I have been modeling for many years and have mostly done cars and aircraft (I work at a car dealer and was in the USAF), but want to try some armor and maybe dioramas.
I know that every manufacturer has put out kits that are wonderfully engineered and a real pleasure to put together and kits that are just plain terrible. I know that Tamiya, generally, produce very high quality kits. Does anyone have any personal tales about kits that were terrible or excellent and generally companies to stay away from?
DML is a good company, but their newer multi media kits tend to be “graduate level” armor kits and not recommended for beginners. Very accurate and superbly detailed. Newer kits are highly recommended.
Italeri is a good all around company that gives you a good mix of quality and price. Some of their kits are reboxed from years ago so you should also do a cursary search on a particular kit prior to buying.
AFV Club has some outstanding stuff out. Newer kits are multimedia as well and aimed at experienced builders.
Academy used to be the Tamiya clone but has very nice kits out today.
Trumpeter has come a long way in 6 years. Newer kits are nice, older ones are terrible.
All kits manufacturers have had hits and misses. ALL of them. Typically older kits are now considered misses, though at the time they were all great. The best thing to do is go to Hyperscale and Modeling Madness and check out their reviews, Armorama and Missing Lynx, too. FSM also have Workbench Reviews on their home page. You need either the special code found in the magazines or be a subscriber.
The “Armor Guys” seem to be leaning towards Dragon as the kit of choice, though Italeri makes some kits nobody else bothers with.
Every so often we get a thread like this and people chime in with varying opinions. In my experience almost all kits can be built up to something quite nice, some require a bit more TLC, some are “add glue and shake” kits.
I’m currently struggling with a Dragon Skkfz 251/16 Flammpanzerwagen. Well engineered kit, though I must admit I’m scratching my head on a couple of pieces. They’re so tiny I can’t help but think they could have been molded in place. I have come to fear the dreaded “tweezerpault”! I’m also working on an old Revell car kit, and I’m wondering what they were thinking molding it out of such cheap sytrene. So go figure. Hopefully both will build up nicely and merit displaying on my shelves.
Edit: Rob is one of our resident experts on Armor, his opinion is well respected. His comment about “graduate level” clearly illustrates the frustration I’ve been experiencing! /edit
You really can’t go wrong with anything Tamiya. Their old kits are inexpensive and build up nicely.
Italeri is a great choice: low cost, generally accurate kits, and unusual subjects. Need some TLC.
Dragon makes good older kits. I built their JS II and it was my first time building indies. They went together perfectly. Hardly an ounce of putty either. Their Night Fighting Panther G is usually very cheap and an easy build. Does come with the love-them or hate-them indy tracks.
I’ve only built one Trumpeter kit, their M1 Abrams. Yuck is all I can say. Wasn’t the best fit by any means. There new KV looks outstanding in the box and I’ve heard nothing but great things of it.
I’ll second, or third (or fourth) what others have said, with a few exceptions:
The absolutel latest kits from Trumpeter seem to be great, the older ones are very bad.
I can’t stand Dragon, I find their instructions to be vague, and the fit of their parts to be shoddy at best. However, I have apparently only built their older kits.
Beware oddball named companies (Alan, Zvedya, ICM) they often re-box other makers worn out kits.
To begin with, Tamiya, after you get some experience, you cna branch out.
yeah everyone is going to have their favourites depending on what you’re into. My advice, pick a kit, build it up, and if you have any modelling experience, put them to good use! A kit is only as good as YOU the maker wants it to be. I mean, Trumpeter has some junk stuff out there and sometimes the “old” kits can be hard to pick out if you don’t know what you’re looking at! If you want PE, and all the glitz and glamour, Dragon is by far the best buy, with AFV close on it’s tails. Again it all depends on what you want to build, your budget and your experience. I myself like Academy kits, but that’s because they are the only company that has an extensive Israeli Armour selection, and my favourite resin company makes the conversions for them so my options are very open in this respect. I choose to go for the resin and Photo etch and the whole shebang because I’ve become a victim of advanced modellers syndrome, as has my wallet! However, that being said, I still wouldn’t shrug off a Tamiya kit as they are great, and most of the time are “shake and bake” kits…with a PE set you usually get a very accurate model, and their line of stuff is huge! Good luck in your choice and keep us posted!
This thread has gotten me to thinking. Of all the kits I built, there hasn’t been one that didn’t build. The most inaccurate would have to be Tamiya’s M36. Since you’ve built for some time already, I think you’ll be fine with just about any current production kit. Like James said, just explore. Find a vehicle you like, like James and his Merks[:)], and find a manufacturer that makes it. Good luck.[:)]
Sounds like someone needs to tackle the Zvezda T-60 light tank or the Tauro Fiat 3000 light tank. Those two kits will give you fits because they don’t.
I did miss some of the nicer manufacturers that produce expensive kits. Fine Molds specializes in WW2 Imperial Japanese Army tanks. They are some of the nicest kits on the market but cost around $45-50 for a tank that can fit on the back of a Sherman tank.
Tasca/Bego is another expensive company that produces a couple of extremely nice small tank kits. They make the Panzer II Luchs early and late and a real nice Kubelwagen.
Tristar is another up and coming company. They make expensive but nice kits. Their Panzer I kit is a gem. They’ve also released a pair of early Panzer IV kits, the Ausf C (limited) and Ausf D.
As I said before, your best bet is to ask about a particular kit before purchasing.
No thank you, Rob.[:)] I did build the M3A1 Scout Car from Zvezda. I think it was actually an Italeri design. There weren’t any problems with it other than some flash, as far as building it was concerned.
Most have said it all. The mainstream kits like DML, Trumpeter, AFV, Tamiya, Italeri all have winners.(and losers) Anything comming out of eastern europe, Alan, Zvezda, CMK, Maquette, will separate the model builders from the model assemblers. They can build up into a nice kit and I’ve seen some real nice pieces of work form some excellent model builders. Run, don’t walk away from Hellers armor. Although I would put them in the same class as the Eastern European manufacturers. Though they do a pretty fair job on some of their other areas. You’ll find the occasional Testors, Airfix and maybe even Monogram armor kits out there. Save your pennies and go for the more recent releases from the first group.
Once you feel comfortable, look at some of the specialty manufacturers. The limited run resin kits and other multi media productions can offer some real challenges and interesting subject matter.
What it comes down to is what you want to do. Rob makes an excellent point, with this forum you have any number of model builders that have probobly built, banged, bombed or melted any number of kits on the market, both old and new. They can tell you its pit falls, pluses and whether or not you should put a therapist on retainer. The forum and its members are as important a tool as your x-acto knife when it comes to model building. While the library may give an inexhaustable resource for research on your subject matter, the forum is eqaully valuable as a resource regarding the mechanics of your build.You would be remis if you did not take advantage of it. Take the info offered and decide if the kit you want or have is what you wnat to do. Don’t let your expectations overshadow your skill level and above all have a good time and be happy with your build. There are no failures, only unrealized expectations and previously built models that help you build up your skill set for the next project.
Thanks for your advice, and when I finish the awful Revell F18c kit currently on the bench, I’ll do some research and purchase an armor kit and see what happens. I’ve got my eye on an AAVP71AI or an M113A2 from Tamiya. I have a daughter in the Army stationed in Korea and a son in the Marines stationed in Iraq, so I’m not sure what to do first. Maybe I’ll do both!!