Scale Modeling Review Sites

[tomk]

What are your favorite scale model reveiw sites?

 

thanks....tomk

[Dick Montgomery]

That's an easy call. My fav is our own IPMS Review area. The reviews are based on actual "use" of the product, the construction of the kits, the application of the decals or aftermarket parts....and written by modelers who are neutral and equitable in their approach to the manufacturers.

[Mark Aldrich]

Sorry,

My first choice is Perth (TreadHead)!!! He may not build much but he lets you see all the parts and gives you his opinion on what he sees. Then ours. I like the overall build reviews and the way they are written and finally AMPS! Not that they are last, just that I review there and do like the software used for posting picture heavy reviews. There are also Missing Lynx, IDF in Scale and IDF modeling.

[ghodges]

I really like the reviews here on IPMS! I think our guys straddle the fence nicely in that they're willing to call a pig a "swine" , but they're also not such fanatics that they wail and gnash their teeth about fatal flaws! They're unbiased and always remember that this is a hobby!

 

I do frequent other forums like Hyperscale, Modeleing Madness, Largescaleplanes.com, ARC, and Agapemodels.com. For the most part, the only reviews I read there are the unsolicited ones in the discussion forum. Generally, I find most of them can be a bit too demanding of the manufacturers with an eye towards finding something wrong more often than trying to point out the good points of a new product.

 

That said, if you have ANY interest in 1/32 Me-109E kits, you need to go to Largescaleplanes.com and read the 5 kit comparisons on that subject. Part 2 was added this week and you can find part 1 by scrolling down a bit. Is it a bit anal? Probably, since there will be a part 3 too...but it'll answer a lot of your questions!

 

GIL

[RGronovius]

I'll second PMMS for a couple of reasons. One is that Terry writes them himself with one set standard. You know what you're getting when you look at his reviews. Other sites may be more comprehensive in numbers, but the quality of the review is only as good as good as the reviewer. It may be the first review a person has written or the umpteenth. The review may be an out-of-box with or without photos or a comprehensive build that uses hundreds of dollars of aftermarket items set on a beautiful display base.

 

Some sites hand out review items to the favored few. Again, the guy who raises his hand to get the free kit may or may not know anything about the subject matter. Give me an AFV Club Tiger kit and I'd probably give it rave reviews for the detail and surface texture, but a Tiger expert would tear it apart (and have done so). I use that as an example because a Tiger expert wasn't pleased with it and I thought it looked great and didn't care about any issues he had with it. It just looked like a cool kit to me so he gave it to me.

 

Pictures are worth a thousand words. Some of the old school reviews with no photos are rather dated. Some sites have these old school reviews intermixed with more current styles, but you don't know what you get until you read the review or recognize the reviewer's byline. If I go to Perth, I know what I'll get. Although I do have to admit that an old school review without photos is better than no review at all.

 

The downside to PMMS is that many of his sentences tend to run on. Something a second set of eyes (as in an editor or proofreader) could easily correct. Also his reviews are limited to his own personal knowledge base. Subjects he's more familiar with or has more comprehensive research material tend to be better than those he is not or does not have.

 

 

The above comments mainly pertain to 1/35 scale armor model reviews.