model kits

Rattlehead

I want to ask a question- I build revell, monogram, ertl, and the like of kits. Why are Tamiya, and the others so expensive? are they that much better? I am curious.... please let me know.... thanks,........

Those companies are older and sell kits they designed decades ago. They are also stateside companies and Tamiya (and other foreign companies) is imported so they are more. Tamiya and others have a higher quality standard in accuracy and engineering and have a higher design cost.

While Revell (which includes Monogram) sells new kits as well, they have a bunch of ancient stuff in their lines. But just because a kit is old doesn't mean it is bad. It's mainly because the standards were not as high back then as they are today.

I talked to a guy in the mail order hobby business awhile ago on this.  His claim was that companies like Airfix and Revell produce much larger runs on their productions, lowering their cost.  Tamiya and Trumpeter do small runs, which adds to their cost, but allow them to produce a wider range of subjects.

Kits from Dragon are usually more detailed and have a high parts count.Better ? It's a matter of prefrence.

so are they worth the extra cash ya put into them? I would hate to screw something that expensive up....

I feel they are worth the extra cost, but if you are new at this, I recommend you build some of the cheaper ones until you are confident that your skills have improved enough, and you probably won't screw them up with your newly developed abilities.  And you will probably find that a modern, well engineered kit is easier to build than the oldies.

Whats your idea of expensive? I find lots of Hase/Tamiya kits on sale for 30-40 bucks, and even cheaper on ebay from time to time. Unless your talking straight up MSRP? Can hardly compare to Revell/mono. like people have said because those are old kits, and prices and kit standards have changed in the past 20-30 years.

Rattlehead

so are they worth the extra cash ya put into them? I would hate to screw something that expensive up....

It can really vary from kit to kit. One of the top aircraft makers is Hasegawa. Their kits are well detailed and they have the price to go with it. But as an example, Revell have recently released some 72nd Ju 88's. These are easily on a pair with the one by Hase, but for half the price.

As another example, bith Hasegawa and Italeri produce a 72nd He 111H-6. The Hase kit sells for around £40 while the Italeri about 15. Yes the Hase kit is better detailed, but is that detail worth more than double, I don't think so.

But, personally, given the choice, I will go for the Hase kit.

Hi :  After reading all the replies to your post , I thought I wiould put in my ha'penny .  Hasegawa / Tamiya are expensive and that's  why I only buy select subjects .Now as to Revell/Monogram , well I just finished their very old F-7-U Cutlass .It was fun for what it was .The stateside molds are old (Moldy Oldies ? ) but they do come out with winners once in a whille l Especially Revell of Germany . Now that said , If you are indeed a newbie , I would go with REVELLOGRAM till you build your skills . I have the TAMIYA clear fuselage 1/48- ME 262 and even as an old builder , 60 years now , it taxed my skills for a plane .The parts were gorgeous and fit well though . I think it's  , what do you want to build and who has it ?

Trumpeter kits can also tax the skills and patience of novices.  Trumpeter kits never mold a part as a single piece when they can do it in four or five :-)  Seriously, they do have a reason.  Say it is a deckhouse of a ship, a simple rectangular prism.  A one-piece mold requires a relief angle to the sides so it can be removed from mold. Making it from four walls and a roof removes this constraint.  But, this raises the parts count of the kit tremendously.  You are doing a lot more work than for kits that mold each deckhouse as one piece.  So it takes more patience to build such a model.

Don Stauffer

Trumpeter kits can also tax the skills and patience of novices.  Trumpeter kits never mold a part as a single piece when they can do it in four or five :-)  Seriously, they do have a reason.  Say it is a deckhouse of a ship, a simple rectangular prism.  A one-piece mold requires a relief angle to the sides so it can be removed from mold. Making it from four walls and a roof removes this constraint.  But, this raises the parts count of the kit tremendously.  You are doing a lot more work than for kits that mold each deckhouse as one piece.  So it takes more patience to build such a model.

You obviously never attempted to build one of Trumpeter's original kits circa 2000. They entered the market making poor copies of Tamiya and Academy 1/35 scale armor models. I first stumbled upon them when I saw an M60A3 kit on the shelf of the local mall chain hobby shop in New Jersey.

The kit used a copy of the Tamiya instructions showing placement of Tamiya part numbers onto the upper hull surface, but Trumpeter had molded many of those pieces onto the hull surface. The entire upper hull looked like a soft wax mold of the Tamiya kit.

Granted, Trumpeter has upped their game fairly quickly, but the vast majority of their original armor kits were poor copies.

That may be.  The Jeremiah Obrien was my first Trumpeter kit.  Built several others since then.