Hello, i just got back into hobby(i build 1/35 scale tanks, etc.) I would like to know of some good 1/48 (company) planes to build for someone that never built one before. Thanks for help.

Hi Steve

I can recommend any of the Tamiya Mosquito's - they sort of fall together.

Andy

The best and easiest build are the Tamiya P-47s.

The Tamiya Mustangs are okay.

If you want a really easy model in 1/48 to cut your teeth on then the Tamiya Spitfire Mk 1 is the kit you want. The Mosquito and Thunderbolt are very good kits, but they have many more parts. There are only a couple of things to watch out for and they are both very easy to sort. If you go for the Spit I can talk you through it very easily

Mal

Steve,

If you haven't already gotten the message by the above posts, the same kit maker is in all of them! Tamiya. I also think that they are the best for a newbie or returnee no matter what type of modeling you want to do. Getting the basics with Tamiya certainly couldn't be a bad thing.

I nominate the old Tamiya Raiden, I just did one, its butt simple, fairly detailed and goes together easy.

Heck for $13 you cannot go wrong.

Tamiya P-51.

If you look at the suggestions, and compare theme with the posters country of origin, a pattern begins to emerge. Remember, there is always one exception to the rule.

I would say any Tamiya kit, My favourite would be the P-47 though

But if you don't want something with a big cooling fan on the pointy end, Hasegawa's 1/48 F-4 Phantom series is pretty good. One of them was my first 1/48 build donkey's years back and even I managed to make a half-decent fist of it. Check out the research pages on Modeling Madness for the full run-down of what's available.

Hey Steve,

That's a pretty loaded question isn't it everyone's going to be telling you their favourite plane, period of WW2 and country they model...

But, mate, this isn't about them... it's about you.... what are your WW2 preferences? Are you wanting to stick with the themes you currently have with your armour, etc?

That said... the one thing that is clear from the thread is that for easy going, Tamiya is (for once ) the way to go...

Rudi

I do apologise. I read and read the text of the thread but missed out the title when I added my previous post. Do please ignore my drivellings about the F-4.

I say go with a revell/monogram single engine fighter in 48th scale. They have a pretty good selection, P-40, P-51, spitfire, corsair and dauntless. I recomend these because they are fairly cheap and simple builds, tamiya is good, but can be a bit more expensive. I build one of these when I've been out of the game for a while. Plus you can find find some of these at wal-mart and hobby lobby.

Like I said, they are cheap, if you ruin it, no big loss.

I have built several Revell kits and they make a decent build for a great price. If you have a hobby lobby you can print a discount coupon from their web site-wait for the 40%off, and it makes the Tamiya kits a whole lot more reasonable. Instead of $42 for a P47D it came out at about $26. Look for online reviews of different kit builds to see how they go together.
Academy kits have turned out ok for me also. Lucky Model has them at prices that are better than any where else, but their stock is getting pretty low.

Ive built all of the kits mentioned above and I would have to say the tamiya spitfire is the easiest one to build, the P-47 is my favorite but the spitfire was a joy to build.
jim

I recently became interested in this hobby and bought six Tamiya Raiden Jacks and another half dozen Tamiya Zero's, great way to build skills and have a really nice model if all goes right price is right too, just recently bought a nice compressor with air tank and a passche mil airbrush.......what a great hobby