A question about the quality of the model manufacturer

[YenChih Lin]

Hi,
I need some first-hand experience of the quality of some model-manufacturers. I just only know Revell, AMT-ERTL and Tamiya. In my opinion, Revell and AMT have fluctuating quality concerning models. I've seen good models, and some bad models, that lacks in details. Tamiya is one of those top manufacturers, who cares about details, though I only saw them and never built one (Racing isn't my type).

Can anyone tell me about the quality of Italeri, Testors, Hasegawa, Dragon and Academy?

How detailed are they? How are the assembly instructions written? Do you have to put your hand on some models beforehand, because of some excess?

Can you strongly recommend one of them where you can the company's line of military or cars etc... are excellent?

Thanks

 

[division 6]

May I suggest doing some reading on the Model forums that are dedicated to the type you are interested in.

I do a bit of reading on these sites and have found a lot of info that may help you including one company repackaging another's.

http://cs.finescale.com/forums/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=3
http://www.hyperscale.com/

 

[madrobot]

Hi,
I need some first-hand experience of the quality of some model-manufacturers. I just only know Revell, AMT-ERTL and Tamiya. In my opinion, Revell and AMT have fluctuating quality concerning models. I've seen good models, and some bad models, that lacks in details. Tamiya is one of those top manufacturers, who cares about details, though I only saw them and never built one (Racing isn't my type).

Can anyone tell me about the quality of Italeri, Testors, Hasegawa, Dragon and Academy?

How detailed are they? How are the assembly instructions written? Do you have to put your hand on some models beforehand, because of some excess?

Can you strongly recommend one of them where you can the company's line of military or cars etc... are excellent?

Thanks

Italeri - Gut.
Testors-Schlect.
Hasegawa- Schon
Dragon- Nicht Zu Viel
Academy- :cry

 

[Vaderman]

Hmmm. Helpful as Scheiße!
LOL!

I have no experience with these, that I know of, just the brands you mentioned and garage kits. There was another vinyl kit manufacturer in Japan that was very good, I thought it was Kotobukiya but I'm not sure. I remember having a Klingon Bird-of-Prey kit from them that was great. I also have in a bag somewhere an 2' tall terminator in vinyl and white metal that was possibly the same company, that is a great kit I may actually build one decade.

Italeri - Gut.
Testors-Schlect.
Hasegawa- Schon
Dragon- Nicht Zu Viel
Academy- :cry

 

[Krachenvogel]

Quality will vary for any manufacturer depending on the age of the kit. Here are some of my general opinions, but it would be easier to zero-in on a useful answer if we knew what subjects you are interested in (tanks, airplanes, cars, etc.)

Italeri - armor kits are nice and detailed, if a bit fiddly to work on, aircraft range from OK to quite nice, but not stellar

Hasegawa - Older kits are so-so, but anything from, oh, the late 1980's onward are excellent, though sometimes over-complicated

Dragon - early efforts a bit dodgy, but newer armor kits are spectacular

Academy - early kits were Tamiya knock-offs, newer ones are variable in quality but my experiences have generally been good

Testors - most of these are re-boxed Italeri or Fujimi kits

 

[Gigatron]

Italeri - hit or miss. Sometimes the kit is great, sometimes you wonder if they ever looked at the real thing before making a model of it.

Hasegawa - newer stuff is fantastic. Older stuff tends to have raised panel lines and detail is sketchy.

Dragon - I don't build armor, but the armor guys seem to love it.

Academy - great kits, detail is sometimes lacking, decals are garbage. decals seem like they're printed on styrene, they're so thick.

Testors - testors should stick to making paint and glue.

Tamiya makes a great kit. Great fit, great detail and great decals.

Trumpeter makes an overpriced kit. They're decent, but not for the price they charge.

Eduard's makes a nice kit; it's highly detailed, come with a lot of PE and decals go down nice. BUT, fit is terrible. It's almost like they design kits in sub-assemblies, with no intention of the assemblies going together. Like the cockpit will have great deatil and the engine will have great detail, but good luck getting them to fit in the fuselage.


For more detailed whining about other kits, head on over to www.finescale.com :lol

-Fred

 

[YenChih Lin]

Here are some of my general opinions, but it would be easier to zero-in on a useful answer if we knew what subjects you are interested in (tanks, airplanes, cars, etc.)

I don't have a specific subject, it depends what kind of model that is. I'm having for example an unbuilt kit of the Revell concept car Pontiac Banshee VI 1988, or had (when I was younger and not very well in model-kit building) a F-117A, which I plan to reacquire to completely building it with proper paint job and all the stuff to make it very realistic. I still have the first run MPC Knight Rider 1-0675 model with the correct fender vents, that I bought on ebay (see smallartworks.ca go to gallery with the KITT model for more details, what I found out and posted to Jim). A finished Knight Rider 2000 red KITT and some kits laying at a friends home, that has to be retrieved from the states and be build (Airwolf, Area51 UFO Lazar "Sportmodel").

Again thank you all for the help and rough orientation :thumbsup.

So what kind of subject do you guys have?

 

[Treadwell]

Muddying the waters is the fact that companies will sell old molds to other companies who then re-release the kit. So sometimes whoever is releasing a model at the time might not be to "blame" for its inadequacies.

 

[division 6]

So what kind of subject do you guys have?

In the past, Everything.
Mainly planes and Sci Fi but also ships (sailing and modern), cars, figures, real space, subs, etc...

Been away from models for some time but decided to get back into them since I now live in the middle of nowhere.
I still have a closet full to build (mainly Star Wars / Trek)
but in the last year I have bought,

Revell 1/72 Gato WWII Sub. (all 52" of her :eek)
2 Academy 1/72 PBY-5/5A Catalina's
Halcyon 1/144 Narcissus
Lindberg 1/? Flying Dutchman
Revell 1/72 Ghost Ship / Jolly Roger (Disney Chicken of the Sea):lol
couple weeks ago got the re-issue Revell 1/48 PBY-5A Catalina (PBY/OA-10A)
Also have over 2 dozen resin Garage kit's.(figures)

E...

 

[Gigatron]

I do wwII aviation. You can search the modeling forum for some of my past builds. I give the manufacturer for each kit in the thread, so you can get an idea of what to expect.

-Fred

 

[DarkKnight]

Hmmm. Helpful as Scheiße!
LOL!

I have no experience with these, that I know of, just the brands you mentioned and garage kits. There was another vinyl kit manufacturer in Japan that was very good, I thought it was Kotobukiya but I'm not sure. I remember having a Klingon Bird-of-Prey kit from them that was great. I also have in a bag somewhere an 2' tall terminator in vinyl and white metal that was possibly the same company, that is a great kit I may actually build one decade.

Argonauts perhaps?

 

[Aegis159]

I had fun working with some of these mfgs on a daily basis. As Treadwell mentioned, ALOT of kits get handed around considerably, so who's making it at this moment might not of been who originally created the molds.

Personally, any recent pieces by Hasegawa, Tamiya, and Dragon have been superb kits. Academy and Fujimi have some excellent offerings as well, but their older pieces have had fit and finish issues. Italeri, Revell/Monogram and AMT/ERTL are middle of the road... it really depends on how long they've had a particular mold on the market.

Even the middle of the road kits can be made to shine though thanks to the huge aftermarket parts offerings that are out there now. Revell's old 1/48 A-6E kit is a perfect example. the fuse was good overall, details in the right place, parts fit well, but the landing gear and cockpit were pathetic. Well, along comes Verlinden with an aftermarket kit for the cockpit and landing gear as well as other parts that were lacking on the kit. Needless to say adding the Verlinden kit added a WHOLE bunch to the model.

So if you're looking at a particular model in a particular scale and you can only find it from one mfg that is questionable, make sure to look around to see if companies like Eduardo and Verlinden have aftermarket kits for it.

 

[KnightAsylum]

Not that useful I know but as a model building obsessed kid I thought that AMT model were the worst by far. I had more trouble with them - bad parts on trees, parts not fitting right, bad instructions, etc. At least in the 70's & early 80's:rolleyes