Would appreciate comments from anyone that has built a kit from the MPM line as far as the quality of the kit etc and are they worth buying.
I gave all of mine away, years ago. I’ve heard mixed reviews from others who built them. But that was a number of years back. Be interesting to hear more recent opinions.
MPM kits tend to be limited run injection molded with reasonably good detail. They do take some modeling skills but with some effort build up into nice kits. Their expert series kits include resin and PE sets. They do not have locator pins, tend to have some heavy flash, may experience some fit issues, usually have fairly good instructions and good decals. They also have an older line of Vacuform multimedia kits that require some real work but build up into really unusual models. Attached is an image of the expert series 1/48 Fw-189 kit I built a few years ago. MPM is the parent company for Hi Planes Limited, Azur, Condor, Special Hobby and CMK. They also do some stuff for Fonderie Miniatures. Exactly which kit or kits are you considering?
And this is one of the older vac kits.
I have reviewed several of their kits and done a few full construction features on my website.
As Swanny says, MPM have been around a long while and have been evolving steadily.
Most recently, they seem to be on a move out of the multi media realm into full styrene kits. Their 1/72 Boulton Paul Defiants and the more recent 1/72 Lockheed Hudson were both full styrene.
I have their recent 1/72 Hawker tempest Mk.II (from the Special Hobby range) just started and it looks quite good on the sprues and so far there are no fit issues. The plastic is a touch soft for my liking and I will probably replace the main gear legs and prop with stuff from the spares box but other than that I intend it to be an out of the box build.
I’ve got their 1:48 Grief, and although I’ve not started it yet, it looks very nice on the sprues. Can’t comment on the rest of their range though.
Swanny, the kit is MPM 1 /72 scale, #72036, Limited production, Injection Molded with photo etched parts, of the Sikorsky R-5 / H-5 Helicopter. Looks like the one that was shown in the movie " Bridges at Toko Ri " with William Holden. Might you be familiar with this kit ? Do not know if this is one of their newer production runs or a kit from way back when and may not be worth the money. Input would be appreciated from anyone.
I build mostly 1/48 scale kits, I am familiar with the subject though. If you already have some modeling experience under your belt and feel comfortable working with resin and pe materials then I would say buy the kit and have fun.
Glad you asked the question, Dennis! Thanks to Matt’s replies, I’ll be looking into MPM kits in the future.
Most of their newer releases are very good. Still limited run in some ways, but getting closer to main stream all the time. They do require more work than the average Hasegawa/Tamiya kit, but they offer subjects not available any where else. Many of their early releases were pretty bad however, so be cautious.
Regrds, Rick