discussion Kit quality

[Guest]

After almost 3 weeks on the AR-234 (Revell of Germany)(I am told is a 'reboxing' of a Hasegawa kit), I have discovered that the fuselage segments, when combined, have a slight, but visible upwards left-hand twist. I am going to have to compensate with the wings somehow. As it is, its going to look like it had come in after a very hard landing. Which, given the history of this aircraft, is not an impossible thing to believe. This kit also does not come with swastikas for the tail, but I scavenged some leftovers from another kit and found some in the right size.

 

[Ian M]

Pop the twisted parts into a dish of very hot water and after they have been in there a few minuets, take them up (mind your fingers) Assemble the two half's with elastic bands and try to eliminate the twist. You might need to warm it in water a few times. Also a splint might help hold things in line.

If its the 1/32 scale kit I think its all Revells own tooling.

A few of the guys here have built this kit and they can be more helpful with specific things.

Ian M

 

[Dave W]

If you look it up on the Internet (as I did) you will see it is indeed a Revell boxing of the Hasegawa kit.Ive got one in my stash,but haven't examined it closely to see if it has the same problem as yours.

 

[Ian M]

My bad I don't know why I just thought it was the float plane.

I'll shut up.

Ian M

 

[Guest]

Oh No, Dave you were a wonderful source of tips and the information I got back helped a lot, my thanks are to you. Maybe the one I bought was on the shelf for too long, otherwise it may be a deformation in the plastic. A bad mold. My Titanic model has a similar defect. Take the 2 fuselage halves and set them together, sight along the fuselage like a rifle and hopefully you won't see what I mean. Unfortunately in my case, it's too late, the painting and detailing is done. If I tried to correct the body twist now, it would ruin everything. If I add some filler under the right wing area, I may be able to raise it up a little bit to minimize the head on appearance of the twist. At least the engines will be level with each other.

 

[Guest]

I've decided to attempt to carefully cut the nose section off and remount it, in addition to raising the right wing a little. That should help, I hope. If not, that's too bad, I'll "star" it in a dio with a repair crew.

 

[Guest]

My bad I don't know why I just thought it was the float plane. I'll shut up.

Ian M

I think you're thinking of the Arado Ar-196, which is yes, the floatplane.

 

[Guest]

The operation to remove the nose section was a success. However it does not seem likely that I will be able to correct very much of the twisted airframe. Overall this will not be one of my better builds. Now I remember why I stick with Tamiya kits. I am never too worried about the quality of the molding process or of the fit of the parts. This kit had waaaaay too much flash plastic on the small parts and some of the smallest parts were insidiously attached to the thickest plastic frames. I mean WTH!? If this plane wasn't so important to my collection, I would never have bought it, and will certainly be looking much more closely at kit types from now on...

 

[Dave W]

It's unfortunate you've had this problem.I have found Revell kits to be very good on the whole.Although some on here wouldn't agree with me.You can't go wrong with Tamiya though.The small parts attached to thick sprues isnt confined to Revell kits.Im currently building The Airfix 1/48 Spitfire mk12.A fine kit by their standards.But some of the small parts have to be removed very carefully from thick sprues and then cleaned up before use.