Manufacturers - Comparrisons

[Alan 45]

At the end of the day it's down to opinions and they can't be wrong , can on that basis it be classed as true, no , because it's a persons personal feeling about a manufacturer and we all see things differently

In this instance he's asking for opinions so you can answer his question

[Guest]

I'm completely with Stona here. What I think you might be able to take away from this exercise is just how misleading generalised data can be when created in this way. As has been said all manufactuers have a vast range of products and they all vary from superb to appalling depending on which kits you have had experience with.

For such a survey to have any sort of credibility you would have to review every kit in every manufactuer's range and distil this to an average for them all. Even that would be far from perfect. If you do not do that then the results are likely to be at the best misleading or, at the worst liable to attract legal proceedings!!

[stona]

For such a survey to have any sort of credibility you would have to review every kit in every manufactuer's range and distil this to an average for them all.

I never thought of that, but wish I had It sums up nicely the point I'm trying to make.

Alan, I think it's fair enough to express opinions about various individual kits, no matter who the manufacturer. It's the only way we can have any inkling of how good or bad they might be before parting with our hard earned cash. Even in this case most would try and find several opinions before forming their own. If all the reviews are negative then chances are the kit is not terribly good! If all are ecstatic then chances are the kit is okay!

One of the values of a forum like this is that people with no dog in any fight can give an honest opinion about a kit. You or I may not agree with it, but at least we know that it has been given with first hand experience of the kit and in all honesty.

For example I didn't much like Revell's 1/32 Ju 88 and I know that Barry (Barry W) didn't much like it either. However, looking at Peter (Triumph's) superb build, posted recently, he might disagree.

I just don't think that you can generalise about an entire manufacturer's range. I simply can't give an opinion of the whole Revell, Airfix, or anyone else's range because there is so much variation across the range. The nearest you could get to a sort of average mark would be by Richard's method above. If anyone wants to attempt that then I wish them the best of luck

Cheers

Steve

[Alan 45]

I know what your saying Steve and I agree to a point , my point is you can also give an honest opinion on a manufacturer by the kits you've made as a comparison

[stona]

my point is you can also give an honest opinion on a manufacturer by the kits you've made as a comparison

Yes, I think that is a perfectly reasonable point. It should be made clear that the opinion is based on a limited selection of their kits. An exception might be the smaller companies that make kits over a MUCH smaller range in which case one person might have built all or most of that range. I've built several Pacific Coast Models kits and am prepared to express the opinion that they all make excellent models but that they do need some work to get together.

I mean if you are the sort of masochistic builder like Tony (Yak Face) who builds ancient and obscure kits from the dawn of time (and makes a fine job of them too) then you won't be giving any manufacturer high marks! The other extreme would be someone who only built kits from molds of the last five to ten years who would probably score them all highly.

I know this is a rather silly and extreme analogy, but there is a point to it

Cheers

Steve

[Alan 45]

I agree Steve you can only give an opinion on what you build , I've built loads of kits from tamiya revell and airfix and I can only give an example of what they do as an opinion