Global Scale Modeller

Hello everybody,

I am returning to scale modelling after a long long time out of the hobby. I have a few of questions which I'm both hoping I've posted in the right place, and hoping that someone will be kind enough to answer.

The first question is a fairly general one:

Who are the best manufacturers of scale models these days, the last time I was part of the hobby Tamiya were the undisputed kings of scles model manufacturers but I could only afford Revel with my pocket money. Whenever I've poked my nose back into the hobby i've heard rumblings about dragon, but if anyone can give me a brief rundown of who the prominent manufacturers are that'd be excellent.

The Second question is a bit more specific:

Can anyone recommend a good Challenger 2 kit? The catch being I don't want a "desertised" version. Any scale, though 1:72 - 1:48 would be most ideal.

The third question is:

What would be the best youtube channels and publications to read and view on the hobby? (I used to read the Tamiya mag, I don't know if thats still any good)

And finally, the last time I was in the hobby brass etch and after market detail kits were just becoming a thing, are they still a thing, and which companies should I be looking out for in terms of quality and such?

Thank you so much for any help or opinion you can give.

Question #1 & #2 Join https://www.scalemates.com You can look for kits you are interested in and see reviews and prices.
Question #3 Here are a few of my favourites but remember the search function is your friend!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCERZRn ... iDsORviL-Q
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJAMp ... kRnKIbzHvA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtY7Qx ... lR3m3qjvUQ

Welcome & enjoy your hobby

Thank you Cymru for your help the website in particular is excellent.

Zaah

if you're looking for build review, Google is great. For your challenger, just type in the scale and the vehicle (and manufacturer if you have found any) and the word 'build' or 'build review'. You're almost certain to get WIP builds and build reviews as the search results.

Scalemates is great for info on the age of the kit as releases can be misleading in terms of how 'new' they actually are.

Hannants' catalogue is a good way of finding out what's available too. Go to their site and hit the catalogue function. You can search by scale, manufacturer, name (challenger) type of kit (injection, resin etc.) For example if you just enter 1/35 and 'challenger' in the relevant boxes, you'll get kits and aftermarket goodies specific to those entries.

Happy searching dude.

Thank you stokesy I've just spent the last couple of hours looking at scalemates and hannants. Now I want all of it! Already decided a Leopard 2 is next after the challenger 2 I don't even have yet :/

Welcome back to the addiction...err I mean hobby!

Great questions too. The hobby has evolved to the point its very difficult to give you definitive answers to those questions. There are many very good model companies out there today, Tamiya, Dragon, Hobby Boss, Trumpeter, AFV Club, MiniArt, Bronco...for starters. As the previous posters mentioned, you can almost always find a review for a particular kit you are interested in somewhere on the net.

The shear amount of modeling material on forums like ISM, and of course YouTube is mind boggling. You could spend almost all your time in forums and YouTube and none at the bench actually modelling You've found a good place here on ISM to 'get your feet wet', and many members have a YouTube channel also.

I apologize for the general answers, but hope you enjoy your journey back into modelling!