Some advice to Airfix...

[BarryW]

I am thoroughly enjoying the 1/24 Hawker Typhoon build. It is a great kit, generally a good fit, well engineered and a delight to build. They have also shown that in 1/24 scale at least you do not have to bundle in a lot of p.e. or resin to achieve top-quality detail, it can be done with injection molded plastic only.

But - Airfix are still falling short of what some of our oriental friends achieve with their larger scale aircraft and, as a patriotic Brit, offers some advice that would help the great British company Hornby/Airfix rise to top beating the lot of them...

1/ Improve the design and tooling of your sprues.

While better the Tiffy still has too many ejection pin marks in visible places (at least if you were to build with opened up detail). Also there are a lot of 'dirty' mold seams, not much flash as such, small amounts here and there but overall there is much more clean up necessary than we get with some other manufacturers. On a model like the Tiffy, built to very tight fit tolerances with its particular build-up method, the fit is more open to be compromised than other kits if you do not clean up fully or even if you clean up a bit too much! This can look OK to the eye only for it to translate through to a fit issue much later in the build. Dry fitting can only help up to a point.

The sprue gates remain sometimes still too large and somewhat crude and are often sat on areas of detail. The best manufacturers sculpt the sprue gates positioning them away from areas of detail on mating surfaces. This means there is no risk of damaging detail when cleaning up and, at worse, if you are heavy handed with a sanding stick you may need a smear of filler before a light sanding to hide the join. OK sculpted sprue gates sounds as if it might be a little over the top for something that will be sanded off but - where this is done it shows a great deal of pride from the manufacturer/designer/toolmaker in the presentation of the kit and a desire to create the best possible build experience.

Look at the better Trumpeter kits such as the 1/32 Dauntless to see what I mean. The Dragon 1/32 Bf110 is another example of the sculpted sprue gates.

2/ Use a better quality and slightly harder plastic.

This will help deal with some of the problems mentioned above and will also result in crisper, cleaner detail.

The two kits mentioned above and the Tamiya 1/32 WW2 props are other examples of the kind of plastic I refer to.

3/ Adopt 'slide-mold' technology.

Airfix kits are looking more and more outdated compared to some others. Slide-molding will massively enhance what you can do with injection molding and will make a massive difference to 1/24 kits. This will mean no more drilling out of gun barrels.

The best example of using slide mold tech is the Dragon 1/32 Bf110. But, later this year HK Models will be launching their Mosquito in 1/32 which will be the ultimate in this technology with its fuselage design.

That is it really.... If Airfix can address these things they could be up there beating the best in the world where they belong. Yes, it may add a few £ more to buy a kit but it is worth it and may even increase sales due to the sheer quality of what is produced. I have happily spent £120 or more for a Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire, Mustang or Corsair because I know it is quality and will give me the best possible build experience. Given the time they will take to build, compared to a cheap small scale kit, they do not work out that much more as a £cost per hour in enjoyment - cheaper per/hour than the cinema or a meal out, even cheaper than a night down the pub.

[Ian M]

Agree with you there Barry. Its a case of close but no cigar. However they are working towards a better product and as the latest new toolings have shown, they are trying to 'up their game'.

Having invested in their new toy, the 3D scanner for the development process maybe the next improvement in the pipe are in production. We can only hope.

Ian M

[Gern]

I have happily spent £120 or more for a Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire, Mustang or Corsair because I know it is quality and will give me the best possible build experience. Given the time they will take to build, compared to a cheap small scale kit, they do not work out that much more as a £cost per hour in enjoyment - cheaper per/hour than the cinema or a meal out, even cheaper than a night down the pub.

Cost per hour can be MUCH less with some of the cheaper kits Barry. Trouble is, that's usually because of the extra time you have to spend on clean-up of parts, more filling of poor seams, correcting errors etc. etc. All add to the time taken to build, which brings down the cost per hour, but don't necessarily add to the enjoyment - although some of the guys here do enjoy the problems involved getting silk purses from sow's ears.

Another piece of advice to add to your list would be to stop churning out kits from those old moulds which are long past their sell-by dates (One example is the HMS Victory - which I may have mentioned once or twice before)! They're not doing the hobby any favours by putting off newcomers who buy one as a starter kit and find it impossible to get a decent finished kit.

[The Migrant]

I agree on the whole Barry, part from #2. I actually prefer the slightly softer Airfix plastic; it's easier to sand, glues more securely and paint seems to adhere better than the harder, glossier plastic (although primer alleviates that issue).

Also, although we modellers might be prepared to pay more than the 'casual' builder, I still think Airfix kits represent excellent value for money. Comparing their 1/72 P-51D for example, the Tamiya kit is only marginally better in terms of detail and tooling, but the Airfix kit is quite a bit cheaper and has better decals IMO. If Tamiya were to release a 1/24 Typhoon I imagine you'd be looking at a £200 kit, or thereabouts.

[Guest]

Barry do what I did with the Merlin helicopter. The transparent stuff windows and cockpit were poor with marks cast within the plastic.

Moaned a couple of times. probably a single voice may not be taken to much notice of but id we all moan, reasonably, perhaps they will take notice.

Laurie

[BarryW]

Migrant. I thought that might be the more controversial comment. I agree with what you say about the plastic but I also believe that the qualities you refer to also mean that there is a lot more to sand and clean up.

I am no expert on the injection molding methods it could be the toolmaker and the process at fault not the plastic.

I think back to the ZM Skyraider I built which had 3 different colour plastic and each was of a different quality. The highest grade was the black, it was hard and crisp while being very easy to work on. The grey plastic was also very clean and crisp very much like Tamiya in quality. Then there was the silver plastic, it was soft perhaps slightly softer than Airfix but it also had much softer detail and needed a lot of clean up as does the Airfix. This was also the only plastic that had fit issues. Assuming ZM had the same mold process and toolmaker standards as the other two colours the differences came down to the quality of the plastic.

I think that the softer plastic might have a tendency to shrink a little more than harder plastic leading to the issues with it. This is suggested by the softer detail and the 'dirtiness' of the parts compared to the Tammy style plastic.

I agree nice to work with but an improvement in quality means less work to do with it. After all for most of us filling, sanding and cleaning parts up are not our favourite aspects of a build.

Ps sorry if there are typos as I am doing this on my iPhone as I cannot get onto the desktop site via my pc. I will get on a play around later to see what the problem is.

[Guest]

I as Mike prefer the new Airfix plastic. I find it much easier to work and also being quite pliable it does not tend to break except for some of the very delicate parts. Very nice to wet and dry which gives a superb painting surface.

I have found though that on a recent Merlin helicopter, which had about 6 full sprues, there was virtually no cleaning up of the plastic.

With the Land Rover there has been a difference and a lot of cleaning up especially on the spindly bits. This makes me believe it is in the actual production of the sprues that the problem lies

Although i would prefer to be with out this cleaning up, as I am after as good a finish as possible, I do not dislike the effort that I have to make provided it all works out. I would much rather have pieces fit together well. The Merlin was superb in this respect and there were as trickey a lot of pieces which all fitted perfectly considering they were shaped in 3 difficult dimensions with some of those pieces 300mm long. Cost about £45 and contained about 400 pieces and it was certainly the best ,most enjoyable,rewarding and beautifully detailed kit I have ever put together. A double skinned fuselage and interior fitting out made it a very interesting project.

So far the LR has performed well. The chassis went together like a dream. I have now settled into the 1/48 so this is the range I crit. on.

Laurie

[Guest]

I'm wondering if the softer plastic is

both cheaper & longer lasting in the box. I recall older Airfix kits used harder plastic which became brittle with age & difficult to use.

But I do hate the size of their sprue gates & mould seams!

[Guest]

I'm wondering if the softer plastic isboth cheaper & longer lasting in the box. I recall older Airfix kits used harder plastic which became brittle with age & difficult to use.

But I do hate the size of their sprue gates & mould seams!

Yes that is prevalent on the Landrover the seams Patrick. Strange not on the Merlin. I am coming to the conclusion that as the Merlin is their top model they have gone out of their way and "pulled their finger out".

What are sprue gates not heard that expression. But then I am so young the expression has not got thro. yet.

The plastic on the old models was probably second or third use plastic. The new one looks like first use as it has elasticity.

Laurie

[flyjoe180]

As far as I know Laurie the sprues are made up of:

The sprue - the main link of the part (we talk about Sprue A or Sprue B, etc).

The runners - The (usually) tubular sections that run along the inside of the main sprue (we keep them as stirrers or stretch them to make thin aerial material etc).

The gates - The piece from the runner which connects to the actual part (usually requires us to clean them up after cutting from the main sprue runner).

I may be wrong but that's how I interpret the terminology.

I made this to explain better:

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