Great Brands and Not so Great Brands

[crackman77]

I've been getting a little deeper into the hobby now. And I've been shopping on line quite a bit, mostly e-bay. I don't know much about the brands outside of Revell, AMT, and Tamiya What do you think of quality of model kits from these makers: GUNZE SANGYO? Aoshima? Hasegawa? Fujimi? and MPC? I see all of these amazing looking model kits on ebay, but I don't want to throw my money away. I got an awesome looking model in the mail today. It's a FUJIMI Ferrari Dino 246 GT but the instructions are a bit confusing... ok, way confusing for me.

I would love to hear some of your thoughts and opinions on these and other brands. What are the best? The worst? Your favorites? Ones to look for? Those to stay far, far away from?

Thanx

[aur0ra145]

Tamiya has been good to me. Revell has been hit or miss. I usually try and look for kit reviews online before buying. However, from personal experience, "Good as a beginner kit" can be a blackhole of frustration.

[crackman77]

Thanx. Do you have any certain place(s) you go for kit reviews?

[Coen]

It would be easier if we knew what it is that you build.
Some manufacturers are better at one genre than others.

[Goose]

On the youtube page of ISM you have nice kit reviews

Phil flory on his youtube page also does kit reviews.

Brett Green also does these.

Personnally in terms of brand I love Tamiya, Eduard and GWH, i "only" like Revell Trumpeter or Hasegawa

[paintsmcgee]

aoshima have great car kits

[RobertK]

I usually look up the kits on https://www.scalemates.com/

If it's just an old reboxed (several times) I avoid it because those kits are usually means trouble and usually lacks details. It's better to grab a newish kit instead, sometimes just a tiny bit more expensive but 10 times better.

[crackman77]

@Coen, I am just building cars

[wookiee76]

In that case tamiya are pretty good if a little basic, revell can be hit or miss but the likes of aoshima are superb, hiroboy too but darned expensive.

[Stokesy44]

I don't go near my wallet without checking reviews of the kit on the world wide interweb thingy.

Also, unless you're after a challenge, stay away from stuff that's really old, especially if its masquerading as a new kit. Check out the kit's lineage on scalemates. They also have reviews too.

[crackman77]

thanx for all the great advice and input

[Kevthemodeller]

I mainly built Tamiya in the past and my first build since returning will be Tamiya M4A3E8 but from my research it's a Tasca rebox, my second will be Dragon (which will be my first as they weren't that good years ago!) Ausf.E Tiger 1 Late Production Sd.Kfz.181 6253, again from my research comes highly recommended.

In the past I found Airfix to be hit and miss some were brilliant others appalling, Revell much the same, Academy and Monogram I only built one of each and found them (back then) to be on par with Tamiya.