Kit Manufacturers in General

[Miatatom]

I'm new here and was wondering if there's a subject that discusses kits in general. Kit makers, their pluses and minuses, old kits, newer or re-released kits versus the original ones, quality of kits, details like ease of build, good or bad instructions, etc.

I've got about 12 kits so far and am building 2 at the moment. One is a Revell Peter Brock's Datsun 510. It's a decent kit with fairly good detail, good instructions and parts. The other is a SMER Alfa Romeo 158 Formula ! racer which isn't near the quality of the 510.

[Casey]

It would be impossible to discuss all model kits, even from a single manufacturer, which is why it's easier to discuss and review a single kit or a group of related kits (say, AMT's Trophy Series kits). Quality can vary, even within one manufacturers catalog. For instance Revell kits on the early '80s were not very good, but some of their early and mid-'90s kits are excellent.

As always, opinions will vary.

[Chuck Most]

Best thing to do would be to check out the Kit Reviews section of the forum- many kits are discussed in detail there, and if you cannot find a thread on a particular kit, asking about it will bring all sorts of comments about it.

[Modelmartin]

Your SMER kit actaully is a re-release of a 1950s Merit kit from England. That is why it doesn't seem as good. It was great in it's day. The Revell 510 is from early 70s and was a good kit in its day, also.

[sjordan2]

For information on the SMER Alfa kit, you may want to contact one of our members, Matt Bacon, who has experience with it.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showuser=6008

You may also want to look into getting replacement wire wheels for it from Herb Deeks - expensive. I don't have contact information.

[Art Anderson]

I'm new here and was wondering if there's a subject that discusses kits in general. Kit makers, their pluses and minuses, old kits, newer or re-released kits versus the original ones, quality of kits, details like ease of build, good or bad instructions, etc.

I've got about 12 kits so far and am building 2 at the moment. One is a Revell Peter Brock's Datsun 510. It's a decent kit with fairly good detail, good instructions and parts. The other is a SMER Alfa Romeo 158 Formula ! racer which isn't near the quality of the 510.

As others have mentioned, any general discussion of "kit makers, plusses and minuses.....etc." would be almost pointless, frankly. Every model kit manufacturer today has either been in business for a lot of years, is the successor to an original company from years ago, or is a new, almost-startup company using the model kit technology that has developed over the past 40-plus years.

Virtually any question on a forum such as this that goes "What company makes the best model car kits" generally just gets bogged down in opinions based more on a particular subject matter rather than anything really coherent, IMHO.

Now a better comparison or discussion might well be a particular kit. But in doing so, one ought to pay attention to what older builders might have to say, as to when (what era, how many decades ago and so forth) that kit was first introduced. Bear in mind that, for example, the "iconic" US domestic brands of kits (AMT, MPC, Revell, Monogram, Aurora, IMC, JoHan to name perhaps the best known, go back 50-55 years, given that this is the country where model car kits and building first really took off. Many kits by such makers were excellent even for their day, but the learning curve was underway back then, in addition to the expected consumer being a lot younger than today's builders (yeah, us grey-headed builders were kids once upon a time, most of us dating from that time frame). Also, the "price point" that model car kits were expected to sell best had its limiting factor as well--the expected selling price of a kit along with expected sales of same, go a long way toward determining the amount of capital that can be invested in any particular model car kit tooling.

Add to this the fact that many kits of yesteryear not only reflect the state of the art for the day they were first introduced, they also reflect the types of mold machines then in use, subject matter that was considered important enough to be produced, and to a very great extent they also reflect the artistic skills of industrial pattern makers of the day (no CAD or CAM back in the 1960's or 1970's that would have been financially available to a model kit manufacturer) did almost all their work by the human hand, human eye, utilizing the then commonly practiced industrial drafting instruments (pen on paper, T-squares, pantographs, French Curves and such), and pattern making by the process of hand-carving each and every part that would be needed so that those could be rendered in steel tooling.

So, with virtually any model kit mfr, their line of kits is going to reflect some evolution (yeah, even Tamiya, Hasegawa, Fujimi made kits that if reissued today, would be considered pretty much "klinkers" today), but yet perhaps the subject might just sell as reissued, but not be seen as having enough sales potential to warrant the immense investment in all new tooling.

So, better to ask about an individual kit or subject, it seems to me.

Art

[MAGNUM4342]

I agree with what dat guy ^ said!

[Miatatom]

Thanks for the useful information guys. I guess my question was too vague. Let's try this, what does everyone think of the Tamiya kits?

[jeffs396]

Welcome Tom!!!

As far as Tamiya kits go, most are excellent. But like Art said, they've made a few turds in the past. I think any of the ones issued over the last ten or so years would be good though...

[Art Anderson]

Thanks for the useful information guys. I guess my question was too vague. Let's try this, what does everyone think of the Tamiya kits?

First of all, I've never seen a badly designed, tooled or molded Tamiya model, and that includes their early 1/24 scale model car kits, which for the most part were "curbside" (no engine, no opening hood), and designed to be motorized with a small battery motor and a couple of AA penlight batteries.

Over the years, Tamiya has made many fantastically designed and tooled model car kits. If

Art

[Modelmartin]

Tamiya's recently reissued Mclaren is a clinker as a model. It looks to be a kit for a toy. Aside from a very few early kits like that, Tamiya is the best and like Art A. said - even the electric motor kits have excellent curbside detail. I love them!