Opinions on True Details Resin

[josh1813]

I'm not a huge aftermarket modeler, usually do straight oob, (that is assuming when I actually get stuff finished). However I would like to start using some resin seats, and I've noticed that True Details stuff is usually pretty cheap compared to some of the other brands. I was thinking of getting some of the basic seats (GRU-7, etc) from them, but I notice that nobody really ever uses them. Anybody have experience with them? Are there some reason they seem to stary in a dark corner, or is it just me? Any help would be appreciated, but seriously this is not meant to be a flame war. I don't post often and I really don't want to be responsible for one of them...

TIA

Josh

[loftycomfort]

True details' product quality can vary from ok to poor. Your best bet is to go with something from QuickBoost - reasonably priced, offers good details and consistent quality.

Terry

[fasteagle12]

I've got several TD sets; in 1/48, a cockpit set for the Monogram/Revell F-14A and one for the S-3 and several seats for various aircraft in both 1/48 and 1/72. Not comparing them to any other mfg set but they are sure alot better than the kit parts and look the pretty much like the real thing in my eyes, but I'm not a rivet counter (no offense to those that are). For the money, IMO, you can't go wrong.

[twhite80]

I've got several TD sets; in 1/48, a cockpit set for the Monogram/Revell F-14A and one for the S-3 and several seats for various aircraft in both 1/48 and 1/72. Not comparing them to any other mfg set but they are sure alot better than the kit parts and look the pretty much like the real thing in my eyes, but I'm not a rivet counter (no offense to those that are). For the money, IMO, you can't go wrong.

Agreed. The true details stuff is usually better than the kit parts and they are also pretty cheap. I think that it should be considered entry level resin. I actually have a couple of F-4 cockpits that I intend to mix with eduard photo etch. You can always scratch build extras on to it, but the parts I think are great for closed canopy builds or just a step up from the kit parts. With the resin you get a better representation of fabric which is always nice.

[eizzle]

I have only used their Phantom intakes, which arent full intakes like seamless suckers or anything, but it looks a heck of a lot better than the nothing you get from Hasegawa...

[Kalashnikov-47]

I like their ejection seats. I've used them in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scales.

I hate their wheels. Something wrong about an aircraft tire that's low on

air pressure.

[dsmith]

It really depends. I have some older sets where the casting is very nice. So, if you can look first, and find those you will be okay. However, in the last couple of years the QC has gone down a lot. I have gotten things that were cast so terribly (rough, air bubbles, broken, etc.) that they just go right in the trash. I don't buy their stuff anymore because of it. I also don't like their wheels - way overdone. By the way, many of their cockpit sets (not all), are either KMC or Black Box sets recast. If you can find the originals, the quality will probably be much better.

Cheers,

-Doug

[Cliff C]

It really depends. I have some older sets where the casting is very nice. So, if you can look first, and find those you will be okay. However, in the last couple of years the QC has gone down a lot. I have gotten things that were cast so terribly (rough, air bubbles, broken, etc.) that they just go right in the trash. I don't buy their stuff anymore because of it. I also don't like their wheels - way overdone. By the way, many of their cockpit sets (not all), are either KMC or Black Box sets recast. If you can find the originals, the quality will probably be much better.

Cheers,

-Doug

I've had exactly the same experience and reaction as Doug!

-Cliff

[josh1813]

Guys thanks so much for all the help you've pretty much answered what I had always expected. I had always thought they were set up to be better than kit parts, but not exactly playing with the big dogs... I was thinking that they were bought out by Squadron, and I was thinking there was a lot of changes around that decision. So once again, thanks for the advice and I'll be sure to approach very cautiously. I really wasn't considering any of their complete cockpits, was just wondering about the seats, but I'll just keep my eyes peeled for others offerings.

Thanks Again,

Josh

[twhite80]

Yeah, I think that all of these comments are pretty accurate. I must have a lot of the older resin because I am not having trouble with air bubbles, but if I did it would change my opinion for sure. As for the F-4 intakes I love them because you can pick them up for about $3 or $4 and while they are not full intake trunks there are no other alternative left on the market. Unless you want FOD covers that is.

[madmanrick]

While I personally have not had an issue, there was a thread around here not long ago about True Details Vietnam-era weapons sets being way undersized. IIRC, it turned out that they had mistakenly marked 1 72 stuff as 1 48. So caveat emptor! I've used their stuff and most of it wasn't bad, but then the stuff I used wasn't newly purchased either. I had obtained it from sellers here, so it was from a few years ago at the very least.

[eizzle]

Yeah, I think that all of these comments are pretty accurate. I must have a lot of the older resin because I am not having trouble with air bubbles, but if I did it would change my opinion for sure. As for the F-4 intakes I love them because you can pick them up for about $3 or $4 and while they are not full intake trunks there are no other alternative left on the market. Unless you want FOD covers that is.

Yeah, cheap and pretty effective, IMHO, at least it gives you something to see when you look down the intake rather than blank plastic!

[ThePhantomTwo]

I've had cockpit sets that were short shot in areas and F-4 pylon sets that were resin globs or missing a pylon or two,on the other hand I've had sets that were crisp with no flaws.My average is one set in three I buy will have a problem but given the low cost of the sets all I do is usually buy another one.

[ventura_kelley]

True Details sets do not come from one source. I'm not sure how the original line started, but I believe True Details is now owned by Squadron who also bought KMC.

KMC was a fantastic resin manufacturer and the main guy behind that became Black Box.

So the KMC details are pretty nice, and though not always entirely accurate, are FAR more detailed than the kit parts they're designed to replace and generally fit better.

Most of the non-KMC side of the line is also pretty nicely detailed, though generally less so than KMC and the accuracy of the detail in general is nowhere near the KMC stuff.

So, if the best KMC parts are the True Details "A" game, the best non-KMC True Details stuff is around their "C" or "D" game in my experience.

Where True Details takes a hit is

• Their bulged wheels look flat and inaccurate to a lot of modelers (and I'm not trying to start a war here, don't intend to argue this point). However many modelers get around that by leaving part of the casting block attached to the tire, and then reshape the tire/block to look less flattened because then they can take advantage of the generally excellent TD wheel hub detail. TD wheels are often the only option when the kits wheels aren't right.
  
• Some of their interior pieces don't fit at all. I've personally never used it, but one example I recently heard about were all of their 1/48th scale B-17 flying fortress interior sets. Every modeler I've talked to that has used them says they're a PITA to install (if you can at all). Personally, I've used their P-59 Airacobra cockpits, and I had almost no problem whatsoever getting them to fit perfectly along with the other sets I've used (like the Mustang, P-47, etc).
  
• I don't know if Squadron is farming out the casting of True Details parts or if they've got someone doing it in-house, but their quality control sucks. 6 of my last 15 True Details sets have had serious casting flaws in them. In 2 of my last P-59 Airacomet sets several pieces were totally unusable because of air or other casting flaws. In one, only half the seat was included. The top half of the seat was obliterated by a huge air bubble. Several of the recent Spitfire cockpit sets I bought were totally unusable because of air bubbles. The good news is that if you open and examine them when you get them, Squadron is pretty good about replacing bad parts, especially if you can get a good picture of the defective part showing the defects and send it to them.
  
• The engineering of some of the True Details sets sucks in some areas. For example, they split the seat frame bulkhead into several pieces on their Mk V Spitfire set (48484 - link), molding part of the lower halves into the sidewall detail. Getting everything to align back up without seams is a major PITA. I can't think of a single good reason for doing that. It should be one piece like Aeroclub did here (look at the white metal parts).
  

In general, TD is a good range, but I agree with some of the posts above in that I prefer Quickboost (http://quickboost.net/catalogue.htm) and Utracast (http://www.ultracast.ca/), but I think this game is mostly about using the right tool for the job and if that's True Details, then so be it. Do what works best for you, you know?

It's supposed to be fun and sweating buying a bunch of resin stuff definitely isn't fun. On top of that, some of the best results I've ever seen on a contest table have been from people that didn't use a single resin part on their kit anywhere.

[ventura_kelley]

Yeah, I think that all of these comments are pretty accurate. I must have a lot of the older resin because I am not having trouble with air bubbles, but if I did it would change my opinion for sure. As for the F-4 intakes I love them because you can pick them up for about $3 or $4 and while they are not full intake trunks there are no other alternative left on the market. Unless you want FOD covers that is.

Not anymore.

DMold - http://dmold.ucoz.com/load

These things are FANTASTIC. I'm installing a set on an F-4E, and I'm seriously impressed. I've also got his F-111 TP II set and they're gorgeous too. Way better than the ones he mastered for Cutting Edge ever were. In fact, so much so, I sold off my CE sets and replaced them with DMold wherever possible.

[crazychinaman]

Hello,

I Rate The Aires Resin Top Notch And Top Customer Service,then Original Black Box AKA Avionics AKA KMC And Then True Details. Squadron customer Service Is Ok ,Just Takes A Little While. To Solve Issues. Yes ,The Intakes Are Really Cheap Compared To D-mold. But The Detail Is Better In A D-mold. You Pay For What You Get.

[ch9862]

Not anymore.

DMold - <a href="http://dmold.ucoz.com/load" target="_blank">http://dmold.ucoz.com/load</a>

These things are FANTASTIC. I'm installing a set on an F-4E, and I'm seriously impressed. I've also got his F-111 TP II set and they're gorgeous too. Way better than the ones he mastered for Cutting Edge ever were. In fact, so much so, I sold off my CE sets and replaced them with DMold wherever possible.

Interestingly, of the 4 distributors listed, only VP shows Phantom intakes in their catalog - out of stock. AirDoc doesn't list the line at all. $30+ is too much for me anyway, but DMold seems even more elusive than most other aftermarket products...

[ventura_kelley]

Interestingly, of the 4 distributors listed, only VP shows Phantom intakes in their catalog - out of stock. AirDoc doesn't list the line at all. $30+ is too much for me anyway, but DMold seems even more elusive than most other aftermarket products...

Yea, they go in and out of stock. I got my F-4E intakes from Victory. The HobbyBoss F-105 corrected nose, I got from Mid Tenn. I forget where I got the F-4J/RF-4 intakes. The F-111 TP II came from Victory after I emailed him. They were "out of stock" on the website, but he had a pair that he had been holding back that he sold me.

Apparently the DMold guy is overseas somewhere (Ukraine, Russia?) and either hasn't figured out that there's a HUGE demand for his stuff over here yet or can't meet the demand over here for some reason, which is fairly frustrating. Though, you can usually overcome that with vigilance (watching the websites & keeping in touch with the vendors) and a little pre-planning (don't schedule a build you don't have parts for).

He's got a fantastic product and it is worth both the wait and every penny.

[richter111]

Figures, I have all the true details sets for my B-17 build...

[tobiK]

Interestingly, of the 4 distributors listed, only VP shows Phantom intakes in their catalog - out of stock. AirDoc doesn't list the line at all. $30+ is too much for me anyway, but DMold seems even more elusive than most other aftermarket products...

Dmold is listed in the new catalog of AIRDOC..and if you order that stuff, you ll get it! I phoned to Andreas Klein some weeks ago and met him at the Model show near munich beginning of march.

TD: don t buy the F-4 Navy style pylons set 1/48 - it s crap!

other stuff may be nice, and sometimes the only possibilty to detail your kit...like monogram F-14 - TD has a resin pit (that s supposed to fit very well into academy tomcat too!)

Seats: other good brand and price: verlinden and Legend productions (my favorites for F-4 up to now), Quickboss is ok too (but: f-4 seats are to small for a hasegawa toom!)

[ventura_kelley]

Dmold is listed in the new catalog of AIRDOC..and if you order that stuff, you ll get it! I phoned to Andreas Klein some weeks ago and met him at the Model show near munich beginning of march.

TD: don t buy the F-4 Navy style pylons set 1/48 - it s crap!

other stuff may be nice, and sometimes the only possibilty to detail your kit...like monogram F-14 - TD has a resin pit (that s supposed to fit very well into academy tomcat too!)

Seats: other good brand and price: verlinden and Legend productions (my favorites for F-4 up to now), Quickboss is ok too (but: f-4 seats are to small for a hasegawa toom!)

Why are the TD F-4 Navy style pylons crap? I don't own a set, but I thought about buying some, so I'm just askin'.

I heard there's something about one company's F-4 seats that people didn't like...Don't remember which company, but both the front and back seats were copies of each other so the belts were posed exactly the same or something. Do you know which set it was?

[tobiK]

Hi ventura,

I have no idea actually about that brand...I have used quickboost ( very nice detail, but put it aside the OOB Hasegwaw seat - QB is smaller! But....it fits very well into the ESCI/Italeri pit, because the floor is a bit higher than at HAS, you have to put 1-2 mm sheet under the seat for the RIO), verlinden (exact the same size as HAS...nice mold and details, good to paint on, the details are well raised), Legend prod. (the same size as HAS too, very fine crisp mold, a bit better than verlinden, only the green oxygen bottle is to long, and economic price! I got them from luckymodel, HK, and free shipping!!!), soon I will use aires seats...the PE harness is not my total favorite, but I will try it! Victory productions seat is in my stash too (they have the MB Mk.5 seat for the early phantoms!!! Need it for a F-4c "gunfighters", same size as HAS). In my opinion there s no brand listet I would not use...or I prefer not to use always the same brand when making several phantoms, eagles, starfighters, etc...to avoid that the seats of the models look exactly the same.

It s not realistic.

TD pylon set: maybe the USAF set is still ok, but for the navy style pylons it looks like the mould has been damaged or worn out! The first set I got was bad, so I made reclaim at my dealer, who sent me a second set for free. And surprise: the same bad quality again!!! Air bubbles, not sharp molded, edges missing, etc. even 5 Euro' s to much for that bad set.

You better look for Navy style pylons from a RF from HAS...they have the best navy-style pylons for Phantoms oob! For the other pylons (center, outer wing: better take the kit parts and rescribe, and add sway braces from another kit or HAS weapons set ;)

[Andy Mullen]

I was thinking of getting some of the basic seats (GRU-7, etc) from them, but I notice that nobody really ever uses them. Anybody have experience with them?

I quite like them... used 17 sets of the GRU-7's so far...

some of the builds