Tamiya

I can remember the "good ol' days" of Tamiya 1/50th scale airplane models - particularly the Ki-100 and Ki-44 that between them required a whole tube of Green Stuff ! Their early 1/72nd airplane kits were just as agravating !

Jim

Jim, some of their earler 1/35 armor was no picnic, either!

Cuda, I've never heard of any kind of deal like that, official or not, between Hasegawa and Tamiya. While Hasegawa still doesn't make any 1/35 armor themselves (they do distribute Dragon, though), Tamiya has been doing both armor and aircraft since waaaaaay back. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors though, eh?

both companies have their friends. I had the chance of buing some expensive hasegawa stuff over my self imposed 15$ limit and found that it was cool. Tamiya though is something i savour for birthday,xmas, and nameday.
thats wh i only got 4 tamiya vs 16 hasegawas.

Hey J-Hulk;
well I heard that a few years ago in the local IPMS meeting when someone brought up the reason Tamiya was staying in the just armour mode and not exploring into the avaition arenas but now they broke into it with a vengence and kicking butt and taken names later, I'm still waiting for them to start doing their 1/32 A/C's in 1/48 scale
Ugly Butt Well Hung: Hawgs
Cuda

Guys, I think you're overlooking something here, and thats the availability of the kits. Yes, I know that a lot of you can mail-order a kit. But there are probably a few people out there like me with no credit card and a distinct lack of GOOD places to buy a kit. All I have here is Wal Mart and Hobby Lobby. Our Hobby Lobby has a small section for plastic kits and that means a smaller selection. Wal Marts is even smaller. I haven't even seen some of the kits you're talking about! But the deciding factor is cost. I can't spend more than 20$ on a kit. And besides isn't it more fun to work on a kit that needs it? Some of the Monogram kits aren't that bad. And I really get a sense of accomplishment when everything comes out right!

Hey all,

I just finished reading the last month of messages about the incredible quality of Tamiya kits. More on that issue in a moment.
I have been a modeler for over 40 years, entered many contests, won a few, even wrote a few kit reviews for magazines. I have seen the overall quality of kits increase right along with the price. The earliest 1/72 scale aircraft kits produced by Frog gave the modeler a wide variety of subject matter.... and flash, and mistakes, and poor fit, lack of detail, raised panel lines.... etc. However, it was expected and building a kit meant correcting the mistakes and putting in details. For those of you into buying some of the cheaper European 1/72 aircraft kits, Surprise!! Frog still lives on. Sure they may sport another company name, but that is the only change. Fortunately with magazines like Fine Scale Modeler...and others, we are forewarned about poor kits. As someone earlier said, "you get what you pay for". When Tri Master, DML, Hasegawa, Fine Molds and others got serious about detail and quality, I along with my fellow modelers rejoiced and drooled. Then detail sets, both photo etched and resin began to appear.... dreams come true.
I have always said that I would be happy building a kit with just a couple of pieces IF the manufacturer took the time on quality, detail and realism. Just think how much fun it would be to spend hours on finishing and detailing a kit without having 500 pcs to assemble first. My point here is there is nothing wrong with a kit that literally glues itself together.
My problem with the industry is that some of the more reputable model companies release.... or re-release inferior kits and fail to mention that they are old kits. Case and point, Tamiya realeased the Lancaster Grand Slam Bomber (propeller action series No. 4) in 1/48 scale in the recent past. Wow, not only included 4 motors for spinning the props, but prepainted clear parts.... prepainted and weighted tires!!! Really worth the near $100 price tag right? Well, in this case, WRONG! This was a re-release of an old Tamiya kit. No retooling. Raised panel lines and the same clunky details of the kit released decades before. Imagine, I opened the box checked out the beautiful paint job on the clear pieces.... wow, they even gave me unpainted pieces if I decided that I wanted to paint my own... right on! Now on to the rest of the kit... wow it's big, whoa, losts of raised rivets.... and... no way... I cant freaking believe it.... raised freaking panel lines! I put the kit away. I didnt want to think about the amount of cash I put out for this inferior kit. Anyone want to buy an opened 1/48 scale motorized Lancaster kit for the price I paid? I didnt think so. The store I bought it from didnt want it back either. Dont get me wrong.. this is a beautiful kit you can see the quality. I've built plenty of Tamiya kits and never complained. I just feel that I have been duped. Okay, I'll get off my soap box. But I gaurantee you that I wont buy another Tamiya kit that has all the buzzers and bells without first checking carefully on the internet, magazines and with fellow modelers.

QUOTE: Originally posted by hou_ge2000 I mean, injection molding is not rocket science. Any company can make great quality plastic kit as long as they are willing to spend the money and man power on the tooling, which will be reflected in the price of the kit.

Well I"ve designed a few injection molded parts and it IS in fact Rocket Science.