revel This German model company has a large variety of cars in its catalog, spanning between the pre-1964 classics and what it calls post-1974 modernity through motor sports, muscle cars and streetcars.
tepid Owned by Airfix Hornby Hobbies’ parent company since 2020, this Italian company specializes in large, high-quality cars and motorcycles, priced from £ 600.
Aluminum toys The legendary American company AMT specializes in classic American road cars and races. Now owned by Round 2.
MPC Another famous U.S.-made carmaker now owned by Round 2, MPC specializes in extreme cars, including drugstores and hot rods.
TAMIYA This veteran Japanese model maker boasts a variety of ranges, including Grand Prix cars and sports cars, all of which are beautifully detailed and in a range of scales up to 1:12. It also leads in radio controlled car systems.
Fujimi Manufactures beautifully detailed model kits, specializing in Japanese home motors.
AOSHIMA Another Japanese car company, specializing in cars with a luxurious body. Oddly enough, it also produces a 1992 Range Rover model.
Top tips from Maestro produces models
Ian Welsh, 68, has created nearly 1,000 cars from plastic kit models. The retired prison officer, who lives in Edinburgh, was inspired to start collecting when in the early 1980s he flipped through a model magazine and was amazed by the variety of American cars featured in it.
“I lived in a quiet Scottish fishing village and thought they were fantastic,” he says. “It encouraged me to start producing models of cars and other things.”
One year, Welsh built every model in the Airfix catalog. Now his specialty is 50s and 60s American cars. “My favorite is the 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville,” he says, “and the longest time it took me to build a car was three weeks, two hours a night. It was a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere.
Keyword: Let’s stay together: how Airfix builds its models