Airfix 1:72 Vulcan B.2

[dr_gn]

So now my broken foot's mended, I'm in bed with Covid for another 10 days. I thought I'd do some research on this kit, because I was intrigued to know if mine was just a one-off piss-poor example. Anyway, I came accross a series of videos, including this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UtYCdK5vTQ

Sounds as if, like me, he began full of enthusiasm, but the more he progressed the more errors he's found. I'm going to have to carefuly look at the entire fuselage again and see if mine's got all the other sink marks he found. Interestingly, his doesn't seem to have the diagonal marks at all. I skipped to the last video to see what kind of job he does, and as far as I can see he's done a superb job (not sure about the underside weathering, but whatever). So it's not like he doesn't know what he's doing...

Interesting comments at 10' 30"

"Just not good enough"

"you need to up your game guys"

"crap manufacturing"

"no excuse"

"absolutely plastered in sink marks"

"disgusting"

Yup...wholeheartedly agree with him. OK, I didn't spend £60 on it, but that's not the point.

ETA - £72.49 for this kit on the Airfix website. Did the prices just go up??


ETA again - Been watching more of this guy's videos on this - he's really good. You can see he's got the same diagonal sink mark as mine on the port wing at 10' 50" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1uL4E50nDQ&li...

I love how his thoughts change throughout the build. At one point he's praising the design, and says it's got almost Tamiya quality of fit, and subsequently ends up commenting on poor fit and crap design features Also interesting that he said he didn't notice any moulding errors on first inspection, and that more and more become apparent during the build - exactly like mine.

Edited by dr_gn on Saturday 5th February 00:05

[dr_gn]

So this is the best fit I could achieve with Airfix’ bizarre method of joining two fuselage halves:





Thus creating an absolutely st backdrop to my carefully painted bombs. So with heavy heart, I began the tedious job of scraping the whole mess away, leaving wafer-thin wall thicknesses in places:



Then the even more tedious process of cutting styrene into strips, and re-building the stiffener detail one-by-one:







All blended together with liquid cement. This is the result after a guide coat of primer:





A bit more refinement and it will be acceptable. How this thing got through pre-production is beyond me.

[saaby93]

Incredible patience and perseverance there

[dr_gn]

saaby93 said:

Incredible patience and perseverance there

It's the only way with this thing.

[Ash_]

dr_gn said:

saaby93 said:

Incredible patience and perseverance there

It's the only way with this thing.

Just focus on how utterly stunning it'll look when you're finished! In other words, please don't give up!

[Prolex-UK]

Keep it up.

I am doing a mach2 dh comet.

Challenging is an under statement

But i was expecting it from online comments.

Would expect better from a new tool

[dr_gn]

Ash_ said:

dr_gn said:

saaby93 said:

Incredible patience and perseverance there

It's the only way with this thing.

Just focus on how utterly stunning it'll look when you're finished! In other words, please don't give up!

I won’t give up, it’s just that this isn’t a great modelling experience.

Holding it up to the light shows dark lines - presumably more dense plastic - corresponding to some of the diagonal sink marks (the solid black areas are those that have been primed):



They seem to follow lines that approximately join the sprue gates. According to the Airfix video on this kit, this thing took a year and 10 months of development and engineering…draw your own conclusions.

[DAVEVO9]

You are a determined 1st class modeller.

Stick with it, then when it's all finished fire off a complaint to Airfix telling them what a load of wk this kit is.

Include a link to this thread.

[dr_gn]

DAVEVO9 said:

You are a determined 1st class modeller.

Stick with it, then when it's all finished fire off a complaint to Airfix telling them what a load of wk this kit is.

Include a link to this thread.

I’ll just finish it and move on - as usual.

[CanAm]

dr_gn said:

I’ll just finish it and move on - as usual.

On the underside of the aircraft, inside the bomb-bay, half hidden by the bombs; some people (like me!) would probably have let it go.

But dr_gn takes more pride in his work.

[dr_gn]

CanAm said:

dr_gn said:

I’ll just finish it and move on - as usual.

On the underside of the aircraft, inside the bomb-bay, half hidden by the bombs; some people (like me!) would probably have let it go.

But dr_gn takes more pride in his work.

I did prime it, but it was clear (you can see from the photos) that with a white finish, dark wash and some weathering powder would have just highlighted the mess even more. Once you've seen that, you can't ignore it, and it would have made detailing the bombs pointless. Once you start to compromise in modelling you might as well give up - if you want a half decent result.

[shalmaneser]

I design mouldings and there is a lot of tuning of the process that is required to get a good result as far as sink marks and mould flow goes. The mould itself is heated/cooled the temperature of the charge can be varied, the injection pressure, humidity of the feedstock... Lots and lots of opportunities to get it wrong. Looks to me their process needs more development. I don't envy their moulding guys, there can be few industries that use such thin sections with such critical fit requirements!

[dr_gn]

shalmaneser said:

I design mouldings and there is a lot of tuning of the process that is required to get a good result as far as sink marks and mould flow goes. The mould itself is heated/cooled the temperature of the charge can be varied, the injection pressure, humidity of the feedstock... Lots and lots of opportunities to get it wrong. Looks to me their process needs more development. I don't envy their moulding guys, there can be few industries that use such thin sections with such critical fit requirements!

In my opinion it's their job to get it right. I believe Airfix (as a brand at least) have been making injection moulded items now for around 73 years.

There's no shortage of outstandingly good quality injection moulded kits out there from other manufacturers. In fact there have been perfectly good model kit mouldings around for decades.

[dr_gn]

Prolex-UK said:

Keep it up.

I am doing a mach2 dh comet.

Challenging is an under statement

But i was expecting it from online comments.

Would expect better from a new tool

Exactly.

[shalmaneser]

dr_gn said:

shalmaneser said:

I design mouldings and there is a lot of tuning of the process that is required to get a good result as far as sink marks and mould flow goes. The mould itself is heated/cooled the temperature of the charge can be varied, the injection pressure, humidity of the feedstock... Lots and lots of opportunities to get it wrong. Looks to me their process needs more development. I don't envy their moulding guys, there can be few industries that use such thin sections with such critical fit requirements!

In my opinion it's their job to get it right. I believe Airfix (as a brand at least) have been making injection moulded items now for around 73 years.

There's no shortage of outstandingly good quality injection moulded kits out there from other manufacturers. In fact there have been perfectly good model kit mouldings around for decades.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not making excuses! But any tool will need tuning and it looks like here it hasn't been fully completed. It needs to be kept on top of as the tool wear too of course, it's very much an ongoing process.

[saaby93]

shalmaneser said:

dr_gn said:

shalmaneser said:

I design mouldings and there is a lot of tuning of the process that is required to get a good result as far as sink marks and mould flow goes. The mould itself is heated/cooled the temperature of the charge can be varied, the injection pressure, humidity of the feedstock... Lots and lots of opportunities to get it wrong. Looks to me their process needs more development. I don't envy their moulding guys, there can be few industries that use such thin sections with such critical fit requirements!

In my opinion it's their job to get it right. I believe Airfix (as a brand at least) have been making injection moulded items now for around 73 years.

There's no shortage of outstandingly good quality injection moulded kits out there from other manufacturers. In fact there have been perfectly good model kit mouldings around for decades.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not making excuses! But any tool will need tuning and it looks like here it hasn't been fully completed. It needs to be kept on top of as the tool wear too of course, it's very much an ongoing process.

Did you see the soldiers bellies in this one
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[IJWS15]

One thing I remember from my early modelling days (I was probably 12 or 13) is the quality of fit of the first Tamiya kit I could afford to buy, after years of Airfix kits they were a huge step up. It was the Saladin.

Since then I have avoided Airfix but over recent years wondered if they had improved.

Seeing the issues with this kit I will continue to avoid Airfix.

Credit for persevering with this and producing something that would be beyond my skills even with a perfect kit.

[r159]

IJWS15 said:

One thing I remember from my early modelling days (I was probably 12 or 13) is the quality of fit of the first Tamiya kit I could afford to buy, after years of Airfix kits they were a huge step up. It was the Saladin.

Since then I have avoided Airfix but over recent years wondered if they had improved.

Seeing the issues with this kit I will continue to avoid Airfix.

Credit for persevering with this and producing something that would be beyond my skills even with a perfect kit.

There are some excellent Airfix kits out there, some are best in class…

[dr_gn]

r159 said:

IJWS15 said:

One thing I remember from my early modelling days (I was probably 12 or 13) is the quality of fit of the first Tamiya kit I could afford to buy, after years of Airfix kits they were a huge step up. It was the Saladin.

Since then I have avoided Airfix but over recent years wondered if they had improved.

Seeing the issues with this kit I will continue to avoid Airfix.

Credit for persevering with this and producing something that would be beyond my skills even with a perfect kit.

There are some excellent Airfix kits out there, some are best in class…

Which ones are those?

[dr_gn]

IJWS15 said:

One thing I remember from my early modelling days (I was probably 12 or 13) is the quality of fit of the first Tamiya kit I could afford to buy, after years of Airfix kits they were a huge step up. It was the Saladin.

Since then I have avoided Airfix but over recent years wondered if they had improved.

Seeing the issues with this kit I will continue to avoid Airfix.

Credit for persevering with this and producing something that would be beyond my skills even with a perfect kit.

Saladin armoured car? I built of of those as a kid - it even had a motor.