aerofan Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I was told by another modeller that many vacuform kits are usually more accurate in shape than injection kits. Is this true? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Alvis 3.1 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I'm guessing your friend hasn't seen some of the terrible, lump of butter-like vacuform kits I've both seen and tried to build. Some are very accurate, yes, and some are mere approximations of something you might mistake for an airplane on a dark, foggy night. It all depends on the level of research the maker did, and if they bothered to incorporate it into the kit. One thing you will find in vacuforms is a likelyhood of it being a subject nobody has done as an injected kit...yet. If you build it, the injected kit will be released shortly before you finish the vacuform. Murphy's Law and all that stuff, you know. Vacuforms also come in two distinct flavours: Male and female molds. Male molds involve the plastic being drawn over the master, whereas the female type is drawn into a mold cavity. This allows for detail to appear on the surface of the plastic. Male molds can't do this, asn as a result, they require even more work to bring them up to a level of detail most would like. VP Products, long long ago, did many of their kits with female molds, and were superb. However, they incorporated a mistake on one, the DHC Otter, that was faithfully copied by an injection kit maker. I guess in that case, you could say both kits were of equal accuracy! Alvis 3.1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aerofan Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 Alvis, Yes you are quite right about the male molded ones. I should have been a bit more clearer as I was referring to the female molded vacuform kits. And in regards to an injection kit manufacturer who shall remain nameless and copied some vacuform kits with errors, they should have been more diligent in copying the Avro CF-105 Arrow from an Eastern Canadian vacuform kit. But then again maybe not as it was unethical and possibly illegal of them to do so without the consent of the original mold maker. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I was told by another modeller that many vacuform kits are usually more accurate in shape than injection kits. Is this true? How on earth could that possibly be true? Vacuform kits, just like injection molded kits, are created by people. That's just silly. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RiderFan Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Alvis, Yes you are quite right about the male molded ones. I should have been a bit more clearer as I was referring to the female molded vacuform kits. And in regards to an injection kit manufacturer who shall remain nameless and copied some vacuform kits with errors, they should have been more diligent in copying the Avro CF-105 Arrow from an Eastern Canadian vacuform kit. But then again maybe not as it was unethical and possibly illegal of them to do so without the consent of the original mold maker. Having built both Astra and VP Arrows I can say that both were fantastic kits. The manufacture that shall not be named took their molds for this kits from the 1950s Aurora kit. Copying those many mistakes verbatim. I have a 1:32 F-101 Voodoo kit that's a male mold vacume kit and it's pretty much unbuildable. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flankerman Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 How on earth could that possibly be true? Vacuform kits, just like injection molded kits, are created by people. That's just silly. But it could be argued that vacforms are made by small cottage(garage) enterprises, usually enthusiastic amateurs who have a passion for their subjects. So they are more likely to a) know the subject and B) get the shape of the masters right. Injection moulded kits are made by large anonymous corporations and designed by committees - or at least CAD designers who know nothing about the subjects. Just a thought....... Ken Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Alvis 3.1 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 You can also argue that most vacuforms date from when information was harder to get (ie: the 70s and 80s) and the maker may have been using erroneous data. Not that the intraweb has been much help there. As much as it allows you to find more information quicker, it also allows bad information to flow faster as well. Even data from manufacturers can be suspect. Case in point: Airfix Boulton Paul Defiant. The nose is off, as the compant sent data pertaining to the prototype, not the operational machine. Of course, all of this is still a lot easier than carving your own from tree stumps like we did when I was a kid. :) Alvis 3.1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
braincells37 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I was told by another modeller that many vacuform kits are usually more accurate in shape than injection kits. Is this true? Nope - not necessarily so. The individuals who create vacform kits are subject to the same issues as a major kit manufacturer. They can screw it up real bad sometimes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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