Jim R
SMF Supporter
Hi Barry
Good progress. The undercarriage detail looks very nice.
Jim
Good progress. The undercarriage detail looks very nice.
Jim
The units on the desk are HobbyZone modules available from Scale Model Shop. The ‘benches’ are desks of an appropriate shape and size bought from Wayfare and the shelving built in by a carpenter.This is brilliant, would love a setup like this, may I ask where you bought that setup from, did you get this online or self built?
The ICM Cobra had very nice hard plastic with no warping on any of their kits that I built.Looking like a very nice kit with some good surface details.
A shame about the warpage in the wing parts. But is this only an Airfix issue? Serious question.
I wonder how other European brands plastic compare. Is the real culprit an EU directive that has forced changes to ingredients in the plastic. I recall some other brands also have quite soft plastic as well.
Yes, Tamiya sell into the EU, Trumpeter do, Zoukei Mura do and these all have much better quality harder plastic than Airfix. In fact Airfix are the only company I know using this crap soft plastic. I really cannot see any validity in the argument that blames the EU for this (much as I would love to throw mud at that organisation). As for the extra cost, I expect it would make a marginal difference. Would the fuss some made about the price of the new 1/48 Buccaneer be any greater if it was £76 instead of £75? To be honest I suspect the extra cost would be smaller than that. Indeed a decent plastic would help turn the emphasis to more positive remarks about fit and engineering, boosting sales and in so doing it would more than pay for itself. I am convinced that the negative comments that we so much of on social media about Airfix have the poor plastic and the old legacy kits to blame. Airfix addressed the legacy issue by relabelling these kits as Vintage.Looks good and seems to be building well. As to the plastic, if Airfix want to sell to the EU they have to follow their rules. US rules could well be even more stringent. There may well be components that are banned from the finished article in both cases. The country of manufacture is pretty much irrelevant……however as this rule also applies to the Far Eastern manufacturers, who use a different, better quality styrene formulation, it is probably not the culprit. It is almost certainly just a cost thing, perhaps using a percentage of recycled material.
I’ve built a number of Airfix 1:72 scale aircraft and though the plastic is soft, it hasn’t bothered me in the slightest. So I think what this is, is a matter of preference masquerading as universal wisdom: you prefer plastic that isn’t as soft as Airfix’s, but I suspect the plastic has the exact consistency Airfix wants it to have, because they (and probably plenty of modellers) do like it, or at least have no problem with it (like me).Airfix are the only company I know using this crap soft plastic.
As I think I pointed out. The big problem is warping and shrinkage. This is much less of a problem on smaller scale kits but on the large pieces involved in large scales like 1/24 it becomes a massive problem. This Blenheim build shows how the warping is manageable in 1/48 but factored up to 1/24 it really is an issue.I’ve built a number of Airfix 1:72 scale aircraft and though the plastic is soft, it hasn’t bothered me in the slightest. So I think what this is, is a matter of preference masquerading as universal wisdom: you prefer plastic that isn’t as soft as Airfix’s, but I suspect the plastic has the exact consistency Airfix wants it to have, because they (and probably plenty of modellers) do like it, or at least have no problem with it (like me).
FWIW, my own dislike is for the very hard kind of plastic you get from the likes of Hasegawa and Fujimi.
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