NEW MODEL KIT THREAD

Surprisingly, an other guy from Argentina is currently offering on Ebay another Alfa model lightly different from Air-Trax model.
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I bought the transkit. While it has the potential, and looks correct as far as all the details go, the quality of the casting is not what you would expect for the price. I guess, we are paying for the exclusivity! Btw, the picture above shows pieces that were cleaned up some. Stil la good buy for a nut like me!

 

I would like it too sooo much.
Did you order them or do you make display models of them (still trying to figure that out) ?

Oh does anyone have the web address of Air-Trax ?

Arno.

 

Their quality varies; not sure if multiple people do the casting and mold making...but I have a Saab and it has tons of small air bubbles, defects that seem to indicate they are not casting under pressure. I've seen similar w/their Volvo P1800 coupes & Anglias. I was particularly disappointed when I saw the Bentley Continental R; looks more like an amateur casting job (of a subject I would love to build...but I can't justify it, simply too much tedious cleanup work and more, for the high price). Yet I saw a P1800 ES wagon that looked superb, at least the body and few parts I saw were far better than any other AirTrax samples I have seen.

They have some great subject matter, but they need to get on the ball with their casting technique and quality.

 

First, I want to thank you for your honest critics. It is very hard to get anyone to say important things like these face to face, even in an e-mail.

I have tried to keep out of conversations like this, might be wiser this time, too. Still some of the comments made me rather sad, I try to explain why.

Yes, we are amateurs. There are four of us making the masters. So far we have been pretty satisfied with what we have been able to create and offer fellow modelers. We haven't marketed our products too strongly either, but have mostly just waited if someone finds us and wants to buy something. Seems to me you are comparing us to Hiro, Studio24 etc.

We are hard trying to achieve good quality, but,as amateurs without education for casting, this takes time. I think we have learnt something during the five years we've been tinkering with rubber and resin, and I believe the kits Bob is referring to were made in the beginning of our path. Excect of course the Bentley, but there I tried to leave as much as possible for the real professonals. So the window frames, wipers, pedals, logos etc are on the photo etch sheet made by Eduard. Even this cost is included in the kit price.

Perhaps you have noticed, by the way, that our prices are still exactly the same as they were five years ago.

Finland is a very expensive country to live in, and unfortunately we don't know any Chinese who would do the cleanup work for us. Using the Big Mac-index, we don't buy very many health food meals with one kit price minus mold-and resin costs. Or we don't buy too many litres, not to even mention gallons(!) of gasoline either with the denari from one kit... Thinking of the weak US Dollar, at least you can't put the blame on me for that...

Besides, I believe the parts travel more safely when they have something around them protecting them. Just think about the Ferrari frame for example!

Besides, you don't expect Tamiya to remove parts from sprues and remove the mold seams before selling the kits, do you? Does this stop you from buying Tamiya? Or Hasegawa or styrene in general?

What on earth do you expect from us? Beaautifully cast parts that you can admire every now and then and put back in the box, or kits for building models you don't see anywhere else?

Our kits are produced at home, we have no possibilities to use pressure, over- or under, as this is dangerous, and we have our families in the same rooms we are working in.

I want to mention that I have built over a half a dozen of our home cast kits myself, and am still going to build more of them.

And we are trying our best to get better.

Thank you for your time and attention.

 

I am taking it as constructive, but I still felt I had to reply something! In Finland everything is on the expensive side, not just resin and silicone. I have just compared gasoline price, result: U.S: average 2,7U.S.$/gallon, Finland: 7 U.S.$/gallon! So with an average Air-Trax kit price I get one tank of gas...

In model kits, in my opinion, the first thing in importance is the accuracy and proportions of the body, interior, detail, chassis , in this order. You don't do much with a superbly cast resin part from a bad master.

Second comes the material used. It must be durable enough, stable, easy to paint and to work on.

Only then come flash, small air bubbles, and other possible things that are simple for the buyer/builder to fix, and part of our hobby, really! If I wanted something that goes together with no effort at all, I would build jig saw puzzles... And like I said, we are constantly trying to improve on this.

I am of course flattered to get compared with such good names as Fisher, Scalekraft, Profil 24 etc, as we are just a bunch of amateurs.
And Tom,
I want to thank you for adding the photos&info of our kits on FerrariChat.

 

Tapani, thanks for replying and please realize that the criticism is constructive, because of a love for the subject matter and a similar interest in doing some resin casting. You are so far away; however myself and a few others that you know in Atlanta at least could give you some hands-on experience from similar trials and tribulations of resin casting for ourselves. If you ever do travel this way, you are more than welcome to visit so you can see how we're doing it...we're amateurs but with several people around the area doing the work and sharing the information back and forth, the results are pretty good, and with resin casting there is always something to learn. There's nothing like having some hands-on instruction...we started with a little knowledge, and have a great local resin supplier that offers a few weekend classes on resin casting, he even held a seminar at our club meeting. I'll send you an email so you can get back with any questions, and I'm sure others may be able to offer some insight and help as well.

 

Bob, It is true that we are pretty alone here and we do appreciate all help we can get and all contacts to share experience with.
The earlier comments here made me think they would make anybody not familiar with our products very suspicious about them :" cool subjects, but the guys can't cast "! Would they still be interested in buying our products?
And I felt that some kind of explanation had to be given for certain matters: "the guys can't cast, still they try to rob us ".
What has been written here after my "explosion" has been very clarifying and constructive.
Hope to hear from you soon (in my e-mail)!