There are no bad Tamiya kits. There are good Tamiya kits and then there are good Tamiya kits which are starting to show their age. This one goes back to 1977 and has a few raised panel lines which don't do it any favours. The HobbyBoss one is probably a magnitude better. That said, this is still a good kit that pretty much falls together with no major build issues. If you like your detailed cockpits then you probably will want to look at a better ejector seat.
This one I did freehand and was one of my first serious efforts with an airbrush. That it looks as good as it does is purely an accident. It was many more months before I would make one this good again. The picture here is one taken after a recent cosmetic overhaul, adding a few decals to the bombs and adding a bit more subtle weathering. The kit itself doesn't come with decals for the munitions so I've improvised with spares.
At around £23 online you're just not going to get more bang for your bucks on this one. The HobbyBoss one looks to be substantially more expensive so if you're a beginner, I reckon this is the one to play with. You get a decent and fairly large aircraft to play with.
I've only built two Tamiya aircraft and both have been good but what seems to be the case with Tamiya (having built dozens of Tamiya armour kits) is a certain stingyness. You get exactly what you see on the box but nothing more. They're now starting to feel incredibly dated and not keeping up with the Chinese equivalents who generally give you the works - be it metal landing gear stalks, PE parts and rubber tyres. That, more generally, makes Tamiya kits more expensive than they should be. They used to be prestigious market leaders but are now sitting in the middle of the pack. If you want a good value basic kit, mind you, this A10 will suffice.
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