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Vac form kits


WarhammerAdjacent

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Hi all, sorry if this is the wrong place but I wasn’t really sure where else to put it. Whilst clearing out his shed my father found a box of old vac form kits he bought in the 80s and 90s. They mostly look like the one in the picture and are pretty complete as far as I can tell.

 

51095003870_427c3568a6_b.jpg


He is not looking to sell them (yet, although that might change when Mum realised how much space they occupy) but I was wondering whether they are still a ‘thing’ in the hobby? I am afraid the mere thought of building one terrifies me but is there a band of committed ‘enthusiasts’ out there or have they been surpassed by modern technology?

 

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I for one almost only build vacuum formed models

 

They also appear as builds on here from time to time.

 

There is an " Anything but Injection" group buld running currently where they will no doubt make a strong showing.

 

So in answer to your question. Yes!

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      If it comes to a time to sell them, and you want to do it on Britmodeller, you'll need more than 100 posts and to put them in the dedicated for sale area. Put anyware else invites thread removal by the mods. 

 

      Are they all just Formaplane? To be honest, although good at the time they are no longer the best. Many of their subjects were covered by better vacs slightly later. Also, in terms of price, they don't fetch much, some are still available, see http://form-u-lay.co.uk/planes.html.  And of course since then there are now also injection moulded kits of a lot of their subjects.  You do see Formaplane kits quite often on Ebay UK, and a lot still change hands (or did up until the pandemic) at modelling shows.

 

      Having said that, I have quite a few Formaplane kits lying about, and for someone used to vacs they're fairly good quality, i.e they go together fairly well, are a good basis for detailing, and except where the plans used have since turned out suspect they're fairly accurate. There  should be a small bag of white metal parts in most kits, and for the biplanes some extruded strut and rod material (not as good as Contrail/Aeroclub unfortunately, but sometimes useable). I don't think they ever supplied decals, but copious colour notes on A4 assembly and info sheets.

 

Paul.

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Not sure if there's many that build vacform nowadays, there are some on this forum and I have a couple in slow progress.  But the kits are sought after especially some of the better kits such as Rareplanes, Esoteric and some Contrails especially those with whitemetal castings.  These achieve good prices on eBay or with dealers, so depending which kits your dad stored may provide an investment towards a new stash for you?

Beware of anyone telling you they're worthless but you need to find the right market.  I tried to give away a Contrail Lerwick at my IPMS to no avail, whereupon it sold for £70 on eBay! 

Good Luck,

Will

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Formaplane did vary.  I've no idea about their WW1 subjects, but their IAR 80 was a lovely little kit, their Albacore atrocious.  If you have one of those bin it, it would be grossly unkind to anyone to sell it to them.  Unless one of your worst enemies offers cash, of course.

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1 minute ago, Graham Boak said:

Formaplane did vary.  I've no idea about their WW1 subjects, but their IAR 80 was a lovely little kit, their Albacore atrocious.  If you have one of those bin it, it would be grossly unkind to anyone to sell it to them.  Unless one of your worst enemies offers cash, of course.

The WW1 stuff is what I am most familiar with, and is largely quite good. Even the larger things like the Hastings are quite buildable. (So no, Malpaoso, I didn't say they were worthless and he doesn't need to beware of me).

 

Paul.

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Are they still a thing in the hobby? No, they have been made obsolete by other manufacturing techniques and today most of the subjects that appeared as vacformed kits are available in injected plastic or resin.

Do people still build them? Yes, there are modellers who still enjoy these, as you've seen from the answers above. 

Market value? Depends, for some don'expect more than a fiver, others may fetch high prices if you find the right modeller or collector interested

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I have bought them in when a relative is clearing out a persons' estate.

 

I have a couple of customers who love them, I also have an outlet in the trade I can flip them to if my customer doesn't want them, and the trader always, welcomes them, so there must be a decent market as he's always asking me if I have more.

 

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Resin tended to take over from vac form. As with all genres there are good and bad but the best are excellent. However, personally, I find them expensive and struts and undercarriage tend to need replacing. That makes them little different from vac forms. If you compare Joystick, for example, to some of the East European resin makers they are often half the price.

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Thanks all for the advice and comments. I think I need to keep researching and work out what the market is like. If you’re curious I’ve stuck them in a Flickr album here:

 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/192558800@N08/yJr9c2
 

I’ll keep looking around, I’m tempted to give one a go at some point just to see what it’s like.

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Those are all good ones. Rareplanes are top notch, but the Gotha and Junkers D.I have been well surpassed by the Roden injection moulded kits. Still buildable, but the Junkers more so. There was an Aeroclub detail pack for the Gotha (engines, wheels and guns), so if you can find a bag with those anywhere knocking about in the box you can probably sell those on with no problem. All the other kits are buildable with little effort if you're used to vacs,  Airfix now do a nice BE2c but again the Formaplane kit is okay.  Warbirds, BTW, was a small offshoot of the Rareplane line (4 WWI types). If you're thinking of trying one and are new to vacs, there's a must-read guide to them lurking somewhere here on Britmodeller, by John Adams (Aeroclub). I'd suggest any of the Rareplane kits except the Gotha.

 

Paul.

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The Formaplane FE2b isn't bad. I built one a few years ago, though unfortunately it had been in the stash since the 90s and at some point I'd mislaid the strut material/plastic rod that came with it. I don't recall any other 1/72 scale kit of the Fee ever being available, yet it was a very significant type in RFC/RAF service.

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2 minutes ago, AWFK10 said:

The Formaplane FE2b isn't bad. I built one a few years ago, though unfortunately it had been in the stash since the 90s and at some point I'd mislaid the strut material/plastic rod that came with it. I don't recall any other 1/72 scale kit of the Fee ever being available, yet it was a very significant type in RFC/RAF service.

I think there may have been a resin by Plum Blossom, but it may have been a Vickers FB5 - can't remember at this distance. The Formaplane kit is nice. I've seen it rubbished, but TBH the only thing I dislike are the indentations for ribs, it being from the period when the designer (may have been the redoubtable Joe Chubbock) thought it better if the builder added sprue to the grooves and sanded it down. Anyway, mine is cut and sanded, but every time I get it out to crack on I find something to lead me astray. I'm suprised Choroszy or Ardpol never gave it a go (although the wings would have invited disaster in resin, it didn't stop Choroszy with their Caudrons, Caproni and Short/Longhorns.........).

 

Paul.

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