Matt,
I am a little late to joining this conversation, but, I will address your questions as follows:
No, I do not think that the vehicles being produced today by Figarti and K&C (or until recently by Honour Bound) mark the pinnacle of model vehicle production. To me, none of these vehicles (which range from very good to excellent in my assessment) are on a par with the truly exceptional and virtually 100% accurate vehicles built by the best professional modelers. However, when I search e-bay for vehicles built by the best professional modelers, they tend to start at $500 to $750 in smaller scales like 1:48 or 1:35.
When K&C produced wood, metal and resin vehicles back in 1996-1998, the detail work of the sculpting (especially in the resin and metal vehicles) was nearly on a par with the plastic models, but the painting was pristine, not weathered, so they were not as good. Additionally, they were as expensive as the master modeler's offerings back then (circa $400).
The first polystone vehicles made by K&C circa 1999-2000 were not well sculpted or well painted, and I tended to grade them fair to poor, despite the bargain basement prices (circa $75).
K&C improved quite a bit in their sculpting and painting on the top of armored vehicles from 2001 through 2006, but the tracks contained a good but of flashing material which I (and many other collectors on this forum) disliked. These I would grade fair to good.
Around the time of the 2004 Chicago Show, Figarti entered the armored vehicle market with a Japanese Chi Ha tank. The tank had individually linked tracks, and was made of several hundred metal detail pieces attached to a polystone chasis. The hatches were hinged to open and close, and the gun fully traversed. This was followed up by several other armored vehicles, including a 1:32 scale Tiger tank made of more than 900 metal pieces with full interior details. These were the closest to the true modelers works of art that I had seen to far, and I graded them excellent. They were the best I had seen until today.
In 2006, Honour Bound started making mostly polystone vehicles with a few dozen metal detail pieces, and, when production of these proved too expensive, sought to corner the market on really high quality custom armored vehicles with the Gold Editions. These were very well done (almost on a par with the best Figarti vehicles) and I thought them excellent, although prohibitively expensive at around $500-$650, depending on the number of crew and customized features the collector wanted.
In 2007-2009, K&C substantially improved its quality in sculpting armored vehicles to just slightly behind Honour Bound's offerings. These I graded very good.
It is my opinion that competition between the various manufacturers of these vehicles pushed the level of quality. It would appear from his posts, his PM's, and the photographs he posted on this thread, that Matt is a very competitive guy!
I do not want to be hasty in my assessment of First Legion's initial offering in the armored vehicle market, but it appear from the photographs that the StuG in question as at least as good and possibly even better than the best of Figarti's offerings. If the vehicle looks as good or better in person, with the excellent weathering, fine sculpting details, and since the figures are full, (dare I hope) possibly interior details, this may be the closest to the quality of the master modeler's offerings to date.
I look forward to seeing this model in person. I also look forward to the effect it has on future offerings from the other armored vehicle manufacturers, and, in turn, Matt's response. I will probably end up broke, but I will at least be happy . . .
