Being a 1/35 modeller, Ive fancied having a go at a 1/72 kit. Something that i don't have to research to much and just get on with it. Something to start and finnish in one go. Getting as much fun out of as possible. If you sort of know what I mean. I have just seen the ACE Models, PzII artillery spotting tank. It looks very well detailed from the spruce images. Not knowing to much about 1/72 modelling, apart from when I was very young . Having ago at some of the small tanks with the small dios. I can always remember the different colour spruce's and one Dio inparticular. It had a train track with a crater on it. It really sticks in my memory, can't think what tank came with it just remember the cool Dio. Back to the question. What do you "Braille Guys" think of ACE models? Is it a good place to have a Bash at 1/72 modelling. Thanks Geraint

Geraint,

You may want to read through the posting entitled "ACE or PST??" here on the Braille Scale forum. This should give you some idea as to what you may expect from the ACe kits. I have built/ backdated an ACE T55 kit to model a T54 and found that it took just as much effort as putting together a 35th scale kit. Below is a link to my build if your interested in checking it out.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/117347&page=1#top
(Sorry I don't know how to do the linky thing yet?)

Check out the "On The Way" 72nd scale website as this may help you in putting together almost any of the kits out there in 72nd scale.

Good luck,
-Eddy

Thanks Eddy. Im going to read up on the sites you've posted and then get back to you . many thanks Geraint

No, an ACE kit is not where you want to start if you are just getting into Braille Scale. They are limited run quality and not as finely detailed and do not go together without some filler work and dry fitting. I would suggest Revell of Germany kits to begin with. Superb kits that assemble well (unless you get an older company's kit inside the box like Matchbox or Hasegawa).

Eddy your T55 is just simply awsome. If you hadn't said it was 1/72 I would have thought it One of its bigger brothers. What I fancy is just having a go at modelling something smaller and inexpensive. When i spend so much on a 1/35 scale model thats when i feel I need to spend time on research, maybe I should'nt bother and just go OOTB. What i thought was spending a couple of £'s on a Braille Kit and just having some fun I not trying to take anything away from my Braille scale cousins. I can see that you have as much passion on getting all the TINY details right aswell Thanks for your help. Next stop the 1/72 Forum and the ACE kits buildability. Cheers Geraint

Thanks Sabot I'll check out what Revel has to offer. Believe it or not but I really enjoy the build aspect of Kit building. Dry fitting, a bit of plastic card, filling and sanding as much and sometimes more than painting. But yes I do Fancy just a bit of Fun, no major headeches. So I might just go with your advice. One thing I do like mind you is the more quirky vehicle. Thats why I fancied the ACE Pz II arty spotting Tank. Sabot. What do you think of Dragons 1/72 stuff? Cheers Geraint

Dragons 1/72 kits are just great. I built these kits in a few days last year straight from the box (mostly...)





This is an ACE kit and it is mostly putty... They have a lot of interesting subjects though and as other members have shown they will turn out nice with some TLC. Not a beginners kit though.


Erik

Eric. Thanks for the heads up on the Dragon kits. The two Bradleys look great. Looking at the images, yes the dragon kits seem very detailed compared to the ACE LAV. Cheers for the great images. Where do you get the little troopers from? Nice one Geraint

They are from Preiser and Ceasars Miniatures.

Nit familiar with ACE kits but but have with other limited run kits in aircraft. if they are really a good example of 'limited run quality " nthen I also suggest Dragon. I've done the Pz IV F1 and it is sweet. There is another that was just posted... take a look at it. Can't go wrong with that one.

Dragon has some good and some bad kits. They have one thing in common though, the instructions normally suck. They also have an insane habit of removing parts from the sprue (manually cutting the parts away) that would be necessary in building a similar variant, but leaving extraneous parts on the sprue. Sometimes the removed part is necessary to actually build the kit completely (they removed a periscope from the M4A1 kit that left a hole in the turret roof). But after some runaround, they often realize their mistake and make the part available through Dragon Care.

Avoid any of the older kits that boast "diecast hull" pieces. Their original Panthers were vertually unbuildable without filing the metal hulls and lengthening the vinyl tracks. Two near impossible tasks with standard plastic modeling tools.

As for ACE, older Soviet/Russian armor kits tend to be worse than their more recent WW2 German armor kits.

Hi Sabot. Been on the On the Way 1/72 web site and they give the Revell Stug III a great write up. Then another modeller gives a comparision with Dragons new Stug III and I got to say it really looks like a awsome scaled down kit of the 1/35 Stug. Maybe I'll just do a OOTB 1/35 scale kit Less of a Headache Its Funny, all I wanted to do was make a smale scale kit and have a bit of fun. Now I searching for PERFECTION again in a kit. "Funny old game" Thanks all For the Help I'think I will have a go at Revells Stug, sort of remindes me of a bigger Tamiya offering. Cheers all, Geraint

Avoid the Revell StuG IV though. That kit was one of their first attempts at a 1/72 scale kit. They originally released it under Monogram and Matchbox labels, but now carry it under the Revell line. StuG III is a gem though.

Revell and Dragon have some good models along with UM. Here is my M4A1 from Dragon took me three nights to finished.

Well, ACE is a mixed bag. I have a T-72B tha must've been a first run kit as it's VERY well done. However in the same order from Hobby Terra I received their T-90, which is the SAME T-72 base kit, and the same part trees common were garbage. Same thing with their MTLB kits. One's GREAT used it as a conversion for a BTR-80A and the other ordered AT THE SAME TIME, was crap! So ya roll the dice and ya take a chance....

Matt

While not exactly on the topic, here's what you are recalling.



As someone already mentioned, the Dragon kits are extremely impressive for the scale. As an example their M2A3 Bradley has no less than 191 parts. Trumpeter kits also sport some nice detail but are somewhat simpler in parts count.

Cheers,
tread_geek

I've built Ace's BRDM 2 and it's a rough kit but, with some patience the kit built up into a very nice model. Ace is getting better with every new release.
Charlie

ACE-kits are "limited-run" kits, so they are not comparable with Dragon or Revell or other, but they have a good quality and ACE have some interesting originals!
I also have 2 of them. (two WW2 german artillery guns)

If you want to build one, you have to deal with some "problems"... but the material is easy to glue and you have an unique model on your desk/ table or so!

greetings...
Soeren