Italeri or Hasegawa Kits

I can't answer the question for you, but you probably  should have asked this in the airplane forum.

Hasegawa kits are generally of very good quality although only you can determine if they are ultimately worth the extra dollars.  One thing to point out regarding Hasegawa jets are they typically don't come with much, if any, ordnance.  Hasegawa is intentional in this, as they market ordnance sets in addition to their kits.

Of the Italeri kits I've built, I have found them to be of decent quality, not quite in the Hasegawa or Tamiya range but still good for what you pay.

Italeri(cut my teeth on them) make some decent/nice models(not the best) but they do build up nicely with some care. And they are often the only game for certain subjects.

Hasegawa makes much higher quality kits and thus cost more, their fit and detail level is better.

Said that the U-2/SR-71 kits are old and the models are getting worn by now. So neither offering will be top-notch and to todays standards. Not sure if some Us makers did their own kits or they are reboxes.

Y-22 Osprey Italeri is the only one that made them in 1/72 &1/48(AFAIK) both so-so kits. F-117 you also got Tamiya, etc(haven't build a F-117 yet).

 HTH.

P.S.: Can't really say if a kit is worth it or not, that is truly subjective.

Depends on what you want out of the kit, want a display model that is 100% accurate or  will a lower detailed kit do for a Diorama.

Every Italeri kit I've built has been a pain in the rear. Firstly, I absolutely hate the plastic they use. It's more like rubber and oil just permeates it. There are probably goo italeri kits out there, but I've yet to get one. Hasegawa is always very nice, but price definitely is an issue. In my opinion, some are overpriced. It's what you're willing to pay for. If you'd rather have 2 lower quality kits than 1 high, then Italeri. and for modern jets (if you're also including the F-15, F-16, etc)

don't rule out monogram/revell. they make very nice jets. Not perfect, but good landing-gear bays and cockpits. They usually require more fillar on the fuselage though.

Does Trumpeter make these jets you seek? They are priced lower & exclude all the variant options and fancy extras that drive up the cost of other kits. Basically you get the plane pictured on the box, if you need extra detail add a AM resin cockpit / gun bay / landing gear well(s).

All manufacturers have their hits & misses, but on average Hasegawa is superior to Italeri.

Regards,  Rick

itzme91761

The Hasegawa kits are Double in Price! are they worth it?

Haven't built many Hasegawa kits (Post-Korean War -era jets aren't my thing, but I've built a few, especially the Monogram 1/48th birds) for the simple reason of their prices.... I bought a (very) few Hase WW2 birds back in the day when they ran 20-25.00 a pop and Monogram kits were 5-8.00 for their 1/48th kits...   I bought the Hasegawa kits simply because where I was, there just wasn't much around for IJN or IJA aircraft except the Monogram A6M5 and Tamiya A6M2 Zekes... For WW2 Japanese birds, it was Hasegawa or Wings 48 Vacuforms (which I have a lot of now, lol...)

Frankly speaking, none of them are worth the extra bucks IMNSHO... Especially if you're an ordie freak, like Aggieman pointed out...  Deliberately leaving underwing stores out in order to force one to spend even more to complete an already over-priced kit is just flat infuriating... Might be good business sense to some, but I ain't buyin' it... 'Course, the last Hasegawa "modern" jet I bought was a 1/32 scale A-4 and that was in about 1979 or so, lol (Hey, it was "modern" back then)...  Ended up using the struts, stick, seat, and panel for a scratched cockpit in the Monogram Colonial Viper.  Painted the inside of the A-4's canopy black, closed up the gear doors,  and then put it on a stand for a "desktop" model... 

Were I to actually buy a 1/48th  Hasegawa jet kit again (which I won't), I'd hang Monogram ordnance on it, just to "one-finger" the folks at Hasegawa...

Italeri... Hmmm... All I've built from them as far as aircraft go is the C-130 (Actually, this was back when they were Testor's/Italeri) and the F-117... Loved the C-130 ( it's no Shake & Bake though, you'll need to work on it) and the F-117 was a Shake & Bake through & through...Had about 18 parts, IIRC... That's about all I built from Italeri, as far as aircraft go... I build a LOT of their old armor kits though... Love those old kits...  But the recent releases from Italeri, at least the WW2 birds I've looked at, no way I'm paying 30.00- 60.00 bucks for 'em (although the new Arado 196A is starting to be of interest to me if it ever shows up at Hobby Lobby during a 40%-Off Coupon Week)...

If scratchbuilding ain't your thing, I'd suggest you look into Revell/Monogram jets and take the money you save by ignoring Hasegawa and put it into (can't believe I'm saying this) after-market detail parts for the Revellogram jets (although you really won't need many)... Especially if you're just starting out because, frankly-speaking, if you don't have a lot of experience with ALL aspects of modeling aircraft (assembly, filling, sanding, painting, weathering), you aren't going to be happy with that 50 or 60.00-worth of paint-hulk and spare parts sitting under the bench...   

Anyway, that's my opinion, FWIW to ya... Your actual mileage may vary...

It is all very Dependant on exactly what you want from any given kit. Is you priority price, accuracy, quality, ease of construction............

I would say the best thing to do for any given subject is to look at some build reviews online (for example, google sr-71+1/72+review) & see what people are saying & use it to make an informed choice. You will  find that any single manufacturer is unlikely to cover everything that you are looking at, you will find that the the aforementioned requirements in a kit will vary from subject to subject even from the same manufacturer. You will also find that manufacturers buy / swap tooling amongst each other - for example the "new" XB-70 from Italeri is just the "old" XB-70 from AMT, AMT later became Ertl......... you get the picture.

...yes...