Are all of their castings that bad or did I just get unlucky?
Best way to describe it is to say that the two halves of the molds weren't quite mating and there's a (mostly) thin web flash in every window and doorway and for some of the small boats the extra layer was ~1/`6" thick!
I certainly won't be buying another one of their kits without inspecting it carefully again.
Norm
I have tried two and both were junk, as far as I was concerned. Certainly not worth the buccks!
What company are you talking about?
Railroad Design Associates?
Eric
" snipped-for-privacy@bigfoot.com" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... | What company are you talking about? | | Railroad Design Associates? | |
YES. The Kit is HO114 called Bluebird Dory Works. The castings are of the same quality as my first attempts at resin casting. Since I bought the kit on eBay I can't blame them for missing parts but the quality of what's there is embarrassing.
Norm
Much depends on which kit you buy and your talents as a model railroader. If you are expecting a limited-run kit that falls together and everything fits perfectly, as some of today's kits indeed do, then RDA is not for you. However, if you've been in the hobby a while and have known kits that take some work to bring them to museum quality, then that's quite another matter. I have several RDA structures on my layout. Yes, they took work and minor modification to bring them up to a high level of quality but I'm actually very pleased with the ones I built (including a large, multi-building factory). You should have seen some of the highend kits of 20 years ago! And, yes, some of RDA's kits are a bit expensive but that's the price you pay for uniqueness. If you don't think so, just take a look at what FSM kits go for on eBay...and they are largely a box of just sticks with instructions!
CNJ999
| | Much depends on which kit you buy and your talents as a model | railroader. If you are expecting a limited-run kit that falls together | and everything fits perfectly, as some of today's kits indeed do, then | RDA is not for you. However, if you've been in the hobby a while and | have known kits that take some work to bring them to museum quality, | then that's quite another matter. I have several RDA structures on my | layout. Yes, they took work and minor modification to bring them up to | a high level of quality but I'm actually very pleased with the ones I | built (including a large, multi-building factory). You should have seen | some of the highend kits of 20 years ago! And, yes, some of RDA's kits | are a bit expensive but that's the price you pay for uniqueness. If you | don't think so, just take a look at what FSM kits go for on eBay...and | they are largely a box of just sticks with instructions! | | CNJ999
I started scratch building wooden and brass trains about 50 years ago. I've not only done many high-end kits but I've done my own resin casting as well. The quality of this particular kit was awful. That's not to say that with "some work" it could be made into a reasonable structure, but museum quality, never.
Norm
To be snarky, with some work a block of raw styrene could be made into a musuem quality model...but what is the main problem with this line of kits? The OP mentioned extra flash, so besides that do the pieces match up? Are they over or undersized? Really warped/bent/twisted? Are there many voids or gaps? Are details just sort of blobby or non-existant?
The masters from which the molds were made were most likely very precise. The general squareness of the walls is good and most things were probably quite fine. The real problem I had was with the quality of the castings. Since I've made a few myself, I can say that -- at least for me -- I'd produce parts with the same problem if the two halves of the mold weren't quite snugly together, allowing a thin web of material to be created in almost every opening and, for the row boats, extending well beyond the body of the boat. Because of that, just about everything is too thick.
That said -- and most of that can be corrected with sandpaper and #11 Xacto blades -- The windows provided were cheap plastic injection castings that had frames that fit the openings (after the requisite filing and sanding) and about 1/8" around the window intended to fit snugly against the wall and position the window horizontally. Of course, this makes the interior of the building look ridiculous especially given that the building has two dozen windows (yes, I mean 24) through which all of the window backing can be easily seen. Okay, a half-hour or so with a Chopper and I removed the extra material from around the windows and doors so that what remained just fit into the openings.
Ultimately, I'm going to create a building I'll be proud of. But IMO it's taken far too much effort to get it into that shape. These aren't cheap kits and the customer deserves better.
Norm
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