Roden WW1 kits, opinions sought

[europapete]

Maybe that's why they are called "Special" Hobby? due to special skills needed to build ? lolol. Regards, Pete in RI. ps, I have a couple in the stash, but not built yet.

[Viking]

They are still quite buildable though. The main thing is to fit the lower wing on the Nieuport, and the wings on the Morane before painting, so that you get a god strong plastic to plastic join. Tamiya extra thin is ideal.

[Big Dave S]

Arriving late here. 

Avoid the Albatros W4 seaplane. An absolute disaster.

Felixstowe flying boat in the cupboard here. Might make it or sell it.

Hmmm

[Big Dave S]

On 15/08/2020 at 12:25, europapete said:

Maybe that's why they are called "Special" Hobby? due to special skills needed to build ? lolol. Regards, Pete in RI. ps, I have a couple in the stash, but not built yet.

😆 I did the Special Hobby Sea Fury (Xmas present). Soon stopped caring how it turned out.

A practise kit.

[europapete]

Q on the Sea Fury, are you thinking of the Hobby Craft? I didn't know SH did one. (ahh, hang on, I am thinking 1/48, are you?) lolololol. As an aside, Flightpath do an awesome detail set that works for all 3 1/48 Sea Furys', Airfix, Hobby Craft, and Trumpeter. Until Airfix released theirs, to get a decent model the easiest way was to combine the HC fuselage with the Trumpeter wings and flush out the rest with the Flightpath set. Regards, Pete in RI

[Major Flannel]

On 11/12/2020 at 21:31, Big Dave S said:

Arriving late here. 

Avoid the Albatros W4 seaplane. An absolute disaster.

Felixstowe flying boat in the cupboard here. Might make it or sell it.

Hmmm

Yes, the W4 is a complete, intricate, flash model with tiny elements of an Albatros. 3mm of flash in my example.

However, their other Albatros/O umlaut FFAGs are little gems. Nieuport 24/27 contains a complete Sopwith F.1 sprue, which is nice. Etc.

 

I have a real soft spot for Roden, mainly because of their engine detail. Also, Eduard and Airfix may well make ww1 subjects, but theyre a dying breed of kit in 72nd at least.

Grab a Roden or Toko and be happy : )

[Big Dave S]

39 minutes ago, Hector Sauvage said:

Yes, the W4 is a complete, intricate, flash model with tiny elements of an Albatros. 3mm of flash in my example.

However, their other Albatros/O umlaut FFAGs are little gems. Nieuport 24/27 contains a complete Sopwith F.1 sprue, which is nice. Etc.

 

I have a real soft spot for Roden, mainly because of their engine detail. Also, Eduard and Airfix may well make ww1 subjects, but theyre a dying breed of kit in 72nd at least.

Grab a Roden or Toko and be happy : )

Thanks for the suggestions. On the back of the W4 experience, I sold my Felixstowe flying boat and am devoting what's left of the aircraft modelling period to Cold War jets. 

Should more cabinet space appear somehow, then maybe an Albatros or Nieuport will fit.

Time will tell.

In the meanwhile, Frank Whittle's boys are top of the list...

[RC Boater Bill]

I built the 1/72 Nieuport 24 bis a couple of years ago. It was an easy build, and the kit decals worked fine.  

 

I have been on 1/72 Fokker Dr.1 kick lately- build 6 of the Eduard kits, and one of the new Revell.  I had one Roden  kit on hand, so I decided to try it.  It is an older kit, Ro10 is the number.  (The N24 is Ro59.).  There is a more flash on the parts compared to the N24.   My biggest complaint is the fuselage- Roden molded it as L and R sides, with a separate top/ turtledeck.   Doing some test fitting, I was surprised to see that the fuselage is a good 1.5-2 mm narrower than the top parts.  It will need a good size shim to make the fuselage wide enough to line up with the middle wing and turtleback.

 

My feeling is that the earlier kits are best avoided if alternatives are available, but the later kits are fine.   

[stevehed]

Just wondering which version of the Albatros W4 had the flash issue. I built the late model with the lozenge transfers and thought it was all right as a kit. The transfers behaved as Roden does. The upper and lower wing lozenge proved usable as did the tail planes. The rear upper decking fell to pieces and I'm pretty sure one of the floatplane decals disintegrated so I abandoned the other. If memory serves I think they would have proved to be too thick to adhere to the details on the float uppers even with solutions had they had proved usable. The numerals and iron crosses were usable although I had to touch one up as it split.

[Paul Thompson]

8 hours ago, stevehed said:

Just wondering which version of the Albatros W4 had the flash issue. I built the late model with the lozenge transfers and thought it was all right as a kit. The transfers behaved as Roden does. The upper and lower wing lozenge proved usable as did the tail planes. The rear upper decking fell to pieces and I'm pretty sure one of the floatplane decals disintegrated so I abandoned the other. If memory serves I think they would have proved to be too thick to adhere to the details on the float uppers even with solutions had they had proved usable. The numerals and iron crosses were usable although I had to touch one up as it split.

I have both versions and mine are moulded okay, but flash is very subjective. What some see as a minor convenience, others may suffer a heart attack over. Personally, I was always more bothered by the brittle plastic in the earlier kits, particularly the Gothas, which have lots of very fine parts and sprue gates that invite disaster. But, if you like the subject, you work around it.

 

The decals I had behaved much as yours, although having no alternative at the time I persevered and patched and touched up. With a new Roden kit I give them a chance because they have imroved, but inconsistently. Older ones I have less tolerance for (but a much larger stash of aftermarket than back when the Albatrosses came out).

 

Paul.

[europapete]

I had the full set of Gotha kits a few years ago, and all the Part pe sets. sold them after I got my WNW G4, figured that was enough of a Gotha to keep me occupied for a couple of years! lol. The Roden ones were nice kits, lots of detail and the pe sets were amazing. Regards, Pete in RI

[fred jack]

When Roden started, there were few WWl planes in 1/32. All were Hobbycraft or Battle Ax. When Roden came out with a bunch of Nieuports of different types, SE 5As, and the SPAD VII, I was ecstatic. As far as the decals, us old pros had learned how to deal with those. I know that there is no comparison between Roden and Wingnut Wings, but WnWs is history now. I’m happy to see Aviattic’s model, CSM, and Special Hobby coming out with stuff, but it’s great to see Roden not throwing in the towel.

[Major Flannel]

On 12/01/2021 at 23:53, stevehed said:

Just wondering which version of the Albatros W4 had the flash issue. I built the late model with the lozenge transfers and thought it was all right as a kit. The transfers behaved as Roden does. The upper and lower wing lozenge proved usable as did the tail planes. The rear upper decking fell to pieces and I'm pretty sure one of the floatplane decals disintegrated so I abandoned the other. If memory serves I think they would have proved to be too thick to adhere to the details on the float uppers even with solutions had they had proved usable. The numerals and iron crosses were usable although I had to touch one up as it split.

I know this is necro-posting, apologies, but to answer you long after the question was asked, the offending article was the early W4:

The shorted floats were the most retrievable part. 

[Paul Thompson]

    Pretty awful, and I've never seen anything like as bad with a Roden (or Toko) kit. Someflash, and some kits worse that way than others, but the worst wasn't more than a few minutes worth of clean-up. And I may be using them rose-tinted glasses again but don't recall ever having a short shot from them, except the end of strut once. Can't remember now, was this also an Eastern Express re-issue?  The moulds may not be banjaxed, it could be down to a poorly adjusted injecting machine and zero quality control.

 

    The biggest problem with Roden I've found is flash that is very fine and not immediatly visible - I was looking for it because I'd read reports of very poor fuselage fit on their 1/48th Strutters, and found it too, using a headband magnifier. It was very minor in terms of clean-up, but so placed as to cause out of proportion fit problems. Having zapped it, the kit went together absolutley fine (except the struts, which as with the 1/72nd kits needed the centre section W struts adjusting).  So no problem really, but I think there should be some sort of award for the rotten moulding in that Albatros. I'll have to have a lie down now to recover from the ghastly image.

 

Paul.

[Major Flannel]

There are more images for when you recover : p

 

The fuse had around <>2mm thick at the worst sections, but the finer parts weren't so bad. Treated it like a vacform and cut it roughly into simple flash shapes to work on further. There's deffo a W4 in here somewhere. It was a clearly branded Roden offering btw, mail order from mojehobby.pl.

 

Best wishes to you.

 

Edit: Roden's FWD WW1 truck was similarly grossly shorted in the tail gate area, but flash much much better. This shorting has only been a nuisance with Roden.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Major Flannel

[TallBlondJohn]

My W4 had even more flash than that. But cut it off and its all fine. Personally I rather enjoy removing flash, maybe its a nostalgia thing.

[wombat]

That looks more like a Merlin effort!

[Planebuilder62]

Just my attempt to de-escalate the knocking going on here, I was very pleased with the Roden Felixstowe I built a few years back, no flash and a perfect fit. They also provide spare parts quickly and without fuss. Hmmm, must get round to posting some Felixstowe pictures soon.

 

Regards Toby

[europapete]

On their 1/32 kits, I have found very little flash at all, good fit, and generally very nice kits. 

[Paul Thompson]

2 hours ago, Planebuilder62 said:

Just my attempt to de-escalate the knocking going on here, I was very pleased with the Roden Felixstowe I built a few years back, no flash and a perfect fit. They also provide spare parts quickly and without fuss. Hmmm, must get round to posting some Felixstowe pictures soon.

 

Regards Toby

Clarification. I like Roden kits, a lot. Just starting the new 1/32nd Spad XIII now, and it isn't even my scale.

 

Paul.

[Harold55]

I just finished the 1/48 Nieuport 28c and have never seen decals more out of register than these.  But the plastic is good - good detail an good fit.  My advice is if it is the only one in that scale at a reasonable price go for it.

[europapete]

I believe Microscale do/did a nice decal sheet for the 1/48 N28.