Something learned

Hey John - welcome back! 

I believe there's definitly a correlation but it's not a tautology.  Most of my nicer kits (pricey) go togehter very well but there have been a couple (1/48 Hasegawa F-14A) that are terrible.  On the other hand I have had some inexpensive kits that went together suprisingly well - most recently the 1/48 Tamiya Raiden and Rufe kits.  They are old but go together very nicely.

You cannot rely on one manufacturer to make "the best" or "the worst" kits.

Most everyone has a smartphone of some type. It takes a few minutes to Google the particular model kit to see if it is being offered at a good price or if it is a good or bad kit.

For instance, Tamiya is known for quality and engineering, but they also have 50 year old kits still being sold that were good in 1970, but well past their prime in 2023.

If you grab a Tamiya M3 Lee or Grant, and leave the Takom or Miniart kits on the shelf, you will be doing yourself a disservice. It's a 1970s kit and the others are less than ten years old. Even the 20 year old Academy kits are better.

Additionally, many manufacturers rebox one another's kits. If you aim for one brand, it might just be another company's kit inside the box.

If you see the Tamiya M109A6 Paladin and it's more expensive than the Italeri M109A6 Paladin, you might think that makes it a superior kit. But, it's the same kit with some figures from another Tamiya set.

I find the recent Airfix, and Dora Wings have execellent fit even though they have moderate prices.

John3M, I recommend a couple of resources to you.

One is to join forums such as this, especially those that have kit review sections.  If you're interested in any given kit, chances are that you can find reviews or build blogs, that will often have good info to help you decide whether you want to buy the kit.

Another is to visit Scalemates, https://www.scalemates.com/, which is a model kit wiki.  It's updated by its members, so you need to bear that in mind.  But there is a lot of good info about this or that kit.  Especially to GM's point about companies reboxing other companies' kits, there is a lot of good kit history posted to Scalemates.

I agree with the argument, too, that the brand isn't necessarily a sign of a kit's quality, though there can be some correlation.  But it really pays to look for reviews and builds to get more information, to talk to other modelers, whether online or in person.

I think it's more a matter of when the model was tooled rather than it's price. The differences in models that are being tooled today are much better than those released just 10 years ago. The Eastern European manufacturers are churning out some great kits today, but not so long ago their quality was pretty sketchy. And for the most part they are relatively inexpensive too. I have had some expensive, newly released kits give me fits too. So what I do is check out Scalemates.com when I'm looking for a kit. You can find out when the model was originally released, reviews, kit instructions, accessories and more.

So I pick my kits based on interest in the subject. That narrows the field considerably.

Then I read reviews to find the best in buildability.

Most times I kind of cheap out. I don't like spending more than $ 100 on a kit.

Bill

If I have the money available I will spend $100 or more on a kit. I've done it recently with Tamiya's 1/32 A6M2b Zero, because I knew in advance that the quality and detail are there in abundance to make it worth spending that kind of money. Even more importantly I knew in advance that it's a very recent molding, where none of the problems that come from kits made from ancient & worn-out moldings will be present.

This is why the history graph Scalemates provides is a huge money saver. With one quick look the buyer can see when the first runs of a kit were issued. Brand new from 1995 and up, and originally issued by a respectable company? Then I'll probably buy it. Pre-1990? Unless it's from the very first release series by the original issuer then I'll avoid it. For example I saw one Academy release recently that was new on the shelf and was I interested in it. Then I did the double-check on Scalemates and saw that it was originally a Hobby Craft kit from the early 1990's and that all Academy did was include new decals and paint instructions with the Hobby Craft sprues. Having been stung by this sort of reboxing before I passed on it.  Paying X amount of dollars for great new decals to put on a bad-to-build kit isn't a very wise use of one's own money, just sayin'. 

I wish Scalemates had been around back in the mid-1990s thru to roughly 2010 when I was doing the majority of buying for my old stash. I hate to think of how much money I could have saved from unknowingly buying very old kits with lots of flaws that had been put into flashy new boxes with great cover art. Kind of an deliberately misinforming the buyer with a deceptive sales tactic in a way IMO, but caveat emptor I suppose. 

Scalemates is also useful to down load instructions.

Bill

GMorrison

Scalemates is also useful to down load instructions.

 

Bill

 Also an excuse to get new tools

Good Morning John!

        I feel ya! I have noticed to the disparity in prices and kit quality. But, and I say this with no acrimony toward any manufacturer. I have noticed this for over sixty years! When I got my running around done, Service to my country, building a business or two, raising kids, I got back into modeling full time. Yes! That far back!

       Way back I was flummoxed that there were unheard of companies(quite common now, I might add) that did incredible stuff in the scales I usually stayed away from , except Planes. Not being a deep plane modeler,(There wasn't much offered in the civil market in constant scales), I went back to my first love, Ships, whether scratch Built or Kits.

       Here too, there was a great disparity between quality and price. Even with it's flaws today, there was a Yamato for instance, Put out by a company I had Never heard of. By today's standards, somewhere in the middle in price and quality. Now there others and WOW! The detail will knock your socks off! So will the price! Cost of original materials aside!But, still not a large selection of civil vessels unless you stay in the 1/400 and such scales. Anything larger and there's Not much out there. So I still do a lot of scratch bulding and conversions if the hull suits the purpose!

     You may model differently based on your skilland preferrences,Still give it all you have ina relaxed and enjoyable manner and the reward will be worth the price and time.

GMorrison

...I don't like spending more than $ 100 on a kit.

That's the dilemma with ICM's upcoming B-26 Marauder in 1/48.  The suggested retail is a hundred bucks.  A lot of guys look forward to this kit, the first 1/48 Marauder since Monogram's kit.  But a hundred bucks...

I just finished the building of the HMS Beagle so I am in the hunt for my next build. I have been looking at the Mayflower, Columbus Santa Maria, the CSS Alabama, HMS Bounty, and others, all in wood. One thing I found out is their high price, most of the models I have listed hovers at around $200 or more, ( I would love to build the USS Constitution, but the cheaper model I have seen hover at around $500 ) since I am at a fixed income, paying $225 for a wood model ship is a bit difficult, yes, building one of these ships is at least a 6 months affair while you can build a plastic model of a F22 rapter a lot faster (please feel free to correct me on this if I am wrong)

Due to this, I have to be quite careful when I pick my next model

Joe

I have model shipways Constituation its a handful plan at least a year unless you work non stop

John3M

I have model shipways Constituation its a handful plan at least a year unless you work non stop

 

I have been looking at the Model Shipways Constitution, supposedly their model is the most realistic, but, I have a bad experience with Model Shipways, I purchase the Dapper Tom from them, a supposedly "beginners" model, and, the ship itself was not that complicate, my problem was with the documentation to be almost worthless, they claim it is for beginners, the ship is a beginners model, but you have to have a PH.D in docs to decipher their documentation.

Due to this I would be afraid to purchase the Constitution from them.

Joe

I understand. I have had good experience with them its just that some models being from say Italy make for a difficult project. I think you can download the plans for free to decide if you want to try that model