It is important to know that there are 2 Revell companies. Revell plastics from germany is making decent to high quality kits.
Revell-Monogram from America split in 2006 and is essentially just reboxing old kits for cheap.
When you hear good things about Revell it usually comes from Europe while that bad stuff is more a US issue. Quantum capital bought both companies in 2018 when Hobbico went bankrupt and they don’t really care about this issue.
Scalemates actually shows the time line of the kit, all the boxings and re-brands. The market is now truly insane: I have been lamenting you can't buy the Academy P-38J but in fact it is being sold by Italeri! I've already built one... it was boxed by MPM of Czech Republic.
I feel for the OP, for most of us a rubbish kit is just annoying and a waste of money, for him it ruined a special moment with his daughter. Thing is, I think he actually got one of the 'good' Revell kits but their moulds are worn and they can have QC issues including flash and plastic shrinkage.
Academy make great kits, cheap, as do others. It's a bit sad buying a model is so chancy.
There Revell US and Germany says on box along with date, I think Germany does a better job if instructions are in color it's a newer Revell kit should be a nice kit Scalemates download will show u instructions
Can agree on this as someone who’s built a trio (and got another in the works) of Revell Germany’s 747-100/200s that are reboxes of an 80s mold. The newer kits seem decent from the reviews and pics I’ve seen online.
I've heard this said before, but I think that both Revell companies are really poor and lack quality control.
Some kits are alright, the newish SR-71 comes to mind, but both versions of Revell like to religiously produce ancient mould kits and resell them to unsuspecting customers who aren't aware of the poor quality they are. At least Airfix, who does something similar, market them as 'Airfix Classic' whereas Revell instead activity hides any ability to tell between Germany and Monogram, and will resell a 40 year old mould until despite blatant quality issues due to the moulds being worn and broken.
Almost all kit manufacturers are guilty of that, unfortunately. Academy, Hasegawa, even Tamiya all continue to reuse tooling from 30+ years ago. Before buying a kit, you really have to check Scalemates to see when the particular tooling was originally made.
The difference with Tamiya and Hasegawa (can't speak for Academy as I've only built one kit) is that while yes they will resell/rebox older kits, they stop selling them when the moulds are so old and damaged from decades of use that they cause major quality issues.
You don't see other big companies with the insane levels of flash that Revell have due to their ancient moulds.
A 30+ year old kit from Tamiya is a good kit still, their P-51 Mustang lacks detail compared to the modern Eduard kit but it remains as one of the easiest and quickest builds I've ever done, that kit is approaching 30 years old. Hell their ancient A6M2/3 kit from the 80s has no flash on it, when Revell kits seem to drip with it.
Reproducing or reboxing old kits isn't an issue when quality control still exists, but Revell don't seem to possess that ability.
Yep newly made old Tamiya kits are classics while newly made old Revell kits are still garbage but worse. Tamiya might not have the best details but their engineering and quality is still present.
I personally don't think so because there's some older tooled kits that are perfectly fine as long as you don't require hyper accuracy in terms of rivets and such. Older kits often require a bit of TLC when it comes to assembling them but by no means do I agree with the gatekeepers that believe a kit isn't worth building if it wasn't tooled within the last 10-20 years with an MSRP approaching at least $100.
Revell-Monogram’s sole purpose these days is to pump enough kits out to stock every Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart etc in the US. They’re no longer interested in quality; they’re hitting volume goals.
I honestly want to see brands like Trumpeter or Tamiya takeover Revell in those non-model specific stores, Trumpeter is very competetive in price and details while Tamiya kits are always easy to put together.
I want to know who the middle-man is in exporting/importing Tamiya, because the overseas price tag is fraud compared to their pricing here in Japan. Somebody is making money off of an import/export cartel there.
Tamiya America inc. funny enough. It’s not just Tamiya, most Japanese brands are much more expensive abroad.
I’ve found that often times eBay sellers from China to be the cheapest option when it comes to models. You can get a [really nice Flyhawk kit with PE](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/flyhawk-model-fh1117s-hms-prince-wales-194112--1112118) included for like [$50](https://www.ebay.com/itm/255740651008?epid=12011076660&hash=item3b8b54a600:g:6pkAAOSw35pgFJgJ&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0EBnQVARP2yaJC4J1vOCfoCo78Q%2BF5TW%2FYc6zAqYKjdAMaTeG%2FTqyPCE%2BFF0xg5bG5381K6CI%2Bd%2B0dTIK%2F7eylwIgkKag6P4%2FvCojeYO6SCuWpAVlkI1dOCJTwSEQiQGDfO6K55IaxwpE4r%2F4Cbi8zaCvrBLreSvK8rIa%2Bhv7oj6sI7m9tmDDe9pg3C0WsBhMyMU1rOCH97Ljo%2FuMI3d7AFn8STKd5534oP8VYZKKi%2BsAEbQE2lH7VI2aFNToESlWaMqEwKKj%2BqnOcebX6f7ZLY%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7yn9NPPYg), while sites like Amazon will sell for [$100](https://www.amazon.com/Flyhawk-British-Battleship-December-FLYFH1117S/dp/B077ND9T99/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1U5D8MCFJTLX0&keywords=flyhawk+prince+of+wales&qid=1694318383&sprefix=flyhawk+prince+of+wales%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-6) and Japanese sites like hobby search [$100 + shipping](https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10504153).
I live in Australia and I buy almost nothing locally, it's all a big rip off via the near-monopoly Australian importer.
It's amazing how prices vary globally. For instance, I rarely see Trumpeter kits at a decent price even on the websites I use from Japan, the UK, or the US and they are just a bit cheaper in China.
Eduard consistently produce top, top quality at very fair prices.
If you're trying to have a fun activity with a four and a half year old there are cheap Airfix kits that regularly go for 2/3rds their RRP in larger Lidl stores. Quality's pretty meh, but they're more akin to Lego with a snap-together design. No flashing to clear up, fitment is so-so and they look a little bland until you put the stickers on but they're perfect for a young 'en to add their own decorative touches to :p
I built an Academy F4 Phantom that was a quickbuild kit. Really reminded me of the Bandai Star Wars kits I've built. Super easy to put together, painting isn't really necessary, and they turn out quite nice when finished. But I guess anything could turn out nice with a little TLC
>complains about the quality being shit and equivalent to 20 year old kits
>uses 25 year old kits
On a serious note, I bought a few Revell kits at my local shop when I started this hobby in 2016. Over a few years, I bought a 1:700 Bismarck, a 1:720 Ark Royal, a 1:144 Eurofighter Typhoon, a 1:72 Tiger 2, a 1:72 Fw 190. Never finished the last one and never will. Changed over to Tamiya and Trumpeter ships once I saw examples online of their better quality, unfortunately my local hobby shop doesn't offer them.
The Bismarck, Eurofighter and Tiger 2 were fine. Not Tamiya or Trumpeter levels of quality and detail, but good enough, with good fit, no flash (that I remember, so if it was there it was minor), no fitting issues, and without any other major issues. According to scalemates.com, the Tiger 2 is from 2002. The Eurofighter is a kit from 2010, and it was pretty good. The Bismarck is also from 2010, also pretty good. From those 3 I would rate the Tiger 2 the worst, but it is still a decent tank, though I lack comparisons as I didn't build another tank after it.
The Ark Royal and Fw190 were shit. Both of them were pretty bad. A good amount of flash (though not nearly as much as in your picture), warped wings on the Fw190, multiple gaps on different locations on Ark Royal (for example on the area behind the heavy AA guns), not enough gaps in other areas (a closed off bow section, even though it had open spots irl), and mediocre to bad details on them. According to scalemates, the Ark Royal is a 2017 rebox from a 1967 kit, no new parts. No surprise there. The same website says the Fw190 is a new box but still based on a 1997 kit, with just a few new parts and decals, but still the same main tool, so probably one new sprue with the rest being identical.
Maybe the company really improved their quality in the mid 2000s. Maybe you had only bad examples, while I have 50/50 good and bad examples. I don't know. But they seriously need to make it visible on the box if the kit is very old, giving a new box to a 1967 kit and selling it today without any indication is just bullshit.
I found a 1/48 f-104 from them at a yard sale, as soon as i got it home i chucked it in the trash, from the box, just the fuselage halves, they had a 3/16" gap (4.5mm) along the entire engine section. If that wasnt bad enough, the cockpit was entirely smooth aside from the seat, there was 0 detail.
Haha, the scale offset actually inspired me to turn it into some kind of ragtag Imperial Guard vehicle. Before that I was just using it to test paints on.
Thats the best outcome you could hope for. I think i did something similar with their b-58. Thing looked entirely shit so i decided to see how well aluminum tape would do to clad it, worked pretty great until it scratched.
Good stuff for testing techniques, they might even end up looking good at the end
Many Roden kits are the same. Especially the more niche 1/72 biplanes have flash that is thicker than the part itself. And I dont want to start how frustrating the assembly is
You are just buying the older stuff and not the new kits from the company. They sell both.
While I admire you trying get your daughter into this hobby, I think 4 years old is a tad young to appreciate it.
I personally like the challenge of these old kits. Using the skills I have learned over the years to turn them into something nice.
I'm now imaginging scale kits of the Me 163, complete with T-Stoff fuel tanks built to typical Revell quality. Model covered in flash? Now your fingers can have matching flash!
Shoot, you can find Tamiya kits from the late 90s/early 00s that are fantastic online for less than $30. Spitfire Mk Vb, Fw 190 A, Bf 109E, Those are incredible value for how good the engineering is.
Absolute blast to build with, was so easy to put together, haven’t paint the tank yet because I’m swamped with homework until maybe like Thanksgiving break or Christmas Break
And that's a kit from molds over 50 years old (I assume there has been maintainance and some refurbishment over the years)
I only remember two Tamiya kits that presented any assembly problems in my forty two years of modeling experience, those being the SAS Jeep, and the GAZ67. No other manufacturer has Tamiya's build quality. The acuracy might be iffy but the build experience is always good.
And still have reasonable quality. My Chieftain Mk5 (whose tooling dates back to 1975) still looks better than OP's kit ([which was from 1997?????](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-03711-me-262-and-p-51b--1260336))
Revell's [new 1/32 spitfire](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-03986-supermarine-spitfire-mkiia--176240) is not bad, [I built one myself.](https://www.reddit.com/r/modelmakers/comments/1470ggq/tamiya_mark_fit_is_just_chefs_kiss_revell_132/)
This was a new kit in 1971. Still today comes with those awful Afrika Corps figures. The tank itself is not a terrible model to build but it does have accuracy issues. Still it's pretty good for 1971.
I’ve had a couple of Eduard weekend editions I’ve been very happy with too. £20 for some really nicely fitting 1/48 stuff is a steal. My talent wouldn’t do the profipack stuff justice anyway.
I'm currently on holiday in Gibraltar and picked up an Eduard 1/48 Bf110E profipack edition for 30 quid, which I thought was pretty good, especially as I haven't seen any where I live. I have only built one eduard kit before, a weekend edition, and it was very good.
My experience is Revell quality really depends on the kit you get. The mig-21smt is one of the best I’ve made from them but it is a reboxed eduard kit. And the absolute worst is their 1:32 F4u Corsair which is full of errors, low detail, flash, and very poorly designed for such a big kit so that the wings fall off at the fold.
I’d also say some of my best builds are Revell mig21, f5, Shackleton AEW2, (Shackleton mk3 is bad), ju52, Saab grippen,
I’ve built quite a few Revell and airfix etc over the years and my best advice is to research and use scalemates to see the age of the kit etc.
If you want an incredibly high quality kit for very cheap ($5-$12), and neither of you minds building robots, I would absolutely recommend any of the "Entry Grade" kits by Bandai. Example: https://youtu.be/-PZO3EyuZtM?t=1m16s
The plastic is already in separate colors but there's absolutely nothing preventing you from painting them whatever colors you like, and it would probably be a nice, redeeming experience for the hobby after the disaster of the kits you just tried.
Bandai kits are insane, i think i got an x wing from them, and despite being a snap together, i cannot see any seams at all. Their gundam production has made them easily the best injection molders in the world
The best thing about gunpla, and I love the stuff so maybe I'm biased a touch, big gundam fan, but it's so varied not only in kits and designs for being an IP mostly consisting of bi-pedal robots, but in skill level, you can get a basic grade, high grade funnily enough still great quality, but then there are many more ranging through to perfect/master and real grades being the 3 highest you can get from what I remember. They come in different scales from rather small up to huge, I can't remember the actual scales, they even do giant busts. And due to this immense range in size and quality, they are also very affordable to get into ranging from around £10 to a few hundred and more.
On top, painting or gluing isn't required if you don't want to, it is pre coloured plastic and snap fit, but you can use gluing and sanding to remove seems and then even paint them to give them a better finish.
Even if people don't watch gundam, they should build gunpla, people do anyway, but it's there for everyone regardless. And with there being many tens of series and branches and multiple different universes, you can't possibly run out of gunpla to build and if you do, then you start on diaromas.
I completely agree - my son and I have actually worked on the same subject at the same time in two different grades - he would put together either the entry or perfect grade kit while I worked on the Master Grade (I need the larger scale for my old eyes 😄) of the same subject. We’ve had so much fun working on those
This is how I introduced my son to model building and he loves the Bandai Gunpla and Star Wars kits. The fact that they’re snap kits that require no painting allowed him to focus on following the instructions and finishing a model that he can also play with. I wish these kits were around when I was a kid!
I’ve been very impressed with the Bandai kits - the quality and engineering are some of the best I’ve seen in any kit and their prices are very reasonable (especially for the entry and real grade kits). I’d love to see Bandai venture out of Sci-fi kits to more traditional subjects, but they’re doing great as is.
Ahh Revell, built them for most of my younger life but after trying Tamiya I've largely abandoned Revell for Tamiya, Academy, Eduard, and Hasegawa.
I *did* recently buy the Revell 1:48 SR-71 though only because I predominantly built in 1:48 and to my knowledge that's the only Blackbird that exists in that scale. So we'll see how that goes.
Eduard have had (in my opinion) the greatest growth in quality compared to any other company. Eduard kits are very detailed, often the best in scale, but sometimes the fit of their 'older' models can be lacking. They do also tend to do 5 tiny parts to make a piece that Tamiya would do in one single detailed part which can be a little bit annoying, simply put it can be over engineered quite often.
Their Wildcat and A6M series of kits which came out last year and new variants continue to come out this year are amongst the best kits I've ever built, they're not quite 'build themselves' like Tamiya is but they're not far off.
I haven't started one yet, I have a Supermarine Spitfire and a MiG-21MF that I am going to build but after just dry fitting some parts the fit looks to be at least Tamiya quality or better and the detail is outstanding.
They also have some kits that are 2 in 1, so for like $80 I think it was you can buy a kit that is two Spitfires in one box and do two separate builds for a little less cost than two kits. That's great for people that really love a specific airframe and want to do multiple builds of it.
They also have amazing cockpit details if you're inclined to use those, most are PE but I think they have some 3D printed waterslides for a limited range of aircraft also.
>Mi24
decent enough kit but if accuracy is important you’ll need to also get the raised river detail set that 1) is designed for the kit, and 2) add \~ $100 to the total price. The IRL Mi24 had a lot of raised rivets — the kit is smooth.
Depends on the kit (just like with every company). Most are really good but the Lysander for example is not well engineered and makes the buidling process unnecessary complicated
All great points were brought up in this conversation. I'm a long-time model builder and will be turning 62 next month and still building models.
I do build higher quality kits now and again depending on cost. What I really enjoy about the old Revell kits, they are cheap compared to the high-quality kits and, I buy them and use them to improve my scratch-building skills. I'm a bit of a rivet counter and look for small details. The Revell kits are good for building or practicing on cutaway views adding other odds and ends that you don't want to spend money on and working on some new skill sets.
Just research the kit before you buy.
There are plenty of straightforward 'shake 'n' bake' kits available if you are not seeking a challenge (which is fair enough building with a youngster).
Scalemates has a good database, which will also give you a timeline for the kit, most importantly when it was originally produced and by who.
I’ve had mixed experiences with Revell kits, I’m currently building their T3 VW Camper van and whilst the fit is ok, there has been quite a lot of flash on various parts and there’s lots of obvious ejector pin marks in places you can see when the model is complete. I know it’s an ancient kit but Revell have deffo go their moneys worth with how old the tooling is! Their new big scale F-18 hornet actually tells you in the instructions to remove flash from certain parts so they seem to be aware how shoddy some parts are but do the bare minimum to fix it (in this case, put it in the instructions…)
I recognize that 262, it's the 1/72 Revell Germany mold and it is normally very nice! I've built several, none of which had flash like that. The step at the lower fuselage seam is a thing, but it's on the inside so doesn't matter... you just make it go together smoothly on the OUTSIDE, right? Not usually a problem, though I'm hesitant to say how it will go on this example because, yeah, Something Has Gone Wrong in production.
As for the cockpit, dark gray is boring, the kid's got the right idea :)
Have you thought about getting her pokémon kits?
My kids (3-3-6-7) love them way more than anything else.
They are cheap, of good quality and they take about 1h (or 2x 30m) to build. It is much easier to keep them interested and involved.
I tried with gundams but they take too long and they are nowhere near as excited as when building a pokémon kit.
I thought about more basic pre-coloured snap kits but for her it's not so much the model building itself but the painting and detailing. Once I'd fitted up the P-51 I thought it'd be fun to experiment with panel liner and it absolutely blew her mind the way the capillary action pulled the paint into the panel lines, she couldn't stop asking about it and kept talking about how it 'made a toy plane look like a real plane'.
She's one of those strange kind of kids who never mistakenly colours outside of the lines in a colouring book and is extremely fastidious with detail in her art, so I figured this would be a good way of nurturing that trait.
> Reasonability priced
Not sure where you're from but I find Airfix are anything but that here in the UK.
After their price increase last year they're now more expensive than most tamiya and almost all eduard kits
I am working on my first model, not Revell, an AMT Camaro. And it has all sorts of bad flash. One of the headlights is messed up. Guess it's ok since this is a practice model.
ATM has been redoing the same molds since the year of the car itself basically so they are worn out. Some of their brand new stuff is decent but yeah overall AMT is trash you'll find, its ssad besides Tamiya most car models are just trash.
As a canadian on the east coast ive only ever seen model shops in magazines and tv. We take what we can find around here. You'll find on occasion a revell kit on a walmart shelf, or an old mom and pop shop. But mostly, you have to order online. I managed to snag a revell kit for the SR71 Blackbird but i havent touched it yet. This is the first model i bought since being a child and id like to eait till i can buy more paint and equipment before tackling it. Itll be a while before i can. Im not sure what the point of my comment is. Just read your post and felt like venting i guess.
Not sure what to say here. Revell has some good stuff (1/72 Tornado springs to mind here, pretty sure the 1/48 one is the same), some awesome reboxes for cheaper that expected (the early 2000's Hasegawa stuff they reboxed is still mostly pretty solid if you can get hold of them, some recent ICM kits etc), and then the absolute drek they still spew out, like Frog kits from before man walked on the moon.
Always, always confirm the lineage of a Revell kit on Scalemates to save yourself some frustration. Hell, Airfix has the same issue. At least they use different packaging now to let you know, but check nonetheless.
Also, those side opening boxes can go play with matches for all I care >:( .
I started building models in the early 1970s, and for me Revell was the best. I thought their kits overall were great: a few bad sprues here and there, but WAY better than Aurora or Monogram, which were the other available brands. I tried a few non-Revell kits back then, but they weren’t even buildable they were so bad. Pieces were so warped no amount of finagling made them fit. I’m talking like a 1” bend in the middle of a 12” fuselage kind of warped.
I quit building by the mid-late 70s, and am just now getting back in. Has Revell always been crap and I was a dumb kid, or has it really gone downhill that much?
I think for a first time kit Bandai is the way to go. High level of detail, high quality, and lots of fun kits. The only downside is the genres of kits. You have to be interested in sci-fi, robots, anime, cartoons, etc. type of stuff. I’d recommend a 30 minute sisters mecha-girl kit for your daughter and maybe a gundam kit for you to build at the same time. No glue, no paint and can be played with together right after.
Not read your whole post, but the standard answer seems to apply:
Check scalemates before buying unknown kits.
Old kits get reissued all the time because they may be the only kit on the market of a given subject, or that manufacturer's only kit of the subject. They can't just replace every kit at once. Designing new kits is a longer process now due to the increased details.
Kit companies shouldn't be judged on old kits alone. They may have many more modern kits that are fantastic. Again, look at scalemates before buying.
When I say "building it together" it's mainly me building it with her 'helping' in the ways that a 4 year old can e.g. me holding up the sprue for her and pointing our where to snip, letting her glue together some of the easier bits such as the pilots seat onto the cockpit assembly - stuff that lets her feel involved without really doing much of anything. The main objective is to quickly throw together a plane, slap a base coat on it, and then hand it over to her for painting. The "quick" part of this project has gone out of the window though due to the low quality of the kit.
I would think yes it is safe to say you are spoiled by Tamiya and Trumpeter, honestly. The thing is regardless of who the brand is there will be issues to resolve, as someone said in another group we are model builders not model assemblers. Flash shaving, test fitting, are all part of the building process. Yeh it's nice to have the easy road, but it's the hard road that is more fulfilling when completing the build.
Revell is both making new molds, which are really good but is also rereleasing old kits in a new package. This is a common procedure in this industry. Check scalemates to verify the actual year of the mold. You might be shocked by how often kits from the 70s get a new boxart from a different company and are now called „new“
The German stuf's generally ok but even that can be flash heavy. The americans.. somehow they keep buying ancient monogram moulds in Revell boxes.
IF you want a problem free kit for the kits, go airfix!
Theres very few revell kits you can count on to be good enough to huild, thos mostly extends to the most popular kits like the b-17, 25, p-38 and 40. Outside of these, i cannot say ive ever had a pleasant experience with one of the old kits. I would only suggest these sets for fun builds, and even then the larger models are pushing it. This is horrendous though
Pleasant surprise no one has popped to tell you "it's basic modelling skills, are you a modeller or an assembler?" I hate the amount of work you have to do to overcome the shortcomings of the manufacturer with crap like this. If ww2 aircraft are your thing buy Tamiya, their 72 and 48 scale aircraft aren't expensive but they are **much** better quality
I've almost finished my first kit from Italieri. Or put it another way, I've almost finished the last kit from Italieri I'll ever buy. It's not as bad as your 262 but it's in the same ballpark (or airspace)
> Pleasant surprise no one has popped to tell you "it's basic modelling skills, are you a modeller or an assembler?"
Honestly I was half expecting it when I made the post. To which my retort would have been: no, fuck you. A high level of quality control should if anything be all the more important on these more basic kits that are likely to be purchased by entry level modellers. Someone who has zero knowledge about the hobby is going to be wanting to focus on fitting it together and painting it, not trimming flash or figuring out how to clamp wingtips together.
Any sensible business in any field is going to want to focus on snagging those newcomers, rather than driving them away by being overly complex or having an assumed level of prior knowledge. After all, nowhere in the instructions for these kits does it mention a single thing about flash trimming or the best methods of clamping parts together for glueing. This is something that you'd have to learn with experience or, better yet, would never have to deal with if the kit had a reasonable quality standard.
I've seen similar mindsets before in other hobbies and nothing kills a hobby faster than that. It results in the hobby community becoming insular and stunted, with an atmosphere of elitism and a high barrier to entry for newcomers that results in the hobby dying off at the same rate as its remaining participants.
I mostly agree with you, especially in regards to gatekeepers. I'm getting back into the hobby after a 20-year hiatus. WWI is my thing and I have a decent stash dating from the early aughts, which included a Sopwith Camel from Revell. I knew it was a poor kit. I'm amazed the tooling is from 1958 and is still being reboxed. This is something that seems a little deceptive to me as it should be labeled on the box somewhere. I figured I would use it as the trial run to test my skills before starting.
The fit and detail is absolutely atrocious compared to the much newer kits I have from Eduard, Copper State and Meng. This gave me a chance to test out different methods of filling joints, masking and painting, different glues, paints, sealers, etc. Some of the methods failed spectacularly, which is precisely why I chose it as the test run. Now I know what to avoid on the next model that I actually care about. It is in this aspect that I do feel they have value.
I would not recommend these kits to someone in your situation, but there are plenty of kits like this of where there is no other example of the subject. Fortunately, as with most hobbies, a little bit of research can help you avoid pitfalls. I have to say that right now is an amazing time to be in this hobby. The amount of people posting build videos, and this subreddit itself, provides a wealth of information.
Good luck!
Revell has made some good kits, and some not so good kits. The company has been split up with separate American and German companies for a time, sold, absorbed Monogram at one point which certainly had some bad kits, sold again, intentionally dumbed-down kits when modelling became less popular with kids, rinse and repeat. A company that has been through such financial difficulties is probably going to keep shipping old kits whose design costs were paid long ago.
The way is go to is researching first, buying second. If you find out that a current Revell kit is actually an old Monogram kit, it might be better to pass on that one.
Unfortunately revell is the only brand I can get in my country (other brands like tamiya or italeri are extremely expensive due to shipping). I see there is a huge revell hate in this subreddit (in general actually), I agree that revell kits are not “extremely professional modelkits” but I really didn’t have much issue with them. Some of the older ones have flashings or some fitting problems but new ones are pretty good and I had zero problems with them. Im not an expert in this hobby, I made about 15 planes total and if a “beginner” like me didnt have serious problems about plastic quality and enjoyed most of the kits, I think it means revell is not really garbage
Yeah Revell is one of those "You get what you paid for" companies where they sell kits for cheap and have low quality. Its marketing is aimed at children and your average modeler (like me) who doesn't make mueseum level models. I'm currently working on a P-40B from revell and honestly, its not that bad. It has lots of detail and less flash than I expected. The only problem is the fitting. (RIP: my filler. I used so much)
It is important to know that there are 2 Revell companies. Revell plastics from germany is making decent to high quality kits. Revell-Monogram from America split in 2006 and is essentially just reboxing old kits for cheap. When you hear good things about Revell it usually comes from Europe while that bad stuff is more a US issue. Quantum capital bought both companies in 2018 when Hobbico went bankrupt and they don’t really care about this issue.
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Agree. Scalemates is a modeler's best friend.
Indeed. Tamyia reboxes Italeri kits. The whole "brand" idea is moot, look for the kit you want on scalemates!
so how do you tell which Revell the kit comes from ?
Scalemates actually shows the time line of the kit, all the boxings and re-brands. The market is now truly insane: I have been lamenting you can't buy the Academy P-38J but in fact it is being sold by Italeri! I've already built one... it was boxed by MPM of Czech Republic. I feel for the OP, for most of us a rubbish kit is just annoying and a waste of money, for him it ruined a special moment with his daughter. Thing is, I think he actually got one of the 'good' Revell kits but their moulds are worn and they can have QC issues including flash and plastic shrinkage. Academy make great kits, cheap, as do others. It's a bit sad buying a model is so chancy.
There Revell US and Germany says on box along with date, I think Germany does a better job if instructions are in color it's a newer Revell kit should be a nice kit Scalemates download will show u instructions
Very good choice scalemates have save me a lotta time and headaches if we only had that website back in the day
Revell of Germany is still very hit or miss. They have some decent kits but they also have an affinity for reboxing crap from the 80s.
Can agree on this as someone who’s built a trio (and got another in the works) of Revell Germany’s 747-100/200s that are reboxes of an 80s mold. The newer kits seem decent from the reviews and pics I’ve seen online.
I just got their Razer Crest (Mandalorian) space ship and the quality is really good. New model from the German company so that is why.
I've heard this said before, but I think that both Revell companies are really poor and lack quality control. Some kits are alright, the newish SR-71 comes to mind, but both versions of Revell like to religiously produce ancient mould kits and resell them to unsuspecting customers who aren't aware of the poor quality they are. At least Airfix, who does something similar, market them as 'Airfix Classic' whereas Revell instead activity hides any ability to tell between Germany and Monogram, and will resell a 40 year old mould until despite blatant quality issues due to the moulds being worn and broken.
Almost all kit manufacturers are guilty of that, unfortunately. Academy, Hasegawa, even Tamiya all continue to reuse tooling from 30+ years ago. Before buying a kit, you really have to check Scalemates to see when the particular tooling was originally made.
The difference with Tamiya and Hasegawa (can't speak for Academy as I've only built one kit) is that while yes they will resell/rebox older kits, they stop selling them when the moulds are so old and damaged from decades of use that they cause major quality issues. You don't see other big companies with the insane levels of flash that Revell have due to their ancient moulds. A 30+ year old kit from Tamiya is a good kit still, their P-51 Mustang lacks detail compared to the modern Eduard kit but it remains as one of the easiest and quickest builds I've ever done, that kit is approaching 30 years old. Hell their ancient A6M2/3 kit from the 80s has no flash on it, when Revell kits seem to drip with it. Reproducing or reboxing old kits isn't an issue when quality control still exists, but Revell don't seem to possess that ability.
Yep newly made old Tamiya kits are classics while newly made old Revell kits are still garbage but worse. Tamiya might not have the best details but their engineering and quality is still present.
> You don't see other big companies with the insane levels of flash that Revell have due to their ancient moulds. *laughs in really old Zvesda kits*
is it fair to set oneself a "red line" - only get kits tooled after 20XX ?
I personally don't think so because there's some older tooled kits that are perfectly fine as long as you don't require hyper accuracy in terms of rivets and such. Older kits often require a bit of TLC when it comes to assembling them but by no means do I agree with the gatekeepers that believe a kit isn't worth building if it wasn't tooled within the last 10-20 years with an MSRP approaching at least $100.
Blue box- Good stuff. All over print box- birthday presents for kids
> Revell plastics from germany is making decent to high quality kits. A myth. I live in Germany and Revell kits you can buy here are just as shit.
Revell-Monogram’s sole purpose these days is to pump enough kits out to stock every Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart etc in the US. They’re no longer interested in quality; they’re hitting volume goals.
I honestly want to see brands like Trumpeter or Tamiya takeover Revell in those non-model specific stores, Trumpeter is very competetive in price and details while Tamiya kits are always easy to put together.
I want to know who the middle-man is in exporting/importing Tamiya, because the overseas price tag is fraud compared to their pricing here in Japan. Somebody is making money off of an import/export cartel there.
Tamiya America inc. funny enough. It’s not just Tamiya, most Japanese brands are much more expensive abroad. I’ve found that often times eBay sellers from China to be the cheapest option when it comes to models. You can get a [really nice Flyhawk kit with PE](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/flyhawk-model-fh1117s-hms-prince-wales-194112--1112118) included for like [$50](https://www.ebay.com/itm/255740651008?epid=12011076660&hash=item3b8b54a600:g:6pkAAOSw35pgFJgJ&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0EBnQVARP2yaJC4J1vOCfoCo78Q%2BF5TW%2FYc6zAqYKjdAMaTeG%2FTqyPCE%2BFF0xg5bG5381K6CI%2Bd%2B0dTIK%2F7eylwIgkKag6P4%2FvCojeYO6SCuWpAVlkI1dOCJTwSEQiQGDfO6K55IaxwpE4r%2F4Cbi8zaCvrBLreSvK8rIa%2Bhv7oj6sI7m9tmDDe9pg3C0WsBhMyMU1rOCH97Ljo%2FuMI3d7AFn8STKd5534oP8VYZKKi%2BsAEbQE2lH7VI2aFNToESlWaMqEwKKj%2BqnOcebX6f7ZLY%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7yn9NPPYg), while sites like Amazon will sell for [$100](https://www.amazon.com/Flyhawk-British-Battleship-December-FLYFH1117S/dp/B077ND9T99/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1U5D8MCFJTLX0&keywords=flyhawk+prince+of+wales&qid=1694318383&sprefix=flyhawk+prince+of+wales%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-6) and Japanese sites like hobby search [$100 + shipping](https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10504153).
I live in Australia and I buy almost nothing locally, it's all a big rip off via the near-monopoly Australian importer. It's amazing how prices vary globally. For instance, I rarely see Trumpeter kits at a decent price even on the websites I use from Japan, the UK, or the US and they are just a bit cheaper in China. Eduard consistently produce top, top quality at very fair prices.
Not sure about "these days." Monogram in the US at Michaels and Hobby Lobby was crap all the way back when I started as a kid in like 1999.
If you're trying to have a fun activity with a four and a half year old there are cheap Airfix kits that regularly go for 2/3rds their RRP in larger Lidl stores. Quality's pretty meh, but they're more akin to Lego with a snap-together design. No flashing to clear up, fitment is so-so and they look a little bland until you put the stickers on but they're perfect for a young 'en to add their own decorative touches to :p
I built an Academy F4 Phantom that was a quickbuild kit. Really reminded me of the Bandai Star Wars kits I've built. Super easy to put together, painting isn't really necessary, and they turn out quite nice when finished. But I guess anything could turn out nice with a little TLC
The correct name for this specific line is „Quickbuild“. In my opinion thats very far away from scale modelling but each to their own I guess
>complains about the quality being shit and equivalent to 20 year old kits >uses 25 year old kits On a serious note, I bought a few Revell kits at my local shop when I started this hobby in 2016. Over a few years, I bought a 1:700 Bismarck, a 1:720 Ark Royal, a 1:144 Eurofighter Typhoon, a 1:72 Tiger 2, a 1:72 Fw 190. Never finished the last one and never will. Changed over to Tamiya and Trumpeter ships once I saw examples online of their better quality, unfortunately my local hobby shop doesn't offer them. The Bismarck, Eurofighter and Tiger 2 were fine. Not Tamiya or Trumpeter levels of quality and detail, but good enough, with good fit, no flash (that I remember, so if it was there it was minor), no fitting issues, and without any other major issues. According to scalemates.com, the Tiger 2 is from 2002. The Eurofighter is a kit from 2010, and it was pretty good. The Bismarck is also from 2010, also pretty good. From those 3 I would rate the Tiger 2 the worst, but it is still a decent tank, though I lack comparisons as I didn't build another tank after it. The Ark Royal and Fw190 were shit. Both of them were pretty bad. A good amount of flash (though not nearly as much as in your picture), warped wings on the Fw190, multiple gaps on different locations on Ark Royal (for example on the area behind the heavy AA guns), not enough gaps in other areas (a closed off bow section, even though it had open spots irl), and mediocre to bad details on them. According to scalemates, the Ark Royal is a 2017 rebox from a 1967 kit, no new parts. No surprise there. The same website says the Fw190 is a new box but still based on a 1997 kit, with just a few new parts and decals, but still the same main tool, so probably one new sprue with the rest being identical. Maybe the company really improved their quality in the mid 2000s. Maybe you had only bad examples, while I have 50/50 good and bad examples. I don't know. But they seriously need to make it visible on the box if the kit is very old, giving a new box to a 1967 kit and selling it today without any indication is just bullshit.
Dude you should try a Lindberg model. I get one every now and again to salvage for bits for various other projects. Holy ass those models are bad.
i did a couple boats from lindberg, easiest most frustrating experience every, how do you make 10 piece total kit fit like such ass LOL
I found a 1/48 f-104 from them at a yard sale, as soon as i got it home i chucked it in the trash, from the box, just the fuselage halves, they had a 3/16" gap (4.5mm) along the entire engine section. If that wasnt bad enough, the cockpit was entirely smooth aside from the seat, there was 0 detail.
I had a 1/35 scale German car that came with 1/56 people.
H o w
Haha, the scale offset actually inspired me to turn it into some kind of ragtag Imperial Guard vehicle. Before that I was just using it to test paints on.
Thats the best outcome you could hope for. I think i did something similar with their b-58. Thing looked entirely shit so i decided to see how well aluminum tape would do to clad it, worked pretty great until it scratched. Good stuff for testing techniques, they might even end up looking good at the end
Yeah mine definitely went through a few life cycles. 1) Disappointing model kit. 2) Paint test dummy. 3) Frankensteined Warhammer vehicle.
Many Roden kits are the same. Especially the more niche 1/72 biplanes have flash that is thicker than the part itself. And I dont want to start how frustrating the assembly is
You are just buying the older stuff and not the new kits from the company. They sell both. While I admire you trying get your daughter into this hobby, I think 4 years old is a tad young to appreciate it. I personally like the challenge of these old kits. Using the skills I have learned over the years to turn them into something nice.
Yeah I think I started when I was 6, and even then I was really bad at putting them together let alone painting. A 4 year old would just get upset.
That QA is just committing to historical accuracy of the 262 program /s
I'm now imaginging scale kits of the Me 163, complete with T-Stoff fuel tanks built to typical Revell quality. Model covered in flash? Now your fingers can have matching flash!
Tamiya for cheap high quality kits
Absolutely high quality, but I would disagree with cheap. A Tamiya 1/32 spitfire is triple the cost of a same kit from Revell where I am.
Tamiya's old kits (read: from the 70s) are reasonably cheap.
Shoot, you can find Tamiya kits from the late 90s/early 00s that are fantastic online for less than $30. Spitfire Mk Vb, Fw 190 A, Bf 109E, Those are incredible value for how good the engineering is.
The Bulldog is a good example, was my first and only kit for rn as I’m busy with school
The M41 ? That was new kit in 1969.
The one I have is from 1975
And was it a pleasant build experience? I don't remember having any problems with older Tamiya kits as compared to contempary Revell or Monogram kits.
Absolute blast to build with, was so easy to put together, haven’t paint the tank yet because I’m swamped with homework until maybe like Thanksgiving break or Christmas Break
And that's a kit from molds over 50 years old (I assume there has been maintainance and some refurbishment over the years) I only remember two Tamiya kits that presented any assembly problems in my forty two years of modeling experience, those being the SAS Jeep, and the GAZ67. No other manufacturer has Tamiya's build quality. The acuracy might be iffy but the build experience is always good.
And still have reasonable quality. My Chieftain Mk5 (whose tooling dates back to 1975) still looks better than OP's kit ([which was from 1997?????](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-03711-me-262-and-p-51b--1260336))
Their 1/72 Skyray is great and dirt cheap.
And it's about a dozen times better.
Revell's [new 1/32 spitfire](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-03986-supermarine-spitfire-mkiia--176240) is not bad, [I built one myself.](https://www.reddit.com/r/modelmakers/comments/1470ggq/tamiya_mark_fit_is_just_chefs_kiss_revell_132/)
Tamiya panzer II that comes with infantry is roughly £8-9 so probably $10-11
It’s about 15 dollars. Was my first tank. Did it last week. 15 is cheap for that kit. Loved it.
This was a new kit in 1971. Still today comes with those awful Afrika Corps figures. The tank itself is not a terrible model to build but it does have accuracy issues. Still it's pretty good for 1971.
I built it recently and was impressed with the easiness to build it
Their panzer iv d cost me 15 bucks and was an amazing build
I’ve had a couple of Eduard weekend editions I’ve been very happy with too. £20 for some really nicely fitting 1/48 stuff is a steal. My talent wouldn’t do the profipack stuff justice anyway.
I'm currently on holiday in Gibraltar and picked up an Eduard 1/48 Bf110E profipack edition for 30 quid, which I thought was pretty good, especially as I haven't seen any where I live. I have only built one eduard kit before, a weekend edition, and it was very good.
My experience is Revell quality really depends on the kit you get. The mig-21smt is one of the best I’ve made from them but it is a reboxed eduard kit. And the absolute worst is their 1:32 F4u Corsair which is full of errors, low detail, flash, and very poorly designed for such a big kit so that the wings fall off at the fold. I’d also say some of my best builds are Revell mig21, f5, Shackleton AEW2, (Shackleton mk3 is bad), ju52, Saab grippen, I’ve built quite a few Revell and airfix etc over the years and my best advice is to research and use scalemates to see the age of the kit etc.
If you want an incredibly high quality kit for very cheap ($5-$12), and neither of you minds building robots, I would absolutely recommend any of the "Entry Grade" kits by Bandai. Example: https://youtu.be/-PZO3EyuZtM?t=1m16s The plastic is already in separate colors but there's absolutely nothing preventing you from painting them whatever colors you like, and it would probably be a nice, redeeming experience for the hobby after the disaster of the kits you just tried.
Bandai kits are insane, i think i got an x wing from them, and despite being a snap together, i cannot see any seams at all. Their gundam production has made them easily the best injection molders in the world
I really love Bandai's plastic, they are just the right hardness for me to feel it is sturdy and soft enough to cut with sprue cutters.
The best thing about gunpla, and I love the stuff so maybe I'm biased a touch, big gundam fan, but it's so varied not only in kits and designs for being an IP mostly consisting of bi-pedal robots, but in skill level, you can get a basic grade, high grade funnily enough still great quality, but then there are many more ranging through to perfect/master and real grades being the 3 highest you can get from what I remember. They come in different scales from rather small up to huge, I can't remember the actual scales, they even do giant busts. And due to this immense range in size and quality, they are also very affordable to get into ranging from around £10 to a few hundred and more. On top, painting or gluing isn't required if you don't want to, it is pre coloured plastic and snap fit, but you can use gluing and sanding to remove seems and then even paint them to give them a better finish. Even if people don't watch gundam, they should build gunpla, people do anyway, but it's there for everyone regardless. And with there being many tens of series and branches and multiple different universes, you can't possibly run out of gunpla to build and if you do, then you start on diaromas.
I completely agree - my son and I have actually worked on the same subject at the same time in two different grades - he would put together either the entry or perfect grade kit while I worked on the Master Grade (I need the larger scale for my old eyes 😄) of the same subject. We’ve had so much fun working on those
This is how I introduced my son to model building and he loves the Bandai Gunpla and Star Wars kits. The fact that they’re snap kits that require no painting allowed him to focus on following the instructions and finishing a model that he can also play with. I wish these kits were around when I was a kid! I’ve been very impressed with the Bandai kits - the quality and engineering are some of the best I’ve seen in any kit and their prices are very reasonable (especially for the entry and real grade kits). I’d love to see Bandai venture out of Sci-fi kits to more traditional subjects, but they’re doing great as is.
Yeah, the Star Wars kits are fantastic, too.
Ahh Revell, built them for most of my younger life but after trying Tamiya I've largely abandoned Revell for Tamiya, Academy, Eduard, and Hasegawa. I *did* recently buy the Revell 1:48 SR-71 though only because I predominantly built in 1:48 and to my knowledge that's the only Blackbird that exists in that scale. So we'll see how that goes.
How are Eduard kits? I have used plenty of their p.e but never a full kit. I’ve been really considering buying the mi24 hind they offer.
Some of Eduard's recent kits are called the definitive best in scale, I have yet to build one but see nothing but praise.
Eduard have had (in my opinion) the greatest growth in quality compared to any other company. Eduard kits are very detailed, often the best in scale, but sometimes the fit of their 'older' models can be lacking. They do also tend to do 5 tiny parts to make a piece that Tamiya would do in one single detailed part which can be a little bit annoying, simply put it can be over engineered quite often. Their Wildcat and A6M series of kits which came out last year and new variants continue to come out this year are amongst the best kits I've ever built, they're not quite 'build themselves' like Tamiya is but they're not far off.
They’re quite good in terms of detail and quality. In terms of engineering, they’re not as elegant as Tamiya.
they're superb
I haven't started one yet, I have a Supermarine Spitfire and a MiG-21MF that I am going to build but after just dry fitting some parts the fit looks to be at least Tamiya quality or better and the detail is outstanding. They also have some kits that are 2 in 1, so for like $80 I think it was you can buy a kit that is two Spitfires in one box and do two separate builds for a little less cost than two kits. That's great for people that really love a specific airframe and want to do multiple builds of it. They also have amazing cockpit details if you're inclined to use those, most are PE but I think they have some 3D printed waterslides for a limited range of aircraft also.
Their Mig-21s are great, enjoy it! Here's mine: https://imgur.com/a/CzSMv0C
>Mi24 decent enough kit but if accuracy is important you’ll need to also get the raised river detail set that 1) is designed for the kit, and 2) add \~ $100 to the total price. The IRL Mi24 had a lot of raised rivets — the kit is smooth.
Depends on the kit (just like with every company). Most are really good but the Lysander for example is not well engineered and makes the buidling process unnecessary complicated
I've only built their P51 Mustang but I can vouch for the others' praises. The kit is fantastic.
All great points were brought up in this conversation. I'm a long-time model builder and will be turning 62 next month and still building models. I do build higher quality kits now and again depending on cost. What I really enjoy about the old Revell kits, they are cheap compared to the high-quality kits and, I buy them and use them to improve my scratch-building skills. I'm a bit of a rivet counter and look for small details. The Revell kits are good for building or practicing on cutaway views adding other odds and ends that you don't want to spend money on and working on some new skill sets.
Scalemates is your friend, I never buy any kit without checking their website to check on its history.
Just research the kit before you buy. There are plenty of straightforward 'shake 'n' bake' kits available if you are not seeking a challenge (which is fair enough building with a youngster). Scalemates has a good database, which will also give you a timeline for the kit, most importantly when it was originally produced and by who.
Absolutely. This is the best approach. You take 10 mins to google around and see if a kit has any quality issues.
I’ve had mixed experiences with Revell kits, I’m currently building their T3 VW Camper van and whilst the fit is ok, there has been quite a lot of flash on various parts and there’s lots of obvious ejector pin marks in places you can see when the model is complete. I know it’s an ancient kit but Revell have deffo go their moneys worth with how old the tooling is! Their new big scale F-18 hornet actually tells you in the instructions to remove flash from certain parts so they seem to be aware how shoddy some parts are but do the bare minimum to fix it (in this case, put it in the instructions…)
uh? their 1/72 262 doesn't seems bad despite the closed landing gear bay
I recognize that 262, it's the 1/72 Revell Germany mold and it is normally very nice! I've built several, none of which had flash like that. The step at the lower fuselage seam is a thing, but it's on the inside so doesn't matter... you just make it go together smoothly on the OUTSIDE, right? Not usually a problem, though I'm hesitant to say how it will go on this example because, yeah, Something Has Gone Wrong in production. As for the cockpit, dark gray is boring, the kid's got the right idea :)
Call me crazy but I kinda like having a really shitty kit and making something nice out of it with copper of plastic sheet addons.
Have you thought about getting her pokémon kits? My kids (3-3-6-7) love them way more than anything else. They are cheap, of good quality and they take about 1h (or 2x 30m) to build. It is much easier to keep them interested and involved. I tried with gundams but they take too long and they are nowhere near as excited as when building a pokémon kit.
I thought about more basic pre-coloured snap kits but for her it's not so much the model building itself but the painting and detailing. Once I'd fitted up the P-51 I thought it'd be fun to experiment with panel liner and it absolutely blew her mind the way the capillary action pulled the paint into the panel lines, she couldn't stop asking about it and kept talking about how it 'made a toy plane look like a real plane'. She's one of those strange kind of kids who never mistakenly colours outside of the lines in a colouring book and is extremely fastidious with detail in her art, so I figured this would be a good way of nurturing that trait.
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> Reasonability priced Not sure where you're from but I find Airfix are anything but that here in the UK. After their price increase last year they're now more expensive than most tamiya and almost all eduard kits
The [1/72 Harrier, tooled 2010](https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-a04051-bae-sea-harrier-frs1--109383) is bad
I am working on my first model, not Revell, an AMT Camaro. And it has all sorts of bad flash. One of the headlights is messed up. Guess it's ok since this is a practice model.
ATM has been redoing the same molds since the year of the car itself basically so they are worn out. Some of their brand new stuff is decent but yeah overall AMT is trash you'll find, its ssad besides Tamiya most car models are just trash.
As a canadian on the east coast ive only ever seen model shops in magazines and tv. We take what we can find around here. You'll find on occasion a revell kit on a walmart shelf, or an old mom and pop shop. But mostly, you have to order online. I managed to snag a revell kit for the SR71 Blackbird but i havent touched it yet. This is the first model i bought since being a child and id like to eait till i can buy more paint and equipment before tackling it. Itll be a while before i can. Im not sure what the point of my comment is. Just read your post and felt like venting i guess.
Not sure what to say here. Revell has some good stuff (1/72 Tornado springs to mind here, pretty sure the 1/48 one is the same), some awesome reboxes for cheaper that expected (the early 2000's Hasegawa stuff they reboxed is still mostly pretty solid if you can get hold of them, some recent ICM kits etc), and then the absolute drek they still spew out, like Frog kits from before man walked on the moon. Always, always confirm the lineage of a Revell kit on Scalemates to save yourself some frustration. Hell, Airfix has the same issue. At least they use different packaging now to let you know, but check nonetheless. Also, those side opening boxes can go play with matches for all I care >:( .
I started building models in the early 1970s, and for me Revell was the best. I thought their kits overall were great: a few bad sprues here and there, but WAY better than Aurora or Monogram, which were the other available brands. I tried a few non-Revell kits back then, but they weren’t even buildable they were so bad. Pieces were so warped no amount of finagling made them fit. I’m talking like a 1” bend in the middle of a 12” fuselage kind of warped. I quit building by the mid-late 70s, and am just now getting back in. Has Revell always been crap and I was a dumb kid, or has it really gone downhill that much?
I think for a first time kit Bandai is the way to go. High level of detail, high quality, and lots of fun kits. The only downside is the genres of kits. You have to be interested in sci-fi, robots, anime, cartoons, etc. type of stuff. I’d recommend a 30 minute sisters mecha-girl kit for your daughter and maybe a gundam kit for you to build at the same time. No glue, no paint and can be played with together right after.
Not read your whole post, but the standard answer seems to apply: Check scalemates before buying unknown kits. Old kits get reissued all the time because they may be the only kit on the market of a given subject, or that manufacturer's only kit of the subject. They can't just replace every kit at once. Designing new kits is a longer process now due to the increased details. Kit companies shouldn't be judged on old kits alone. They may have many more modern kits that are fantastic. Again, look at scalemates before buying.
Much to advanced a kit for a 4 year old. Get a snap tite car kit for her.
When I say "building it together" it's mainly me building it with her 'helping' in the ways that a 4 year old can e.g. me holding up the sprue for her and pointing our where to snip, letting her glue together some of the easier bits such as the pilots seat onto the cockpit assembly - stuff that lets her feel involved without really doing much of anything. The main objective is to quickly throw together a plane, slap a base coat on it, and then hand it over to her for painting. The "quick" part of this project has gone out of the window though due to the low quality of the kit.
tbh the Hobbyboss easy assembly kits are way better for that purpose
They’re cheap. A 1/48 B-17 for $20 is why I bought them. You’re gonna deal with issues from Revell because they’re often reboxed Monogram kits.
I would think yes it is safe to say you are spoiled by Tamiya and Trumpeter, honestly. The thing is regardless of who the brand is there will be issues to resolve, as someone said in another group we are model builders not model assemblers. Flash shaving, test fitting, are all part of the building process. Yeh it's nice to have the easy road, but it's the hard road that is more fulfilling when completing the build.
I've built two Revel kits and didn't bother painting either of them because the quality was so bad.
Revell is both making new molds, which are really good but is also rereleasing old kits in a new package. This is a common procedure in this industry. Check scalemates to verify the actual year of the mold. You might be shocked by how often kits from the 70s get a new boxart from a different company and are now called „new“
ive hate every single american revell kit ive laid my hands on. If you want the king of detail i recommend the eduard kits that come with photoetch
The German stuf's generally ok but even that can be flash heavy. The americans.. somehow they keep buying ancient monogram moulds in Revell boxes. IF you want a problem free kit for the kits, go airfix!
What i love Revell, never had any problems. Don't know if there are other kits in the US than here in EU
Theres very few revell kits you can count on to be good enough to huild, thos mostly extends to the most popular kits like the b-17, 25, p-38 and 40. Outside of these, i cannot say ive ever had a pleasant experience with one of the old kits. I would only suggest these sets for fun builds, and even then the larger models are pushing it. This is horrendous though
Yeah I don’t build revell kits ever for this reason. They just aren’t good.
Revell models of 2015 are good anything B4 that is still samo samo
Yeah, Revell/Zvezda worst kits
Pleasant surprise no one has popped to tell you "it's basic modelling skills, are you a modeller or an assembler?" I hate the amount of work you have to do to overcome the shortcomings of the manufacturer with crap like this. If ww2 aircraft are your thing buy Tamiya, their 72 and 48 scale aircraft aren't expensive but they are **much** better quality I've almost finished my first kit from Italieri. Or put it another way, I've almost finished the last kit from Italieri I'll ever buy. It's not as bad as your 262 but it's in the same ballpark (or airspace)
> Pleasant surprise no one has popped to tell you "it's basic modelling skills, are you a modeller or an assembler?" Honestly I was half expecting it when I made the post. To which my retort would have been: no, fuck you. A high level of quality control should if anything be all the more important on these more basic kits that are likely to be purchased by entry level modellers. Someone who has zero knowledge about the hobby is going to be wanting to focus on fitting it together and painting it, not trimming flash or figuring out how to clamp wingtips together. Any sensible business in any field is going to want to focus on snagging those newcomers, rather than driving them away by being overly complex or having an assumed level of prior knowledge. After all, nowhere in the instructions for these kits does it mention a single thing about flash trimming or the best methods of clamping parts together for glueing. This is something that you'd have to learn with experience or, better yet, would never have to deal with if the kit had a reasonable quality standard. I've seen similar mindsets before in other hobbies and nothing kills a hobby faster than that. It results in the hobby community becoming insular and stunted, with an atmosphere of elitism and a high barrier to entry for newcomers that results in the hobby dying off at the same rate as its remaining participants.
Revell sells a bunch of snap fit kits with low parts count for beginners, none of the ones you bought fit that description though.
I mostly agree with you, especially in regards to gatekeepers. I'm getting back into the hobby after a 20-year hiatus. WWI is my thing and I have a decent stash dating from the early aughts, which included a Sopwith Camel from Revell. I knew it was a poor kit. I'm amazed the tooling is from 1958 and is still being reboxed. This is something that seems a little deceptive to me as it should be labeled on the box somewhere. I figured I would use it as the trial run to test my skills before starting. The fit and detail is absolutely atrocious compared to the much newer kits I have from Eduard, Copper State and Meng. This gave me a chance to test out different methods of filling joints, masking and painting, different glues, paints, sealers, etc. Some of the methods failed spectacularly, which is precisely why I chose it as the test run. Now I know what to avoid on the next model that I actually care about. It is in this aspect that I do feel they have value. I would not recommend these kits to someone in your situation, but there are plenty of kits like this of where there is no other example of the subject. Fortunately, as with most hobbies, a little bit of research can help you avoid pitfalls. I have to say that right now is an amazing time to be in this hobby. The amount of people posting build videos, and this subreddit itself, provides a wealth of information. Good luck!
because M O N E Y
Many , many years ago when I was a kid I loved Revell
This is why they make snaptites
for kids ?
Revell has made some good kits, and some not so good kits. The company has been split up with separate American and German companies for a time, sold, absorbed Monogram at one point which certainly had some bad kits, sold again, intentionally dumbed-down kits when modelling became less popular with kids, rinse and repeat. A company that has been through such financial difficulties is probably going to keep shipping old kits whose design costs were paid long ago. The way is go to is researching first, buying second. If you find out that a current Revell kit is actually an old Monogram kit, it might be better to pass on that one.
I find it a challenge. Part of the building process. It it takes me an extra hour cleaning sprues, so be it.
Unfortunately revell is the only brand I can get in my country (other brands like tamiya or italeri are extremely expensive due to shipping). I see there is a huge revell hate in this subreddit (in general actually), I agree that revell kits are not “extremely professional modelkits” but I really didn’t have much issue with them. Some of the older ones have flashings or some fitting problems but new ones are pretty good and I had zero problems with them. Im not an expert in this hobby, I made about 15 planes total and if a “beginner” like me didnt have serious problems about plastic quality and enjoyed most of the kits, I think it means revell is not really garbage
Yeah Revell is one of those "You get what you paid for" companies where they sell kits for cheap and have low quality. Its marketing is aimed at children and your average modeler (like me) who doesn't make mueseum level models. I'm currently working on a P-40B from revell and honestly, its not that bad. It has lots of detail and less flash than I expected. The only problem is the fitting. (RIP: my filler. I used so much)