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Airfix 1:35 Cromwell Mk.IV Issues Discussion


Ade H

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Sadly, Eduard can't help with everything else, no. The wait for a good modern Cromwell kit is ongoing.

 

EDIT: This post has been moved by the admin, so if it looks out of context, that's why. 😕

Edited by Ade H
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21 minutes ago, Ade H said:

Sadly, Eduard can't help with everything else, no. The wait for a good modern Cromwell kit is ongoing.

 

What are the Airfix Cromwell's issues?

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I began to type a considered and analytical answer to that question, but would anyone want to trudge through that? I tend to waffle and the people at whom the kit is, I assume, aimed probably don't care very much. And that's no criticism of them at all, merely an observation of their likely preferences.

 

My deleted waffle could be summed up as "it's made by Airfix to Airfix's standard and it looks like it has not moved things on a lot from Tamiya's design of a quarter-century ago." I don't expect Airfix to suddenly rival RFM and still charge pocket money -- that would be silly -- but it seems as though it didn't try to make progress. Several of its aircraft kits are better.* And some other companies demonstrate that value for money doesn't have to be trampled in the rush for better.

 

I know that Airfix was almost certainly never going to produce what the Cromwell deserves because that is not where the company wants to be. I acknowledge that, at least in the aircraft market, it still has a place making cheaper and simpler entry point kits.

 

I hoped that Airfix may have done enough to make a good base for improvement, but etch cannot magically add finesse everywhere as it's really only resurfacing, so to speak. I once built an Academy M3 with Eduard etch (a big set, that) but the result looked like what it was: a clash between very detailed parts and unaltered soft and basic kit molding.

 

More generally, my disappointment is caused by the likes of RFM, Border, and especially Bronco ignoring the Cromwell. Hence, a gap in the market remains unfilled.

 

Can you believe that this is the shorter version? 😆

 

* ("Better" is different for different people and would take yet more waffle to define here.)

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1 hour ago, Ade H said:

I began to type a considered and analytical answer to that question, but would anyone want to trudge through that?

 

I would! Feel free to PM me.

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I've separated this from the review here, so it doesn't muddy the waters of the review, or possibly get ignored.  It's also not wholly relevant to the detail set, although there may be some cross-over, so have a poke around the review too :)

 

35 minutes ago, Procopius said:

 

I would! Feel free to PM me.

It's probably more use to the members here on the forum, as long as it's done in a polite respectful manner and people don't fall out ;)

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28 minutes ago, Nigel Bunker said:

Actually it was made by Academy for Airfix to Academy's standard.

Is this fact or just speculation ? , where's the evidence for this statement ?

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I don't know, why are you sulking about Airfix.

Is it the only brand you can buy?

They used Academy works to sell this kit on the market, they have a biggest share.

As far, as I can see, Afx do not have much of interest in great accuracy of their releases.

At least not, what members of model-making enthusiasts would like.

Of course, sometimes, their designer do have (I would say - personal) interest in a subject, then we have a very good kit by Afx.

As for Cromwell, just a few "fixes" in Tamiya will look better. 25yo - so what? Still more accurate than Afx.

Zig

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At whom are you aiming the "sulking" remark? Are people not permitted to critique any model company's products or be disappointed with them here at this forum? Feels like gatekeeping.

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3 hours ago, Nigel Bunker said:

Actually it was made by Academy for Airfix to Academy's standard.


 

Really.  I know that many of the other Airfix 1:35 AFVs have been inherited from Academy but I thought that the Cromwell was actually an Airfix mould - to my knowledge, Academy never did a Cromwell.

 

I too am a little disappointed with the Airfix Cromwell - I wasn’t expecting Rye Field or Dragon but I was hoping for an improvement over the Tamiya.  The tracks look good but unfortunately that is offset by the schoolboy error on the wheels.

 

I think Airfix missed an opportunity as the old Tamiya is the only competition - they only needed to make an improvement and they would have corned the market.  As it is I think we have a kit that is only a par with the Tamiya model, some bits are better, some bits are worse, price is about the same (if anything the Tamiya is cheaper).  So I can see no compelling reason to buy the Airfix Cromwell over the Tamiya - opportunity missed.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

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26 minutes ago, nheather said:

to my knowledge, Academy never did a Cromwell.

Correct - Airfix subcontracted the design and moulding of the kit to Academy. This is an Airfix product, just made for them by a different manufacturer. I understand Airfix also subcontracted the new 1/35 Austin ambulance to Academy in the same way. I doubt either will appear in an Academy box any time soon, but maybe in the distant future?

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11 hours ago, zigster said:

I don't know, why are you sulking about Airfix.

Is it the only brand you can buy?

 

 

I'm not sulking, I was just curious about the kit and what was or wasn't wrong with it. 

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11 hours ago, Procopius said:

I was just curious about the kit and what was or wasn't wrong with it. 

As far as I am aware, the only problem is that it has the wrong number of wheel nuts on the wheels. There are two ways of dealing with this - replace the wheels with resin replacements or live with it. I am not enough of an AFV modeller to comment on any other features, though I have built one and it goes together nicely. I didn't change the wheels and nobody has noticed.

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As I didn’t start this thread, but kind of got it handed to me, I was hoping to just let it die naturally; but we may be at crossed purposes about this kit. Yes, it has one or two fairly obvious accuracy mistakes, but so do many better kits. I’m not one of those people who claims that a kit is unbuildable because the fuselage is 1mm too wide.

 

When Procopius asked what was wrong with it, my first reaction was to ask whether he had seen it, but went with something more polite and thoughtful which I hoped showed my preference for moulding fidelity and in-scale details. I think that Airfix/Academy has no excuse for just how crude and/or over-scale many of the parts and surfaces are. Some of these can be fixed with etch; but many can’t. And should its target market have to take that step in order to get something of a modern standard?

 

Modern CAD and tooling can do much better without making the product too expensive or too complex for its intended market. Although I am not part of that market, I respect that it exists. However, I don’t believe that Airfix (or Academy) is serving its customers or the hobby as well as it could and should.

 

That’s my view of this kit with respect to its market. My personal view (if that’s allowed…) is that there remains a gap in the market. Deciding whether to buy a cheap (or old) kit often hangs on how well it has been tooled. Whether it’s worth spending more money and effort if it will end up looking like a curate’s egg with a clash between refined (the fixable parts) and crude (the unfixable or difficult to fix).

Edited by Ade H
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Just joining in this discussion, but I'll state right from the start that I haven't had a chance to get a look at the new Airfix Cromwell. But I have read many reviews. From what I've read, the biggest faux pas is the issue with the number of wheels nuts on each road wheel. In all honesty, it is just pure incompetence on the part of whoever did all the ground work for this model. That aside, I don't believe from what I've read that it's a particularly bad kit. In fact, Airfix have scored (or will score) over Tamiya in so far as it would seem that there is a good chance of more version appearing in the future, such as a Mk.lVf. Apart from a Centaur, Tamiya have never bothered to produce any further versions of the Cromwell (unlike many versions of anything which carried a black cross). Although the Tamiya offering is long in the tooth, it is still a very good kit, and a lot better than the only other injection moulded A27 from SKP. 

Airfix could easily fix the road wheel issue by getting Academy to produce a set of correct wheels. They've done that kind of thing before when they first produced the Grant with oversized  VVSS units. 

Once I can get to a model shop again, (that usually means Telford), I will pick up an Airfix Cromwell, and hopefully enjoy the build as I have all of the Tamiya Cromwells/Centaurs that I've built over the years.

 

John.

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