I’m all for supporting my local hobby shop, but where I live there is only one and his selection is sparse to say the least. His prices on what he does have, I think, are too high. For example, there is a Tamiya M-1A1 for $43. Whether he has high overhead or he has to pay numerous middlemen to receive his goods, that’s not my problem.
Anyway, anyone here recommend an online retailer for kits?..mainly armor. I’m basically interested in Tamiya, Academy and Italeri.
Another question? Are there any other good kit designers out there? I’ve taken a LONG break from building models and was wondering about the others, such as…Heller, Trumpeter, etc…any other ones you have had a good experience with?
Thanks for reading this and taking the time to respond. It’s much appreciated. Take care everyone! [:D]
Heller kits are not bad, maybe a bit overly complicated… Their armor catalogue is still very thin, but they have interesting subjects. Their Leclerc is a pre-production item, so there would be some work to do in order to get a production model.
Revell-Germany kits are much superior in quality, and I can only recommend those, but most of their stuff is modern German vehicles.
Italeri can be very good, or sometimes not as good, depending on the origin of the molds as some Zvezda kits are marketed under Italeri’s label and those are sometimes good, sometimes bad… (it’s mostly the fit of the parts that is the problem, rather than the details).
There are lots of other decent model manufacturers from Eastern Europe and the old Soviet Union, such as Allan, Skif.
Hi Bruce - I too live in a smaller city where there is only one mom-and-pop hobby shop and it carries everything from craft/art supplies to R/C and trains to plastic kits. They charge full retail and their selection of kits is quite limited. I go in there at times to pick up Model Master paints (mainly common colors) or the FSM special issues. To find kits that interest me, I must go to a mail order or online retailer. I use GreatModels.com, but what I recommend is to look at the advertisers in FineScale Modeler. You may find someone else who is better suited to your needs. Good luck!
Their prices are great, and shipping is only a litlle more than from some place in the US… I paid $7 for 2 models from Texas, and $9.50 for 2 from Japan!
I’m surprised no one told you about Roll Models.Very good selection and prices that beat most everyone. I check everyones prices before I plunk down my cash. Roll models wins 9 out of 10 times!
For resin kits and conversion kits, p/e sets, aftermarket barrels as well as Tamiya, DML and others try www.missionmodels.com Great customer service and excellent shipping.
I have no ties to this website, just a very satisfied customer.