Roden kits

[aerotechi]

Hi all,

Was looking at doing a selection of civil aircraft (DC 3 to DC8, Britannia, VC10, Comet) and since Roden do quite the selection was wondering what the general consensus is regards quality, fit, detail, decals etc is. 
Most of my models are airfix or revell with a couple of Italeri and Tamiya I’ve just started on. 
So any insight would be much appreciated. 
Thanks.   

[Pin]

Fairly buildable

[Viking]

Roden airliners are pretty good, specially if you use aftermarket decals.

These are a couple of my favourites on the forum and show just how good a result you can get:

Skodadrivers Brittania

 

Turbofans VC10

 

There are some issues with the Roden Boeing 720 regarding engine size in one of the versions, but overall they are well worth building.

It's Eastern Express you need to be careful with, although the Tristar, DC10, and MD11 are very nice. All EE's kits are also way overpriced for my liking.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Britman]

If you want a Britannia Roden is the way to go. The Pan Am 720 is also in my opinion a good kit as is the DC3 /C47.

 

Keith

[Eric Mc]

I'm building the Roden 720 at the moment . It is definitely a short(ish) run kit with limited locating pins etc but the mouldings are pretty crisp and the fit is not too bad. I'm building it in parallel with a 1963 vintage Airfix Boeing 707 and I can state categorically that the Roden parts fit better than the Airfix ones do.

 

As has been mentioned, the turbojet version of the Roden 720 comes with oversized engines. I actually bought a set of Welsh Models resin engines (which are closer in scale to the real thing) but unfortunately the pylons look too short for the Roden kit. So, in the end, I decided to stick with the original kit items - despite their faults.

 

The turbofan engines supplied with the Roden 720B kit seem to be OK.

[Skodadriver]

Roden kits are generally fine and I would definitely urge you to give them a try. There are lots of built examples in RFI particularly Super VC10s and Boeing 720s. This is an outstanding piece of modelling.

 

@Viking has generously referred to the Britannia I built a few years ago. I'll return the complement by linking to his superb Carvair

 

I have also built the Super VC10, the DC-6 and most recently the Boeing 720B. Many years ago I built the DC-3 although it never appeared in RFI so I can't link to photos. 

 

The VC10 and the DC3 were largely problem free. The DC3 is a little gem of a kit. The Britannia suffers from slight fit issues with the engines and props but nothing show-stopping. The 720B has the correct sized engines (unlike the 720) but the fit of the pylons to the wings is poor, annoying but, once again, not show-stopping. The DC-6, one of Roden's earliest kits, was probably the most difficult with dodgy scribing, crudely moulded engines and some other issues but I got there in the end. If I can build them anyone can!

 

Hope that's some help.

 

Dave G

 

[Doom3r]

Didn't build their airliners however built their AC-47, AC-119 and C-141. My only complains are packaging and decals. Decals for the gunships seemed to be of very low resolution and went straight into the trash. Kits packed in quite weak boxes and in case of the C-141 it was tightly packed in a packet which was rattling without any constraints inside a box (the size of the box is quite big compared to the kit so you can put another kit into the same box). As a result few pieces were knocked off the sprues and there was a damage to wingtips that needed to be repaired via plasticard b/c wingtip corners got broken off. In a recent review Roden B-36 by florymodels you can see exact same issue with damaged tail.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Doom3r

[aerotechi]

Thanks all. That’s just the info I was after. 
I had seen some really good examples in RFI but they don’t always tell you any issues. 
Based on what you’ve said I certainly think a monarch Britannia is going on the wish list and a VC10 and go from there. 

[TEXANTOMCAT]

The kits are nicely detailed but their plastic is extremely brittle so take care! 
 

TT

[Big Dave S]

Take this with a pinch of salt but...

I tried their Albatros W4 last summer and it remains one of a very few kits I have given up on.

The parts were such a bad fit and so poor generally I threw it away and sold their Felixstowe flying boat that was waiting in the cupboard.

That said, others will have more experience than me. I just suggest Roden are approached with caution.

[aerotechi]

Thanks all. Just what I wanted to know. 

[Eric Mc]

A friend of mine is building the Roden Britannia and, so far, he is quite pleased with the experience.

[theplasticsurgeon]

My Roden VC10,  a delightful build,  and in my favourite livery.

 

[Britman]

Only two things that the Brit kit wonders off on are the lack of hinge covers on the moving surfaces, rudder ailerons and elevators. These can be added but only with a lot of pfaffing about and although F-resin put them on their kit I can live without them. The other is the main undercarriage units. The front set of wheels should be mounted a little narrower than the rear pair. This is an easy fix, simply slice the wheel mounts back to the central leg ( bogey ). I would say that this is probably the best we can expect from the industry and as for the F-resin kit it comes up short for me and so my only example is going to be a CL44!

 

Keith