Quality of kits available

[splash]

I just thought I would try to get people’s opinions on the different types of plastic used by different Vac-Form manufactures. The age of the kit might affect the quality of the plastic.

So far my experience has been very limited to only a couple of makes and they appear to be at opposite ends of the scale.

Airmodel
Lacking in detail, a hard plastic prone to splitting and thin in parts. Lots of their kits do not include extra bits and need lots of scratch building.

Dynovector
Good crisp detail, Thick flexible plastic no thin parts, easy to work with extra parts in resin or white metal included all you require is included in the box.

What is your opinion of all the other kits?

Regards Splash

[rob_van_riel]

Most of this "in-box" style, ie, no idea about fit and such....

Airmodel
Lacking in detail, a hard plastic prone to splitting and thin in parts. Lots of their kits do not include extra bits and need lots of scratch building.

True of their older kits, but the current crop of kits is much better than their early work and certainly up to standards. Also, dirt cheap when bought directly from Airmodel.

Aeroclub:
Multimedia kits, vacformed parts look good. Metal and resin ditto. Injection parts are horrible.

Esoteric:
Yummy!

Maintrack:
Looks good. Typically includes some metal parts.

Rareplanes:
Looks good.

Funmodel:
Their Iscra, at least, looks very nice.

Sanger:
Doesn't look very impressive, although metal bits are welcome.

I.D. models/formaplane:
Good luck with that..

Waku:
Doing their best to get as close to injection as possible, and fairly successfull at it too. Some doubts about workablility of some overly fine parts.

Contrail:
Their PE-2 looks quite serviceable, but I'm still recovering from the shock of finding out that what I though was a 2 engine attack plane was actually a big burly 4 engine bomber

[SJPONeill]

Airframe: very thin plastic but nice moldings.

Rareplanes: great moldings, good detail in moldings and with smaller parts, generally pretty close to injection quality standard one the parts are cut out.

contrail: variable, some earlier kits have series fit issues, generally good plans though and build up nicely with a bit of effort.

Falcon: nice moldings, crystal clear transparency, OK metal parts, often supplemented by nice Airwaves pe

[SJPONeill]

Heritage Aviation: big and clunky, look out for detail and shape issues. Thick plastic.

Aircraft in Miniature: thick plastic, I.e. 2mm, black plastic on some kits.

Model Technologies: nice moldings, resin detail parts, good molded detail on both.

Gerald Elliott: nice moldings, good plans. Nice plastic to work with.

Victoria Products: thinnish plastic, very nice and detailed vac moldings but variable quality in kit resin detail parts. Good parts design and layout.

[Convair]

Combat Models: It seems like old Airmodel - lacking details, needs lots of scratch building. Sometimes some parts in vac are overly thin (requiring internal reinforcements), but the plastic is nice to work. They have extra parts in resin and metal, sold separately.

Execuform: Lacking details, needs lots of scratch building. Good plans, nice plastic to work. A few kits have parts in resin and metal.

IMHO, Rareplanes is the best of all because of the compromise between good quality and price.