1/100 Playfix / Nu-Bee / Plasticart Kits - Any Love?

[Ghostbase]

A workplace colleague who used to work at Heathrow keeps asking me if I want to purchase his complete airliner kit collection, he knows that I am an active scale modeller though military is more my line than civilian.

 

Basically he wants £100 for 13 kits. Not a bad price however this contains 5 x 1/100 Playfix Trident 1, a Nu-Bee 1/100 Trident 1, a 1/100 Playfix IL-62, a 1/00 Playfix Boeing 727, and a 1/100 Plasticart Comet 4. The remaining kits are an Airfix B707-436 (1976 boxing), an Airfix Lockheed Tristar (this is the one I want!), an Airfix VC-10 K2 tanker (all 1/144), and a Revell 1/72 FW200 Condor (1992 boxing). Also an 'AERMEC CO-MA' Vickers VC-10!

 

My question is how popular are the old East German airliner 1/100 kits? I sold a few of their military kits on ebay many years ago and they were definitely *NOT* sought after 

 

My inclination is to walk away, say thanks but no thanks. What do you think?

 

Thanks, Michael

[modelldoc]

That's are vintage kits. some of them in production until today

 

https://www.reifra.de/online-shop/spielwaren-aus-eigener-herstellung/modellbau/?p=2

 

So the Trident, the Comet and the B 727 quiet rare kits.

 

BTW the old FROG /NOVO collection 1:96 had a Comet and a Caravelle.

 

modelldoc

[Jessica]

The Trident's nose is very pinched and it needs a considerable amount of TLC in order to make a convincing model. The IL-62 has the prototype's escape slides under the nose; they'll have to be ground off to make a production aircraft.They all suffer from drastically oversized rivets and hard, brittle plastic. The decals may also be aged beyond use, but that's not necessarily insurmountable. When they're finished they'd be an impressive collection.

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello, Michael

Apparently Il-14 from VEB Plasticart is highly regarded by some collectors or had been so some ten years ago at least, some of its fans being prepared to pay silly money (several hundred pounds) for a box in mint condition. Otherwise Jessica gave you good overall review of VEB Plasticart kits. I personally would take such an offer as Revell Fw 200 is the only civilian or military transport version of Kondor in 1/72 and retailers sell Airfix B707-436 for nearly 40€, at least around here. Cheers

Jure

[Ghostbase]

Thanks for the opinions, much appreciated

 

I am going to make a counter-offer and see what happens.

 

Thanks again. Michael

[Guest]

The Revell civillian Condor is a very nice kit and completely different from the old tool military bird.  It does have some similarities but it's got recessed panels and no rivets.  The wheels are a bit slim and the plastic in the early kits is prone to warping.  

 

The civvie Condors were pressed into Luftwaffe service - Revell reboxed it in the late 90s with military markings and more importantly harder plastic less prone to warping.  

[Eric Mc]

I think he would be better of trying to sell the kits individually. I've only ever successfully completed one VEB kit - and that was their 1/25 scale Vostok which, as far as I can remember, was fairly accurate. That model is long gone but I do have another unbuilt one in my stash.

[tempestfan]

Original Plasticart boxings have become quite collectable, at least on the continent. The Il-62 used to be quite sought after in any boxing, and the Comet is probably the rarest of the (Plasticart) bunch above, as the mould seems to have gone missing in the mid to late 70s. Not sure if collectors pay the Prices, but the Co-Ma VC-10 definitely is not found on every Corner.

[Alex1978]

I am having a soft spot for those Plasticart kits and have built up quite a collection by know with mostly all built from my stash.

They are difficult to build sometimes but with care they can be turned into nice models.I am happy with all of them...except the silly prices I had to pay for some of those

[modelldoc]

I had made only three:

 

The Trident with new decals from Russia (!)

 

 

The Tu-134 with new decals from my stash:

 

 

And the Mi-10K:

 

 

The landing gear was tricky!

 

modelldoc

[Alex1978]

20 minutes ago, modelldoc said:

I had made only three:

 

The Trident with new decals from Russia (!)

 

 

The Tu-134 with new decals from my stash:

 

 

And the Mi-10K:

 

 

The landing gear was tricky!

 

modelldoc

Very nice.

 

Here some of my builds...

 

Pan American-Grace DC-8-33 Plasticart 1/100

 

 

Ilyushin IL-62 Interflug with modifications 1/100 VEB Plasticart

 

 

[Fazzman]

Some nice looking Tridents there! As an ex-trident man who happens to have quite a few trident production drawings from back in the day, I have to agree with Jessica that the nose is pinched (as well as having the wrong profile) but unfortunately the wing plan is also wrong, as is the false centre 'engine front/grill' atop the fuselage, the centre engine intake side & front profile itself, and the main undercarriage legs and doors are the wrong shape altogether, oh, and the scale appears to be 1/87. 5(!) rather than 1/100th. All the fuselage-to-wing fairings seemed to have got missed BUT all that can be corrected with a bit of elbow grease and TLC, plus it means you get a bigger Trident than you thought you would! Having said all that, I have my original, heavily modified Plasticart kit (complete with new wings, front galley and working internal lights) which I started way, way back in 1981(!) still in my shed, all painted and decalled up, though still awaiting fitment of its new undercarriage and doors. These I made years ago from scratch but again, just haven't got round to fitting. Life got in the way. The decals came from a mix of various 26Decals BEA sources, as I made my kit as the ill-fated G-ARPI that tragically crashed in Staines in June 1972. (This was always a sad incident for us Hatfield workers, even though the crash wasn't really blamed on the aircraft design at all). As you can tell, I'm a slow-burning model maker... So, it's almost completed but I felt like making another in this modern era, so recently purchased the Reifra kit as seen on the 'net. You do get the same white, black and silver moulded parts, still in quite a hard, brittle plastic, all separately bagged but you do also get all the above errors, as the moulds have obviously been left as per the original Plasticart moulds, albeit with the maker's name 'Reifra' now moulded into the stand. A broken spine currently prevents me from starting the kit just yet but I'll return triumphant to your pages in the future to tell you how things progressed! All I've got to do now is find the numerous drawings that are now 37 years old.... Talking of age, I was a mere 22 years of age and just married. During the manufacture of this ki, I've had two children, four grandchildren and the manufacturer of the Trident, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, got swallowed up into British Aerospace, which then built the BAe 146 at Hatfield until they moved the line to Manchester. This line has also now ceased operation. My whole family worked on the trident project at Hatfield in one format or other. So to me, this Trident kit is not mere plastic, it's the only source for a chance for any of us to make a reasonable rendition of a piece of flying history. And who says modelling is boring?! APOLOGIES for this lengthy script! To say sorry, I'd always be willing to lend a hand on any 'Tridenty' questions that might raise their heads...