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quality of trumpeter kits?


Mel

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13 hours ago, Warbird said:

Hi,

 

What is the reference of HPH resin canopy? I'm only aware of the set for the BN. Does it also include a corrected windscreen?

Thank you.

you can only use the hood, the windscreen of the BN is differnt, because the nose of that version slopes down at a sharper angle

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On 9/8/2019 at 8:54 PM, SB20 said:

This is why is buy Trumpeter kits.

 

On 9/8/2019 at 9:24 PM, LSP_K2 said:

The 1:24 Hurricanes are a real treat. I'm currently working on the P-38, and so far, fit and finish have been perfectly acceptable, at least for me.

 

On 9/9/2019 at 12:07 AM, GusM said:

The Flogger main gear will sag over time. It isn't a great design but not sure how you'd replicate the real thing any other way.

 

On 9/9/2019 at 8:36 AM, blackbetty said:

the Mig 23 has all kinds of problems (nose, Canopy, landinggear) there is a thread on here that corrects most of the mistakes. my build still isnt finished, but i corrected the nose and got a resin canopy from HPH that worked great. just have to find the time to finish it

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/66537-mig-23-flogger-b-in-cuban-markings/

 

On 9/9/2019 at 2:19 PM, Ryan said:

Mel the kits generally go together well, but the shape/ scale issues are dissapointing and in some cases a deal breaker.

 

Here is me current battle with the portly Hellcat.

 

https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/6973-132-trumpeter-f6f-5-hellcat/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-99464

 

20 hours ago, Warbird said:

Hi,

 

What is the reference of HPH resin canopy? I'm only aware of the set for the BN. Does it also include a corrected windscreen?

Thank you.

 

18 hours ago, BarryWilliams said:

The 1/32s Trumpeter and Hobbyboss kits  that are very good in my experience are:

 

Me162

Dauntless

Avenger

Swordfish

Mig 3

Sturmovik

P61

 

 

 

18 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

The MiGs are far from perfect but still far better than the two century fighters. 

 

8 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

 

Years ago there was a video done by and American who was given a tour of Trumpeter's plant.

According to the video there are more than 2 teams tho they didn't say how many. The fact that

any given kit can be 90% correct and 10% not, makes it appear that there's a hole in their process

somewhere (too many cooks spoil the broth). They do a very large assortment of kits

(ships, AFVs, planes, etc) so volume can come ahead of quality at times. It's always best to research

any kit you're interested in as there's alot of opinions/reviews online like Dave said.

These days it's part of the process of model building (for me anyway  :coolio:).

 

 

Guys, thanks for your answers, really leaving aside my favorite airplanes (thankfully there are excellent kits at 1:32) there are airplanes like the mig 29, mig 23 flogger, F-100D, F-105 that only manufactures them trumpeter, and as a personal experience I have very bad experiences regarding lace and mold failures with this brand

I speak for example of the A-10, eurofighter (this was a nightmare, I really didn't finish it because it was horrible)

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On 9/8/2019 at 8:03 PM, Mel said:

thanks for answering guys, basically because I have in mind to do the Mig-29, the mig 23 flogger (as far as I know the rear landing gear of the MIG 23 is poorly designed)

Also the nose cone is way of. If your interested, i can make you a corrected resin nose cone.

 

49d613Tl.jpg

 

MCXJ3UOl.jpg

 

Greetz

 

Danny

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Mel, if you search for this at this forum, you will find several past threads discussing the quality of Trumpeter kits.

 

As has been mentioned, some Trumpeter kits seem pretty good, and others are terrible, suggesting they have different teams developing the kits, with one knowing what they are doing and the other not so much.

 

Also as has been mentioned, for this reason, you need to research each specific Trumpeter kit as their quality is all over the map.

 

I recently built the Me-262 which is pretty consistently regarded in the "good" category.  

 

I still though the kit was pretty crappy but it did go together in the end and the shape, proportion, detail is good.

 

Where I have other options with a specific subject matter, I would choose not to go with Trumpeter.  

 

But it all depends.  I would rather build the Trumpeter Me-262 than the Revell Me-262 in 1/32 scale.

 

 

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4 hours ago, DannyVM said:

Also the nose cone is way of. If your interested, i can make you a corrected resin nose cone.

 

49d613Tl.jpg

 

MCXJ3UOl.jpg

 

Greetz

 

Danny

Thank you very much Danny Do you manufacture resin kits for these fighters?

 

4 hours ago, ringleheim said:

Mel, if you search for this at this forum, you will find several past threads discussing the quality of Trumpeter kits.

 

As has been mentioned, some Trumpeter kits seem pretty good, and others are terrible, suggesting they have different teams developing the kits, with one knowing what they are doing and the other not so much.

 

Also as has been mentioned, for this reason, you need to research each specific Trumpeter kit as their quality is all over the map.

 

I recently built the Me-262 which is pretty consistently regarded in the "good" category.  

 

I still though the kit was pretty crappy but it did go together in the end and the shape, proportion, detail is good.

 

Where I have other options with a specific subject matter, I would choose not to go with Trumpeter.  

 

But it all depends.  I would rather build the Trumpeter Me-262 than the Revell Me-262 in 1/32 scale.

 

 

I do not want to sound fanatic, I always look first of all the models at 1:32 of Tamiya, if Tamiya does not have them I go for other brands, but in this case you have to go trumpeter direction (since they are the ones with the more extensive catalog of 1:32 scale models) by luck or misfortune ...

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9 hours ago, Mel said:

Thank you very much Danny Do you manufacture resin kits for these fighters?

 

I do not want to sound fanatic, I always look first of all the models at 1:32 of Tamiya, if Tamiya does not have them I go for other brands, but in this case you have to go trumpeter direction (since they are the ones with the more extensive catalog of 1:32 scale models) by luck or misfortune ...

Jeez... With such a policy you must be disappointed quite often as Tamiya large scale catalog just covers a dozen of topics and some kits are not really excellent (most jets before the F-16). It is alas a hard fact available kits of modern planes released by all companies are generally worse than old planes. This is mainly linked to the fact few modern topics were released for the ten last years. 

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3 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Jeez... With such a policy you must be disappointed quite often as Tamiya large scale catalog just covers a dozen of topics and some kits are not really excellent (most jets before the F-16). It is alas a hard fact available kits of modern planes released by all companies are generally worse than old planes. This is mainly linked to the fact few modern topics were released for the ten last years. 

I know that Tamiya has a very limited range of 1:32 (and old kits have faults, F-4 Phantom, F-14A ...)


I think he didn't understand me well, he meant ...


I invent this example ok? Imagine that there are several P-47s at 1:32 scale to choose from

and the following brands are ...

Tamiya

Trumpeter

Academy

Hasegawa

In my case my choice would be tamiya

Now have you understood my explanation / example?


It is NOT that I ONLY buy tamiya (I buy more brands, of course)

The question of the thread is to know if trumpeter has improved in these years or remains the same

Edited by Mel
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No, I had fully understood. I just meant that for modern planes, using Tamiya as 'the reference' is alas a way to be disappointed as there are few kits that corresponds more or less to such a standard. To go back to the original question, Trumpeter progressively improved the ease of assembly but regarding accuracy it is still hit or miss... As others and me wrote this depends on the topic. 

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26 minutes ago, DannyVM said:

No, en absoluto. Solo hice el cono de la nariz porque tengo un Trumpeter MIG-23 y la nariz es muy obvia, así que quería hacerlo bien. 

 

 

He has done an excellent job with the resin 

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My 2cents is just that Trumpeter’s priorities are different than some of our major model makers.  I don’t think accuracy to our standards are their top priority, they may be a consideration and in some cases quality wins out but sometimes it is just get the product done and out the door.  That is what it feels like to me anyway.  I have had a couple of their kits like the 1/48 P-40B it was a simple build and I replaced the cockpit and decals.  Otherwise it looked nice built.  The kit cockpit was terrible, it had terrible over riveting and I am sure there were more problems.  

 

In the end I just don’t think they see eye to eye with what we want and as such sometimes we get kits 1/32 enthusiasts or 1/24 really like and sometimes not.  Not every company needs to be Tamiya.  It is up to the modeler to find out if they think a kit is worth while, there is plenty of reference and review material on line in most cases.

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Unless Trumpeter start moulding kits in white linoleum (the way Airfix did with its 1/72 Concorde) they're great buys.

 

Lots of sanding, filling and scribing sometimes, but Trumpeter models look the part — yes, even the E E Lightnings.

 

Sort of, flash-free old school meets new school parts numbers and — proportionate to historic release date — fit. 

 

I like what ICM have been doing and they are now leading in new releases. But they don't (yet) do 1/32 jets.  For those, we need to hope Trumpy keep old lines available and Kitty Hawk follow up their promises.

 

Tony 

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In my experience the 262, Hurricanes, A-6 Intruder, Avenger etc are good. The F-100D needs a mod to the nose but the rest of the kit was fine without too much filler - to be honest not much different to the Revell 1/32nd Hunter. I have the F-8 Crusader which apart fromt he windscreen and some changes to the nose (that Hasegawa also got wrong on thier 1/48th model) seems pretty nice. It really depends on the team IMO. Whilst the Lightning from 10ft looks like a Lightning close up it is pretty awful but that comes from using the drawings in the SAM book which it appears to match very well! I also built the 1/48th Delta Dart which was a horrible build and nearly ended up in the bin. 

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I think their worst kit was the A-7 Corsair with the squashed intake/canopy that seemed lifted from the old Aurora (later Monogram) 1/48 kit.  The Zactoman corrections were a necessity.

 

The other issues with the F-100 were incorrectly sized mainwheels and the length of the 375 gallon drop tanks.  Like the nose (Zactoman), there are resin replacements available (AMS resin)..  

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