discussion Manufacturers - Comparrisons

[Guest]

Hello All,

As you all know i am putting together my own website and wanted to include a section on manufacturers. I am looking to compare Airfix, Revell and Tamiya.

I have a lot of experience with Tamiya and Revell but none with Airfix.

I appreciate everyone will have different opinions and rating will obviously differ depending on model age, so i'm just looking to gain an overall rating.

I'm looking to compare:

Model Detail (1 = terrible, 10 = excellent)

Model Assembly (1 = requires a lot of work, 10 = fits together perfect)

Kit Price (1 = very expensive, 10 = very cheap)

Kit availability (1 = hard to purchase, 10 = very common)

Kit variety (1 = very few kits, 10 = hundreds of options)

Instructions detail (1 = very hard to understand, 10 = very easy to understand)

Il get the ball rolling:

For Revell I would rate:

Detail: 7

Assemble: 7

Price: 7

Availability: 8

Kit variety: 7

Instructions: 9

For Tamiya I would rate:

Detail: 9

Assemble: 8

Price: 3

Availability: 4

Kit Variety: 3

Instructions: 4

What is everyone else's thoughts ?

Can anyone help with Airfix ?

 

[Guest]

One thing to bear in mind Josh is that price, availability & kit choice will vary tremendously according to geographic location - both retail & online shops are not always known or accessible to everyone.

 

[Guest]

Are you looking to rate Airfix new kits (which are leagues ahead of what they were ) or are you looking to rate all Airfix kits old moulds and new.

 

[PaulTRose]

For Revell I would rate:

Assemble: 7

For Tamiya I would rate:

Price: 3

What is everyone else's thoughts ?

you have obviously never built the revell ferrari enzo lol................id rate that around zero to 1

and tamiya price would be around 8 or 9

excellent value for money....some of their kits are rediculously cheap for what you get in terms of quality and buildability

 

[Alan 45]

I don't think you can compare today, when I was a nipper tamiya was the best and airfix and revell were the underdogs, today I would say that both revell and airfix with their new tools are equally as good , airfix were the first and at the time I would say they were great but they didn't move with the times even when matchbox started doing kits they never realised

I'd say on price

Tamiya 6

Airfix 7

Revell 7

Quality

Tamiya 8/9

Airfix new tool 9/10

Old tool 4/5

Revell new tool 7/8

Old tool 6/7

Detail

Tamiya 7/10

Airfix new tool 9/10

Old tool 4/5

Revell new tool 8/9

Old tool 6/8

Assembly

Tamiya 10

Airfix new tool 10

Old tool 3/6

Revell new tool 9

Old tool 5/6

Availability counting the web

Tamiya 10

Airfix 10

Revell 10

Kit variety

Tamiya 7

Airfix 6

Revell 9

Instructions

Tamiya 7

Airfix 8

Revell 6

I hope this helps but this is just my opinion

 

[Guest]

One thing to bear in mind Josh is that price, availability & kit choice will vary tremendously according to geographic location - both retail & online shops are not always known or accessible to everyone.

Dubster, this is very true. I am based in the UK, so do you think i should maybe break it down into America, Europe and Asia ?

 

[Ian M]

You forgot value for money.

One of tamiya's big selling points is the shake 'n' bake type quality. Like all manufactures detail wise, some kits are better than others.

The Airfix kits of today are a whole new ball game. Having said that some of the older kits are also still good by todays standard. The EE Lightning for example still holds the banner of best 1/48 Scale lightning.

Revell these days are churning out some some great kits. Cheap, lots of detail and good fit.

Hasegawa, Italeri, ICM, Wingnut wings....There are loads of manufactures out there and they have made or do make good kits. Some more often than others.

Ian M

 

[Guest]

Are you looking to rate Airfix new kits (which are leagues ahead of what they were ) or are you looking to rate all Airfix kits old moulds and new.

Kpnuts, i have never dealt with Airfix and do not know much about their model line.

Are old moulds still readily available ? If so i guess i should look to rate both, however if new kits are the mainstream now then i will just go for them

 

[Guest]

I would pretty much agree with Alans except I would put Airfix price at 9 and Airfix instructions at 9 but that's probably because they are what I grew up with and there fore got used to them.

 

[Gern]

Hi Josh,

I'm not sure this type of comparison is really useful. All kit manufacturers have produced both good and bad kits - even good and bad production runs of the same kit. (I think Revell used to suffer with this problem. On some of their kits you find whole sprues of parts which are warped as a result of being removed from the moulds too soon - yet other runs of the same kit have perfectly straight sprues).

The abilities of the builder will also play a significant role in judging the quality of a kit. What is an easy build for an experienced modeller may turn out to be a nightmare for one less experienced.

It also depends on what people are looking for, some will look for ease of build, others for overall accuracy, others for level of detail etc. It will also depend on what's available. If only one manufacturer makes that particular item, you don't get any choice - regardless of quality, price, accuracy or any other yardstick you may want to use as a comparison.

Finally, you have a growing problem with kits today. Just because it's in an Airfix/Italeri/Revell box doesn't mean to say that they actually produced the moulds - lots of companies now box and sell kits made by other manufacturers under their own brand names.

 

[Guest]

Near impossible as it depends on what you want.

Some of the old Airfix which they are still selling are awful. But the Merlin Helicopter for instance is a very nice model with a lot of detail both internally, which you can see, and externally. Also say that the new models are made of a different finish of plastic that I have not come across before and very nice to work with. Also very accurate considering the 3 dimensions some of the pieces have to contort to. Some I was very sceptical of before I found all went well.

Tamiya Swordfish is an excellent model and I would put the Merlin and Swordfish on the same high level. Tamiya Harrier I thought very poor on detail The Revell I have seen here look much better.

Revell Wessex a very good model with lots of detail. As enjoyable as the Merlin and Swordfish.

These are all 1/48 and also very detailed which I like. 1/32 and 1/72 not normally my scene.

One thing I do now before buying is to read as many opinions as I can before hand and also take a look at finished models to see the good or poor detailing. I could give ratings on the above mentioned but this really would not be typical of the ranges that these makers manufacture.

Laurie

 

[Guest]

In terms of detail, I would put eduard up at 9 1/2. However, no manufacturer is perfect as seen in their recent release, the Bf109G, which had dimensional problems. However, the outstanding detail which are exhibited in their kits is undeniable. Concerning Airfix's kits, their new tool ones are really good, but the old tools are best avoided. Tamiya and Hasegawa kits really are great, but I find their prices a bit over the top sometimes, especially hasegawa's

John

 

[Guest]

All those Japanese brands so far are among the best IMHO, but I heard the 1/24 Airfix Typhoon is a really awesome kit. Just buy the kit you really like and compare the review to other brand. Where I live, those Japanese brand are lot easier to find. Well, that's just my personal opinion.

Cheers

 

[stona]

In my opinion it is absolutely impossible to rate manufacturers like this.

All the major players you refer to produce hundreds of kits and they vary from 1 to 10 for all criteria on your scale within one manufacturers range. From recent experience I would cite Airfix's venerable HMS Victory (pretty much 1 across the board) compared to their new Fw 190 A-8 (9 or 10 across the board). I know one is 'old tool' and one 'new tool' but where does this arbitrary demarcation fall? 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010?

It is possible to rate, or at least express a meaningful opinion of, individual kits in this way. You can only generalise about a manufacturers entire kit range. I would mark Revell down for their big, newish, Ju 88, but then that might discourage someone from having a go at their new Spitfire Mk II. That is the problem with generalisation. It also reflects my opinion of the Ju 88, which I didn't think was a very good kit, and the Spitfire. Others will surely disagree.

Cheers

Steve

 

[BarryW]

I have to agree with Steve. This really is an impossible job.

As far as Airfix are concerned their new tool kits are certainly excellent all round with the new 1/24 scale Hawker Typhoon getting 9.5/10 accross the board losing half a point because of a poor canopy transparency.

Now the Tamiya WW2 1/32 prop kits, well they are simply outstanding, possibly the best aircraft kits produced (3 Spitfire versions, 2 Mustang versions, 2 Zero versions and soon to be 2 Corsair versions) None of them, however are perfect. I intend to eventually build all the versions of these kits (though possibly I will give the MkIX Spit a miss....as two of each are enough for me).

Instructions are an interesting issue and each manufacturer take a different approach.

Revell are awful, crowded and lack clarity.

Airfix are not bad at all with the new style 1/24 Tiffy being superb.

Tamiya are excellent but I do hate the way they do their colour call-outs.

Trumpeter and Hobby Boss are very lacking in their colour call-outs. You need to do on-line research for that.

Dragon - their Bf110 had the worse instruction ever... I downloaded Eduard's 1/48 bf110 instructions as they were more help that the Dragon ones, not to mention 3/4 other sources used to get the build done.

Hasegawa are pretty good as a rule.

Then we get to decals for which I have not yet found a decent Trumpy or HobbyBoss set.....But generally they do vary a lot even between the kits of a particular manufacturer.

 

[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