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What makes a good/bad fitting model?


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On 11/28/2018 at 12:15 PM, shion said:

 

It's the opposite, plastics relax with time.

And if you want  see them creep, they must endure a constant strain through time.

Unless you left a anvil above your model kit box, your sprues will be safe.

 

 

The plastic can creep under it's own weight. There is also internal stresses from the molding process the settle out over time.   Not to mention heat, humidity, and thermal cycles.

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On 11/25/2018 at 4:10 PM, habu2 said:

 

Are you referring to the recently released 1/32 P-51D ?

Radu did the design work, so it's top of the line. Revell kept some pieces fitting a little on the right side. He did a response on this on here or maybe LSP, and if you follow his instructions; everything goes together we'll. Their FW190's in 1/32 are in my opinion the best out there. Never got a chance to start the AR196 as it was stolen, but hear nothing but good things about it. Sometime in January, I hope to start their 1/48 Tornado. Just taping parts together, it looks good. Never was much a Revell fan till I built their 1/72 scale JU88. Made the Hasegawa look like junk!

Gary

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I've got 2 kits now the ready for paint. A Monogram 1/ 48 T-6 Texan and a Minicraft 1/48 XF5F-1. Scalemates claims the T-6 molding dates back to '79, but my kit has a 2001 date prominently molded on an external surface--probably demand by some fine lawyer so they could more easily catch copyright theft. Scalemates claims the XF5F is from '97.

 

The XF5F wings went together perfectly. Truly. Other parts fit reasonably well too. The nose had an odd wart that needed removal. Some "openable" fuselage panels around the nose were also a tad small. Filing the nose a little got to a good fit. The nacelles, OTOH, were fairly good on the joint with the wing--the hard bit--but the nacelle bottom was about 1/32 wider on each side than the top part. Since the adjacent wing joint was as good as it was, I believe this was a design problem. The nacelle bottom was filed smaller to mate with the top. The front part of the nacelle was next. A separate part that mates with the top and bottom, it was too small by about 1/32 all around. Another design problem because I already made the rear nacelle smaller than molded. I centered it on the nacelle rear parts and filed the rear parts to match. The canopy parts were a good fit.

 

The AT-6 cockpit is a gem of engineering. Not because of the fit, which was pretty good, but because it's keyed to make incorrect assembly well-nigh impossible. The fuselage mating surfaces needed attention to get good mating. I needed to reduce the width of IP and the rear cockpit deck to allow the fuselage halves to meet. Only then could I slowly make my way around the fuselage to get a good glue joint. Filing was needed to get an invisible fuselage top joint; filing and filling were required on the bottom. The forward nacelle top is a separate part to enable several versions. It is just too narrow. Filing and filling remedied that. A mixture of design and mold age are responsible for issues with the fuselage halves. Design is solely responsible for the poor forward nacelle top fit. The wings only needed dry fitting and filing. Mating the wings to the fuselage required internal asymmetric shims to get a good fuselage to wing fillet joint. The rear canopy, OTOH, is way too narrow. I tried all ways to fit it, but I finally caved this morning and ordered a vac part. Well, 3 vac parts as I have 2 more boxings in my stash.

 

There wasn't much filler required on either of these kits. Some parts and assemblies went together perfectly due to good design and molding. Other parts and assemblies clearly needed work to get a proper fit. But generally, it's hard to separate mold age, molding quality, and the builder from fit quality. Excluding those who routinely turn any kit into a work of art, I'm sure we've all seen examples of others who got a better, or worse, fit on the same kit. I certainly have seen both! 

 

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