Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

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Colin at Freightdog
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Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by Colin at Freightdog »

Last year I produced as corrected resin nose with better shape and length for the Frog Javelin FAW.9 as I needed one for myself, which also sold surprisingly well. I've been mulling the idea over of doing more for a while, and now have two more improvements for classic kits coming out soon, and have a few test casts to bring to Cosford for sale. They are a corrected nose cone for the Frog Sea Vixen, and an improved NF.14 nose section for the Matchbox/Xtrakit Meteor, at £3 each. Masters for these have been made my Paul Lucas who also did the Javelin one.

So my post is not to plug these, its to ask for future suggestions. I found with the Javelin nose that a lot of modellers bought one or even two for their loft stash, as Frog (and Novo) produced so many kits in comparison to new tool kit runs today (probably at least ten times more), there are still a lot of unmade kits in collections and available at shows to make the item popular, even though the kits are mostly obsolete. So if anyone has suggestions for improvements or conversion to classic Frog, Matchbox or Airfix kits please post them, it helps if the kits are still in production (ie Matchbox in a Revell box or Frog under Eastern Express etc) and have not been superseded, but it doesn't have to be, and can be other makes of kits to.

Thanks, Colin
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DavidWomby
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by DavidWomby »

Colin

How about a pen nib and FAW 7 exhausts for the Airfix Javelin to make earlier versions. I know they've been done before and that we all hope for Airfix to downsize their 1/48 kit but...

Also Avenger AS6 glazing, Airfix Hunter correction set and T7 conversion, RWR fin bullet for the Mbox Canberra PR9, wings with vortex generators for the Mbox Buccaneer, F-111B radome, Venom FB fuselage for the Frog Sea Venom, Vampire NF10 and Venom NF2 (early) fuselages for Airfix Vampire T11 and Frog Sea Venom.

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JamesPerrin
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by JamesPerrin »

Hi Colin

Thanks for asking! I think its exactly what's needed especial if the conversions can be kept simple and affordable as I doubt anyone wants to add some fifty year old kit wings to a 30 quid fuselage. I've selfishly looked through my stash list for inspiration:

Airfix HS Dommine extended radar nose.

The correct tubo props for the Airfix BAe Jetstream in RAF service and the radar nose. I have the old M&E (?) injected conversion but the engine are very crude and I hear fit badly, let alone it's hard to find now.

Airfix SA Bulldog cockpit

Lot of possibilities for the Airfix Norman Defender and it has various surveillance fits.

I think the Frog Sea Vixen needs a new thinner cockpit even more than the nose needs changing, because this sits so high it throws the shape of the nose out.

I'm sure the Frog Vickers Vimy, which unique in this scale needs some correction to make true military version as it was made as the Alcock and Brown aircraft - not my area of expertise.


BTW Whirlybirds do a resin pen-nib exhaust for Javelins, however it is just a copy of the Heller T3 part included the sink marks!
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PaulBradley
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by PaulBradley »

Seconded on the Dominie nose, and the Jetstream improvements.

I'd like to see turbine engines for the Islander.

The Airfix C-130 is reckoned by many to be the best 1/72 Herk around - after all these years! - but it needs a better cockpit/crew area, engines and props.

The 1/72 Airfix Canberra B.2 still hasn't been superceded, but needs a new nose section. A variety of noses would be nice - T.4, T.17, T.18, etc.
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BWP
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by BWP »

What a fantastic idea Colin.

I have heaps of older kits in the stash, and I'm sure that all of them would benefit from some form of updates; but of course other more modern kits are often available, and parts from those newer kits -- or third-party parts designed for those newer kits -- can often be re-purposed and re-used on the older kits. Alas, sometimes the older kits are just so problematic that no simple third-party solution is going to do the trick, regardless. And a handful are so obscure that it would be hard to imagine that replacement parts would be commercially viable!

That being said, probably my major "target" would be as follows:

F-104G Starfighter

There are several old kits, and they're all "wrong" (for the most part). I don't think you could produce one set of parts that would save all of them, but you could pick maybe one or two common ones and produce parts especially for them. The issue is that there are only two kits (Hasegawa and Revell) that accurately depict the F-104G "fat" wheels and corresponding bulged wheel well doors. It's the latter that are the really difficult parts to scratch-build -- replacement wheels are available from a couple of different companies. (I don't know if you'd need to also create new undercarriage parts to go with them.) The old Airfix kit is pretty much beyond saving (the wheel wells are the least of its many problems); the Matchbox kit (which was available in both single-seater and twin-seater) is maybe a little too obscure these days to worry about (never re-issued by Revell, so far as I know); the FROG kit is (almost) identical to the old-mould Hasegawa, and of course the Academy kit is a clone of it, so there's a lot of them around on the market; the Heller kit is not uncommon; and the ESCI kit is very common indeed, in many boxings. Now, all of these "fake" F-104G kits can be built as F-104J and CF-104 versions with minimal effort, and don't need the revised undercarriage parts. (There were a very few F-104Gs that also didn't have the "fat" wheels, so there's a small number of build options available.) The F-104S also requires the revised wheels and the ESCI kit doesn't supply them. I reckon an undercarriage replacement set (including the doors) for the ESCI kits and a similar set for the FROG/old Hasegawa/Academy kits has the potential to do well. (Brave modellers could always use the sets on the other brands "at their own risk" of course.) The ESCI kits also have under-sized fuel tanks, IIRC, and I think their may be a problem with the canopy shape too. A separate generic set of correctly-sized tanks could be intended primarily for ESCI but usable for any. There's a couple of threads on Britmodeller regarding the various issues with these various kits if you want to dig deeper. (And of course, if you wanted to do cockpit improvement sets for any/all of these, I certainly wouldn't complain ....)
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IronMan129
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by IronMan129 »

I'd love some whatif parts and weapons ect for the 72nd Airfix TSR.2.
I understand various things have been made before but I can't find anything anymore.
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jssel
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by jssel »

Thank you for asking. Right off I would ask for new engines for the Jetstream.
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Eric Mc
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by Eric Mc »

How about some airliner noses.

S & M's 1/144 Viscount needs to be more pointed as does Airfix's BAC-1-11.
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Gregers
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by Gregers »

Great ideas folks. The only one I can think of is a replacement fuselage top / canopy / nose and engines to make the Airfix Anson into a later Mk.

All the best.

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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by JamesPerrin »

Just thinking of classic kits that people still build.
Matchbox 1/72 Supermarine Stranraer springs to mind; new engines, guns.
Similarly the Heyford.
Maybe a two seat A.W Siskin IIIDC also from the Matchbox kit.
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

A company called "Maintrack" did a Siskin IIIDC conversion; not sure how available they are any more.
IIRC it is really quite simple -- replacement fuselage and center section struts.

Some details for the Stranraer gun positions & Heyford cockpit & gun positions would be nice.
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by JamesPerrin »

Maintrack are almost classic's themselves and are long gone.
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jssel
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by jssel »

Bits for the Airfix Typhoon Eurofighter. Refueling probe,IR fairing on nose etc.
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by JamesPerrin »

jssel wrote:Bits for the Airfix Typhoon Eurofighter. Refueling probe,IR fairing on nose etc.
Simply replace all the pieces with those from the new Revell kit
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Re: Classic Kit resin conversion ideas wanted

Post by jssel »

Yeah...........that's an option. :lol:
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