G'day all...I'm a new aircraft modeller and have decided to model 1:72nd or 1:48th kits..and stick mostly to modern military jets.
I have four model kits yet to be built and another on the way.. They are Hasewega , Hobby Boss , Academy and Revell..that I already have and a Revell FA 18 F Superhornet kit coming.
The most expensive one is that one $39.95..The rest were all about between $22 and $36..I have been modelling HO (1:87 scale) US Modern era rail for a fair while and have found the aircraft kits in comparison really affordable even if by model rail standards that hobby is more cost effective than ever.
My first forum question is this..Of the main brands , especially in 1:72 or 1 :48 scale which one is better 'bang for your buck" value for modern military.Most of my future models will be online or EBAY purchases..no hobby shops anywhere close..Love to know your opinions...Cheers Rod..

Hello Rod,

Welcome!

Research your online stores first before going to "evil bay", there are some on the web that are very good and you may find one there in Australia.
Second, read some of the product reviews we have here, that may help.
Third, How much work do you want to put into a kit? Full detail or just Out of the box builds. Some of the builds here can get scary detailed.

Anyways, brands are brands. You'll get a number of people praising one brand and bashing another and vice verse.

HTH.

See ya in the funnies...............

That's a lot like asking "how long is a piece of rope?" Rather than one manufacturer being "best" overall, reality is that some kits are better than others by the same company. Search through the reviews to see what's already been looked at on Aeroscale, and then ask about your preferred subject here to get a feel for what the other members think of the various alternative kits.

G'day Brian and Jessie , Much appreciated info...Same things 'how log is a piece of rope ' etc in model rail also. I suppose what I'm asking in general is your educated opinions from plenty of experience , which brands cover modern military aircraft well..So far I've got five models to work on but four different manufacturers.. Revell , Hasewaga, Hobby Boss , and Academy...I realise there are many more.
I like all of them but i know that they'll have good or bad points for a greenhorn like me. Decent price , good accuracy and solid range of contemporary fighter planes...They tell me Hasegawa and Airfix are expensive but excellent but Revell and lower priced brands are getting pretty close but quite a few dollars cheaper..I've already noticed that Revell seem to put out lots of models..I suppose what I'm really asking is by buying Revell etc initially will I be getting kits that are capable of reproducing a good example for a novice..Thanks again for the responses..Cheers Rod..

Hai,

The comments and "length of a piece of string" arguements make sense but maybe not the most informative for someone searching for a general direction answer.

Without claiming any universal expertise and talking only about 1/48 scale I would recommend Tamiya as a brand to any beginner.

Many of their kits are from times when designing a model airplane, and producing the molds to manufacture it, was a really big and expensive thing. In those days Tamiya has raised the standards significantly and their models, in general, can still stand next to very recent model designs.

This without containing resin, metal parts, or other complicated approaches that make the life of a beginning modeller very difficult.

Again, in general, the second brand could be Hasegawa. High quality plastic, no resin, no "brassin", but usually kits that contain many more parts than a similar Tamiya offering and with building instructions that seem designed to hide how the model should be put together instead of showing how to do it.

With the above, I don't want to de-value any of the other manufacturers, I only try to point you in the direction of some easy kits that, I hope, will make you happy when building and when looking at the final result

All the best

You have to be very careful about Revell. They've operated since the beginning of plastic modelling and they seldom retire moulds, even when they're no longer state of the art. They'll keep re-issuing and re-issuing a kit which is inaccurate rather than take the time to re-cut the moulds to modern standards. A case in point is their 1/144 E-3 Sentry. The plastic in the box is a mish-mash of 707-120 and KC-135 in 1/139 "box scale" from the 1950s. They'll also rebox other manufacturers' plastic. They've done Hasegawa, Italeri, Zvezda Matchbox and many others. But then some of their newer kits like the F-18 E and Eurofighter are truly excellent.

This is why it's important to ask about a kit before rushing out to disappoint yourself

To repeat what everyone else has said, researching the kits you want is the key. Often a better kit of the aircraft you want can be found by other manufacturers. A case in point being the Eurofighter Typhoon. Airfix's was originally tooled years ago and is based on the prototype, Revell's is more recent, based on the production aircraft and comes with a huge selection of underwing stores relevant to almost every airforce who operate it. Same goes for Tornado's, forget Airfix go with Revell.
Which leads me to another point, Hasegawa rarely include weapons in most of their modern aircraft kits. You'll get fuel tanks but usually little else. They make some fantastic weapons sets which are separately available and are very useful to have. But they will increase the overall cost and you might find you'll be buying the same sets all the time just to get enough AMRAAM missiles to tool out a couple of F-15's and F-18's! Almost every other manufacturer includes the basic load outs. Again, research is the key as to what you get in the various boxes.
Ask any questions about particular kits here and someone will have the answer or recommendations.

G'day Drablab , Jessie and Steve..Exactly what I wanted to know , thanks...Re Revell ..My good friend who does genuinely superb quality models is a big fan of Airfix and Hasewaga especially and he's done some beaut work with airfix in particular . He began modelling in about 1960 ..He's 64 now. You should see his 1:24 Mosquito and 1:24 with an incredible Tomcat he built about 20 years ago , three Spitfires and fantastic Hurricane. Then there's a dozen or so 1:350th warships and bigger scale lightships corvettes etc...He's built about 2000 models in all scales but nowadays he does mostly 1:48th and occasionally a 1:32nd kit..He did tell me to watch out for some of the Revell kits and look for reviews ..and to shop around for better kits once I've built a couple..Best thing is he's going to help me with one early on and show we a few tips . I'm really looking forward to getting going and I certainly value your opinions very much. for an enthusiastic but wet behiind the ears modeller...then again 7-8 years ago I was like that with model rail but now I get on okay Cheers Rod..

My favourite brands are Tamiya and Revell. The last one I bought here. Just choose smt from respectable brands, and you'll built the scale model straight out of the box without any changes

Rodney,
1st, welcome to Aeroscale. Glad you decided to join the party.

As for which company designs and executes the best models for ones buck. Here's what I look for in a model. #1 by far is parts fit, accuracy of scaled dimensions, detail offered and correctness of detail, thickness or should I say thinness of parts where applicable, decals: accuracy, registration/color correction, stenciling, and thickness. Of course having them designed by Figthertown and produced by Cartograf is a big plus these days.

With the plethora of companies offering nearly every mainline jet from Vietnam to today, one needs to evaluate those factors that are important to you per release. There are several sites that specialize in depth box reviews, and basic OOB build reviews.

As others has said, each release should be evaluated on it's own merits, not a companies past performance or pledge of a better kit this or next time.

As an example, Hasegawa literally owned the 1/48 scale F-4 market, but Academy really stepped up, and drastically increased their game to produce a current run of F-4B, F-4C, and to be released a F-4E that is more then the equal to the Hasegawa kit, plus a ton of stores. Decals are by Cartogragf plus a full sheet of stencils that can drive one crazy (believe me, I know).

As an example Tamiya has just released a new 1/72 F-16 that is state of the art, but their decals are in house (usually on the thick side).

I would caution you to consider other venues then ebay for model purchases. New kits go for close to full retail, and the shipping can be more then from a full online Hobby Shop. Check out the main players from Japan.

Joel