The best and worst plastic kits IMHO.

Which are the best and worst plastic model kits?

So many qualify, but the criteria I might use are worth discussing, even if nobody ought to care what my personal picks are.

What IS a plastic model  kit? A set of parts, injection molded, on runners or “trees”, vacuum formed on a sheet of plastic, cast in resin and attached to  “pour blocks”,  laid-up with resin  and fiberglass cloth backing, perhaps including some cast metal, photo-etched sheet copper,  brass or stainless steel, possibly vinyl or rubber, metal or plastic tubing, rod and sheet, lead or other soft metal foil, soft wire, music wire. Most kits contain waterslide decals, though dry transfers or preformed stencils are also seen.

A good kit can be assembled without having to be re-designed, re-engineered or re-built, by the builder.

So the shapes have to be correct, within the limits of the materials and techniques.

All the parts have to be supplied- what can be seen looking at the model from outside, but including what can be seen inside windows, doors, vents, hatches, etc.

The pieces supplied have to assemble correctly, without having to be modified or re-thought-out

It should suggest an accurate representation of a specific object- real, imaginary, even speculative, but always specific.

It should be consistant with itself- textures, features, thicknesses, transparent parts, blank holes or paint/decal for windows, etc., should all be similar across the whole of the model.

More as I get time to add it.