(Artwork by Max Ernst)
Even puttying aside personal taste and preferences, it is still somewhat difficult to evaluate kits, but one thing is for sure, building them gives you the opportunity to truly get a first hand experience of what they have to offer (or not) in the many departments kits can be judged upon: subject, molding quality, engineering, accuracy, detail, easiness of assembly, accessories as P.E., masks, resin parts, etc.
I have been building kits, like many of you, since early childhood -and again as it may be the case for many of you- life intervened and modeling was re-assumed in earnest only in the last 30 years or so. In that later period, hundreds of models of all types and media were built and scratchbuilt, much knowledge was painfully amassed, many mistakes were made, and finally some experience was gained. We modelers know that perfection is an elusive goal that, no matter how much we strive to reach, seems to forever move towards the distant horizon as we try to advance on that path. It is no doubt the same for kit manufacturers. Still, in the process, we develop the tools to hopefully be able to separate wheat from chaff.
I think it is fair to demand more from outfits that are established companies -sometimes even corporations- that have plenty of technical and financial resources, than from cottage industries that are even in many cases a one-man show.
I pay for the goods I get, and I don’t make a profit from my blog, which frees me from having biases tied to sponsorship, advertisement, and “freebies” (aka “samples”). I don’t think that there is anything intrinsically wrong with commercial endeavors, but I believe that things start go sideways when the reviewers or kit builders are compromised by their interests, and get too soft or elliptic on products that are obviously sub-par, or the opposite, suspiciously promoting goods that happen (coincidence?) to be advertised on their platforms. There are many honest sites with honest reviewers, but a few sound just like the manufacturers’ mouthpieces.
I have no dog in this race, so I present the facts as I experience them (not just what I may believe they are or would like or hope them to be). Many kits look fantastic in the box to only disappoint during building, so “in box” reviews are very interesting, but necessarily incomplete.
It’s useless to pretend having a gourmet meal at a burger joint, and, conversely, it’s absolutely licit to demand more from a high-end, expensive restaurant. So it is with kits. A very simple, fair, basically accurate product like an old vac offers what it is, no more, and thus under that parameter it should be judged. A fair short-run kit will benefit, concurrently, from some flexibility in its consideration. A very expensive, high-end kit, I believe deserves less allowances. I have built dozens upon dozens of vacs, resin, injected and 3D-printed kits of planes, vehicles, and even robots; about five hundred articles on them are posted here. As dear Kurt Vonnegut used to say regarding paintings: “How do you know? Look at a million of them, and then you will know.” In this case it’s “Build hundreds of them, and then you will know”. So when I am frustrated with a kit or some aspect of it, I say it, and conversely when I see something I like, I share it. There is, nonetheless, some degree of subjectivity, so whatever I write is not written in stone and others may have a different experience, but I try it to be as close to fairness as possible. Kits don’t build themselves; they require skills, time, perseverance, attention to detail. There is a reasonable amount of those I am willing to spend. But when things become silly, I let whoever may be reading that posting know. And when things make me happy, I share the happiness of it too. What I write and post here is meant to be of help for fellow modelers, and occasionally perhaps for a manufacturer interested in improving its products. I have loved this hobby all my life, and doing this blog (which by the way takes a lot of time and no little effort) is a way to repay all the help, fun and camaraderie others have given me along the way.
A partially off-topic NOTE:
For all of you with Modeling/Aviation facebook pages: As if there were not enough reasons already NOT to be on facebook, now non-facebook people can’t access fbk pages unless they join (which many of us refuse to do or are not interest in). Fbk will only allow you to see a few images, and then block your access unless, again, you join. SO ANY PERSON THAT DOESN’T HAVE FBK CAN’T SEE YOUR POST, PRODUCTS, NEWS, ETC. If you are interested in customers, or simply people knowing about you or what you do with ample access, then fbk is not anymore an effective (not to mention ethical) place.
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