Please keep in mind, I am relatively new to armor modeling (I think that I've built around 12 models). My question is - What are the best brands of models to buy? So far I have to say that I appreciate Academy the most. I have only built Tamiya, Italeri & Academy brand models. I keep seeing good looking kits going fairly cheap on Ebay but I hesitate on buying any because I'm not sure of the quality.

Thanks for any and all advice - it's greatly appreciated!

From what I have read on this forum, one company may be fantastic with some of their models and totally bite with others as far as fit, accuracy, and quality. What you may want to do is ask for example who makes the best M1A1?

Don

I would also put DML along with the others you mention. Of course it is best to read reviews on any kit you would like to buy, but, they are not always available. The manufactures mentioned give good value for your money. I have also purchased other manufactures kits because they where not available in any other form. Actually, I usually buy a kit because I like the vehicle so the amount of work isn'really a factor. Revell also makes some kits, buI I feel they are more spotty in quality than the others.
capnjock

I think it's a matter of tastes.
I always preferred Tamiya, but I also appreciated Skybow, Accurate Armour and Hasegawa (for planes)
I think quality is rising (together with prices!) so many other brands are getting everyday better.
What about aftermarket upgrades?
I started with Verlinden, back in the years when he was the only one, now I see a lot of new brands...Eduard, Legend, Friulmodellismo just to say a couple...which one is the best?

Yes Tamiya,Academy are usually really good, You need to make sure that the tamiya kits arent the reissue ones, I think you can tell by the part numbers. The old ones were off a bit and the details were quite bad. Italeri is ok, some of the stuff i have done by them I really wasnt impressed with, DML I feel make great kits. They come with individual track links and the details are there, they havent dissappointed me yet Kevin

FineMolds is another.

i would recommend;

AFV club, ive never been anything but impressed by thier kits, they also usually have metal barrels :-)

tamiya, most of their kits are excellent, some of the old ones are bad though so watch out for them

italeri, they are usually cheaper than most, and some of their newer kits are spot on, ive got their DUKW and crusader mk1 at the monent and both are superb

DML dont do much for me, i dont like the subject choice of most of thier kits, and the ones i have built were'nt that great.

revell, like italeri they are cheaper, but usually good quality,

skybow, superb kits, amoungst the best going, but they have gone out of buisiness, but luckily AFV club will start using thier moulds

as for aftermarket items, accurate armour, ultracast, eduard, jordi rubio, caliber 35, and vp are all ecellent imho

cheers

joe

It always depends on what youre looking for , if price matters , and what you really want to build. I mean if youre going to buy 10 AM PE sets anyway for your armor you dont have to pay a double price one instead of a Trumpeter which is half price, cause any way you will scratch and convert and do all this stuff.
If you look for a good model without problems and willing to pay a lil more then AFV, The newer Tamiya, and Academy are very good as Dragon also. Trumpeter though cheap has very good models with good details and many parts .
I havent been impressed by many Italeri kits but they re cheap enough so you can make some more effort and it is worth .
If you go to planes Hasegawa is one very nice company and i believe Academy will also make the differenve with their kits.
For figures , i dont find anyone regular (no resin and small companies)good enough so you go for some Tamiya or maybe Dragon, and then you pay Verlinden and the rest but have nice quality and detail most of times.
On cars AMT, Monogramm, and Tamiya make good stuff, not only quality but interesting themes from old cars that you can build.
If i was about to build only 1/35 and strictly from 3 companies i would choose AFV for quality, Tamiya for many different themes , and Academy for really good models in fair price. Also would trade Trumpeter with Tamiya in 1-2 years when they will have their own big catalogue,

I'm a new guy in scale modeling, so my opinion doesn't count much... So far I've only used models from 4 manufacturers... ICM (from Ucrania-and I think they are already out of business since september), Italeri, Tamiya, and Heller... In my modest opinion. ICM is, from the 4 I've spoken, the best... and Heller is the worst (at least judging from the kits I've bought)...
But dbusack already said "one company may be fantastic with some of their models and totally bite with others as far as fit, accuracy, and quality"...Maybe it was the models I've bought and the other models from that manufacturer are good or bad...

You have to judge for yourself

See yaaa

ICM has relocated and is now known as Alanger.

Also, I'm surprised that I don't see folks mentioning Trumpeter. Their latest kits are fantastic and well above that of some companies that have been in business much longer.

Hi.. "You pays your money and you takes your chances." That's basically what it boils down to a lot of the time. Now there are companies out there with very good reputations, and consistantly make very good models, and I would have to list Tamiya as one of the top ones, but all makers manufacture duds occasionally. Whether it's by accident or simply the 'greed' factor--the latter most generally-a buyer does get 'took' occasionally. And sometimes we, as modelers, tend to get our expectations up a tad too much too, and if a kit is not quite up to par with those said expectations we become very diappointed, both in the kit and the company who produced it.

But then again, if we thing about it, some of these 'duds' can be made into some very fine models in their own right. But it does tend to make us a little 'gun shy' with the next kit we may what to by from this manufacturer.


Personally speaking, about the only company I'm sort of 'gun shy' on is Dragon at the moment. To me they tend to make a good kit and turn right around and make another that is, basically speaking, not quite up to the standards of their earlier products. And I'm really ticked off about some of the mistakes printed up on their instruction sheets. So much so that I never build a Dragon kit without first checking around on the Net. to see if anybody else has made a list of things on this kit to be on the watch-out for as being mis-labeled, printed upsidedown, or backwards and then make the corrections on the instructions before beginning. Kind of a sorry thing to have to do, but unfortunately.........I've found it pays to do so.

My best advise here would be to check into the various sites on the Net., esp. here, and ask around about a certain kit you are thinking about getting. This way you get the pros and cons of it and will pretty much know what you're geting into before putting down those hard-earned 'white man's frog skins' for a kit. Or at least have a general idea of what you may or may not be getting into with it.

Hope this helps just a little.

Take care, Sgirty.

I guess the thing that started me asking was that I bought a couple of Esci kits a while back and in my opinion they were generic as heck! I don't like the plastic multi-piece track that came with them (2 long connected pieces for the top and bottom and a few individual pieces to connect them). Also, there was very little detail and the figures looked like they came from an army playset from the toy department in Wal-Mart. I appreciate y'all's input, this will give me a little more to look for while shopping around. Thanks!

In my opinion, newer Tamiya kits are very good, AFV Club, Academy, DMLDragon, and the only Trumpeter kit I have are all good. Revell also has some nice stuff out there as well.

I have to agree with an earlier post that mentioned checking the date on some Tamiya kits as they have reissued some older stuff .

Most of the above companies listed are for armor, I like Tamiya and Hasagawa for A/C.

All the companies above are good ... but I think for somebody starting out it does pay to do a little research first before you buy a kit. Most sites have reviews of all the latest releases or build ups of the most popular kits.
Tamiya considered by a lot of people as the best ... have a lot of great kits. If you are looking for accuracy and nice builds stay with their newer stuff. Older stuff loses out on accuracy a lot because they were made for motorization, but can still make nice kits.
Italeri are cheap and are great kits to start out on. Lots of detail and not so long ago were as popular as tamiya ... but never progressed. Some of their newer kits are excellent but take short cuts.
Academy new stuff is excellent, but alot of thier older stuff is inferior to put it mildly. Tamiya copies.
Dragon/DML ... the most expensive in my part of the world ...... best for figures and have some great kits. But look out for some of their older kits as they can be dogs to build.
Trumpeter .. a new company and making headlines. Their recent releases are getting great reviews but thier first kits are supposed to be very poor.
AFV nice kits and make great models but use a lot of really small pieces that can be dogs to assemble.
Theres also something else to look out for is reboxing by other companies. The same kit with a dragon name can be bought in an Italeri box for half the price. There is a lot of reboxed eastern european stuff floating around in dragon, italeri boxes and now tamiya boxes with italeri subjects.
To sum up ... look for a review or ask on here. Personally i dont care who makes the model ... I see the box art and am sold. I worry about the build quality later

As the others have said, it's difficult to categorize a particular manufacuturer as "the best." Right now, Tamiya's new kits are pretty great, but many of Tamiya's older kits are dogs -- often sacrificing detail and scale for motorization. And lots of old kits are regularly re-issued -- sometimes with new box art or new decals, but nothing fixed.

Also, many model companies re-box old kits from other manufacturers. For instance, the "new" Italeri T-55 is a rebox of the old ESCI Ti-67.

If you're unsure of a particular kit, it's best to ask on this or other model forums -- chances are someone has seen the kit in question and can give you an opinion. Also, there are many, many reviews on the web. Go to Google, type in the kit's name and manufacturer and the word "/review" and you'll likely find something that will help.

AMPS has a nice kit list with mini-reviews by Cookie Sewell that are pretty accurate. Here's a link to the AMPS mini-review site: http://www.amps-armor.org/Reviews/AmpsReviews.asp

The Perth Military Modeling Society also has great reviews -- enhanced with photos of the actual kit sprues that are a huge help in answering the question "What comes in the box?" http://pmms.webace.com.au/

I wouldn't always trust Plasticbattle's boxart buying theory. I've seen beautiful boxes with absolute dung inside and I've also seen true gems boxed in mediocre Kindergarten art.

Well, I just bought a kit on Ebay from DML (1/35 DML 6022 PANZER IV AUSF J LATE OOP NEW) for $17.50 + $6.77 shipping/handling. Any opinions? Did I get hosed or did I come out OK? From the description & pictures it looks like a decent kit....

I agree Mark. I think that the reputation of their earlier kits is still the opinion viewed by most modelers out there. In addition, the question of whether or not they pirated others kits has put a sour taste in many modellers mouths.

However, if you look at their recent releases, they are quickly gaining ground on the top dogs. Not only are the newer kits accurate, but you get some real bang for the buck. For example the Chinese Type 83 w/152 mm howitzer. A complete interior with the kit which goes together well...all for twenty bucks. Or the new SAM launcher, or Chinese Transport. Huge detailed kits that can be found for about 50 bucks on-line. Hardly a thing is missed on these, including fully detailed engines.

I for one, feel that Trumpeter needs some recognition for what they have done. How long did it take Tamiya to go from dogs to quality kits? I'll be generous...15 years. Trumpeter has almost made that same jump in two. I am so pleased with what they have done, that they have me buying kits that I would never have had interest in.

Of course, there are also the big dogs. Tamiya, DML, Academy, etc. I do feel that AFV club is stepping up to the plate with some real quality, multi-media kits. Just look at the new Pak 43....fantastic!

Then there is the new Porsche KT from DML, indy links, PE screens and from what I have read so far on the net, much sharper detail than the Tamiya offering. All for 30 bucks.

Tamiya definitely has some challenges ahead.