Vancouverite217
Is resin really that good that it can comand such a high price?
It's not the quality that drives the price, it's the cost of the material.
Casting resin, esepecially fine grain stuff, does not come cheap. There's a lot more material, too, as resin is typically cast solid, and not hollow like injection-moulded plastic.
Also, most resin kits are meant to fill "niche" markets, where sales are likely to be in the dozens, not hundreds, or even thousands. Which means each sale has to pay for a lot of overhead costs beyond the direct production costs. (Some resin companies don't maintain inventory, and cast to sale--this varies widely over the industry.)
Resin is a bit more brittle than styrene. So you need to treat is a bit differently. You glue it with either CA or epoxy glue.
Resin typically needs to sawn from it's moulding plugs, that and sanding creat some wicked dust particles. You want a good respirator mask, a good half-face mask with replacable canisters is typically best (if presently harder to come by during our current plague). I usually add a set of nitrile glove, but, that's from having a copious supply of those, ordinary laytex will help keet the grit off
If you go this route, I'd recommend getting a tug or other smaller auxilary fro mthe same company to get a "feel" for the building process.
That's my 2¢