SPA Modeler

As much as I like old kits - I've been feeling the need to build some more modern kits recently.

Who would you say produce decent late cold war era/modern jet kits these days? I'm thinking mainly French, British or US types.

Maybe a stupid question - but hey it'll kick off discussion

Regards

Stuart

I'd say look at Revell Germany kits. As well as Hasegawa. A few years back when my kids were younger and felt like building models with dad, they picked out some 1/72 jets of that sort from those companies. I helped in the building and was suitably impressed with the new crop of models in that scale by those companies of that subject area. Especially the Revell Germany kits. And of course I have seen the Airfix new tooled releases at the LHS and been very impressed by those as well. A far cry from the 72nd stuff I built when available in the late 70s.

Gotta agree with Stik...Revell has a couple good'ns...Tornado for example...their JAS-39 Gripen look to be sweet too(haven't built it yet though).
Trumpeter and HobbyBoss have a bunch of stuff too...but lack in detail(some kits) and accuracy.
I am not a fan of Hasegawas plastic (the plastic material itself), but they do make nice kits...outsource your decals though...theirs are right up there with Tamiya and Academy's.
Fujimi does a fairly decent job too...for your almost modern jets. 70's-80's stuff.
Airfix's Harriers and A-4 are nice...a bit heavy with the panel trenches, but otherwise nice.

That's about all I can speak for.

And if you don't mind old school raised panel lines, Monogram did some real nice stuff in the 80s in 72nd. A killer B-1B with ALCM load out, a very nice EF-111, F-105F/G, Phantom (can't remember if it was an Air Force C/D, or Navy/ Marine Corps J, or both), and I think a F-104 as well. Maybe our 72nd fiend Duke Maddog can help out on all this...

Thanks for the input gents - time to tool up and go shopping.

Actually having a dig through the stash - I do actually have a Revell Tornado and Eurofighter (forgotten I had that ) and Airfix's A-4 and EE Lightning - so I do have a few modern kits to be getting on with. Thanks for the steer on the Revell Tornado and Airfix A-4 Fermis - I'll take a look at them.

No problem with raised panel lines Stik - I have a ton of old tool Airifix and a few Hasegawa (F9F and a Kfir) - I've even got an old FROG kit and a few more Matchbox. I've only ever built one Monogram kit though so perhaps I need to try another at one point.

I had a look thru on eBay last nite under a search of "1/72 Monogram". They did both the F-4 C/D and F-4J if you're a Phantom Phan. Those had a rep of being some of the best F-4 kits out in 1/72. They also did a Strike Eagle, SR-71, and Tornado that I had completely forgotten about. As well as some F-16s, F-15, and an A-10. They even did the F-16XL if you want something different...

The Revell Germany Tornado F-16 and F-4 are excellent kits. Also almost any of the Fujimi kits if you can find them.

I have built at least one of each of those models that Fermis and Carlos mentioned and I can attest that they are good selections. Watch some of the Hasegawa and Fujimi kits though; I know I've had some difficulty with the intake sections on some of their F-4 Phantom kits not fitting well. I've always enjoyed the Monogram 1/72 scale jets too. Good memories.

Fermis, I built the Gripen from Revell and I have to say it is one of their top five best models ever. That was so much fun and easy to build.

Most of the rest of Revell's models are also great. I like the Airfix kits too, their newest ones don't have the mile-wide trenches that some of their earlier models had. Stay away from Mach 2, Maquette, and in some cases Special Hobby. They are truly difficult kits that take a lot of time, patience and skill to build. I built two Maquette kits; the C-75 and the Ka-60 helicopter and the best way to describe them is assemble all the over-bloated parts and then carve the model out of the competed block of twisted, bloated plastic until it starts looking like the aircraft it should look like. With the C-75, I had to sand the Himalayas off the spine of that plane.... I almost reached for my belt sander!

Good luck on your new venture and I apologize for taking so long to add some extra input. I look forward to seeing what you start building.

Maquette actually ony reboxes kits of other manufacterers. So the quality varies a lot. They rebox: Roden/Toko, Frog, Dakoplast, Zlinek, Modelist, RPM, Apha. Skarabey, VES etc etc.


https://www.scalemates.com/companies/company.php?id=413


Same goes for Eastern Express.

Thanks Gents!