1/43 scale resine quality

hi guy's!!!

I'm worried about a concern... is the 1/43 scale resin kit are good in quality of casting and detail?? I refer to these manufacturer..

Renaissance
starter
Provence moulage
SMT
AMR

before spending a $$ for them I just want make sure they value the price people are asking for

yours

I have Mugen Dome S101 form Provence Moulage and body is very well done. I mean crisp and detailed. However rims are pretty bad. I would say that in this case it is not worse or better than metal ones /Tameo/

I think that it depends on the subject you choose. Manufacturer does not always means quality.

Renaissance: The resin parts are nicely cast with no air bubbles but fittment and extra molding flash are things that usually need to be addressed. The beauty of these kits are the loads of photo etch and metal turned parts. These are somewhat of a challenge but build into great models.

starter & Provence moulage: Pretty sure both of these companys are out of buisness. They are both very similar in how they are made. Execellent resin castings with good fitment. Not alot of parts in these kits with most parts molded with the body. These are easier to build. If your expecting a high level of detail from one of these models you'll usually need some aftermarket accessories.

SMT:???

AMR: These are made in metal, very desireable and unbuilt kit's are becoming very expensive. These are fun to build.

thank you for the info... but what do you mean by quite EXPENSIVE.. an example is appreciate... because for someone spending 25$ for this kit can be a good deal and for someone else it will be a steal..
yours

Starter is no more but Provence is now named Provence Miniatures and doing models again.

AMR kits are increasing in price since the death of A.M.Ruf. Especially on french ebay they go for a lot of money, hardly below 150€ and they can go beyond 250€ from what i remember. Depends on the model.

The resin the french makers seem to use the same resin ( yellowish ) mostly. BBR was an exeption. They used a grey resin that also was harder. Nice to work with nevertheless. Detail is hardly a question of the resin but how good the master and the mould is.

I always thought Provence Moulage made the best masters of them all, but that varied depending on the master maker. I think Patrick Cornu made most of the PM stuff back before they went out of business, and he was an artist beyond belief. Automany also made some of the best masters. Renaissance and BBR have the best photo etch, but not the best masters, although Etienne made several very nice PM masters. Starter kits are also very well mastered, but more simple. They all used Cartograf early on, but changed over to virages and other more local decal makers as they got bigger. If you like photoetch window frames and lots of photoetch parts your best bet is BBR, Renaissance or the really early Provence Moulage kits. AMR kits are metal, but most are bigger than 1/43rd and have little photoetch. The above mentioned kit makers also did more accurate masters than AMR. AMR is what started it all back in the 1970's, so they do have collector value, but not as much detail. Alot of top modelers like metal so they like AMR metal kits to start with.
SMTS?? is not as good, but they are mostly metal.

Tom Tanner/Scale Designs/Ferrari Expo 2010 model/photo contest-Chicago April 24th 2010

P.S. When I say AMR started it all I mean for high quality 1/43rd kits.
John Day, FDS ect. were also making kits at the time, but not as detailed as AMR. If you want to get technical, Solido models started it all, as people started converting and detailing them.