Best manufacturer of Ship models.

1. Tamiya
2. Trumpeter

Gip Winecoff

Well, it depends on what your definition of 'best' is...here's my two cents:

Plastic:
Tamiya 1/350: Easy to build, reasonably accurate, great subjects, coming down in price.
Trumpeter 1/350: A little more tough to build due to the number of parts and complexity of kits, some minor accuracy issues, more great subjects, but pricey.

Tamiya 1/700: New toolings are awesome, and are affordable.
Skywave/Pitroad: New stuff is nice, still overpriced though.
Aoshima: Hit or miss, some is good, some is garbage.
Fujimi: Out of their freakin minds with some of their pricing, especially when the kits are re-issues.

Then you have the mishmosh of Revell, Airfix, Heller, Lindbergh, Frog, which can range from great (some of the Heller kits are very nice) to downright horrible (Lindbergh and Frog).

Resin:

Almost all of the resin ship kits that are available are quite nice, simply because you don't last long in this business if you sell garbage. In 1/350, the nicest quality goes to White Ensign, Classic Warships and Blue Water Navy. All of these are pricey. In 1/700, JAG, Corsair Armada, White Ensign, Waveline, Regia Marina, Loose Cannon, all make very nice kits.

My two cents,

Jeff Herne
Modelwarships.com

I can definately vouch for Tamiya, but haven't tried the Trumpeter ships yet. I will agree with Jeff that White Ensign makes some great kits and aftermarket stuff. Best in the business, for my money.

demono69

tamiya and Trumpeter kits are very good. All peaces fit well and have good details.

The only gripe on ship kits and the plastic engineers who design the molds (I used to be in that biz) is when they split the main decks so that when you put them togeather you have to sand the seam across the deck and then re-scribe all the lost wood deck detail. Tamiya king george V is great for this. wish a plastic engineer was a modeler once in awhile!!!!

Then the next logical question would be:
Whats the best tamiya ship kit? and whats the best trumpeter?

The best 1/350 Tamiya shipa are, in my opinion, the Fletcher, Missouri, New Jersey.

The best Trumpeter ships are the Yorktown, Essex, Sovermenny (1/200), and Hornet. You can read in teh in-box reviews and see the parts photos on www.modelwarships.com

Regards,

Jeff Herne
Modelwarships.com

I have built 1:350 scale Bismark by Tamiya and that was a very good kit i am considering buying the Trumpeter kit Sovermenny in 1:200 scale but can't really compare yet. does anybody know the depth of the 1:200 sovermanney hull please as i want to convert it to r/c

I built the Hasegawa 1/350 Mikasa,really great build with no issues

Aoshima's 1/350 Takao was a good build also

 

As said before,it's a very general question,goes from kit to kit,how much do you want to spend,how much work do you want to do,are all factors

Yes, Hasegawa makes some excellent ship models in 1/350 - their Akagi comes to mind.

Firedeck

Yes, Hasegawa makes some excellent ship models in 1/350 - their Akagi comes to mind.

 

It's in the stash for someday when I get to it

Resurrection of a ten year old thread.

Interesting though because maybe not much has changed.

Way too broad a subject for the likes of me to add any insights.

But there's a lot more information available on the internet than there was in 2003.

I agree that Hasegawa made a special line of nice models. I have the Mikasa and Soya, and have been wanting the Gambier Bay, but the stash is at limit.

It's a small group though, and doesn't in my mind classify Hasegawa as a major source of ship models in the mold (sorry) of Trumpeter, Airfix, Heller, Revell.

I was thinking the same thing. Although Airfix and Academy have entered the 1/350 game hard with some beautiful kits. And there are a few more new names to add such as Gallery. If you want modern USN- Dragon and Trumpeter. Again this in area where one needs to break it down into sub genre: 1/350 Cold War,1/350 IJN, 1/350 RN, 1/700 USN, 1/700 DKM, etc.

"I agree that Hasegawa made a special line of nice models. I have the Mikasa and Soya, and have been wanting the Gambier Bay, but the stash is at limit.

It's a small group though, and doesn't in my mind classify Hasegawa as a major source of ship models in the mold (sorry) of Trumpeter, Airfix, Heller, Revell."

Well to be fair, Hasegawa's current selection is not really THAT small:

-1/350 IJN Hospital Ship Hikawa Maru-

-1/350 IJN Light Cruiser Noshiro

-1/350 IJN Destroyer Type KOH Isokaze

-1/350 U.S. Navy Escort Carrier USS Gambier Bay CV

-1/450 IJN Battleship Yamato

-1/350 IJN Submarine Depot Ship Heian Maru

-1/350 N.Y.K. Line Hikawa Maru Passenger Cargo Ship

-1/450 U.S. Navy Battleship USS Missouri

-1/350 IJN Destroyer Type Koh Yukikaze

-1/72 Manned Submersible Shinkai 6500

-1/350 IJN Battleship Mikasa

-1/350 IJN Light Cruiser Yahagi

-1/350 Antarctica Observation Ship

-1/350 IJN Aircraft Carrier AKAGI '41

-1/350 IJN Battleship NAGATO '41

+ updates and re-releases (there was a 1/350 Mutsu, 1/350 Nagato Battle of Leyte Gulf, etc.)

Plus in 1/700, they currently offer over 50 ship models...

Yes, but if you reduce to strictly 1/350 scale ships, their line shrinks noticeably... Especially compared to Trumpeter's 1/350 line up. Dragon and Tamiya also boast good 1/350 ship product lines.

The Hasegawa kits in the Z ship series are really fantastic. They are expensive, but worth it.

I model pre-deadnaughts and the Mikasa is the star of the field in 1/350.

Modern polar explorers, and I model those. Soya was released in four classes and they are the best.

Again though, they are very expensive. I would be very pleased to own any or all.

While Revell of Germany doesn't do that many naval ships, their cruiser Emden is a very nice little kit. Only problem with it is fit of main armament asssemblies.  WE PE detail set for the kit is also very nice- the two together have won me several prizes.