Old brands considered

How about the older Revell and Monogram kits? If you like building 1/48 scale planes, those two brands have some unique kits.

Oh absolutely they are. This is where the internet is such a help. A site you should get familiar with is scalemates. That site is an encyclopedia of kits, their history and often has linked reviews.

In my own case, I build subjects, so I see all kinds of kits, from garbage to exquisite.

Its the joy of the hunt for me. I want a Mig 19s? Well, there are a few, the one closest to what I want is a Bilek kit. Lots of flash, soft details, garbage cleary parts. But it's fun to beat it into submission and at the end, a bad a ss Farmer.

Hasegawa makes/ made a lot of really nice kits. Revell, Monogram, Airfix, Heller. They all have good kits and bad kits, so do your research. There's a lot out there.

Which is better if there is a difference, Revell or Revell Germany?

Lonwuff

Which is better if there is a difference, Revell or Revell Germany?

 

There is no more difference nowadays. Revell USA is no more. Revell Germany is the survivor. They shared many molds over the past couple of decades. 

stikpusher

 

 

Lonwuff

Which is better if there is a difference, Revell or Revell Germany?

 

 

 

 

There is no more difference nowadays. Revell USA is no more. Revell Germany is the survivor. They shared many molds over the past couple of decades. 

 

To further muddy the waters, both Revell and RoG have repopped kits from older companies like Matchbox and Frog, among others. You still need to do your research, it may be a new tool kit or it may be a rebox of an ageing kit from decades ago.  

JohnnyK

How about the older Revell and Monogram kits? If you like building 1/48 scale planes, those two brands have some unique kits.

 

Their old classiic car kits are also great buys at flea markets.  These kits were excellent kits with good fits, fairly good detail, and well executed design. 

Lonwuff

Which is better if there is a difference, Revell or Revell Germany?

Cop out answer is that Revell of Germany is better because it is still around.

Originally, Revell of Germany (RoG) was the branch that Revell used to sell their products in Europe. Eventually they split and RoG became a very good company. They partnered with Italeri and released many European-centric kits.

I don't follow their airplane kits, but they are well regarded. Their armor kits are a little soft, but they make modern German armor that no one else attempted.

The original Revell made only a handful of military armor kits, and that was fifty years ago. They then merged with Monogram before they went out of business.

RoG sells very nice plastic sailing ship models. Most are re-releases of the nice old Revell kits, like the Constitution.

The only RoG kit I have is the new 1\32 FW190.  Looks like a decent one with a nice engine and good detail for the price point..under$35.

Rob Gronovius

The original Revell made only a handful of military armor kits, and that was fifty years ago. They then merged with Monogram before they went out of business.

The original Revell made a lot more than just "a handful of military armor kits." Revell also made ships, airplanes, missiles, cars, spacecraft, and HO scale buildings. The first plastic kit I built, at age 10 in 1956, was a Revell Douglas Skyrocket. Many of us old-timers have fond memories of Revell as the premiere plastic kit manufacturer way back then.

Revell made only a handful of armor kits.

Thats different than "Revell only made a handful of armor kits."

In any case, obviously.

RoG makes a very nice M48. 

In fact, the name Revell was adopted by the company when they were making plastic compact cases, as in makeup, in an attempt to be "confused" with Revlon.

According to Dr. Graham.

Bill

Phil_H

 stikpusher

Lonwuff

Which is better if there is a difference, Revell or Revell Germany?

 

There is no more difference nowadays. Revell USA is no more. Revell Germany is the survivor. They shared many molds over the past couple of decades. 

 

 

 

To further muddy the waters, both Revell and RoG have repopped kits from older companies like Matchbox and Frog, among others. You still need to do your research, it may be a new tool kit or it may be a rebox of an ageing kit from decades ago.  

 

To be pedantic,  the former owner of Revell (USA) and Revell-AG (Germany) was Hobbico.   Hobbico was a big player in the RC world and was a major importer and distributor in the US for Hasegawa and Italieri models.   A year to year-and-a-half ago Hobbico declared bankruptcy and the assets were sold to satisfy creditors.   Revell USA and Revell AG were sold to a German investment company which bore no heritage to the old Revell AG company.    The Hasegawa/Italieri distribution contracts were dissolved.  Revell USA is no more.   Revell AG is no more.   Now its just plain old Revell (GMbH?) a company based in Germany.

Atlantis Models have obtained rights to some of the classic (read that as pre-1970 vintage) Revell kits.

Space Ranger

 

Rob Gronovius

The original Revell made only a handful of military armor kits, and that was fifty years ago. They then merged with Monogram before they went out of business.

 

The original Revell made a lot more than just "a handful of military armor kits." Revell also made ships, airplanes, missiles, cars, spacecraft, and HO scale buildings. The first plastic kit I built, at age 10 in 1956, was a Revell Douglas Skyrocket. Many of us old-timers have fond memories of Revell as the premiere plastic kit manufacturer way back then.

Yes, the original Revell has quite a comprehensive line of model kits (cars, ships, planes, science fiction, figures, etc.), but they only made a handful of military armor kits, as in Jeeps, tanks, and other ground fighting vehicles. Many of those were made by Thomas Adams and the molds owned by the designer.

Revell decided to cancel their military armor line because they chose an odd 1/40th scale that wasn't competitive with the burgeoning 1/35 and 1/32 scale armor kits.

Thomas Adams took his molds and created his own company Snap Adams and produced a few more 1/40th armor kits. The kits were later reissued by Life Like, UPC and a few others. The merged Revell-Monogram reobtained many of those molds an have reissued them within the past few decades.

To be pedantic, Atlantis did not obtain 'rights' - they are the actual, factual owners of the molds, and have them in their possession. The new owners of Revell in Germany cherry picked what they felt were the most viable molds from the Hobbico collapse. Atlantis was able to acquire the stuff they turned their noses up at cheaply. Otherwise, much of the old Revell/Monogram/Aurora stuff Atlantis did get likely would have been scrapped altogether for metal value. 
https://www.atlantis-models.com/atlantisnews.aspx

Back in the say, late 60s or maybe a bit later, Monogram made some nice WWII German Armor kits that have shown back up on the shelves.  Aurora also produced some good armor kits, the M-4 and the Stalin I think I remember best.  They also made a Vietnam series of boats in the late 60s including the Junk, Swift, and something theyh called the Rag boat. They also did a series of helicopters and some experimental aircraft.

My first kit I remember, about 1956 was the Revell seamaster.

While many of those kits are well past their prime; it is good to see the molds in the hands of a model producing company and not a scrap metal company.

On a side note, I wonder what happened to the old Aurora M4A3E8 Sherman kit? It was last released by Monogram as part of a diorama with an Fw-190. It and the Panther were the only two from the Aurora armor line to make an appearance in a Monogram box.

I see the M46 Patton amd JSIII Stalin being reissued by Atlantis.

Rob Gronovius

While many of those kits are well past their prime; it is good to see the molds in the hands of a model producing company and not a scrap metal company.

On a side note, I wonder what happened to the old Aurora M4A3E8 Sherman kit? It was last released by Monogram as part of a diorama with an Fw-190. It and the Panther were the only two from the Aurora armor line to make an appearance in a Monogram box.

I see the M46 Patton amd JSIII Stalin being reissued by Atlantis.

 

The Aurora 1/48 'Long Tom' has been reissued by Atlantis as well; people have said, though, that it now only includes the 8" Howitzer barrel and not the gun one, and indeed the box is marked as the howitzer only. What other molds they may hold is kind of a mystery; Atlantis has been rather coy, and has never provided a full list of exactly what they got. Occasionally they show, or talk about molds and their status on their facebook page. 

Aurora did retool some of the molds. I know my original M109 howitzer only had a short tube. The reissue I got later had both a long and short tube.

Similarly, the Panther I have had the zimmerit molded on the sides and the later release of the MBT70 had some retooled texture added to the upper surfaces and some suspension detail added.

Looking through Graham, the index of armor kits produced by Revell 1950-1979 includes these:

M4A1 Sherman Tank H-522

155mm Gun and tractor H-523

M-20 Armored combat car H-524

Jeep and Trailer H-525

GI Battle Action figures H-526

Army Combat team Gift Set H-527

M2 155mm Long Range cannon H535

M4 High Speed tractor H-536

US Army M-35 truck H-537

Russian T-34 H-538

105mm Howitzer H-539

M-56 Self Propelled gun H-540

Scissors Bridge with M-48 transporter H-542

Panzer 4  H-1117

Snap Kits of Sherman, Flak Panzer

Reissues of most of the kits above

GMorrison

Looking through Graham, the index of armor kits produced by Revell 1950-1979 includes these:

M4A1 Sherman Tank H-522

155mm Gun and tractor H-523

M-20 Armored combat car H-524

Jeep and Trailer H-525

GI Battle Action figures H-526

Army Combat team Gift Set H-527

M2 155mm Long Range cannon H535

M4 High Speed tractor H-536

US Army M-35 truck H-537

Russian T-34 H-538

105mm Howitzer H-539

M-56 Self Propelled gun H-540

Scissors Bridge with M-48 transporter H-542

Panzer 4  H-1117

Snap Kits of Sherman, Flak Panzer

Reissues of most of the kits above

For their time, except for the M4A1 composite Sherman, they were pretty good kits and I have many of them.

Do you have the Scorpion? That one interests me.

The above hardly even qualifies as a "few". Page after page of airplanes, ships and cars in Graham.

Over to Monogram, I liked the Weasel for some odd reason.

ikar01

Back in the say, late 60s or maybe a bit later, Monogram made some nice WWII German Armor kits that have shown back up on the shelves.  Aurora also produced some good armor kits, the M-4 and the Stalin I think I remember best.  They also made a Vietnam series of boats in the late 60s including the Junk, Swift, and something theyh called the Rag boat. They also did a series of helicopters and some experimental aircraft.

My first kit I remember, about 1956 was the Revell seamaster.

The Swift patrol boat was reissued in the 1990s, and the River Assault Group (RAG) boat was reissued with a Huey in the Rambo box set. Both were Monogram kits. They also did a Coastal Junk that was different from the Aurora Chinese Junk.

I grew up on these armor model kits.

Monogram Coastal Junk

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/monogram-8298-coastal-junk--265054

Aurora Chinese Junk

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/aurora-430-198-chinese-junk--417561

Something else of note about the Aurora M-46 and the Atlantis reissue - somewhere along the way, some of the engine deck detailing was lost. The central rows of grilles directly behind the turret is intact, but the outer rows on each side alongside the mufflers is gone now, and smooth. Sometime down through the years, the tooling must have been modified or damaged. 

Not the only case this has happened, and I am sure there are others. The Atlantis reissue of the Revell P6M Seamaster no longer has the small plastic 'coin' on the sprue or the tiny sea base that once served as a stand for the kit in it any longer, for example. 

The exquisite sailors on the various larger sailing ships started to dissappear a long time ago.

I'm Midway (pun intended) through a ship kit circa 1956. The instruction sheet is one very big piece of paper, all folded up like a map. One side instructions, the other side ads for other Revell models.

MJames70

Something else of note about the Aurora M-46 and the Atlantis reissue - somewhere along the way, some of the engine deck detailing was lost. The central rows of grilles directly behind the turret is intact, but the outer rows on each side alongside the mufflers is gone now, and smooth. Sometime down through the years, the tooling must have been modified or damaged. 

Most every armor kit still active when Aurora went from the large square box with vacuformed base to the small white box format minus the base had some sort of retooling done to it. I'm not sure what happened to the M46, but I know the changes to the MBT70, M109 and Panther tanks.

Not my pics, but the best I could find quickly. I think the changed area between the vintage and reissue kit is still apparent. I circled it on the Atlantis edition pic. The grates/louvres are totally gone from the outer rows now. 

The Aurora Gun tractor was the later M8, not the M4 type. 

Also, Scalemates often has a the instructions for the kit, which I like to look over when compairing the same type kit by differant manufactures.

GMorrison

Oh absolutely they are. This is where the internet is such a help. A site you should get familiar with is scalemates. That site is an encyclopedia of kits, their history and often has linked reviews.

In my own case, I build subjects, so I see all kinds of kits, from garbage to exquisite.

Its the joy of the hunt for me. I want a Mig 19s? Well, there are a few, the one closest to what I want is a Bilek kit. Lots of flash, soft details, garbage cleary parts. But it's fun to beat it into submission and at the end, a bad a ss Farmer.

Hasegawa makes/ made a lot of really nice kits. Revell, Monogram, Airfix, Heller. They all have good kits and bad kits, so do your research. There's a lot out there.

 

Oh SpaceRanger:

    Don't forget the Stilleto! Don't remember it's "X"designation , but it was awesome looking!