Brill video John, I've mainly have academy 1/35 stuff which is great and cheap. You get a partial interior with alot of their armour. I've only built one of their armour kits which was one of their merkavas !! I've built one of their 1/48th corsairs to which was great !!
I love Academy kits. The Bronco you showed is one I started and was really enjoying, but put it down and din't pick back up. Their Tempest and Typhoon I had too. As you say the recessed panel line detail is really nice, I don't recall any flash on the parts and they are packaged really well. I really enjoyed your video mate, so glad you did it. I have never understood why Academy got a bad name and I have never considered their kits a waste of money, unlike some of the older Airfix kits. Well done sir.
Yes some of the Airfix older tools are shall we say material for a good stand up comic The Spitfire Mk-IX series 1 kit comes to mind very quickly and so does the old tool stuka that was entertaining to build too, I may well get some older tool kits from Airfix and Revell to show just how far model tooling has come over the years. This series of videos maybe a real tool for modellers to share their experiences in and give us all valuable information on how best to invest our money thanks for the in put. I will be doing a Progress and final reveal clip on the WW1 Female tank I have just finished and it maybe of interest to you mate as you do some beauty vignettes.
Welcome to the channel Max I have reached 1000 subbers and there will be a give away with some books and a rarish Airfix Kit Involved. Thanks for the comment and also thanks for the info on Minicraft as I did think there was something going on between them and Academy.
I've had mixed results with Academy decals. I built their T-34 with German army markings and while the build of the tank was wonderful, the decals were appalling. They were very thick and had very little adhesion. I had to use quite a lot of decal setting solution and even then painted by hand one of the markings that was supposed to be a decal as it was just easier. The rest I gloss coated to seal them in as soon as possible, before they had a chance to start lifting off. This was a relatively new release too. What made it so much more obvious was just how lovely the rest of the kit was. A very good build and lots of options for the tank, which until the decaling stage, had made it an absolute joy to build. On the other had I am building a 1:72 P47/FW190 combo kit and that has cartagraph decals with it and they are lovely and the models are nice to build too. What I can say though is my experience with Academy kits is generally positive. They go together well and as you say, are quite good value. They have some scale and/or detail issues, but then so does just about every brand. They also have some fantastic kits like their 1:48 and 1:72 Phantom II's and their 1:48 F15-K, that stand up well agains't any competition out of the box. All in all they are a good value brand and really have taken the place of Revell in my budget range. Its not that I dislike Revell as they have some awesome kits, but they rebox so many other brands and occasionally push out some of their more awful 60's and 70's era tooling kits, that I can't just buy one of the shelf. Every Revell purchase I make needs internet research to actually find out what I am getting before i commit. Not unusual with Revell to find three different variants of the same plane, might in practice be three completely different toolings from three different manufacturers. Two might be great and one awful. I guess I shouldn't complain to loudly though, as its my only source of a Matchbox kit fix these days. The originals are very scare in Australia. Looking forward to your next manufacturer review. Dan
Hi Dan nice to hear from you mate. I was not aware that Academy Decals were inconsistent so thanks for the info. It seems this series maybe a popular one so preparing the nest clip for release in a couple of days. I must get round to viewing some of your clips as they look interesting and I like what you did with that beauty 24th Scale Hurricane from Airfix, I have fond memories of the god awful job I made of it when I was 15 years old LOL
Looking forward to similar reviews on Airfix, Revell and the like. If Academy has indeed copied other manufacturers' work, in a lot of instances they certainly could have made a better choice. For example, their 1/72 BF109E3/4, Hurricane Mk.IIc and FW190 A6/8 all suffer from unforgivable shape errors. On the other hand, in terms of dimensions and shape their F4U-1 Corsair is almost perfect, but then again, that one does seem to have an eerie resemblance to the Hasegawa one :)
You are very correct but I haven't got much experience on Academy warbirds as I tend to go for Airfix or Revell kits for these, it's information like this that the community should be being made aware of and there is obviously far more info available to the community from the community as you can't beat personal experience this is exactly why I wanted to do these clips so thanks for the information and may you be the first of many to offer personal experience. I hope these clips provoke for replies, Cheers Johan
When did Academy "get rid" of the little introduction / description of the model on the instructions ? Last couple of kits I've picked up, have *zero* information about the aircraft / helicopter. They can't tell the customer a brief history of the model anymore?? I've never had a terrible experience with Academy 1/72 scale. Academy does get a bad reputation more often than not though.
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Brill video John, I've mainly have academy 1/35 stuff which is great and cheap. You get a partial interior with alot of their armour. I've only built one of their armour kits which was one of their merkavas !! I've built one of their 1/48th corsairs to which was great !!
I love Academy kits. The Bronco you showed is one I started and was really enjoying, but put it down and din't pick back up. Their Tempest and Typhoon I had too. As you say the recessed panel line detail is really nice, I don't recall any flash on the parts and they are packaged really well. I really enjoyed your video mate, so glad you did it. I have never understood why Academy got a bad name and I have never considered their kits a waste of money, unlike some of the older Airfix kits. Well done sir.
Yes some of the Airfix older tools are shall we say material for a good stand up comic
The Spitfire Mk-IX series 1 kit comes to mind very quickly and so does the old tool stuka that was entertaining to build too, I may well get some older tool kits from Airfix and Revell to show just how far model tooling has come over the years.
This series of videos maybe a real tool for modellers to share their experiences in and give us all valuable information on how best to invest our money thanks for the in put.
I will be doing a Progress and final reveal clip on the WW1 Female tank I have just finished and it maybe of interest to you mate as you do some beauty vignettes.
I just subbed. You have great information
Welcome to the channel Max I have reached 1000 subbers and there will be a give away with some books and a rarish Airfix Kit Involved.
Thanks for the comment and also thanks for the info on Minicraft as I did think there was something going on between them and Academy.
I've had mixed results with Academy decals. I built their T-34 with German army markings and while the build of the tank was wonderful, the decals were appalling. They were very thick and had very little adhesion. I had to use quite a lot of decal setting solution and even then painted by hand one of the markings that was supposed to be a decal as it was just easier. The rest I gloss coated to seal them in as soon as possible, before they had a chance to start lifting off. This was a relatively new release too. What made it so much more obvious was just how lovely the rest of the kit was. A very good build and lots of options for the tank, which until the decaling stage, had made it an absolute joy to build. On the other had I am building a 1:72 P47/FW190 combo kit and that has cartagraph decals with it and they are lovely and the models are nice to build too.
What I can say though is my experience with Academy kits is generally positive. They go together well and as you say, are quite good value. They have some scale and/or detail issues, but then so does just about every brand. They also have some fantastic kits like their 1:48 and 1:72 Phantom II's and their 1:48 F15-K, that stand up well agains't any competition out of the box. All in all they are a good value brand and really have taken the place of Revell in my budget range. Its not that I dislike Revell as they have some awesome kits, but they rebox so many other brands and occasionally push out some of their more awful 60's and 70's era tooling kits, that I can't just buy one of the shelf. Every Revell purchase I make needs internet research to actually find out what I am getting before i commit. Not unusual with Revell to find three different variants of the same plane, might in practice be three completely different toolings from three different manufacturers. Two might be great and one awful. I guess I shouldn't complain to loudly though, as its my only source of a Matchbox kit fix these days. The originals are very scare in Australia.
Looking forward to your next manufacturer review.
Dan
Hi Dan nice to hear from you mate.
I was not aware that Academy Decals were inconsistent so thanks for the info.
It seems this series maybe a popular one so preparing the nest clip for release in a couple of days.
I must get round to viewing some of your clips as they look interesting and I like what you did with that beauty 24th Scale Hurricane from Airfix, I have fond memories of the god awful job I made of it when I was 15 years old LOL
Minicraft worked closely with Korean manufacturer Academy for many years until 1999. That helps further explain the confusion.
Looking forward to similar reviews on Airfix, Revell and the like.
If Academy has indeed copied other manufacturers' work, in a lot of instances they certainly could have made a better choice. For example, their 1/72 BF109E3/4, Hurricane Mk.IIc and FW190 A6/8 all suffer from unforgivable shape errors. On the other hand, in terms of dimensions and shape their F4U-1 Corsair is almost perfect, but then again, that one does seem to have an eerie resemblance to the Hasegawa one :)
You are very correct but I haven't got much experience on Academy warbirds as I tend to go for Airfix or Revell kits for these, it's information like this that the community should be being made aware of and there is obviously far more info available to the community from the community as you can't beat personal experience this is exactly why I wanted to do these clips so thanks for the information and may you be the first of many to offer personal experience.
I hope these clips provoke for replies, Cheers Johan
When did Academy "get rid" of the little introduction / description of the model on the instructions ? Last couple of kits I've picked up, have *zero* information about the aircraft / helicopter. They can't tell the customer a brief history of the model anymore?? I've never had a terrible experience with Academy 1/72 scale. Academy does get a bad reputation more often than not though.