Revell, Dragon or Airfix?

Im looking for nicely detailed kits, Ive built a few Esci kits, namely the M60A1 which I liked a lot. Im looking for kits with hard plastic link to link tracks...I cant stand rubber band tracks in this scale.

I have a Verlinden Desert Road in 1/72nd and wanted to put an Abrams, Bradley or Hummer in the scene with a knocked out Iraqi tank.

So...
Who would you guys reccomend who makes the nicest Bradley, Hummer or Abrams in 1/72?


Thank you.

Revell has very good detailed 1/72 stuff, there newer stuff anyways.

Limited choice.

Revell makes an M2A2/M3A2 Bradley in the same box, but it is an earlier Desert Storm/pre-OIF variant. Link & length tracks are the older style as well. No stowage or OIF fittings included. Some boxings do not come with the M3A2 parts.

Dragon makes three Bradleys, two M2A2ODS and an M3A2ODS. All are post Desert Storm OIF vehicles. Very good kits with vinyl stowage and current load outs. Vinyl tracks are the current "Big Foot" pattern.

Revell makes an M1A1"HA" Abrams which is good for Desert Storm. It has the older T-156 tracks that have been phased out during the 90s. No stowage or current OIF load outs either. Link & length tracks.

Dragon makes three different Abrams kits, the M1A1"HA", M1A1"HA" with mine plow and M1A2. All three are basically the same kit and have roots in Dragon's miniature R/C line. There are plenty of motorization holes and the lower hull has a bulge to it for the once present motor. The bustle racks are molded solid, probably to make it sturdier for handling.

They do come with the current T-158 "Big Foot" tracks in vinyl though. The mine plow version comes with some stowage. The others do not.

The Revell HMMWV is OK and includes parts to make both an M1025 hardtop and 2-door M998 soft top. The .50 cal is molded upside down and tires appear undersized. Two vehicles in one kit is nice.

I have all of the above listed kits and most of the PE and resin sets for them.

Dragon also makes a pair of HMMWVs in the box, but I haven’t seen one in person yet.

Hi,

best company or best model.....I think, new Revell, old Esci, some Airfix is best kit.

I agree, although Airfix is 1/76. Some of Revell's stuff is reboxed old Matchbox 1/76; the new kits are all 1/72 and simply the best you can get for the money.. Italeri is doing the old Esci kits now; not as good as Revell, but acceptable.

Frank

As little more than a 'dabbler' in 1/72nd scale, I would add the following observations....

Airfix (in general) are very old kits indeed. They did stuff which no-one else would have dreamt of doing ..

Dragon are very good kits (in general)

Revell (particuarly their modern vehicles) are probably the best although as Sabot has said, many of their kits are re-pops of other manufactuers.

Italeri have some lovely (recent kits) but a lot of their catalogue is older stuff as well. Some is brilliant, others are not so good...

Trumpeter is becoming very interesting. In 1/72nd they have some Japanese Modern Armor coming out, which was done by Pit-Road in Japan and is sublimely good...Jim

Actually in 1/72 scale, the vast majority of Revell kits are their own original kits. In the beginning of their 1/72 scale range, they had a couple of reboxed Hasegawa kits and some kits they created earlier but marketed under the Matchbox and Monogram label (M4A1, T-80, StuG IV, Leo 2A4) in the mid 90s. There were also a handful of old 1/76 scale Matchbox kits packaged with vinyl figures into combo packs.

Currently, out of the 30something kits in their line, only a couple are not original. They have begun to reissue the old Matchbox kits in a separate line, but they are clearly labeled as 1/76 now.