For those of you that model or have modeled 1/72 scale armor, do you have any general opinions about the following companies' offerings?

Dragon
Hasegawa
Italeri
Revell of Germany

For instance, does one of these companies, in general, produce more detailed kits? Are any of them just not any good in your opinion? Do they regularly have fit problems, etc.?

Thanks for your time and opinions.

The Revell kits, apart from one or two exceptions, are very good. In fact they are almost the industry standard.

The Italeri kits are, so far, all old ESCI kits. Apart from the Panzer IV they are worth having since they are the only available kits for some types.

Some Hasegawa kits are quite old and it shows. Many of them have accuracy issues, the Sherman in particular. The newer kits like the 251 half tracks and the Panzerjager IV's are pretty good though.

As for the Dragon kits, i have no first hand knowlage of them.

For more detailed appraisals of 1/72 armour, try this site http://www.ontheway.us/

Revell kits are generally highly regarded except for the M4A1 Sherman and Sturmgeschutz IV. A couple of them are Hasegawa kits (Crusader, Halftrack) and a few of the ones boxed with vinyl soldiers are former Matchbox kits (Stuart, Firefly, Priest, Panzer II).

Dragon has been 50-50 good and bad. So far, they are improving with each release. Their latest Tiger I and Berge Tiger are darn good as is the Challenger II. Some of the kits have diecast hulls. I've built three of them (SturmTiger, Panther G, AAV7A1 AMTRAC) and while they are decent kits, they would be much better if they were all plastic. Their Abrams series are decendants of small R/C kits and have all sorts of motorization issues to deal with.

As stated, Italeri are all former Esci kits. Many are still good, but all are based on 20+ year old tooling.

Hasegawa kits are also around the 20 year mark. Many of them have terrible tracks, some are outstanding though.

Revell and Dragon are the ones to watch. So far Revell has been concentrating on WW2 German and modern NATO kits. Their only US kits are the Sherman, Abrams, Bradley and the old Matchbox Stuart and Priest.

Dragon has been doing the WW2 German as well, but has begun to pick up on the modern US vehicles with a couple of modern UK kits in the mix.

Thanks, guys. I went and checked out some of the kits on my lunch break. Revell do look really nice!

I just finished the RG Tiger(1/72) 1 for MTD day over at the FS forum and it was a nice kit that I would highly recomend even though it has indy track links they are like Italeris 1/35 scale late Tiger as the only individual pieces are those going around the idler and the drive are single pieces. My son did Dragons 1/72 jadgpanther and that was alsoa nice kit except for the tracks which sucked and even when we heated them in hot water they were still to tight.

Revell of Germany and Dragons new kits are in my opinion the best ones i dont really like the hasegawa kits atall and italeri are ok. I like the Revell Panzer IV series nice tanks.

Try here great website for 1:72 model reviews and previews http://www.ontheway.us/

I hear you. I built the Dragon Panther G early and the tracks were too tight. The diecast hull doesn't allow you to cut off the idler mount and move it inward to adjust track tension either. Fortunately for my kit, it comes with side skirts so that helps hide the lack of track sag. I had a similar problem with the Dragon SturmTiger. The lower hull is plastic and the idler arm has some play in it so I was able to work with it and gain a little sag in the tracks.

I visit On The Way often and it is the premier site for 1/72 scale armor modeling. My only gripe is that he doesn't cover Airfix and Matchbox kits because they are 1/76 scale. I understand why he doesn't but it would be nice.

Im in the middle of building the revell challenger2 its going to gether like a dream.i have the warrior and bradley to do next.Maybe you guys could answer a question for me, in the paint guide it says to use light olive do you think a lightened olive drab would be ok proberbly Tamyia o.d.

I can't give you good recommendation for British green color, although some suggest that Tamiya NATO Green is acceptable. But I can tell you that "Light Olive" paint from Revell is definitely not the right color. I currently build Revell of Germany 1/35 Land Rover kit and in this kit they also suggest their light olive paint. I happen to have this Revell paint and it is way too light for British green. So do not try to find direct equivalent of this paint, as it may also be too light.

Pawel

Don't trust Revell's paint instuctions. But their kits are really awesome.

Thanks for the replies guys I was thinking of the Nato green, I have some revell paints they dry nice and flat but thats about, it the colours are horrible I just use their black and white now, kits are superb though

Another 1/72 company who does armor that you may want to check out is MIRAGE. Maybe even look at PST and some of the other russian companies, except, those require extra work to make them look nice.

Yes, the Mirage kits are excellent. They have a range of T-26 based tanks and a Lee/Grant series. The Lee and Grant in particular are superb. Also just released are some early PzIV variants.

Trumpeter will be a one to watch once they expand their 1/72 line. I have their Elephant and it is better than Dragon's. The detailing is first-class, has link and length tracks, and some P/E. It has been said that the Pegasus Maus is really by Trumpeter. Whatever the case, when Trumpeter releases their Maus I hope they supply P/E with that as well. (There's no P/E with Pegasus'). Does anyone know if Trumpeter presently has anything besides their Elephant and Ferdinand?

Yes, Trumpeter also does four truck kits in 1/72 scale. They do the ZIL-157 cargo and fuel truck as well as the CA-30 cargo and fuel truck.

All four kits are virtually identical with only the cargo bed being replaced by the fuel tank and the difference between the ZIL-157 and the C-30 is a different cab. Pretty nice kits. I have both ZIL and the cargo CA-30.

Don't forget that soon, Trumpeter will be coming with the 1/72 M26a Pershing

Some other things have happened since this thread:

Airfix released the best 1.72 jeep and an awesome Jimmy ( with wrong weels ( 5 spokes instead of 6 ))

and...

Italeri released an excellent M8 scoutcar and DUKW.

Those are all kits to watch aswell..

Richard 'Snowhand' Renes

Revell has also released a set of Hummers (2 different versions in the kit but need better wheels)
and an M60A3 which is very nice.

Don't forget the Famo, the Fennek and the new Fuchs.. They are good too