I was wanting to know the quality of these kits. I have a few Italeri in armor and also a Trumpeter in armor. I know the Italeri has very thin plastic and some poor fits and the dreaded pin marks in the worst places.There is one member that had to quit his build and enter another because the fit was impossible. I just so the kit at the LHS and it was a $50 kit! Now I’m all about fixing and working on poor fitting kits (Revelle P-51, P-38 Lightning) but if the fit is impossible…wow. I never hear to many complaints in the Aircraft forums about these two companies. I see a couple of these kits I would like to build so I ask the members who built some of these aircraft kits your opinions please. Thanks
I have never had any luck with Italeri kits. The fit is so bad and lack of detail, I just don’t build them. Trumpeter kits are very good. At least the ones I have built or started building. Some people say their kits have problems as incorrect shaped parts, but that is rivet counting as far as I am concerned. I kept reading about their 1/32 scale F-105 having incorrect shaped vertical stabs but the resin parts I bought were shaped exactly the same. When I measured them there was only 1/32 inch difference.
Any plastic kit will have room for improvement, but for the price you pay for a Trump kit, IMOP, you are getting your money’s worth. I can’t say the same for Italeri.
Italeri & Trumpeter make some very nice kits & they make a few stinkers. In general, their quality is reasonable, but not in the same class as Tamiya/Hasegawa/Accurate Miniatures, etc. Italeri kits are generally priced consistent with their quality, but I find Trumpeter kits over priced for what’s in the box.
Im not sure about Italeri’s armor, but Trumpeter has a fairly decent repuation w/ their armor. Certainly not Tamiya’s quality, but reasonable, at 1/2 the price! Trumpeter has been improving their aircraft quality consistently over the past few years (and their recent kit’s quality are pretty similar to latter Academy or Italeri kits). I have built several Italeri aircraft kits over the years (and have several in my stack). My experience is that Italeri has had some poorer quality kits a few years back, but have also had several really nice kits. Their detail is usually “adequate” for scale (nothing a simple after-market update doesn’t usually cure). I’ve only run into 1-2 of their kits that have had horrible fit problems. Generally, I’ve found their quality to be “better than average” with their latter kit. A good rule of thumb is, if you are looking at a Trump/Italeri kit, do some online research re’ a review. Often, the guys on this forum have had some experience with the kit in question as well. Hope that helps.
Italeri aren’t all that bad in my experience. One or two weren’t so hot, but generally I’ve been able to see Italeri builds to completion with a minimum of frustration in most cases.
The thing to remember with Italeri kits is that you aren’t always building an Italeri product. Their recent 1/72 Lockheed Hudson is largely MPM moldings and their 1/48 Spitfire IX is the Occidental kit. Many of their kits these days go back to Esci kits from the early and mid 80s.
While I have no experience with Trumpeter kits, my understanding is that most of them are original moldings that Trumpeter made and designed themselves, notable exceptions being the 1/72 Westland Wyvern and YF-107 Ultra Sabre, both of which were originally done by a Japanese outfit called Monochrome.
Thanks for the info berny. I have built Italeri armor so I know what to expect and I have one Trumpeter armor kit that I’m told will have some issues with, which really doesn’t bother me after all we are modelers. Sometimes manufacturers tend to make better kits of armor than say ships or aircraft. This is what I’m wondering about. I have built aircraft all my life and just started this year to build amor. Thanks again.