Does anyone have an opinion on Italeri models? I have never built one and I have my eye on a B-52-H. I was wondering about the quality of them vs other model companies?
Thanks in advance!
Hi there, I have only built one Italeri kit it is an 1/48 F-22. I really like Italeri. I has a great color guide, lots of locating pins and some operational features. But the parts don’t fit very good, the interior isn’t that much just a seat and instrument panel, and the plastic is kind of soft. The Raptor I have had a 1/8 inch seam behind the cockpit that took along time to fill.
But to me it came out pretty good.
Italeri is a company that you go to when there isn’t another kit in that scale or subject. Not that they’re bad, but on many, if not most of their subjects, there’s usually a better kit out there. Every once in a while they make a gem, like their 1/72 A-10. But with the Hobby Boss kit on the horizon, that may be dethroned. They also have some tolling from other mfgs. Namely Esci, they bought a lot of their old ones. Thus, their 1/72 F-5As are outstading little kits. So it’s pretty hit and miss. And on some, the Italeri kit is the only one available, like the Gripen. It’s a good kit, but could be much better. It’s better to have an Italeri Gripen kit than none at all. My big complaint about their kits is fit. It’s a lot of work to get the together many times. Second would be mold quality. Their panel lines are deep and wide, not the best. So in the case of your B-52, it’s not an Italeri kit at all, it’s an AMT mold, that they proprieted. Again, it’s good, but needs work. But it’s the only game in town.
The old AMT (now Italeri) B-52G and H are fairly decent kits, but do have their problems. The interior is reasonably nice with pilot, copilot, gunner & EWO positions plus bunk, porta potti, etc, but most of this is not visible once you put the fuselage together. The landing gear is very basic with almost no detail in the wells. The bomb bay does not open and the wings are straight out if built stock. This is OK for an in flight version, but lacks the BUFFs characteristic wing droop on the ground. The tail guns are poor to fair while the engine pods are OK at first glance, but are misshapen to some extent. The flaps are not moveable. There is what is called the “Early” G with GAM-77/AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles as well as a late G with EVS, Phase VI tail extension and ALCM missile on the wing pylons. The H is only the late model with EVS, Phase VI and some kind of ALCMs.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
Italeri is a very respectable kit company. They have a whole portfolio of models, a/c least among them, that are stellar, like the C-119, that not only will you not find anywhere else, but are superior. Also the U-2 and TR1 and all of the SR-71 variants.
As for BUFFS: Yardbird is your guy, but, I’ve built the Revell 1/72 version and it has really serious faults, in the wheel wells, lack of bomb bays.
Bill
Well At least the Revell kit has a opening bomb bay. Just to add a bomb bay to the AMT kit requires major surgery. The cockpit detail is very similar to the KC-135 kit that AMT released (no they don’t use the same cockpit) that the detail is hidden so you would have to remove the ejection seat panels just to view some of the cockpit. To add a bomb bay to a Revell B-52 wouldn’t be much of a problem due to the open bomb bay. Though you would need alot of 1/72 scale Mk82 or Mk117 bombs to fill out the bomb clips that would go into the bomb bay.
I agree with Bill here - Italeri puts out a decent product for the price point, and if one is not a “rivet counter”, the detail is acceptable, IMHO. I have built the C-119 that Bill references, and it is a little gem! Many Italeri kits are re-boxes of other companies, but so are a lot of Revell and others. While the Trumpy/Tami/Hase kits are often engineering marvels (especially Trumpy), the price is a consideration (for me, at least) and Italeri/Testors/Hobby Boss often fills the bill at 1/3 the price or less. Just my [2c] !
Brian [C):-)]
When is the last time Testors released any new models anyways? And Italeri/Testors are basically the same company and Italeri’s painting charts call out Model Master colors. And as for Trumpeter their A-7 looks like a upsized Hasegawa 1/48 scale A-7. I’m not knocking the Trumpeter A-7.
I love Italeri! Yes, there are some fit problems (as is true for almost every kit I’ve built), but I love the engraved panel lines and flash-free parts. The only Italeri kit I’ve struggled with is the 1/48 Eurofighter. The gap between the fuselage and wings was HUGE! Even their 1/48 Tornado, which all reviews I’ve seen are negative, went together like a dream for me. That being said, their paint guides leave a lot to be desired. I never trust them. Sometimes the guide on the back or side of the box conflicts with the instructions inside. For example, the TU-22M Backfire box says to use dark gull gray for the overall color, but the instructions say to use flat gull gray. I used the flat gull gray, and I’m happy. The only time the paint guide REALLY failed me was with their Mig-23. I wanted to build the Cuban version, but the paintguide had both camouflage colors listed as pale green. I ended up using bright blue for the other color. It didn’t come out looking too good, but it’s still up on my shelf…
Now that I think about it some more, the 1/48 Tornado did have one big problem…no pins or pinholes on the fuel tanks or pylons!!
I’ve built one Italeri kit, a 1/48 F-14A. It wasn’t a bad kit though it lacked a lot of good detail. But what did I really care? I intended to build that one up along with a 1/144 offering from DML and mount on a wall plaque, so detail wasn’t really something I was concerned about.
I am currently working on a Spitfire for the Secret Santa GB (thanks Dave!). This kit also is not as detailed as the Tamiya but is more detailed than the old Monogram kit.
I also have their new Tigercat in my stash, which I understand is the old AMT mold. Looks like a good kit, but again, not very detailed.
They are good kits for the money.
Thank you all for the great information on Italeri. It sounds like they are a good deal for the price but if you are looking for lots of detail you might have to go elsewhere.
No, Testors and Italeri are different companies. Testors is American, Italeri, Italian. They’ve just shared a partnership for decades. All the Testors kits are actually Italeri reboxes, and has been that way for eons. Testors doesn’t release any ‘new’ kits, because they’ve chosen not to rebox any more of Italeri’s kits. This is the reason you find TMM paint #s in Italeri kits.