Post by PitYak Studios on Oct 17, 2005 7:46:11 GMT 12
I bought a pack from this manafacturer to use as the basis for a custom recently and was pleasantly surprised; good sculpting and good casting. Made in Korea, I would certainly recommend them.
For a current job I needed an old Tamiya kit; "Famous Generals". I found this kit at the weekend and was most impressed that it was only $6. Leaving the shop I mused on the fact that you can still buy a kit that I had twenty years ago.
Got home and opened the box and was immediately struck by the weird mettalic looking polystyrene the sprue was cast in. Then almost as immediately struck by the appalling quality of the casting. Looked at the box again, and realised it's not a Tamiya kit at all, but made by, wait for it, Academy. Not only is the casting very, very bad, but the material used for casting is so hard it is a real pain to work with, almost like hard vinyl.
I was perplexed by this, since the other Academy kit I got was excellent, albeit about three times the price of this one. Closer inspection of the box (which at first glance is identical to the tamiya original) revealed this kit was made in the phillipines.
I've come across this before, although not to such an extent, with kits from far eastern producers. Dragon, who make very nice kits indeed, have a sister company called shangai-dragon, and their output is not up to the quality of the parent Dragon company.
Seems Academy are the same (ok this theory is based on only two kits); those made in korea are good, those made in the phillipines good for FA.
Something to watch out for.
For a current job I needed an old Tamiya kit; "Famous Generals". I found this kit at the weekend and was most impressed that it was only $6. Leaving the shop I mused on the fact that you can still buy a kit that I had twenty years ago.
Got home and opened the box and was immediately struck by the weird mettalic looking polystyrene the sprue was cast in. Then almost as immediately struck by the appalling quality of the casting. Looked at the box again, and realised it's not a Tamiya kit at all, but made by, wait for it, Academy. Not only is the casting very, very bad, but the material used for casting is so hard it is a real pain to work with, almost like hard vinyl.
I was perplexed by this, since the other Academy kit I got was excellent, albeit about three times the price of this one. Closer inspection of the box (which at first glance is identical to the tamiya original) revealed this kit was made in the phillipines.
I've come across this before, although not to such an extent, with kits from far eastern producers. Dragon, who make very nice kits indeed, have a sister company called shangai-dragon, and their output is not up to the quality of the parent Dragon company.
Seems Academy are the same (ok this theory is based on only two kits); those made in korea are good, those made in the phillipines good for FA.
Something to watch out for.
