I always considered Heller kits to be fairly well-engineered. Which ones had bad fit?
The poor fit in most circumstances was less the result of bad engineering as it was sloppy production standards. I can’t recall which particular kits were involved (it’s over thirty years and I was a prolific model builder in those happy days) but the memory lingered.
Actually I do remember one of them! It was a Viking boat; the two hull halves were so warped that about all they had in common with each other was the colour of the plastic! I seem to remember cementing their keels together half an inch at a time, heavily clamped to finally get them to mate after a fashion. Even so the hull never looked right.
There were others but the basic problem was usually the same - parts which looked like they’d ben whipped out of the injection machine much too fast.
I was not sorry to hear that Heller will no longer be manufacturing the Airfix kits.
Michael
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Then Sir, you are excluding what is perhaps the ultimate sailing ship kit build, I speak of the 1:100 Victory[;)]
Well, I daresay that’s a pleasure I shall have to forego, I can’t bring myself to make an exception - even for that. Anyhow I have most of the IMAI sailing ship kits and I think they’re the best, certainly superior to Heller.
Michael
It’s possible to make a very fine model from most of the larger-scale Heller sailing ship models, but it takes time, effort and patience, and it is not an OOB exercise. Fit of parts is at best average, but if you were only interested in Tamiya 1/48 P-47Ds, you wouldn’t be building this sort of kit, would you?
Here’s my Heller 1/100 Victory, after about 3 months’ work over the course of two years:
The guns on the lower gun deck are installed, and the guns for the middle gun deck built and painted. I plan to install these next April, and also to build the guns for the main deck.
Cheers,
Chris.
I have a sneaking feeling that Santa might bring me the Airfix Severn class lifeboat with Seaking Helo set.
Pete
It seems that there may well be a problem with the quality of the plastic used in the production of the initial batches of lifeboat kits. Humbrol have been made aware of this, and are presently examining if the problem exisits.
There seems to have been a number of kits whereby the plastic used for the hull parts is translucent. Mention of this has been made on other fora, and a request has been made by one person for the batch numbers on the problem kit boxes to be identified and made known.
And that’s exactly how modern little modellers will view kits such as the 1:48 Buccaneer and the Lifeboat, and exactly why Airfix should try to get things right - for long term brand respect, and not short-term profit.
FWIW, I have an Airfix boxing of Heller’s HMS Hood (including the brass anchor chains that were a feature of Heller warships). I mused about how well it fitted for such a clunky-looking kit this afternoon. Mind you, that is a long hull seam to be filled and sanded 