This is to piggyback off the price too high thread.

Do you gentlemen (and ladies) prefer the shake'n bake new kits or the old kits that can be tweaked to present a good model?

I ponder this when faced with someday finishing my old Tamiya M4A3 Sherman with the Verlinden 105mm conversion or buying the "new" Tamiya 105mm Sherman.

I guess I prefer to do some of the scratchbuilding to bring an old kit (not ancient) up to a reasonable replica. Case in point, Santa brought me the new Tamiya Willys, but I seem more content whittling away on the old Tamiya SAS Jeep than starting the new one.

Hmmm. After thinking about this one...if I already owned a kit, and knew there was a conversion kit for that particular one, I would have to "whittle" with it, and probably use the conversion kit with it.
Otherwise I would buy the "new" version. If for the only reason of being easier. But...I do like after-market add-ons. Still...hmmmm

I am a sucker for old kits and the art for bringing them to todays standard, letting the people belive that it is a new released kit. I collected a lot of kits and aftermarket stuff for amendmants, improvements over the years and meanwhile I am overtaken by the industry and the relevant injection kit.
but as long as i have the oldie and the exchange parts on hand, I will not buy an injection kit despicting the same variant.
but I must admit, that building one of the new tamiya, afv-club kits is working smoother and easier than fiddling around on a 20 years old kit.

werner

I'm sorta new to the modeling world, but I have built both old and new kits. I find that the older kits lack detailing, but heck, that's the fun part. Getting into them and cutting and grinding to make it look better than it was. I just recently finished a Lindberg Tiger 1 that was produced in the mid 70's. It's my first small scale model 1/64th (thanks to you great folks here). It really need alot of work. When I finished it, it was beautiful. Fun getting into it too. Thanks. Chris (Tiger 1) Carney. :-)

Hi!
I don´t mind if its a new or an old model, the important is hobby itself, on my case, I bought an AFV Club M35A2 to backdate it a gun truck scort convoy, then I went to buy an old M16 .50 Quad, from Tamiya, and suddenly the AFV Club released your own gun truck, and in the version I intend to do! But I´ll stick we my project, that´s the fun!
Cheers

I find the old kits more satisifying and fun to build up personally. But it really makes little difference as I'll buy 'em all...

Jim
http://www.guntruck.com

I must reiterate...I have the recent re-release of the M7 Priest from Italeri. It could use some upgrades. After looking at the cost of say the PE set from eduard including S&H would total nearly $20!!! Granted the kit did not cost much, but when concidering $35 - $40 for an old kit, comparred with the same as a "new" kit, I would go with the new.
I know not even all the new kits out there are up to par with accuracy and detail, but for the money I'd rather build newer and (dare I get shot for this), than to hassle with cutting and filing and scraping an oldie.

Since I don't collect kits (which is a lie... I have 3 unbuilt armor) I basically build them straight out of the box. Until now that is, Tom Rea's review about the Italeri Leopard 2 KWS got me looking into the Swedish Leopard 2 Improved. I bought the Tamiya Leopard 2 A5 yesterday and I am going to purchase the HKCP conversion kit to make the Swedish Strv 122. It will be my first try with a conversion kit, I've only done my own scratchbuilding before.

All that said and done, I build new...

I'm reading you loud and clear Kencelot - and I agree. I'm just a machochist and LIKE frustrating myself with the older kits :-) but in NO WAY do I pass up a new-tooled kit of today. I thought Italeri's old Willys Jeep was the cat's meow of Jeeps until the new Tamiya Jeep hit the shelf. I still have several Italeri ones though. I did the Italeri Priest too, but you are absolutely right - after buying all the "recommended" after-market replacement / correction items for this old kit, it no longer becomes attractive to take on.

The only "oldies" that I've chucked so far are the Peerless/Italeri WC Dodges - except for the Ambulance. The Skybow kits simply beat the snot outta them - and do not require aftermarket sets to bring them "up to snuff". That makes the determining factor for me in choosing between an oldie and a newbie - whether or not the newbie is a real improvement and value over the oldie.

Jim
San Jose, California
http://www.guntruck.com

Jim,
Dogde trucks... These?

Dodge 1-1/2 Ton Truck (771)
Dodge WC 56 (819)

I have both these unbuilt is why I ask.

Jim

Oh Yeah - Skybow's WC62 / 63 1 1/2-tonner is labeled as "Big Shot" which was a promotional tag Dodge labeled the truck on a poster during the war. SWEET. The old one wasn't really, really, bad, but there's no comparison to Skybow's new release.

I posted a couple of pics here (if I did everything correctly yesterday) of Skybow's WC56 / 57 Command Reconnaissance Car. This one has optional parts to further modify the model to replicate one of General Patton's customized (gaudy) personal vehicles. Really no comparison to the old Dodge Command Car as the new Skybow model is hands-down better in every facet. The only thing I wanted to add to my model was some engine wiring and seat back springs made out of solder for the rear bench seat.

The biggest drawback in these models are the thickness of the decals - like Tamiya's. Maybe one day they'll print them as thin and as fine as their aircraft decal sheets.

Jim
San Jose, California
http://www.guntruck.com

I dunno guys. Old or new they are all fun to build. I've got the kits from the Academy Achilles to Italeri's multiversion Panzer IV to eastern European imports. Any kit you buy can be improved with the use of after-market goodies, if you want.The main thing is, build to please yourself.

I just grabbed that "Mark IV Special" from someone on Hyperscale, very nice kit. When those older Italeri kits first hit the scene, I didn't build very much German armor, especially a Mark IV chassis. I still like to tweak old Tamiya kits and tinker with even older Aurora armor kits.