surgery, I would as would any other I think, want the opinion of a top heart surgeon. If the doctor in question was not particularly knowledgeable in arthroscopic surgery, eye surgery, or brain surgery, it would not matter as long as he/she was highly skilled in heart surgery.
Andy
H v H…
What you described here is exactly what i needed to hear. I have SLOWLY building the old Tamiya M577 Command Post. It has no interior and i want to leave the back ramp down. Now i no how to make the floor. I will burnish some foil over the floor plate from an Academy M113 i have in my stash, peel it off and lay it into the M577.
See, i don’t care if you don’t know who RPM and MB are, you just saved my day.Thanks for the hot tip…[#toast]
Your da man…[bow] (a pleasure to meet you)
P.S. Tamiya, in my opinion are still legendary kits. My stash is probably 3/4 Tamiya, from the old 251/1 to their later model kits. The 251/1 i intend to model straight from the box. To me it is history all round. It is history from WW2 and a historic kit in being one of Tamiyas early models. I intend to try and do it justice straight from the box…one day…[:-^].
Boomer…
Nope sure don’t… But then again, I don’t trash my heart surgeon simply because he is not an expert on the ins and outs of my prostate… But according to your logic, I should, because how can he really give good medical advice if he does not have expertise in the whole body???
Ooops, sorry fellas… I’m feeding the troll, aren’t I?
I’m with you on a lot of this stuff. But I’ve found a few things that are now placed in the back of my head for further use.
*with Academy, I think they do modern equipment very well, and in some cases make the best kit out there. Just look at a Sheridan from Tamiya and one from Academy. The only thing better is the one from Jaguar, and they often go for over a hundred dollars. I also think they’ve done a very good job with their M113 series of kits. Some folks think their Striker maybe the best. I don’t know as I’ve not bought one
- with AFV, I think they do the earlier stuff best. I bought their Tiger kit awhile back at a super sale, and just from looking at it I was impressed. Is it as good as a DML that cost another twenty dollars? I don’t know. Their 155 and 8" cannons are nice kits, and their M3/M5 series are the best period. I do think that AFV has kinda created their own niche in the world of cannons, and hope they build upon it.
The price factor is important to me as well, but still find myself picking up Dragon kits often. Yet I also have noticed that I don’t buy Tamiya kits like I used to anymore. To take this a step further about the only Tamiya stuff I buy anymore are aircraft kits. Another brand I’ve bought that just impresses me to death is Tasca. A little pricey for sure, but they just reek with quality (I’ve only bought two kits and they were the “Luchs” kits). Then there’s Eduard. I latched onto one of their Hetzers a few months ago, and it’s impressive. Is it accurate? I don’t know, but see instantly that there’s no need to buy any aftermarket stuff for one. I got mine for about $25, and it comes with an interior as well as drive train. It starts out costing more money, but ends up costing a little less.
gary
Hey, no sweat… If I can help a feller out with an old trick I use, well, that’s the reason this forum exists. I discovered that trick with foil and screen quite by accident and it wasn’t even during a modeling session, but rather a high-school art class, where the art teacher was teaching us about textures, so he had us going around the school with crayons and a sheet of paper, and finding various textures to make rubbings of… I later, just on a whim, tried it on some foil to make a treadplate for a kit I can’t even remember now, it was so many years ago, lol… But, figured I, if it works on paper and crayon, foil ought to do the trick just as well… I also use the same thing making PSP (Martson Matting) from foil and an Eduard PSP base… I wrote that up in the diorama section…