Hi all,
can anyone shed any light on the Kitech models. I know they are copies of other companies, and I also know their Sea Fury was the Hobbycraft kit. But what other brands are they copying and how good are they? They have been flooding the E-bay market for sometime now and they have some kits I’m interesed in. Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers Leo
If I’m not mistaken, I think they bought out the molds for the old Airwolf Helicopter kit from AMT/Ertl. But other than that, I’ve got no clue
I have not bought any personally but I know others here on the forum have and felt that for the price they were fair value for the money. The only one in particular that I can recall was Jon (jwb) bought one of the 1/48 spitfires and was favorably impressed. Can’t remember which variant it was though.
Where can these be found? Other than evilbay. do they have a website?
I have a 1/32 scale F-86 Saber that us supposed to be a copy of the Academy 1/48 scale kit but sized up. I bought it at my LHS. The kit is sure not perfect but can be built into a good model with the help of some resin parts from AMS.
Mckay[C):-)]
Their Su-27 in 1/48 is a copy of an Academy kit (their instruction manual looks like a photocopy of the Academy one). The fit is not great, the transparent canopy is complete rubbish, and the painting guide was a bit confusing (two different shades of blue both represented by white areas on the overall model finish guide).
I can’t speak for their more recent aircraft models, but I did build their 1/48th scale Merkava armor kit, and it was truly attrocious.
I have their 1/72 YF-22 in the stash. It looks very much like the Italeri kit of the same subject, and is quite cleanly and crisply moulded, with good decals. I have a vague notion that one day it might form part of a ‘what-if’ Luftwaffe spaceship.
I think they are part of the Zhengdefu group of brands, who specialise in producing unofficial copies of other firms’ products which are then sold at low prices. In Europe, they can be found from time to time in the Lidl chain of discount supermarkets.
Cheers,
Chris.
I’ve been building a few Kitech 1/72 F-14s over the last few months. The F-14A is definitely a reboxed Italeri mould, the D is either Academy or Hasegawa. Their EA-6B is also the older Hasegawa mould (with the raised panel lines). I think their Hind F is an Italeri mould as well. The 1/48 F-111 variants are the Academy kits.
As some have already said, some of the moulds are poor copies or are just wearing thin, flash and washed-out detail are prevalent. However, I’ve bought quite a few kits via eBay including the Airwolf, Blue Thunder, those F-14s and some 1/72 Migs and the ones I have are reasonable builds. I’ve had no major fit problems with any of them. Truthfully, I’ve had worse problems with some Airfix, Esci and older Revell kits.
The only concern I have with these is the poorer quality decal sheets with each kit. For a quick OOB build, they’d probably suffice. But it’s worth getting an accurate aftermarket sheet with the money saved from buying the cheaper Kitech.
Andy
I have their F-84 in 1/48 sitting in my stash. Looks like a good kit. I know that someone on this site built it in the last year or so and had generally kind words regarding the quality of that kit, plus there was a review of that kit in an issue of FSM several months back (which is what prompted me to get that kit in addition to my liking of the airframe).
They have a decent Vietnam Loach. But other than that, I dont know. I’ve only built the loach.
I’m awaiting a Kitech Mig-17 that I got on ebay. I’m definitely not expecting much, however, because it was so cheap. I did get an Aeromaster sheet to go with it, so we’ll see how it turns out…
Mckay, I may be wrong, but are you sure your not thinking of the Kinetic F86? just wondering…Harv