Model Forum / General / Models / July 2008

I hear the more recent Academy kits are very well done.

Strange that I should say this...but I like Trumpeter's armor kits.  Good
balance of detail and buildability.

Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922
{Sig Quotes Removed on Request}

Comments here refer to 1/35th scale kits.
Italeri kits are relatively crude by modern standards, though some of
their 1970's kits (notably the Leopard 1A4 and M47) are quite nice.
Tracks tend to be either stiff, black vinyl, or soft, very fragile,
silver vinyl. Their Russian kits are mostly reboxes of Zvezda items,
and their tracks are extremely stiff. Their US Dodge trucks, M3
armored car, RSO tractor, and Canadian trucks are old Peerless Max
molds from Japan circa 1977. They also have some ex-Esci molds: the
T-55 is poor, but the M60A1 is superb. Their recent Italian armored
car kits are fiddly but well done.
Dragon is top of the heap in terms of molding technology, but these
kits are very sophisticated, most with brass and turned aluminum
parts. Some experience is advised. Their newer "Smart Kit" models use
more plastic parts, but benefit from very sophisticated molds for
superior detail. Their tracks are either link to link "Magic Tracks"
or soft glueable plastic band tracks made from DS (Dragon Styrene).
Tamiya kits are well engineered and go together like a dream, but are
sometimes rather simplified. The detail is crisp, though, and most
tanks have soft plastic band-type tracks rather than link to link.
Recent kits have a glueable soft plastic track, while older kits use
vinyl, which must be welded with the tip of a hot nail or similar.
Academy kits are similar in molding technology to 1990's Tamiya kits,
but their research department is remarkably lazy, and their kits
suffer from numerous, completely unnecessary, errors. They assemble
easily, though.
Revell Germany's modern German armor is mostly their own tooling,
except for the Leopard kits, which are based on Italeri originals,
though they are often updated with extra parts. Their own molds are
soft in detail, and engineering isn't great. They also rebox second
hand and even third hand molds. Their recent T-72 and T-80 tanks are
old Dragon molds from 1989 now owned by Zvezda, as are the Russian
armored cars and APCs. Their Soviet GAZ and Ural truck kits are old
molds from defunct Russian companies.
Trumpeter kits were initially atrocious, but their learning curve was
very fast. However, this sometimes means that wonderful and dreadfgul
kits can be side by side in the same model shop. Their early T-54 and
T-55 series kits are very crude motorized models (some boxings were
molded in ABS rather than polystyrene plastic, which required
Plastruct cement to glue it, as normal cements wouldn't work), and
some of their stuff was also pirated (badly) from other companies'
molds (M60A1, T-72, Leclerc). However, much of their recent stuff is
first rate, like the Russian KV-1/KV-2 series, which is amazing. Best
bet is to seek out reviews of specific models before buying. Many
older Trumpeter kits are now sold under the company's other labels,
Wasan and Minihobby. Their kits have also been sold under the
Hobbycraft and even Airfix labels.
Tasca and Bronco are small, "boutique" operations, and their output is
small, but their quality is quite high (as are their prices). Tristar
is also quite nice, and more in line price-wise with Dragon and Tamiya
than the first two. AFV Club does very good work, but again, their
output is very slow. They apparently don't have the capital that the
larger companies do, and they rarely make their release dates.
Gerald Owens

Squadron.com had the excellent Tamiya JGSDF Type 90 MBT on sale for
something ridiculous like $9.99. Tamiya also does a Leopard 2A5 and
2A6 and French Leclerc that are very nice modern tank kits too. These
are probably the best of their modern western MBT kits.