Monday 29 March 2010

A very disappointing model

Well, as you've maybe noticed I enjoy building model aircraft, and I'm a member of the official Airfix Club. I came to build the second of the three club models I got sent this time, and am now incredibly disappointed with the quality of their offering. It's a Wildcat with Royal Navy markings, an interesting aircraft to build. However, the quality of the parts leaves something to be desired. The two fuselage halves do not fit properly, there is a random hole in the bottom, the holes for some pieces are not drilled in quite the right places. Worst of all though, the kit did not have the clear parts for this model in it! And this is supposed to be their exclusive limitted edition kit. I was quite pleased with the Seafire that was the first of the three models I built, it looks rather impressive although the hook mechanism did not fit particularly well it only took a little sanding to get it in fine. In fact, the Seafire is probably one of the most professional looking models I've built. But the quality of the Wildcat is incredibly disappointing, because not only are there all those faults with the pieces, there's a lot of extra cack on all the pieces too which has to be peeled off. So I'm quite disappointed, as I won't be able to finish it properly. I might have to build it with battle damage, in fact as I don't have a cockpit cover it would be impossible not to. So maybe I give hte little man a parachute and have him dangle out the aircraft turned upside down with the cockpit blown off so he can escape... That could be quite an interesting one, but it shouldn't have to be done as the model should be decent enough to build it properly. I might write to Airfix and get them to send me the cockpit lid. Although it would be a good model to try out the battle damage techniques on since it's a bit naff...

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