what brand do you prefer when it comes to 1/35 air/ground,
Dragon, Tamiya, Hasegawa, or Academy?

doing a little research for something I have in mind...

thanks for the help

I'd rank the industry this way... realizing of course that sometime there aren't options... some armor is available only from a single vendor... so my assessment is "all things considered", including variety, price, and production engineering:

ARMOR - Tamiya - Academy - DML /Dragon- Italeri
FIGURES - Warriors - Verlinden - Jaguar - Dragon (Plastic) - Gunze Sangyo
DIO KITS - Custom Dioramics - Verlinden - Plus Model - Tiger Productions
AIRCRAFT- Hasagawa, Tamiya, Revell
PAINTS - Tamiya, Humbrol, Vallejo, Model Shipways (make a great "humbrol knockoff)

Tamiya new ones great instructions ,great parts, great fit. 8 stars
Academy so so kits, decent instructions, most of time great kit 6 stars
Dragon great kits as of late,great instructions,most of the time good fit. 7 stars
AFV club Great kits not Clear instructions, usually good part fit 7&1/2 stars
(:-)

Here's my opinion
Armour - Tamiya Academy tie on quality - Tamiya breaks it on price and availability
Figures - Warrior, VP, new Tamiya
Dio - CD, VP
Air - Hasagawa, Tamiya, Pro Modeler series - I buy mostly PM because of availability and price.

I only build armour but I would say that if Tamiya makes the kit you want and it is relatively new, it is the best kit on the market.

Andrew

Tamiya by far has the best detail and ease of building, but their decals aren't so great. Dragon has good to great detail but some kits are not for the beginner because of difficulty in construction. I find Italeri priced well but the kits are hit and miss on quality and about the same for Academy. I have never built a Hasegawa kit. I prefer to take each kit as it comes to decide if it will be a good build of not. I started the Italeri Tiger 1 but found it so poor in fit and detail I trash it. On the other hand I found and old Tamiya kit that was motorised and rebuilt it from the ground up. This was the old Stug model from the 70s, I had the new release but had more fun tring to make this old kit look real. The new kits out there are amazing but I find alittle boring. They sit on my shelf because they don't challenge me to build them. They do get built when my mood tells me for something easy and fast to build but I'll always build the more challenging kits first.

mkctanker

I don't think I PREFER any of them.In one way or another they all comeout pretty well when finnished.I find it hard to judge somthing like this as almost every kit I build now has PE and at least some other AM stuff. So I realy think in the end run they're all the same. Although Academy gets a nod for subject matter for me.

Josh
aKA shiryon :-)

As a general rule of thumb, new Tamiya is normally top-notch. But this question really is impossible to answer. The answer really depends on which kit you want to build.

Best M-41? Either the AFV Club of Skybow, avoid the Tamiya.
Best WW2 Jeep? New Tamiya followed by the Italeri, Heller, old Tamiya, Monogram.
and so on....

Every major manufacturer has produced a real dog or a kit not quite as good as someone else's model of the same vehicle.

If I may be so bold...I believe both shiryon and Sabot are saying the same thing.
" The answer really deepends on which kit you want to build".
Take the ever popular Tiger 1. Built my share of good quality Tam kits, guess what? The new Academy Tiger 1 kits are much better, and also are better cast IMHO. Not only that, but they come manufactured in a good quality plastic, as opposed to ALL Italeri kits!! (pet peeve of mine )
As Sabot has already pointed out (excuse me for taking the 'liberty' Rob ) regarding Tamiya kits, it just depends upon wether it's an early mould, or a recent one.

As to kits that have only one manufacturer, again, guess what? That manufacturer is indeed the best! #:-)

Tread.

My apologies for the ramble........too tired to 'delete' it all...

Have to agree with most of the comments on here so far. I believe you mostly get an expected quality with Tamiya. But this is not too important for me. I usually pick a kit from reading reviews or even from the artwork on the box!
DML are # 1 when it comes to figures for price and quality but again will go with anybody if thats what I need and DML dont have it.
I must make a stand for Italeri though. I will never understand why they get knocked off so much. I like their variation in kits and the price!! But then Im not into the perfect kit with a 1mm or 1degree imperfection problem. If it looks good...... im happy

Old Tamiya is OK. Some look more like toys than accurate models. New Tamiya is great. Like most of the others have said "it depends on which model you want to build".

It depends on the quality, I have purchased from Dragon, Tamiya and Academy in my last few "new release" kit purchases and bought some old Hasegawa 1/72 scale off of Ebay.

MSW

#:-) I really like Tamiya's new stuff. Dragon armor is very good...but I hate individual track links! I also like some of the things that ICM has like the "Luchs" and some of the later figure sets. I like Italeri just for the price.
As far as figures go.......I WILL NOT PAY $11.00 for a resin figure. DML has great new releases. Tristar has excellent quality stuff and is coming out with new items all the time. I am a litle dissapointed with the new figures that Tamiya is putting out...but we can't have everything..can we?

I find Tamiya always has superior fit and crisp detail (even on the older ones I have built). I like Tamiya more than the Dragon kits I have built. Tamiya plastic seems better, there's less ejector pin marks on the pieces, and the sprue connectors are placed more strategically. I haven't built any of DMLs brand new kits, like their Panthers yet, though, so maybe they have improved in those departments. I do prefer individual link tracks over vinyl ones, though. As others have said, the Academy Tiger I is basically Tamiya quality. For the lower price, it is worth it.

As far as figures go, I always prefer resin ones. The detail you get from resin is often amazing and I personally find the fit with resin kits to be better than even the new Tamiya or DML plastic figures (I always end up using a fair amount of filler with those). I have just received some Warriors figures and they look great unbuilt, perhaps the best detail I have seen yet. Royal Model is also good, as well as Ultracast, and then there's Model Victoria for Italian stuff, which is exceptional.

Nic

My 3 cent's... I love DML figures. I build Tamiya and DML armor. I just can't see spending $40.00 on Warrior or VLS figures. If you have a sharp knife, some good oils and a little time, the DML figs work out fine. Even some of the new Tamiya kits are okay...

Once again, only my three

If I have to rank, I will take DML over Tamiya any day. Don't get me wrong, Tamiya is great, but with a tamiya one there are more costing involved for me, because I for one hate rubber band tracks, and with DML, at least it's one less AM stuff I need to buy (not the case for Elefant though, since DML screwed up on the track, and made the chevron in the center up side down)

And DML has more varieties.

for me as an "poor" Dutch student I have to say that DML is the brand for the modelers
wich don`t have the amount of money to spend on jaguar or warriors

most of my figures are from DML while they are well detailed
the new Tamiya series are good also but they are a bit more expensive
Through the years I bought a lot of Italeri kits and I think they are quite good
no matter what anyone has to say about the brand

this were my thoughts

Greetz Robert "FAUST" Blokker