Some reflections on this kit,
Revell and MRP.
I will never be a fan of
Revell, far from it, but this kit has been a surprise. It started badly with all that crap in the very first step of the build but it has redeemed itself. To my surprise it has been a very problem free build and something of a real pleasure.
Revell will never become a ‘high end’ producer of kits but we do need some companies producing cheap kits for the casual builder and, perhaps, to hook new people into the hobby who can then be tempted to explore high-end kits. What this kit proves is that
Revell can produce something pretty decent but, in a way, that makes it even more annoying that they cannot do just a couple of simple things that would make their kits, not high-end, but at least mid-range quality. It surely would not add much to the cost of a build to put just a little thought into sprue organisation. To group associated parts on a sprue and/or to identify the sprue in the instructions are such small things but they would make life a lot easier. I have spent such a lot of time just trying to find parts with this kit it really detracts from the pleasure. We all know that the molds are a major part of the cost of a kit with all the associated research and CAD work. Would it actually cost much more to shoot a better quality plastic into the molds? My experience with the
Revell/Dragon bf110 shows just what a huge difference plastic quality makes to a kit, it really does affect the fit and accuracy even from the same molds. When you look at the cost of 1/32 scale kits,
Tamiya and Zoukei Mura at the high-end can charge over £100 for a Spitfire because people know they are worth the price and will buy them. Trumpeter/Hobby-Boss and Hasegawa can charge in the range of £50 to £70 and, again people will buy them and know that they are getting a decent kit for their money even if they may have issues. Then at the bottom we have
Revell charging, what £25 for a Spitfire.... Some people might think value but it is not, it is cheap.
Revell could up their game in just the two areas I mentioned, charge £30 and then it will be approaching what I would call value while still being cheap. But I would not expect it to cost an extra £5 to make those two small adjustments so there is plenty of room for
Revell to still keep a significant price advantage but spend that bit more in improving quality...... But then is 1/32 scale the space where
Revell should be worried about price over quality at all? It works in smaller scales for them but I am not so sure that it is a good strategy for 1/32 but that is a whole new debate, an interesting perhaps for another time.
Now MRP....
I realise that I have been doing it wrong.... I did not realise simply because MRP is such a great paint and is so forgiving. I tried something different with this build and it worked. When I swapped over from Vallejo
Model Air to MRP I kept some of my old VMA habits that I should not have done. I did not change the pressure setting on my compressor and just adjusted it via the in-line fine pressure control (fpc) on my brush. So all this time I have had my compressor set at 30psi. MRP needs between 10 and 15psi and I thought my fpc did the job. It didn’t. For this build I decided for no particular reason to lower the pressure at the compressor. I reduce it to 20 psi and noticed when I did that the gauge fell to 15 psi in operation before the motor kicked back in. I made further adjustments via the fpc. Wow, what a difference it made, a great paint working even better..... I used less paint and got a better more even coverage. When I came to the mottle I decided, as well, to use the screw at the back of the
airbrush to restrict paint flow and yes, that also made a massive difference. I really think that the paint job I achieved on this 109 is the best yet for these reasons. Finally I have just sprayed a light gloss coat. With the compressor setting lower the varnish is hitting the model with less pressure so the paint re-activation from the lacquer varnish is just not happening. Clearly the fpc, while it helps, does not, in itself, do enough. Interesting. I can see myself trying some rather more challenging camo schemes freehand in future... MRP, the best
airbrush paint you can get is now even better for me as I am getting it right at last....
Just a few Saturday musings......
Now, this 109 will not finish itself and I have some
decals to apply.... but that is for tomorrow....