Have a wild hare and feel like building a couple WW2 IJN kits for a bit of a change. Who tends to make the better kits? Aoshima, Fujimi,Hasagawa , Tamiya?

Hi Tim,

To be honest I think you can really go wrong with either of them. They all make nice kits, even some of the older toolings.
If you're looking for a newer kit I can recommend Fujimis Haguro or Aoshimas Takao. Very nice kits that look great straight OOB.
They tend to have more newer toolings in their ranges.

You'll probably need to evaluate on a per kit basis. In general they are all good brands.

What ships are you interested in building?

The Pit Road/Flyhawk Kagero (kit #213) is state-of-the-art, mostly because it's produced by Flyhawk. Just needs some PE railings.

Aoshima, Fujimi, Hasagawa, Tamiya? Their latest kits are all pretty good, but be wary of the re-releases. Like Biggles said, Flyhawk/Pit Road are very good.


I'm tuning up the Wayback Machine for this but from what I recall, back in the 1970s and 80s, my favorites were Aoshima, Tamiya or Fujimi. IIRC, Aoshima put out some awesome capital ships while their DDs and cruisers were plain. Hasagawa was right in the middle.

I do not remember the details but back in the early 1970s when the Japanese modelers decided to reproduce the Nihon Kaigun in 1/700, Aoshima, Fujimi, Hasagawa & Tamiya held a conclave to decide who would make what ship. Story goes that three of the companies decided to work together but one of them decided to take their ball and go home. Do any of you have details? Vaguely I recall the dissenter as Aoshima or Fujimi.

So if you have the chance to buy/build some older kits, go Tamiya or Fujimi.