Linberg kits

Their sailing ships are not bad if you can get past the "pirate ship" packaging.  They actually represent historical ships and offer reasonable detail for the scale and the price.  The rest of their ships are horrible.

Bill

I enjoyed building the Jolly Roger. I bought 2 actually. 1 I built just for fun as my own privateer, dirty and all. I didn't care about historical accuracy, I just had fun with it. The second still sits on the shelf until I decide to build it as the La Flore. I have a build log of it on here. just check out the "Jolly Roger a.k.a. La Flore" thread if you're interested.

Lindberg is hit or miss, mostly miss.

However, I did enjoy building the 1/48 SE-5, Jenny, several of their 1/25 car kits, and the Southern Belle paddle wheeler back in the 60's when they were first released.

Their 1/20 Camaro was also a nice kit, although in an odd scale ( I bought it mostly to display next to my 1/20 Tamiya F1 cars).

 I do give them credit for releasing some kits of non-mainstream subjects, like the 1/48 short-nose F11 Tiger.

Mark

They vary greatly.  Some were/are junk, others are pretty good.  Built the new Graf Zeppelin.  Better than the old vacuform kit but not by much.  Results came out pretty well, but fit was terrible and it is for experienced modeler.

Their 53 Ford model is excellent, as is the 32 pickup three-way kit.  Auburn and other cars are not very good.  Their 1:48 planes like Stearman and SE-5 are pretty crude.

Their civil war artillery piece is excellent.  Best Lindberg model I have ever built.  From experts who reviewed my kit, the "seat" on the limber is incorrect, bucket hanger in wrong spot, but the rest was right on.  Going to be building their stagecoach next- it is an excellent kit. I expect it to turn out as good as the Napolean cannon.

Their Nantucket lightship is good and their USCG 95 footer can be made really good with some aftermarket TLC.  And they are 2 of the RARE CG subjects around.

I have never had or seen a good Lindberg kit. So unless it's something that you have to have and they're the only one, I'd stay away. I have a friend who says that some of their cars are ok, nothing special, just ok. I think it's all junk. But that's just my opinion.

                                                                                                                       Ken

Thanks everyone. Its nice to know these things before spending the money and finding out the hard way.

Jack

jack jack

However the kits I've see advertised seem an order of magnitude better than I remember. 

One word     PHOTOSHOP

All they have done is repackage their old kits. The one released attempt at a new mold kit was not well receieved due to it being more toylike and being marketed for the R/C crowd than for the standard of Scale Display Models seen today. Some of their old kits are decent for the age, and often still the only game in town.

Nothing has changed from what you remember---just slicker advertising...