good manufacturers for models?

What kind of models?? Armor, Aircraft, ships??? Each brand has some rotten eggs, so you need to be really specific. Especially regarding Academy and HobbyBoss!!!!

I was looking at their armor models like the T34 for the hobby boss and they german panzers for academy

It all depends on what criteria you are judging them by. In my opinion, Tamiya is among the best, if not the best, when it comes to the molding quality in general. I would rate Academy pretty close that as well.

But that changes when you look at other factors like accuracy to the real thing. Like Nathan said, you have to be much more specific. What types of models are looking for? And what scale? While company X may be considered the best by many when it comes to 1/32 scale aircraft the same can't always be said of the same subjects they offer in other scales. At the same time, what brands are best and what brands are worst is also based largely on personal opinion.

I model 1/48 scale armor and even though Tamiya has great prices I just see a lot of the same models that I am buying cheaper by other brands and am wondering if they are just as good or cheaper because their quality is a lot worse.  Right now im looking into purchasing a 1/48 scale T34, and Tamiya has one for around $28 while I saw one for $18 by hobby boss on the same website.

Assuming it is one of these kits, according to this review, the HB kits are pretty good.

www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/.../hb84806-8.htm

thanks everyone!

TheMotherLand

I model 1/48 scale armor and even though Tamiya has great prices I just see a lot of the same models that I am buying cheaper by other brands and am wondering if they are just as good or cheaper because their quality is a lot worse.  Right now im looking into purchasing a 1/48 scale T34, and Tamiya has one for around $28 while I saw one for $18 by hobby boss on the same website.

Hobby Boss makes some extremely nice 1/48 KV-I/II kits and T-34s. Most say that they are better than the Tamiya in terms of detail and accuracy. They are reduced sized Trumpeter kits.

Now, Academy 1/48 scale tank kits are very bad. They are motorized toys that share a common lower hull. In other words, the Abrams kit shares the same lower hull/suspension/tracks as the Bradley, M60, T-72, Panther, etc. and they use plain, black rubber band tracks. Other companies that do the same thing are Zhengdefu and Kitech; just motorized toys.

The newer Tamiya 1/48's like the Jagdtiger,hummer, JS-2,and Marder are all plastic and quite nice.

Skybow/AFV Club have great 1/48 Tigers which are indeed superior to the Tamiy offerings

I built the HB T-34/85,it even has an interior,it's a pretty nice build

The better your skills, the less the brand matters.  ;)

Nathan T

What kind of models?? Armor, Aircraft, ships??? Each brand has some rotten eggs, so you need to be really specific. Especially regarding Academy and HobbyBoss!!!!

Amen to that, Nathan!  I have on my bench the HobbyBoss kits of the Arizona in 1/700, which I am converting to her sister, the Pennsylvania, circa 1935, and the F4F-3 in 1/48.  The ship kit is very simple, with soft and inaccurate detail, and it's gotten increasing difficult to stay enthusiastic for the project.  The Wildcat, on the other had, has decent detail and better engineering, and is much more fun at this point.

So, to the original poster, read up, look at this forum and others, and see what people say about a kit that you're interested in.  Profit by their experience.

Tojo72

The newer Tamiya 1/48's like the Jagdtiger,hummer, JS-2,and Marder are all plastic and quite nice.

Skybow/AFV Club have great 1/48 Tigers which are indeed superior to the Tamiy offerings

 

I built the HB T-34/85,it even has an interior,it's a pretty nice build

I have always considered Academy one of the better brands.  Built my first Hobby Boss kit a couple of months ago and thought it was a very nice kit.

Revell seems to have a new molding process and has put out some very nice new kits in the past year.  And, I have always considered Revell of Germany to be top notch.

I have gotten spoiled in the last few years by the improvement in kit making technology, and have gotten really disappointed in trying to build some vintage kits lately.  So it depends a lot on when the molds for any brand were made.

Don Stauffer

I have always considered Academy one of the better brands.  Built my first Hobby Boss kit a couple of months ago and thought it was a very nice kit.

Not Academy's 1/48 scale armor kits. They are simply motorized toys that share a common lower hull, regardless of tank, with black rubber band tracks.

Yes, the modern armor field in 1/48 really is weak. Nearly 70 years worth of post WWII armor that has not been touched in good injection plastic kit form. kudos to Tamiya and Hobby Boss (and AFV Club/Skybow) for what they have done, but there is a whole lot more out there un done.

Rob Gronovius

Don Stauffer

I have always considered Academy one of the better brands.  Built my first Hobby Boss kit a couple of months ago and thought it was a very nice kit.

Not Academy's 1/48 scale armor kits. They are simply motorized toys that share a common lower hull, regardless of tank, with black rubber band tracks.

I have indeed noticed that mfgs can have really nice models of one genre, yet produce junk in another genre.  Academy's aircraft are nice.

Academy has an intersting history. They started off with mostly clones of other folks kits- Fujimi aircraft, Tamiya ships and armor. And then the began developing thier own new molds which were very nice. Thier US HQ used to be just a couple blocks outside my patrol area here and I would often stop by to see what was coming out in the near future (mid-late 90s). unfortunately those days are gone, they moved elsewhere when they split with Minicraft. I am a huge fan of Academy's 1/48 aircraft, 1/350 ship, and 1/35 Armor kits. But as said above, their 1/48 armor is more in the realm of motorized toys than serious scale models. Such a shmae because that is an untapped market for the most part and could be huge.

Don Stauffer

I have indeed noticed that mfgs can have really nice models of one genre, yet produce junk in another genre.  Academy's aircraft are nice.

As are Academy's 1/72 scale armor kits. They make some nice 1/72 scale armor kits that are aimed at aircraft modelers for airfield dioramas. The HEMTT, Stryker, and WW2 softskins are welcomed in the Braille scale world.

Most of Academy's armor kits are decent builds. They do tend to suffer from some issues, but some are really good like the M12, M7 and a few others.

Airfix's new aircraft are really top notch and surprisingly, when compared to new releases from other manufacturers are very competitively priced. Just make sure you are paying for one of their new toolings though and not an old moulding in a new box. Some of those are very ordinary.

I haven't tried their 1/48 Coyote, Jackal, or Warrior yet but if they are anything like their aircraft then they should be very nicely done as well.

Blitzwing

Airfix's new aircraft are really top notch and surprisingly, when compared to new releases from other manufacturers are very competitively priced. Just make sure you are paying for one of their new toolings though and not an old moulding in a new box. Some of those are very ordinary.

I haven't tried their 1/48 Coyote, Jackal, or Warrior yet but if they are anything like their aircraft then they should be very nicely done as well.

According to this forum that specializes in 1/48 scale armor favors the new Airfix armor:
 http://www.network54.com/Forum/433829/thread/1384814174/Jackal+and+Coyote 

That's the catch; mixing in their old tool aircraft with new stuff so you don't know what to expect.

I had a friend in the hobby business explain to me how Airfix can sell such nice kits at such reasonable prices. He says they do much larger runs than many other hobby mfgs, thus amortizing molds and startup costs over a larger volume of kits.  Revell and a few others do this too, but too many mfgs make much smaller runs.

That was how most of the big manufacturers used to do business. It is more the Asian companies that do the short run high cost releases. Notice how Hasegawa does a short run reissue of many of their kits with a new decal set and box for progressively higher and higher pricings. Say what you will about the quality of their kits,  but their business model for the consumer stinks on our end.