Good kits, bad kits.

[Rigger100472]

Hi, any advice on the best aircraft kits and the ones to avoid.

 

[peterairfix]

My worst kit would be the airfix 1\24 spit well outdated as I have just spent six months beating into something looking like a spitfire.
The best I have done is the revell 1\32 Me 262 night fighter.

 

[Rigger100472]

I meant manufacturers, I have seen one I fancy but it's by hasagawa and never heard of them before. Are there any manufacturers I should avoid.

 

[peterairfix]

Can of worms time I think it a difficult one to answer as with all manufacturer's they have their good kits and bad kits,but I not heard any thing bad about hasagawa.

 

[John Rixon]

A lot of it is more to do with new kits or old kits, for instance, most Tamiya kits are excellent, but the really old ones will give a total beginner some issues. Having said this, I've just bought a fairly new Kitty Hawk F101, and it beggars belief how awful it is...

 

[rickoshea52]

Hasegawa are generally good, I've built three over the last few years and been happy with them, 1/72 F-14, 1/48 Phantom and 1/200 Poseidon.
I bought a Kitty Hawk 1/48 Jaguar then heard horror stories about it and sold it sharpish.
Most of the new tool Airfix is really good but as with all kits there are always grumbles.
Try looking at Scalemates.com to see what is out there and if it has a review. What did you have in mind anyway?

 

[John Rixon]

Hasegawa are generally good, I've built three over the last few years and been happy with them, 1/72 F-14, 1/48 Phantom and 1/200 Poseidon.
I bought a Kitty Hawk 1/48 Jaguar then heard horror stories about it and sold it sharpish.
Most of the new tool Airfix is really good but as with all kits there are always grumbles.
Try looking at Scalemates.com to see what is out there and if it has a review. What did you have in mind anyway?

This Voodoo is weird, open the box, and it looks amazing, start handling the styrene, and you get a bit worried, as it is so hard and brittle, but hetting parts to fit together is a bloody nightmare, very little fits, and some, like the forward fuselarge section, is going to have a step of about 0.5mm, which filler will not resolve, as I want a NMF paint job. Grrrr

 

[dave]

As others have said, i think all manufacturers have good and bad kits. Although for some manufacturers the good massively outnumber the bad and newer kits tend to be better than old ones.

My advice would be to find a kit or kits you fancy and search on google for reviews and then make your own mind up.

Defining a bad kit is subjective, do you mean badly fitting or technically inaccurate? Some folks are happy to wrestle a badly fitting kit, but are up in arms if the tail fin is slightly too short.