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1/144 pre-painted models

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:00 pm
by jlspec
Does anyone have any opinions or information of the prepainted 1/144 models such as J-wings, F-Toys, Cafe Reo, Bandai, etc
Thanks

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:22 pm
by hworth18
I have/had a bunch of the Dragon, Takara and Cafe Reo Big Bird series. They are nice and well detailed for this scale, but the Cafe Reo stuff has to be assembled as do some of the Takara Wings stuff. I still have some of the Cafe Reo planes that are new/unasssembled if you want to try your hand at them.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:44 pm
by Sky Ray
I haven't got any of F-Toys aircrafts or bomber series, but I collected their Motor Tank Collection they made a few years ago and they were pretty good. Recently I saw their new 1:144 Euro Jet series being stocked at my stores, the line-up had a Mirage 2000, Eurofighter Typhoon, and Panavia Tornado in various country paint schemes, they were about $9.99 each. They sold out quite quickly, I hope to pick up one next time they are stocked.

You can look up Hobby Link Japan for listings and pics of Cafe Reo and F-Toys 1:144 lines.
Cafe Reo:
http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist.cgi? ... =&x=47&y=7

F-Toys:
http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?SeriTxt1=& ... e=0&Dis=-2

144

Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:17 am
by bluedonkey99
jlspec

They are obviously a compromise between, size and detail.

That said, it is not as bad as many people would surmise.

Some of the earlier products can be a little more bland, however some for the latter series are much more detailed.

It you collect modern aircraft there are some stunning paint jobs coming out on some for the F-15s etc.

The WWII market is also well catered for.

There is also a lot out there can be picked up quite quickly if you shop around both in the web and evilbay etc

As with all collectables, there is low hanging fruit you can pick up to get your collection going and then when you have found your bearing you can pursue a more aggressive strategy of targeting certain ranges?

Maybe American item, Luftwaffe, Luft46, Soviets etc

Check my blog for upcoming items and a huge archive on recent year’s items. Also lots of links

BD99

Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:32 pm
by tmanthegreat
I just sort of got into these, recently getting a three Cafe Reo kits at my local Hobbytown USA store (B-17, B-24, P-61) and an F-Toys kit from Badcat (B-25).

The detail is not too bad and they look a lot better than some of the 1:144 bombers made by Corgi and Dragon. As plastic planes, they display well with the 21c 1:144 aircraft, but are much better painted. Seats are included in the cockpits of all planes and the F-Toys B-25 has a detailed bomb bay, complete with bombs. Some seem to have the option to display the gear either up or down and some also have rotating turrets and rolling wheels. They also come with display stands.

All come pre painted and are technically snap-kits, though I used glue on them anyways. The only real gripe I have with them is that you have to apply some of the markings and the decals are not of the best quality - tending to fall off, even when applied using decal solvents. Also, applying tiny 1:144 scale decals is no easy task to begin with :wink:

I'm tempted to get some of the German and Japanese bombers next.

144 build

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:15 am
by bluedonkey99
It has genrally been the case the older series had a higher proportion of the decals pre applied.

The debate goes either way on this,

Some aircrat came with multiple decal optiosn so that you could buy multiples and represent more craft. This obviously takes time and effort.

Others prefer a completed decaled up options, this then gives customisation issues?

If you want to get really hardcore, there is tehn a debate over the paint used as some is easy to clean off allowing for better repaints from the ground up, others required priming over the paint as it was indestuctable!


the part build aspect, earlier series were more or less preassembled.

there began a trend by Takara and some others to essential make them end up as prepainted sanp fix.

With some of the larger subjects one you start gettinginto bomber size have to come as a series of assemblies to allow them to fit the "standardised" box sizes. Ironically these large items are less kit like.

swings and round abouts really?

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 6:30 am
by AMERICAN_GRENADIER
range in type is good paint is ok
over all not impressed, some of the ones you mentioned dont fit together very well and i feel are priced to high for what you get

Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:49 am
by jlspec
Thanks for all of the input. I pulled the trigger and ordered a B-25 and several Japanese Multi engine (Nell, Betty, Sally,emily) and a Jake and Willow Float plane. Pricing ended up quite a bit less than the 1/144 diecast