I’m finally getting back into scale modeling again after taking almost 16 years off (“Real Life” got in the way). I was an avid WWII/Vietnam era armor/artillery builder and most of my time was spent with Tamiya kits. I found their quality to be exceptional. My interests this time around lies with U.S. WWII aircraft. However, i want to build a 1/32 scale model and Tamiya’s offerings are almost non-existent in that grouping. I came across a Dragon P-51 that’s complete with photo-etched parts etc that looks quite detailed. However, i have no experience with that brand. How does it compare? Is it more like a Revell? My experience with Revell hasn’t been so pleasant as most of my time is spent fighting to get the bleepin’ kit to go together correctly when things just don’t fit. On that what other brands (if any) can compare to Tamiya in quality? I know sometimes a brand might have an uncharacteristically good kit but overall can someone do a comparison for me? I think it would be enlightening… thanks!
First of all, welcome back to the fabulous life of modelling!
in my opinion the quality overall has dramatically improved over the past years. In general you are better of with recently released kits. I sometimes buy second hand that date back quit a few years and sometimes I am surprised how quality improved.
I’d see what I want to build first and in which scale, for example 1/32 P 51, and then ask (on this forum) what people think is the best kit available.
Happy humting and good luck with your build (post some pics of the result please)
First off [#welcome] to the forums
I wouldn’t do the Dragon 1/32 P-51 because although it is detailed there is supposedly a bunch of problems with it. But with some TLC I’m sure it would turn out pretty good, probably not as bad as Monogram.
For US WWII Trumpeter has numerous offerings, I’m building their F4F-4 wildcat and it’s great.
I’ve heard there dauntless and vindicator kits are good.
that’s a great website for reviews and there are many more.
The opinions on the Dragon P-51 range all over the map. It’s a new kit that just came out a month ago. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but I think some people are unhappy because it is not perfect. The surface detail appears to be overdone and there have been complaints about not enough detail in the wheel wells.
I think this review does a good job weighing the pros and cons: http://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/Kits/WW2/dragon/p51/p51.htm
There are only two other 1/32 P-51s. One is the Hasegawa kit, which sells for the same price as the Dragon kit and is over 30 years old. It was one of the best of its day, but modern technology has passed it by.
The other kit has been released by 3 makers: Tomy, Swallow, and Dyusha. It has nice surface detail, but is otherwise a terrible kit. It was designed to have a motor and the interior detail is horrible.
I’m surprised you aren’t familiar with Dragon. It’s largely responsible for pushing Tamiya out of the 1/35 armor market. The reason Tamiya is concentrating on 1/48 armor these days is because the competition in 1/35 is too intense. There are many good makers of 1/35 armor these days, but Dragon is one of the leaders. The most recent Dragon armor kits are loaded with extras.
As far as other 1/32 aircraft kits go, there were essentially two makers until the late 1990s: Hasegawa and Revell (with a few that had a few kits here and there). Neither released any new mold kits between the late 70s and recent years. Most of Revells molds have been retired at this point. Some of those old kits are still the only game in town for some subjects such as the P-47. They are also the only kit maker to ever make an early George, a Tony, or Raiden in 1/32. The Raiden and Tony were probably the best 1/32 scale kits Revell ever made. All 3 of the above kits go for big bucks on Ebay because the molds were lost when the freighter they were on sank.
Hasegawa has released a few new mold kits in recent years. The most confusing is the Fw-190 series. Their 1st 1/32 scale kit was a Fw-190A, but they recently released a series of all new Fw-190As, as well as an F8, and a D9. There is a High Tech D9, which is the old kit with some new parts, but the new D9 is an all new kit.
Among the other new kits are a Ju-87 (about a year old), a Ki-84, and a series of Me-109Gs and a K. All the new mold Hasegawa kits are excellent. I read a review of the Ki-84 that said it was the easiest to build kit he has ever worked on. If I recall correctly, all the other Hasegawa 1/32 scale kits are old molds. However, many are still very good if you take into account their age. The Pro Modeller Me-109G Trop is a reboxing of the Hasegawa kit and definitely worth the money.
Trumpeter’s quality is all over the map. (Hobbycraft has reboxed some Trumpeter kits and they are often cheaper than the Trumpeter equivalent.) The quality of Trumpeter molds is very modern. They use the new high pressure molding techniques that result in high levels of detail. Trumpeter is also famous for including a lot of extras in their kits like photo etch and clear cowlings. The level of detail in their kits is also very high. Almost all of the 1/32 scale kits have complete engines and many have gun bay detail.
Their early kits had fit problems, but they began to work those out after a few kits. They still aren’t as perfect as Tamiya, but their newer kits are much better. Where they have had the most problem though is in their research. They have glaring problems in some details. The F4U has the wrong shape to the front landing gear doors, the cowling flaps need work, the -1 has a cockpit floor, which the original did not, etc. Their earlier kits also had these metal hinges to the control surfaces that never worked right. I haven’t heard from a single modeler who ever got them to work.
Around the Mig-3 kit, they started doing away with the hinges. The control surfaces are still separate, but they just glue into place. The last few 1/32 scale kits have been excellent. The TBF/TBM is just plain amazing. The SBD is also very good as is the Me-262.
If I recall correctly, the Mig-3 is the only one of their 1/32 scale kits I’ve seen that doesn’t have an engine.
Some of their mid-development kits had some weird things too. The 1/32 P-38 comes with 2 amazing looking Allison engines, but no way to show them off without cutting up the nacelles. The P-38 is a far nicer kit than the old Revell offering, so I’m not complaining.
If your interest is WW II, you probably won’t run into their earliest kits, which were some Chinese jets and the A-10. The A-10 builds into a nice kit, but it takes a lot of work. I’m trying to recall what their first 1/32 WW II kit was. It was either the F4F or the F4U. I know their first two 1/24 scale kits were the P-51 and the Spitfire, both of which had some major problems.
Bill