Does anyone know anything about this kit?

[parsifal]

I found a kit on ebay that intersts me, because I cant find a modern kit of the aircrcraft. Its a Sea Venom, 1/72 scale, listed in ebay.

The seller has a pretty good selling record, but he has not said much about the kit.

He did say it is a vacuform kit he bought from the fleet air arm museum in England back in the 80's. To be honest, I dont even know what vacuform is.

The kit says it is a kit by rare planes....but who is or was this company....Ive never heard of them

Anyway this is a link to the item, which has one picture attached to the item

RARE PLANE - De Havilland FB4 Venom- Very Rare!!!! - eBay Planes, Air, Model Building, Toys, Hobbies. (end time 01-Nov-09 20:21:10 AEDST)

Despite the obvious problems I am still interested in this kit. Its very cheap, and its the only kit on offer in Australia that I can find.

Should I make a bid for this model?????

[109ROAMING]

Depends mate , Vacuform is alot harder to make than normal injection moulded kits like ya Skyhawk

The kit itself , is thin plastic moulded to shape with little thickness

I've never made one , not because I'm out off but because I've never found one

Someone else will be able to tell ya more about them , just thought I'd chuck my 2 cents in

P.s , would it be possible to get an injection moulded Vampire and convert it?

[Airframes]

Rareplanes were a well respected company producing limited run vac form kits of types not produced, as injection moulded kits, by the main-stream manufacturers, and turned out some good products.
A vac form kit is made from relatively thin sheet styrene, by forming it over a mould in a vacuum machine. This draws down the plastic over the mould and, with the application of heat as it's being moulded, forms the parts. These come as a sheet, or sheets of plastic, with the parts in relief, which have to be cut out from the sheet. Each component needs to be sanded on its edges before being joined/fitted, and there are no locating pins, as on injection moulded kits.
Larger scales can be tackled with relative ease, although they are still tricky, but 1/72nd scale 'fighter' size kits can be extremely difficult for the newcomer to vac forms.
Although they may not be readily available in Australia, there are kits of the Venom and Vampire around in both 1/72nd and 1/48th, Classic Airframes being one producer. A quick search on the Hannant's web-site, just as a guide, should show available kits, as they tend to stock virtually every available manufacturer's products. Just enter the scale, and the keyword Venom, and the site should display what's available.

[B-17engineer]

Vacuform is really really tough from what I've seen!

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by parsifal

To be honest, I dont even know what vacuform is.

Should I make a bid for this model?

Here's a typical vacform (don't when they started inserting the 'u') kit, though it doesn't depict the kit that you're interested in (it's a Do335).

They're not for beginners, that's for sure. I'm pretty certain they rely on donor kits to provide the detail.
Never made one in all honesty but it could make a nice challenge if you're an accomplished modeller with injection-mold kits.

Is AUS $19.00 expensive?

[vikingBerserker]

Just looking at that makes me cringe!

[parsifal]

Originally Posted by Colin1

Here's a typical vacform (don't when they started inserting the 'u') kit, though it doesn't depict the kit that you're interested in (it's a Do335).

They're not for beginners, that's for sure. I'm pretty certain they rely on donor kits to provide the detail.
Never made one in all honesty but it could make a nice challenge if you're an accomplished modeller with injection-mold kits.

Is AUS $19.00 expensive?

Na, its cheap as chips. Since I Posted this, I did find a 1/48 kit by Revell, in Germany that is only $27. However the catch is the freight. Even having it delivered costs a whopping $65, bringing the total cost of the kit, to my doorstep to no less than $92, for a 1/48 scale.

I think I will let this vacuform model pass, but $92 is daylight robbery in my opinion

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by parsifal

Na, its cheap as chips. Since I Posted this, I did find a 1/48 kit by Revell, in Germany that is only $27. However the catch is the freight. Even having it delivered costs a whopping $65, bringing the total cost of the kit, to my doorstep to no less than $92, for a 1/48 scale.

I think I will let this vacuform model pass, but $92 is daylight robbery in my opinion

Wow
how do they justify $65 for something that weighs what a 48th scale model weighs and the space it takes up? I've bought books from Oz and it cost no way that much to get them here, mind you, I don't know what the ins and outs are between shipping books and model cartons.

Terrestrial shipping would be cheaper if you're prepared to be patient.

[dirkpitt289]

No offense but it dosen't look so special to me. I don't mean that its easy to build but that it dosen't look like anything great in the way of details.

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by dirkpitt289

No offense but it dosen't look so special to me. I don't mean that its easy to build but that it dosen't look like anything great in the way of details.

This was the point I was making about donor kits
These wouldn't necessarily be the injection-mold version of whatever you're building in vacform but it would be an aircraft that either shared parts or markings.

[B-17engineer]

Wurger taught me to stick with one scale. He made a good point Parsifal, A 1/72 fighter looks odd next to a 1/48 fighter, right?

I build 1/48 or atleast that is what all the kits in my "STASH" are..... Just a thought!