I don't mean for this to be a contest or anything, just an information gathering excercise for myself and anyone else who may be interested. The question is:
. Who makes the most accurate kit(s) ?

1-Vehicles (all types)
2-Figures
3-Aircraft
4-Ships
5-Other (artillery, etc)

Art

I've wondered this same thing Art, and come to the conclusion that there is no answer. Different manufactures have different detail levels on different vehicles, meaning they may do a great job on one model and fall flat on another. I find the age of the model is one of the best ways to determine wether or not it's a "buyer" or not , this doesn't seem to always work , because of reboxing/re-releases/different company's name. Lately, if I'm not sure about a model I will check reviews of it and go from there . The good thing in all of this seems to be that competition is resulting in better detailed models all the time.
Just my humble opinion.
regards
Bruce

Now I don't know, but I was wondering myself, did any of them ever get a model that was totally right, like look at the Abrams, and how many different times it came out, but every-time it comes out, somebody always finds something wrong with it, that isn't correct.

But then the way things are changing all the time how could they keep up, but they should be able to get the ones that are no longer changing right.

Maybe they want to leave that flaw, to see if anybody copied off them, who knows, I'm just guessing.
Kerry

Kerry, I always put it down to bad research, laziness, expense to create a decent master / mold but your assumption may not be wide of the mark.. I know that the Ordonnance Survey, who make the detailed maps of Brittain, add deliberate mistakes to the non crucial parts of their maps to catch illegal copies. They caught a major road atlas supplier out a few years ago.

Cheers
Henk

Of course that for me is half of the fun of modelling and the life-blood of the AM Producers.

I dislike intensely the rivet-counters, but there has to be a line drawn in the sand. In general, it is impossible (or absurd) to ask for every kit to be 100% however, it is reasonable to expect (as Henk mentioned) that a company will do the basic research and avoid some of the silly things that occur with new releases.

The problem (at least with some companies) is the constant pressure to remain one step ahead of the competition. I would sooner see less getting released and more time spent in the research. There are exceptions, DML, with its new Tiger, seems to have changed the way we see the MMs for ever - from now on it seems as if we have a yardstick. The next test of fire will be for AFV Club, whose Late Poduction Model Tiger is going to be compared in the reviews. First indications are that its going to be good, very good indeed...Jim

I got to thinking on this more to, and that has to be the fact, cause if you make a perfect, no flaws, everybody can copy, and nobody can say one word, cause they made a perfect model, but if they made a flaw in it, which is not to noticeable, but enough to know if somebody copied it.

Then they have all the proof they need. The thing is, the copier would haft to fix the flaw, then the master couldn't say one word. Cause who is to say you didn't make a perfect model in the first place, so that is why I think they do more then just one, and some that you can't tell, so you better know what your doing.

Then everybody will copy yours, on the ever vicious cycle.
Kerry

Model companies aren't super-human either. And they don't have huge secret stashes of research information, just the same stuff we have. It doesn't help either that sometimes even reference material is wrong (e.g Sherman IIC Fireflys, symmetrical Tiger turrets and the 'T34/76C'. Or if you model the 'real thing' the preserved tank you look at has been partially mocked up (like Italeri's Crusader) It does take a long time to become an expert in one vehicle type, let alone the range of subjects any company may end up issuing over time. Except they usually don't have the time to gather the material we do (as Jim points out), because they're in a commercial environment, when you're only as good as your next product.

At least Dragon are sending out trial shots of models to recognised experts to check before putting them into full production. Which is a start, but there are only so many experts out there.

A lot of the errors can be chalked up to corner-cutting (re-using old components) and the kind of assumptions that we all make from time to time (like the rear end of the Sherman is always the same).

I only rivet counted once, on the Airfix WW1 tank, and it was wrong, so I gave up ! On the other hand, whoever was responsible for Trumpeter's Hotchkiss Frankenstein's monster would be advised to stay out of my way for a while.

Not sure about the OS and deliberate errors, the accidental ones are quite enough........

Ciao everyone,
I can't speak for all the model types, but I have been a DML lover for years. I think that they produce the best bang for your buck (or pound, or euro, or yen, etc.). On the other hand, I am anti-resin and AM. I believe that both are unaffordable and kind of cheating in a way.
Ciao for now
Rob

Hmmm, I have my doubts on this - and i'm not alone... Take a look at this thread, this is going to get VERY heated very soon...Jim

'Expert Reviews'

Yes I remember reading the review that sparked the thread. Cookie Sewell's baiting of panzer fans was amusing in a childish kind of way, but it didn't hide the problem that he didn't know much about the subject of his review. He's an expert on Soviet armour, not German and it showed.

I get to deal with experts of varying degrees of lunacy at work, and remain suitably sceptical until they prove themselves one way or the other. Some of the wacky stuff I've dealt with in the archaeological report I'm editing at the moment is just incredible.

When I posted about Dragon sending out test-shots for comment, I was thinking of Steve Zaloga, who mentioned getting the M4A2 in a posting on Missing Links. Now, he's someone who is worth listening to.

And I'm still hacked off with the Trumpeter Hotchkiss - there's no muzzle for the coax in the 35/38