Doyusha kits

[intheway]

Just curious if anyone has any info on Doyusha kits. I was in the local shop today and they had two available in 1/32. An A6M2 Zero and a Mustang.  Scalemates is my normal go to for info, but they don't have any in box or build reviews listed. This is the Zero as shown on Scalemates. Are they good, bad or otherwise? Thanks for assistance.

[LSP_Kevin]

The Zero is a decent enough kit, though I have no idea how it builds. Your only other option is the Tamiya kit, which is significantly better for a significant multiple of the price. I'm not familiar with the Mustang, but I'd look at getting the much newer and likely better Revell kit, for probably not much more money.

 

By the way, you can also use the LSP Kit Database as a good source for info on relevant kits:

 

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/kitdb/list.php?act=search&kitMaker=doyusha

 

Most of the Doyusha kits come from other sources, such as Swallow or Tomy.

 

Kev

[thierry laurent]

The Mustang is TERRIBLE! The only acceptable component usable in the box is the decal sheet. Total crap! One of the most awful kits ever released...

 

The Zero is ok even if some shapes are not accurate (e.g. ailerons). It builds quite easily for a Seventies kit.

 

All Doyusha kits have close to no cockpit and very basic landing gear wells if any as they were designed to be motorized. Out of my memory they were initially released by Tomy during the early seventies. 

 

Now they are just collectors items as all topics are now available from Revell, Hasegawa or Tamiya.

[thierry laurent]

I forgot the Willow! This is the only kit never released by anyone else in large scale and the two versions (wheels and floats) are hopefully the best kits in the range. They are the only ones I would recommend and for whatever reason Aires/Quickboost recently released some cheap and nice correction sets whereas the initial release occured more than 40 years ago! Such kits were not intended to be motorized and this shows in a good way.

[Rick Griewski]

Stick with the Willow.  

[BiggTim]

The willow is awesome! I wouldn't mind building another one of those with floats and that funky orange color. I did mine with wheels and silver dope. Very nice kit!

[Out2gtcha]

I reviewed the K5Y2 Type 93 Willow on floats back in 2019. While far from perfect it has a great look to it and the kit seems pretty straight forward. The only real complaint I had was the fabric texture was pretty heavily done. Otherwise, it seems like a very nice kit! 

 

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=2249

[intheway]

Thanks for the help. I always seem to forget about LSP's kit database. The Doyusha Zero kit was priced at about $60USD. I already have the Hasewaga A6M5C kit which was a little cheaper than that and is good enough for me.

[LSP_K2]

I'm not one to be bothered too much with minor accuracy issues. I started the Doyusha kit some back, but never did finish it (an all too common occurrence with me), and I thought it was pretty cool. I also reviewed it, here. While the Tamiya kit is awesome (I bought one for my roommate), as Kev points out, it's also considerably more expensive. As I understand it, the Hasegawa kits are pretty decent, and can be had for a decent price.

[LSP_Kevin]

13 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

I forgot the Willow! This is the only kit never released by anyone else in large scale and the two versions (wheels and floats) are hopefully the best kits in the range. They are the only ones I would recommend and for whatever reason Aires/Quickboost recently released some cheap and nice correction sets whereas the initial release occured more than 40 years ago! Such kits were not intended to be motorized and this shows in a good way.

 

I'd forgotten about those Quickboost sets - just ordered the lot!

 

Kev

[thierry laurent]

26 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

I'm not one to be bothered too much with minor accuracy issues. I started the Doyusha kit some back, but never did finish it (an all too common occurrence with me), and I thought it was pretty cool. I also reviewed it, here. While the Tamiya kit is awesome (I bought one for my roommate), as Kev points out, it's also considerably more expensive. As I understand it, the Hasegawa kits are pretty decent, and can be had for a decent price.

Indeed, the Hasegawa release has annihilated any reason to get the Doyusha kit if you just want a large scale Zero. The only reason to get one is the interest in a Pearl Harbor Zero without willing to go for an expensive kit. And in that case, I would rather recommend the Eduard 1/48 kit (but do not repeat it ;-)

[James Rademaker]

Avoid the Mustang. I made the mistake about 20 years ago and purchased it. 
Jim

[npb748r]

I've never previously looked at kits by this manufacturer, what a fantastic smorgasbord of model kits they produced, looks like they bounced around every genera of our wonderful hobby ! Castles, cars, aircraft, TV/film, AFV and I particularly like the 1/10 scale rickshaw.   The Willow looks interesting but I might be a bit late to the party as there appears to be none up for sale.

neil

[Artful69]

On 8/11/2022 at 1:00 AM, npb748r said:

I've never previously looked at kits by this manufacturer, what a fantastic smorgasbord of model kits they produced, looks like they bounced around every genera of our wonderful hobby ! Castles, cars, aircraft, TV/film, AFV and I particularly like the 1/10 scale rickshaw.   The Willow looks interesting but I might be a bit late to the party as there appears to be none up for sale.

neil

 

I scored one a while back out of either HK or direct from Japan ... so they are still around!!

 

Rog