I was recently talking to a man at a flea market who was selling built kits (often with scratchbuilt hangers). He said some were metal. Are these kits any good? Who are the best metal kit manufacturers?
The word is diecast models…there are several good manufacturers, Corgi comes to mind for one. The more expensive, generally the more and accurate details…just like in plastics…well in some cases.
Oh, but you still put them together, right? Do you know about The Aviation Archive? My local shop has a lot of them, and I’m curious.
Sherblock posted: Who are the best metal kit manufacturers?
I don’t have a clue as to who is the “best”, but not all die-cast metal (analogous to injection moulding for plastic) models are pre-built. Check out Toys & More by Winterkamp or this review: http://www.landships.freeservers.com/fsf_42cm_bigbertha_review.htm
If you are looking for metal kits that you assemble you will have a hard time with that. Casadio made kits for a while but that line has been discontinued. Testors offered a few diecast kits some years ago and then stopped. Once in a while you cans find one on Ebay but not that often. I still have’nt started on my Casadio Spitfire because I’m saving it for when I retire if that day ever comes.
The venture Testor’s entered failed because the supplier/artist who produced them wasn’t too good at business. Testors from what I heard lost their butts on that deal. You can’t release four very popular subjects followed by four not popular ones and expect those to sell to cover the costs of the next run. Poor Planning = Poor Performance
I built their 190kit when I got it. It seems that the manufacturer use Fujimi’s 190 for the pattern. Fujimi’s parts fit it in every way and it even had the same interior. Still, it made a nice looking bird when it was finished.
A good example of diecast aircraft kit can be found at WaiHong’s site. The Testors kit was built to be USS Indepences’s CAC’s bird “Chippy Ho” F-18A Hornet.
Die-cast models are already assembled and ready to display. “Aviation Archive” is one of Corgi’s lines, AFAIK, Corgi is the biggest, but not always the most detailed. I have quite a diecast collection I’ve built over the years with a/c from Corgi, Matchbox, Hobby Master, Dragon, etc. IMO, Hobby Master makes some of the most detailed models out there. Most are in 1/72, some in 1/48, and a few in 1/32. After you get past 1/72, they are pretty heavy. Most can be displayed gear down, or on an enclosed stand gear-up. Matchbox never had the gear-down option, but were very good models. Hope this helps!
Disagree. Die casting is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. Yes, most die-cast models are pre-built, but not all. For example, this kit [below] is sold unfinished and is a mixture of die-cast & resin parts:
