Hi fellow Modellers,
I am not a stranger to kit building. I am 58 yrs old…& still love models! lol
Anyway, while I may have went through periods of stash building…build ..sell …etc. It came to a point in the industry where there were too many awesome kits coming out..plus a lot of new companies. It was so bad…I had to quit , put everything down for awhile. So here I am. I imagine theres others like me…we got over whelmed by so many awesome kits & new companies..that it was hard on the brain. Some may remember my photos of my stash..the mailman…my son had to move in & I sold everything for $100 to a Toronto person…I believe it was for a young offenders association..but I am not sure. I sold $10000 worth of kits for $100. Yes…that part is true. During that time I remember a lil company called Tristar. I had been anticipating trying their kits..but I was hooked on Dragon..Cyberhobby kits. Then they
sold the company…Hobbyboss bought them out. So..now…apx 8 yrs later..I cooled off & ready to build a stash again…but I wanna pay homemage to Tristar. I have just acquisition-ed my first Tristar kit. The Marder III Ausf H .Pak 40. I then just purchased the Tristar 1/35 Scale Panzer IV/70 (A) Sd.kfz.162/1 L70 kit #048…I have previously bought the #030 Marder III H…stick with me…then I also bought the gun crew kit #007 German Self-Propelled Gun Crew Set Vol. 2.
My question…did anyone else notice them when they came out…did you build any of their kits…what is your opinion?
I honestly think they had something specail going on. HobbyBoss bought them out eventally.
Tristar reminds me of Masterbox…same feel.
Thank you. I will post my builds of these kits. Can you guys post some of your finished Tristar kits here? For an old dude.
David
PS- Everything I build from now on will have metal tracks…no more rubber or plastic…strickly metal.
PSS- I have even graduated to 1/48 & 1/32 ww2 Airplanes…omg…my last airplane model I did was when I was 15 yrs old. lol
Built several Tristar kits. Were great. Good detail but not to the point of having to place each individual bolt. (Mini Art you have 3 piece scale bolts! The hex, the treaded body and the nut!) Check their kits on Scalemate. Some vendors might have a couple. nd Scalemate members sometimes list them for sale. Ebay is a good option. Hobbyboss may have the same molds but Trisar’s plastic ( the actual material) seems better quality. Another maker that befell the same fate, Skybow. Excellent kits. Went belly up. AFV Club got the molds but the Skybow boxings are superior. (again, think its the quality of the plastic.) (Skybow M41A3. 3d Company, 13th Tank Battalion, JGSDF. 1980s.)
I own a number of their kits and really like them. I think their figure sets are more in scale than some of the other manufacturer’s who tend to be on the large side. Their Marder III H is still probably the best kit of that vehicle available. The Panzer IV (A) however has a number of accuracy issues. There are better kits of that vehicle available. I agree with the Masterbox comparison. The same kind of vibe. Hope you enjoy your Hobbyboss builds and welcome back!
Bob
I remember that Tristar Pz l was as good as, or better than Dragon’s. All their kits, when properly assembled, are excellent models. Their figure sets are also very good - some nicer than others. When I say, “properly assembled”, it means that proper alignment of major parts can be tricky; ie: the hull tubs are old school with 5 parts forming the piece. The mating edges are beveled (which can be a good thing), so that the corner joints become invisible, but easy to mis-align. All edges have to be trimmed perfectly of any bits from the sprue gate, otherwise there will be mis-alignment between parts which will be compounded by the number of parts. I have read reviews where the reviewer claims “fit issues” which could only have stemmed from poor clean-up. Good clean-up and proper alignment will result in an excellent model.
TriStar models are still very good. The Hobby Boss (former TriStar) Panzer 38(t) Ausf. E/F, was my favorite model of 2024. I own maybe 6 more TriStar models. They all look very nice in the boxes.
Not having tried Tristar before it was a risk & I do remember being very happy opening the box. It didn’t disappoint in the build, all deficiencies are mine. I think my overall impression was if the Dragon kits I’d been building averaged 8/10, this was 9/10.
