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UTVA BC-3 Troika, Aeropoxy 1/72


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This is my first acquaintance with the brand Aeropoxy of resin kits.

I am building this one for a friend, since -you have probably already guessed- this is not my cuppa.

What first caught my attention was that most of the model came "ready", molded as a single cast. It seemed like a time saver (in the photos my friend sent before sending the actual model).

When the model arrived it looked a bit like those old Eastern European models I have been recently building, with a somewhat heavy surface detail.

The usual resin webs and blocks and slabs -product of the pouring-, common to most of these resin kits, were not easy to remove, leaving prominent marks around the single cast "plane" that you later had to work quite a bit to fix.

The web for the smaller parts was in part ok, and in other areas too thick, making again removal of the parts difficult. I worked on the prop about 25 minutes only to obtain a misshapen part that will have to be replaced anyway. The prop was the worst part and was surrounded by too much material that you basically had to carve away to arrive to the form, Michelangelo style.

You get four pages of documentation in the form of to-scale drawings, photos, text in two different languages, (not English) and what seems to be articles from magazines or books. Color calls, fortunately, are in English.

No parts map (a photo of the parts, though), no building instructions, no exploded view. My guess is that it was deemed unnecessary, given that the model comes almost "ready".

Four things were noticed: the leading edges are crawling with myriads of pinholes (see images below), the transparencies (two provided) are not quite right, being the front part too flat, whilst the real thing is curved side-to side, and one wing came as a banana. A quick immersion in hot water, some pressure, and then cold water, cured the problem. The last thing is that the trailing edges are quite thick, you either leave them as they are, or you refine them loosing the surface detail. 

The resin is very nice to work with, a saving quality. The parts' count is of course minimal given the approach.

You get vinyl framing (or is it vinyl masking material? both? your choice?) for the canopy, another interesting approach, and two small decal sheets, one in B&W, the other in color. Quality will be discussed when their time arrives.

In theory, I think the engineering aims to reduce the building time. We will see.

 

My friend got rid of the box to facilitate mailing:

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Parts mostly clean, now some primer is necessary to reveal the pinholes and deal with them in an effective way, since the white background is not conducive to find blemishes:

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You're definitely working on some 'horrors' at the moment Moa. The closest I got to an Aeropoxy subject was an Ikarus IK-3 in 1/48 but didn't get round to building it before changing to 1/72. As for pinholes in your resin, don't you just love 'em.

 

Stuart

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I can’t help thinking that the name Aeropoxy can only have been invented by somone for whom “British English” [or English, as we English prefer to call it] was not a first language...

 

Is the word “poxy” as a term of disparagement in common use on the Western side of the Pond?

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That's a nice subject, Moa. I don't recall seeing on of these but I do have a soft spot for Yugo machines, having had a guided trip around the Belgrade Aviation Museum and storage areas in the mid 2000s. They certainly produced some interesting air raft :).

 

Martin

Edited by RidgeRunner
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5 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Is the word “poxy” as a term of disparagement in common use on the Western side of the Pond? 

I had to look it up, it seems to be far more common in the Isles than in the mainland, although surely many things deserve it here, at the very least, starting from the top, if you know what I mean.

As a native Spanish speaker it does make sense to me, though, since it was a prefix associated with a known brand of epoxy glues for all its product line.

 

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And suddenly it's 1985 again. Some of the early Magna kits like the DH 95 Flamingo were full of pinholes and the first run of the CMK Vampire Ihad terrible pinholes on the wings that did not show up until it was primed. If anyone can beat this kit into shape, I am sure you can. 

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1 hour ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

I recently bought the Aeropoxy 1/72 Spartan Cruiser. It came out of its thin almost inadequate box for an initial examination and then quickly went back in again. Maybe later...

 

Jeff

The Spartan Cruiser is such a beautiful plane! I love that machine!

Pity when the subjects are extraordinarily appealing, and the kits are not really quite there yet. But it's the price to pay for such off-the-beaten-path machines, I guess? I am getting really tired of paying it, though.

That been said, some resin kit manufacturers present products that go from fair to total joy, while others struggle to render a quality that goes from so-so, to merely acceptable, to downright kit-maker catastrophic unjustified optimism.

As with vacs, bad products (and there are a-plenty) is what drives some modelers away from the media, unjustifiably so in the case of good products, of which, again, there are many examples.

Our hobby is a vast universe....

 

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The nose tip, that comes solid and separated, is hollowed to add detail. The fuselage nose is carved to position a dummy cylinder from the spares.

It is obvious that more pinholes are present in both parts:

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When you put the tip on the nose you find it is quite smaller, so a part made of styrene sheet as an interface will be necessary.

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The vertical stabilizer is glued on. The trimming of the transparency begins. The transparency has no marks whatsoever to guide you, but a resin plug is provided that is not exactly perfection itself. So careful, gradual trimming is advised until the parts fits reasonably over the cockpit opening. We'll see how it goes, since the part seems to be a tad wider than the fuselage opening.

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The landing gear legs are re-touched, and a new propeller made.

You may have noticed an item -in the photos of the parts still on the casting web- that looked like a malformed pillow with four arms, well, that was supposed to be part of the landing gear, some braces and a cover over the shock-absorber bungee.

That will also be re-done since the part provided is very poor:

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10 hours ago, Courageous said:

I'm quite surprised that you're using the those resin landing gear legs as you've normally replaced such weak parts.

Looking better but as you say, the primer will reveal...

 

Stuart

One can do only so much, Stuart, I mentioned at some point that I may, but believe it or not I came to the conclusion that I may not be immortal, hence I can't dedicate an inordinate amount of time to a model, especially one that from the start is not really that promising. There are kits that really inspire you, this is not one of them (subjective, of course).

The landing gear has cross wires that I will superglue to the legs, and that should keep it in place. If not, the kit maker will hear about it from my friend.

Fingers crossed...I mean, wires crossed.

 

 

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This is one of those aeroplanes which appeared in many aircraft recognition books but it was one which few folk would ever see. There was a flying scale plan of this in Aeromodeller in the late fifties, early sixties IIRC.

 

Aeropoxy kits are just models with very bad manners.

 

John

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There are three details on the upper cowl, what I think are fuel and oil caps and a faired bump. The bump was marred by a pinhole, and the other two were not good, so they were obliterated:

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And two metal tubes and a new bump are glued. With this kit every step seems associated with some kind of issue:

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