I am comparision shopping 1:700 Yamatos.... Fujimi has a couple offerings (early/late war), some with some extra stuff like barrels. Tamiya has a new tooling version "with detail parts" (Fine Molds plastic AMs). The Tamiya is usually listed 3-5x the price of the Fujimi. For the life of me I cannot figure out why the price difference. I do not want the "cheapest" I can find, but the best possible build in terms of accuracy, fit and "fun factor".

There is a gorgeous 1:700 scale Tamiya build in here by Anthony Kochevar which is a sight to behold....

Any comparision/opinions regarding both kits? Again, 700 scale and plastic...

cheers

I think even up with no goodies, they are relatively equal. The key question is which version...1941-1943-1945. I got the Yamiya Musashi kit as it depicted original version. Picked it up for around $25 on ebay. I like the 4 triple 6 turrets. Final versionof yamato either or. Find the best price. I plzn to eventually get the middle and late versionsso I will have to get the Fujimi for the middle config. and either or for the last version You can usally get a photo etch set for less than $15 and the main tubes for around $6

I can vouch for the Tamiya version. The base kit has an awesome tooling and detail on the parts. The kit comes with everything to make all versions but you will have to hack the superstructure base to get anything earlier than 1944.

The recently released kit that is so expensive, is really just their base kit retooled in 1998 but packaged with three or four different sets of FineMolds aftermarket plastic parts. Each of these sets costs around $15 USD so if you are thinking of getting them you may save your self some money and trouble finding them by buying the more expensive kit. If you just want the base Tamiya Yamato kit look here:
Yamato

You can see my Tamiya build here:
ajkochev Yamato

Thanks for the input... good point about the year/configuration. I like the "Taffy 3" (Battle of Samar) version (1944), which remains one of my favorite naval battles, and the only time Yamato used her main guns in anger.

Anthony, I already references your gorgeous build in my original post One of the best builds I have seen in here, both in quality of build and information.

Both the Fujimi and Tamiya versions are on sale at LuckyModels, which triggered my query

Man, I'm losing it. I missed my own name in the post . Should of got some sleep first.