Trumpeter Kits

Panther88 wrote:

As most of you are aware I am new to modelling.  I was wondering what the Tamiya battleship kits are like.   Some people have mentioned to me that Trumpeter (and new Hasegawa) blow the old Tamiya battleships away in detail, etc.  Problem is is Trumpeter does not make Bismark, Tirpitz, Missouri, POW, etc in 1/350.  Do you think they every will or not do so because Tamiya already has.  What if you buy the PE sets for the Tamiya kits, would that help?  What Trumpeter kits (carriers/battleships, etc) are good kits and what ones do I want to stay away from?

The best Trumpeter kits so far are the Hood and the England in 1/350. The Sovremmeny and Jeremiah O'brien are also very nice. Get the Tamiya Fletcher rather than the Sullivans, hold off on the North Carolina until you have worked through some of the other 1/350s. Soon Trumpeter is expected to release a South Dakota class BB in 1/350 which will be a first in plastic. The PE kits and supplemental detail sets for the Tamiya kits, if you have any skill at all, will help you to turn those old kits into marvels to behold. White Ensign Models makes a bunch of stuff for the Bismarck/Tirpitz twins that fix most if not all of their problems, the down side is the expense. Gold Medal Models makes some great stuff for all the old Tamiya kits and new details are coming out all the time. The list is pretty much endless for the Tamiya kits: gun barrels, turrets, deck revisions, deck equipment, aircraft, structural pieces, railings, etc. etc. You could go broke buying all the stuff for these kits. However, you'd have a great looking model!!!!! All this being said we are only talking about injection molded kits here. There is a whole UNIVERSE of kits in 1/350 found in resin. Knock off a couple of injection models and then start looking at what you can find in resin!

I have built all the Tamiya 350th ships and they are spectacular. The GMM photo-etched sets are fantastic as well, yet I have not used them on all my ships. You can still get a great model without them.  Ships should take a long time to build if done right, time measured in months. Do yourself a big favor and buy your kits online.  Its common sense and you will save a great deal of money, in fact by buying a Tamiya ship online you will have saved enough to go a long way in getting a GMM set for that ship.  I don't recommend jumping into photo etched for a ship if your a first timer, however. Find yourself an online dealer and develop a relationship with that dealer just as you have at the store. It is nuts to pay retail price, and the boloney about supporting the local guy, well I'll tell you, I could be his biggest single customer, but he won't budge, and soon enough he will be out of business after 20 years. Just as I don't drive a horse and buggy to work... do I????

Thanks for all your advice.  It is very hard for me right now as I am so pumped to do the big battleships but I will start slow and try to hold back the temptation.  The problem with on line ordering is I looked at that, but I live in Canada, all the good stuff on Ebay and other on line sights is always in the U.S. or Britian, by the time I pay exchange and shipping it is cheaper for me to buy our of a store.  My local hobby store in town is in a old house, dungy looking but his overhead is dirt cheap, his prices are always lower then suggested retail and because he is a friend of mine he gives me an additional 20% off.  I have over $8,000 in armour and aircraft kits still sealed, so I am now trading in those kits for the ship models as I get them.  He advised me he can not get GGM but there is 2 other PE companies (forget the name now) that he can get, they make PE sets for Trumpeter and Tamiya ships.

 I want to start a collection of trumpeter kits, I know their new kits like the hood are nice, but I was not sure on all the WWII aircraft carriers which ones were nice and which ones to stay away from. 

Panther88:

 I would suggest that you check out the reviews on either Modelwarships or Steel Navy. They have pretty decent reviews of almost every kit and photo-etch kits known to man.

Also build what you want. If you want to start with a 1/350 battleship, and not a smaller destroyer, then it has a greater possibilitiy of being compleated.

 Right now I am building the 1/350 Trumpeter Hornet as she appeared at Midway. The fit is ok, but you have to fill some seams in. Thank god the Flight deck is ok!! I think that tyey take so long in that you have to paint and build in sub assemblies as you go, plus thing several steps ahead.

 When you undertake a 1/350 ship model, expect to spend some time on them and you will be well rewarded. They look great in  display cases. as a matter of fact, my wife like for me to display one in the living room. She says that it adds a bit of class to the room, ship models have a tendecy to do that.

I didn't realize you were in Canada, so that may negate my post, however you can buy direct from the  GMM website when the time comes, they are great people.  You may also want to call Tower Hobbies, which has an economy of scale and  see what they say about the exchange rate. Many times you can haggle with an e-bay store, particulary if you become loyal.

As I said in your AC thread, I have my doubts concerning the accuracy of the Trumpeter ships, especially in the hull shape department.

Compared to Tamiya, I have the feeling that you have to glue three times more parts to a Trumpeter ship to get a finished kits that appears about 5% more detailed than the Tamiya product. IMO Trumpeter kits look very nice in the box but are in fact still miles away from the standard that Tamiya has already had for decades now. I admit they have their highlights like the new Hood, and they might get better over the time. 

The new Hasegawa releases might blow Tamiya out of the water but they seem limited to japanese subjects for now.

Just my two cents... 

Folks:

Tamiya kits have some problems as well. Their Enterprise superstructure is wrong, and I their are many errors in their Iowa class as well. After having built  Tamiya BB63, their are fit problems with this kit.

I am not salesman  for Trumpeter, but  they are trying hard to get it right. Their Hood was reviewed by the Hood association before it was brought into production. You are correct, they have more pieces in a kit, and the fit in the early kits are so so. I am working on their Hornet and god you have to build the superstructutr bit by bit.

 

I also heard that the BB55 is so so concerning accuracy, but Trumpeter are giving us kits at a scale people want, of Battleships, and Aircraft carriers. Now if only they would give us some cruisers.

 

Dick Wood

I just finished the North Carolina and built the England last summer. I enjoyed both kits and thought they were a step above the Minihobby ships from earlier days. The North Carolina was comparable to the Tamiya kits, although some details, such as the Oerlikon guns, left something to be desired.

One thing about the extra parts in Trump kits... the extra parts for splinter shields, turret and bulkhead covers, give an extra level of detail and an ease of painting that Tamiya does not.

well as far as Tamiya's 1/350th scale battleships go try replacing the Bismark/Tirpitz 20mm Flak 38 AA guns with the ones offered in Eduards German AA gun set offered in both 1/350 scale and 1/700 scale. the AA guns Tamiya has on the Bismark/Tirpitz look like blobs with sticks for gun barrels.