Tamiya / Die Cast Collections

[Fowlersrs]

Now that winter & xmas are fast approaching I'm gonna have a little more evening time to focus on something a little different. Probably a sign of getting older I'd rather spend my money on something like this than tits and ass anymore but hey let's embrace it all the same.

So I'm thinking of starting a collection but have a few qs;

Firstly tamiya stuff, I get the idea, you build em, paint, decals etc but what I'm seriously doubting is whether I can achieve a decent painted finish on these things or not. I'd rather they didn't look like a piece of shit when I'm done and I've seen some lovely examples on here, but just how easy is it to get a decent finish??


Secondly, die cast models. There's a lot of rubbish out there but I see minichamps make some nice detailed ones. They are expensive so looking on eBay I see that a Spanish bloke sells ones made IXO that look nice in the photos at about £8 each. Anyone know how they compare?