1:48 Pave Hawk Italeri vs. Minicraft

I'm kind of in the same boat as I am looking for a 1/48 kit for the UH-60L and the SH-60 seahawk....Italeri makes the seahawk and minicraft the blackhawk...and really neither model is that great...they're the only around so i've held out in the hope something better will come along.

Good luck,
Doug

Thanks for the quick reply Alby.
Good to hear something good about the Italeri/ Revell moulds. Reason why I'm being negative about this Revell kit is because of what you already mentioned: I'm in the middle of building it and am having a hard time with the windshield. The fitting of the cabin seats also turned out to be a pain in the neck. On my Minicraft Black Hawk, I made the main landing gear struts extendable: by placing them in some Evergreen styrene tube mounted inside the cabin, and securing them within a few mm. range, I can display the model hanging from my ceiling with the landing gear oleos extended, or just place it on my shelf with the struts "pressed in" (my my, my English). Since the Italeri kit has a different landing gear (the wheels are not mounted on the main struts themselves, but on the diagonal connecting strut) I cannot repeat this trick with the Italeri kit: ...
Then again: you mentioned it: let me first build it and see for myself, you've just made me look more positive to the Revell/Italeri-kit, enough to get me to finish it, instead of throwing it onto the pile of nearly finished projects.

Thanks again!

Gertjan

Nope, different molds. In fact, The Italeri MH-60G is the same mold as the Revell Of Germany MH-60L, except it is molded in gray and has MH-60G specific parts. Having both the Minicraft and Italeri kits in my stash, I think the Italeri kit is better in terms of detail and mold quality. The fit is tricky, especially the windshield and overhead panel fit, but nothing that some care with assembly won't solve. The cockpit is the weakest aspect as it has decals for the instruments and minimal detail in the cargo area. The Minicraft MH-60 looks kind of clunky and the surface detail isn't as crisp as Italeri's MH-60G. A lot of the details in the MInicraft kit are oversimplified compared Italeri's kit as well.

HTH,