Right? I mean, how hard is it to write a clear set of intructions? While not a “dedicated” model shop, Great Hobbies does carry an impressive selection of models and supplies.
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Sage advice, thanks. I appreciate your works as well.
Probably the stage I am going to dislike the most is painting. I am intimidated by it, first and mostly because I am colour blind, secondly I’ve never used an airbrush, weathering, etc. I used to blow up my models when I was a kid, maybe I’ll revisit that if everything goes to hell in a hand-basket.
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And from PEI to boot!
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Ah. That’s the crux of the matter right there. But in other discussions folks have chimed in with the fact that you can’t have knowledge of every subject, and we shouldn’t blame the poor reviewer for the lame review. You know what? If you can’t at least talk intelligently about the subject, don’t review it!
I’m tired of these First Look! reviews that pretty much tell you nothing, Especially when they don’t even build the kit befiore doing the review.
Sturdy box, slide out style box, flip up top, box with cover, I don’t care one whit. What are we, trying to reach a word count like in high school? The box is meaningless. If I get a product in which something is damaged, you can bet I’ll get the parts replaced. Or savage the company every chance I get. I’ve only had to do that with one company, and that company made the sturdiest boxes I’ve ever seen. (You all know who I mean. Clue for those who don’t: Front range)
Light grey colored styrene - about as useless as a Kardashian at NASA, for me anyway. There’s this stuff called primer.
Big, honkin’ sprue attachements - now we’re getting somewhere.
Abundance of flash, warped parts - only relevent when the reviewer is honest about it. Some have a searchable record of never having problems with kits everyone else had had the same problems with. They’re either the world’s greatesr modeler or extremely lucky.
A nice selection of decal options. I like that. But I can also find as many optionsa as I need to. Are they accurate? Are they in register? Do they go on well? Um, well, they look nice…
Not the kit that was advertised on the box. At all. That is always a good thing to know.
Then, more to the point of the original question, you get: Which do you prefer (as presumably these are the two options I’m looking at) A or B? Every time you’ll get from someone, the Acme (C) offering is the best one on the market. Fine, most of us know that. But why not just answer the question? That’s what the poster wanted to know.
Let’s see… Without digging around I’ll bet the AFV Club Centurion has at least six times the number of parts as the old skool Tamiya kit, It is by every metric a superior kit. Yet I will still build the hell out of a Tamiya Cent once in a while. A well built Tamiya kit will beat a mediocre-ly (is that even a word? Spelling Nazis - help me out here) built kit every time.
Is AFV Club to be avoided? Certainly not for me. But I don’t speak for everyone. In the limited cases where another manufacturer produces the same kit, I find them more accurate, But maybe parts count, price, ease of construction is your thing. Best bet? Read reviews by those who have actually built that particular AFV Club kit.
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Speaking of the AFV Club Centurion kit, Spruebrothers.com has one on sale for half suggested retail price today…
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When I ask which kit someone prefers, I am really looking for a stay away from … kit because.
Usually I will get 4 or 5 people respond and get several suggestions. That tells me that any of those would be OK. If I read that kit xyz is not accurate or there are a lot of ejector pin marks in the wrong places, it give me a heads up in my decision making.
It also matters who gave me the advice. If David B. said there are problems with that Tiger version, that would be something I took as gospel.
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Aircraft, I think I would still go with Airfix and Italeri. Sure Italeri aren’t perfect, but they’re making what I like. Namely Cold War NATO and Vietnam War. The new tool stuff from Airfix is pretty good for the price.
1/35 armour I’m going to go with Tamiya and Copper State Models. You can’t really go wrong with Tamiya for ease of build and I love CSM’s WW1 armoured cars. Just brilliant kits.
Figures, going to have to go with ICM’s WW1 series. These were sorely needed. Good poses, mould quality and loads of spare kit, accessories and weapons. I’m still hoping for a French Hotchkiss MG team from them.
Small scale armour, Matchbox will always be a favourite. Pure nostalgic fun and a complete diorama in the box.
1/700 ships? Difficult to pick one as all of the Japanese manufacturers do great little kits. I do like Aoshima’s WW2 RN cruisers and carriers if you twisted my arm.
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