Hi All, over the last year I have returned to doing scale models and have begun by building world war 2 armour. As a kid I also built a number of airplane models and really enjoyed doing them. I am interested in returning to this area of the hobby hopefully at some point in the near future and am interested in doing some world war 2 aircraft. The problem is I have no idea what kits tend to be the highest in quality. I do know that I would like to build my favourite aircraft which was the F4U1 Corsair, perhaps an F4U1A in 1/32 or 1/48 scale?

Therefore I am looking for suggestions as to what are generally considered the most detailed, accurate kits out there for WWII aircraft and who makes the some of the best pe sets, decals, etc.

Your feedback would be most appreciated.

Thanks very much.

David.

Hi Dave, and welcome back to the world of wingy-thingys. The concensus seems to be that Tamiya and Hasegawa have the best detail, and also the least assembly problems, out-of-the-box. Eduard is the PE of choice, but for resin various companies seem to focus on different aircraft or eras, a quick search on google will find heaps. I'm sure there will be lots of responses here too as there are any number of serious cases of AMS (After Market Syndrome) being treated in psych wards all over the world.



Cheers, D

Tamiya is said to have a wonderful Corsair, arguably the best on the market. It should probably be suffiently detailed for your needs.



Good luck!

Cheers! // PolarBear

Damian and Bjorn, Thanks very much for the feedback. This is excellent. BTW what tends to be the most popular scale for model aircraft. I would assume 1/32 and 1/48 but do modeller's tend to do more so than the other?

For resin upgrades I tend to be a fan of the PTO theater and tend toward USN/IJN/JAAF/USAAF in that order. Are there some resin guys out there that are known for their focus on aircraft of these various airforces? Of course I am also intersted in mustangs,spitfires (heard about the new Tamiya spitfire which is quite nice)FW's and other mainly ETO aircraft but initially I want to try and do a USN Corsair.

David
The scale popularity is really a personal choice/space consideration. I love to build 1/32 birds and my wife wishes they were 1/144. For what its worth the 1/48 has the greatest variety.
As for theatre specific upgrades you'd have to search the web for the specific castings for the equipment (like f-trop dust filters for german birds). As for the Corsair there is plenty of upgrades out there, as mentioned Eduard makes amazing PE, Verlinden sells a resin cockpit upgrade and lots not even cover the number of wheel and flap options out there.
I'd start with the kit you want to build, decide on a squadron, then look for any theatre specific equipment that is not in the kit. After that search for what you want, if you cant find it you can probably scratch build it and with 1/48 kits the parts aren't to small to work with.
Hope that helps, I've got an old 70s revell Corsair in my stash for later this year.

Hi dave,

1/72 is still the most popular (a search at Hannants for 1/72 injection moulded aircraft kits gives you 88 pages of results = approx 2,200 kits!)* 1/48 is very popular with more experienced modellers (44 pages) and 1/32 might be considered as "the new black" with quite a few spectacular releases lately (10 pages). If you're going mainstream, you will probably find all you need in 1/48, but for the more peripheral aircraft, 1/72 might be your choice. 1/32 is rather expensive, and anything bigger than WWII fighters will indeed be BIG. Based on your enquiry, I would probably recommend 1/48, at least to begin with.

Then there is also 1/144, 1/24 and a couple of odd scales.

For aftermarket resin, there are quite a few manufacturers - Aires, Quickboost, Czech Master Resin to name a few. Also, a number of smaller producers, such as S.B.S etc. The same goes for PE, with Eduards as the biggest producer.

Good luck!

Cheers // PolarBear

* For resin kits, the difference is even greater, with 69 pages for 1/72 and 10 pages for 1/48.

Hello Dave,

you have the most subjects in 1/72 (sometimes called The Proper Scale:)). They are cheaper than 1/48 but with today's technology they look equally good, you can realize almost the same level of detail in this scale with aftermarket parts, and they occupy much less space. Also it is the biggest challenge if you are into competitions, since 1/72 airplanes have the most entries at shows.

Wow! Gentleman what can I say you all have been immeasureably helpful. I noted in a few of your responses that space is mentioned quite a bit. As an armour modeller initially I don't often see comments on space concerns perhaps because tanks don't have wingspans to accomodate?
At any rate I think I will try my hand initially at 1/48 scale as a sort of middle ground option. I am somewhat space limited and the Tamiya corsair looks like a great place to start. I think if I tried 1/72 it might be out of my league. I did notice that some of the 1/32 scale a/c look very nice indeed but are quite pricey. They almost rival prices of 1/16 scale armour which are huge.


Are there a couple of decal suuppliers out there for WWII aircraft that tend to be the gold standard in terms of offerings, quality etc???