Model Factory Hiro - fit quality?

[MPK]

I like MHF kits a lot. It is true there are occasional research and design flaws and even shortcomings, but none of the kits have proved to be unbuildable. In fact, they all can be built in to museum quality masterpieces.

Off topic: if you are looking for exceptionally well researched, designed and engineered kits, http://www.armortek.co.uk might be worth a visit.

[Inuyasha]

As a reply on my earlier post..I am not harsh at all.I have been building 1/12 from childhood on and I was on cloud number 9 when MFH started with there 1/12 range.But that is not the point, the point is fitment !..I leave all my finished builds for open display anyway,so it does not matter much if the cowling fits or not,BUT it should fit and that is the point.This has nothing to do with kits being rare and low production.If HIRO would produce 1 kit every 2 months instead off every month there quality would be a lot better.

Alex.

Well said and i`m with you and others, don`t see harsh critic when it comes to such an important point of fitting and generell shape. I followed the MFH threads a longer time now and allways read about fitting issues, bad decals and on some the generell look (shape) or even wrong tyre sizes. At this price level, to me it is a no go! It looks like they don`t care about such critics and this is the lowest i can await when i put such an amount of money on the table, some might not care about this or even don`t need take care, but my money is not growing on a tree in my backyard and i think for a lot of others too. So what`s harsh? To me the fact that MFH is not taking care of it.
Seen a lot of critic about the way the pack the kits too, bended white metal parts is not realy what i expect, more worse the missing parts some are posting about. Such mistakes should not happen on that price level, and to me it has absolutely nothing to do with effort, costs or whatever was named as excuse for this. I´m glad that 1:12 is not my favorite scale, so i don`t care if they produce such kits or not, but i understand those, who are not willing to live with this.
Why is MFH not more transparent and open for such thoughts/critic or whatever you might call it? I bet they could sell more kits when they would take care about it and listen more to their clients. Just my thoughts about it...

[Inuyasha]

... but none of the kits have proved to be unbuildable. In fact, they all can be built in to museum quality masterpieces..

Haha, in the 1:43 thread i found this, and it was also not unbuildable



unbuildable means not that such prices are equal to the quality, and this is the point many are doing critic about! I bet that if you use a Tameo kit for this, you can turn it into a masterpiece as well, but with a much much higher effort!

[seamus]

Such an interesting read this thread... my time out from the hobby has coincided with MFH’s release of its 1/12th range. This scale from MFH was all just an exciting rumour when I was last regularly building, but now it is in full flow & if the common understanding is correct it is making MFH a very healthy profit indeed.

Some of us are in the very fortunate position to build & buy virtually any kit that is released, sometimes blindly because it’s a ‘must have’, however having discussed the values of MFH at length at a number of shows in the last 12 months and with my club it seems clear that their kits are vastly over priced. One of our club members posted images on another forum of the fit of the MFH Lotus 79, a kit he paid close to £600 for, he is what we would all call ‘a master modeller’ & a gold winner at last year IPMS Telford, so is more than capable of creating the best of builds, he ended up selling the kit for two thirds of what he paid & has vouched to never buy another. With the desire and quite obviously if you have the considerable skills then inaccuracies/errors/poor fit problems can be worked around, the issue for me is... they are asking almost serious money for these kits, way beyond the pockets of some of us!!!! When I think back to the Tamiya 1/12 kits for almost a tenth of the price and compare the quality on fit alone, then it’s no contest.

For my part, I’m totally uninterested in spending that amount of money on a kit, let alone one which requires so much work to get it to look even respectable. Each to their own I know and I’m happy to watch others tackle, what in my opinion, are vastly over-priced, poorly manufactured kits from a company who should be producing far better.

[MPK]

When I think back to the Tamiya 1/12 kits for almost a tenth of the price and compare the quality on fit alone, then it’s no contest.

I’m with you on this one!

[capri-schorsch]

But there will be no new Tamiya kits. Never, ever I think.
But there are other manufacturers like Italieri or Meng who do new stuff.
That's great.
When the right MFH kit comes, for me it would be a Ford Zakspeed Capri, than I will buy one again.
But all the others are too expensive for me. As a normal working guy with two schoolgirls and two cars and a house I need all the money I bring home for.
Not enough room for buying this kits every 3-4 months. Sadly.

Regards Christian

[indygp2001]

A good example is the tail of the Bugatti. I't's difficult to believe that when MFH have built the first model to check the final aspect nobody have seen that the tail and the tyres are really wrong.

I would suggest that by the time they get to building and test fitting a model together they are already committed to what has been produced. By this point there is too much money and time invested in masters and molds that if they had to retool a master and make new molds any chance of profit will be lost.

Also touching on another point I see being made about the cost of these MFH 1/12th kits and how for the money they should not have the flaws that they do have. Again I would suggest that the $600 - $800 US dollars that I pay for a 1/12th MFH kit is not for a flawless kit. It is for the exclusivity and the ability to own that very limited kit. The quality of fitment of a MFH kit is NEVER going to be as good as a Tamiya plastic kit. There are always going to be bent white metal parts in your MFH kit it is the nature of a "Garage" kit manufacture which MFH, believe it or not, still is. These are some of the simple truths of the multimedia kit world. I've been building Starter, Tameo and Meri multimedia kits since I was 15 or 16 years old and MFH kits are no worse or better in terms of bent white metal than some of these early manufactures. It is simply the way it is. Modelers will be more happy with their purchase if they can get excited about the fact that they can buy an 962, a C9 or a Bentley Speed 8 in 1/12th scale and be one of maybe 3 or 4 hundred in the world that has one instead of focusing on, "I paid XXXX amount for this kit, I should be able to add glue shake it up and it will come out of the box perfect". That's not how MM kits work. If you want shake and bake stick with Tamiya. If you want to be challenged, have your skills tested, earn a real feeling of satisfaction when completed and perhaps learn some new techniques along the way then dive into a MFH kit and open up to a completely different building experience!!

Amen....Amen....Amen!!!! - Icon, I couldn't have said it any better than you - Thank You, IndyGP2001