Almost all Asian manufacturers meanwhile offer fantastic kits which are really a fun to build.
Last week I have tried to build a Pz 38 (t) from ARK. I was close to throw it in the trash bin, but finally I ended with something looking like a Pz 38 (t). However, there were many parts to adjust, many of them had sink marks and flash. But the most annoying was, that one sprue was made of plastic including some ingredients which made it impossible to glue the parts with plastic cement or even cyano glue. Try to glue two plastic bottles of Coca Cola. This is a comparable challenge. Finally I had to apply two component glue.
Gert
2 Likes
Now this reminds me of another stinker I had.
Airfix’s rebox of the Trumpeter 1/35 Challenger II.
Nicely detailed, but it was made from a brittle plastic that tended to crack when cut from the sprue. Sanding and cutting the attachment points was incredibly hard and I must’ve blunted quite a few blades cleaning up parts. But worse was to come. The plastic was also greasy and resisted all the poly adhesives I had. The only thing that seemed to work was superglue which left little time to adjust the fit, which wasn’t great either. This was also before I found out about slower setting superglues.
I don’t know if this was just a bad batch, but it put me off Trumpeter for quite a while. I’ve yet to try another of their tanks, but I do have a few aircraft and they’re much better.
The newish Tamiya Panzer IV F. Amazing engineering. Perfect fit all around. Almost impossible to screw it up if you follow their directions. Figures are the best plastic ones I’ve built no filler required.
Any Alan kit like so many others have mentioned.
1 Like
I really couldnt pin down one kit as the best.Lately I have enjoyed Tamiya F-14,F-16,P-38 I LOVE Dragon German armor,all have been very nice,Tiger family,Panther family,Panzer III family.Meng T-90 was excellent.There were many others,gets out of hand quickly.
When I buy a kit,I usually research it and avoid clunkers.
The one kit that I hated,and tried and failed twice was the 1/48 Hasegawa F-14
Worst:
ICM Pz II Flamingo 1/35. Nearly nothing fit not even the wheels on the axles, awful mold part lines and flash everywhere.
Best:
1/48 Tamiya P-47 Razorback or
1/35 Academy M3s.
The Jug made even an aircraft hack like me look good. The M3 is just about a shake & bake kit, I’ve done two of them. The fit is great, nice interior and your choice of bank or Indy link tracks.
Have to add one more to the Best List.
Academy Pz III Ausf J North Africa - overall joy to build. Benefits from replacement of the kit link and length tracks plus a few minor tweaks but with careful part clean up, fit and engineering is basically perfect. Definitely one of the most enjoyable models, I’ve build out of 200+
The worst kit was the Matchbox He 70. Finished it and threw it right away> Just didn’t look like the real plane
1 Like
The worst 2 kits I ever built were the 1/32 Revell Corsair. The wings were terrible if you tried to build them in the non folded position. And the 1/35 Dragon Early version Hetzer. My favorite build was the 1/35 Tamiya Tiger I.
2 Likes
EDIT - oops a real Senior moment, my apologies I repeated myself from earlier in this thread regarding the unspeakable Master Box Merc type 170, so as a substitute here’s what seemed the best thing to do with the old Alan/Dragon SU-76 – I’m fairly sure this was the first victim of my pyro tests several years ago. For a few seconds it made a convincing Saturn V…
5 Likes
For me was Revell’s 1/48th Superhornet, I had nothing but fit issues forward of the intakes. Maybe me but fought me and my seams and gap filling skills a few years ago were a bit tougher, paint mule now even though I was happy w the cockpit painting i did and the giant canopy sea, removal. Right behind are any old Italeri armor kits, got a few at a hobby show on the cheap, ill build them to make space for a worthwhile kit.
Tamiya armor fits my abilities proper, I don’t cuss Dragon too much yet. I think you need to build a few to understand their approach so you don’t build yourself into a corner. Glad to hear the reviews on Tamiya 1/48 WW2 air craft, got a nice stack of them in my stash for the future including 2 P-38’s the first release then the 2nd which a white box my LHS set me up with.
3 Likes
Don’t wait too long to do one of the Tamiya P 38
kits . You won’t be sorry. I’m like a reformed sinner playing a broken record when it comes to this … LOL
3 Likes
I bought the first two versions they released, I think the J that came out recently (might be mistaken on the J) has Bong’s “Marge” included, thats the one i want to build first. I remember reading about him in 4th or 5th grade, he was one of the first aces that i really became interested in and read a lot about him.
1 Like
