Editorial policy
How we review
This site is a reference, not a review blog. That distinction changes what we can honestly claim, so here is exactly how every page is put together.
Two kinds of entry, always labelled
Every kit page states plainly which kind it is, at the top of our take:
- Built by us. We assembled it, filmed it, and the notes come from that build. These are the only pages that carry a rating. Currently 0 of 33.
- Researched. We have not built it. The entry is assembled from the manufacturer's published specification plus reports from builders who finished it. No first-hand claims appear on these pages, and no review rating is published for them. Currently 33 of 33.
We're explicit about this because the alternative is what most affiliate sites do — write in the first person about a box they never opened. A kit page here will never imply we built something we didn't.
Where the specifications come from
Piece counts, dimensions, scale, lighting and stated build time are taken from the manufacturer's own product page, not from marketplace listings, which are frequently wrong. Where a maker's own sites disagree with each other — and they do, often, on piece counts and build times — we say so on the kit page rather than picking the flattering number.
If we can't verify a specification, we leave the field out entirely. A missing spec is more useful than a confident guess.
How difficulty is rated
Difficulty is our own 1–5 judgement, not the manufacturer's. Makers rate their own kits generously, and their ratings tend to track part count rather than how hard the parts are to get right. We weigh:
- how many sub-assemblies must line up before anything is glued
- whether the fiddly work is repetitive (tedious) or precise (genuinely hard)
- how clear the instructions are, including known translation problems
- how recoverable a mistake is once the glue is on
Where a maker's stated build time and real builders' reported times differ sharply, we plan for the longer figure and say why.
Prices are bands, never numbers
We publish a price band and never an exact figure. Kit prices move constantly and a stale number is worse than no number — it makes the whole page look untended. Bands are wide on purpose.
What we do not do
- No ranking by commission. Nothing on this site currently earns money at all.
- No "best of the year" pages. A list with a year in the title is stale by design.
- No sponsored placements, and no paid inclusion in any collection.
- No manufacturer marketing photos passed off as our own work.
- No review schema on kits we haven't built.
Keeping it current
Each kit page shows the month its details were last checked. We re-verify links and specifications periodically, mark kits as discontinued when they go out of production — keeping the page up, with alternatives linked — and correct anything a reader reports.
Spotted an error? [email protected]. Corrections are welcome and get made.