Imai
Imai are, or rather were, one of the best - perhaps the best, overall - manufacturers of plastic sailing ship kits. Their wide range of large scale kits,
including everything from ancient galleys to 19th century steam warships, was uniformly excellent in detail, historic accuracy and moulding quality. They also produced
a range of 1/350 sail training ships, which similarly are all very good and have a lot of detail for their relatively small size.
Unfortunately, Imai did not last long and went out of business some time in the 1980s. Thankfully, most or all of their kits are still in production. Aoshima reissue their large-scale
kits (though availability is sketchy, and prices high, outside Japan) and the moulds for their 1/350 range have ended up in the hands of various manufacturers, including Revell and Academy. A few of their
kits were also reissued by Monogram (US) in the 1980s.
As I'm unlikely to ever acquire all of Imai's kits to review on this site, here's a list of all the ones I know of:
1/70 Roman Galley
1/50 Catalan Ship
1/60 Santa Maria
1/70 Golden Hind
1/100 Spanish Galleon
1/70 Mayflower
1/160 Galleass
1/80 Xebec
1/60 Chinese Junk
1/120 USS Constitution
1/150 USS Susquehanna
1/150 Napoleon
1/120 Cutty Sark
1/150 Nippon and Kaiwo Maru
1/200 Gorch Fock, Mircea, Sagres II and USCG Eagle
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1/150 Japanese Sail Training Ship Nippon Maru |
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1/350 Japanese Sail Training Ship Kaiwo Maru |
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1/350 German Sail Training Ship Gorch Fock |