Getting back into the hobby

[trainman]

The last car I built was in 1968, it’s been a long time. I sure a lot has changed since. My main areas of interest are American cars built between 1950 - 1969 modeled in 1/24 scale. My question is, are there any “good” kits being offered within that time frame and in that scale? Thank you, Pierre in Wisconsin.

 

[Junkie]

Welcome. I'm sure there are plenty of good kits...exactly which ones I'm not sure. Revell puts out lotsa kits in that scale (1/25 really) and they are usually quite good.

I\m sure others will chime in with suggestions.

 

[trainman]

I’m looking mainly for General Motors (Chevrolet, Ford, Pontiac, and Buick). Pierre

 

[noname]

Trainman, There are lots of good kits for this era car. Anything made in the last few years or so by Revell is decent. They are getting better all the time. The 69 Nova kits were a big hit and the tri five Chevies are good too for example. These are 1/25 which is moslty what I build. I'm sure their 1/24 kits would be the same Quality.

Amt has made some good kits as well. However, their repops from the 60's are quality of that era. Sometimes the axles or suspension is molded into the chasis etc. People mostly buy them for nostalgic reasons or because they are a unique subject matter. They did make some very nice kits in the 90's (I think?). The 62 Impala and 62 Catalina are good. Their 66 Chevy II, 51 Bel Air and some others I can't remember right now are not bad. Again, all 1/25.

Then you have Trumpeter which have been making some early Novas and Falcons. They have been adding some photo etch and whatnot. But be warned, they are pricey.

What I use to do when I got back into the hobby is use Google to find out what kits are good. Just put review in front of the kit in the search bar. Another thing you can do is join Scale Auto or Model Cars Magazine forums and ask. You could even do a search as these topics would have been talked about in the past several times. Actually MCM forum has a section just for this.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?s=ed366c892e6efea74de7f9ddba4bbdcf&showforum=19

For the most part, Revell car kits are usually pretty good for detail.

Good luck.

 

[trainman]

noname, Thank you for your informative response, I was looking at the ANT kits. I’m just wondering which scale is more popular 1/24 or 1/25, that is, which scale offers more selection?

 

[noname]

American model companies seem to make more 1/25 kits than 1/24. There are alot of 1/24 kits available but 1/25 seems to be more common.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

It used to be that Revell and AMT was 1/25, and Monogram 1/24 (Monogram always had to be different)

Now, Monogram is part of Revell USA, and while they still re-release the odd Monogram 1/24 kit, anything new is 1/25

Revell Germany kits are 1/24, as is most of the rest of the car kits made by the Asian makers (with the exception of Trumpeter)

In reality...there really isn't that much difference between the 2 scales, If you take something that is 10 feet long (120 inches) at 1/24 it is 5" long, at 1/25 it is 4.8" long, so not a huge difference, and not something I tend to fret over.

 

[trainman]

noname, I’ve been looking at Tamiya’s and Fujimi’s website and most of their cars are 1/24 scale, no American cars though. These kits are more expensive, but there’s a lot more parts. However the need for after-market parts is minimal.

 

[trainman]

I guess I could work with both scales, American cars being in 1/25 as a rule would make it easier when looking for after-market parts.