Airfix 1970 & 1971 soft plastic Abbot and Stalwart

[P-3s rule]

Is there any way that the soft plastic 1970/71 Airfix 1/32 Alvis Stalwart and Abbot SPG can be redeemed and detailed and turned into decent representations of the real things? I am assuming the short answer would be "NO"!

 

Is the old Nichimo 1/35 Abbot worthwhile  - or is this a waste of time and $$$?

 

Jason

Edited July 26, 2022 by P-3s rule
changed text

[sandsmodels]

the problem with both these and the other polythene vehicles is glueing the bits onto them.

 

nothing sticks very well for long.

i have used sand paper to roughen up the bases on polythene fish tank vegitation with superglue but it will if knocked just fall off the superglue.

good luck with it, i have quite a few polythene models and have not tried too much detailing.

i have however made better wheels, cab interior and a winch for the antar tank trans in 72 scale.

 

[PF Naughton]

Hi,

Have you considered maybe cutting one of the soft plastic kits up to make castings of the parts?  I have seen other make some smaller parts with stuff you can buy from a Hobby Store.  I haven't tried it yet myself, but I did buy something called the Alumilite Super Casting Kit recently and hope to give it a try for some stuff that I am working on.

Regards

Pat

[sandsmodels]

18 hours ago, PF Naughton said:

Hi,

Have you considered maybe cutting one of the soft plastic kits up to make castings of the parts?  I have seen other make some smaller parts with stuff you can buy from a Hobby Store.  I haven't tried it yet myself, but I did buy something called the Alumilite Super Casting Kit recently and hope to give it a try for some stuff that I am working on.

Regards

Pat

hi

i am a profesional modeler and make moulds and casting daily.

making copies of the models/parts would be a copyright issue unless for own use so i prefere to make my own master models for my sales range.

the other problem is cuting the models as the polythene is not very forgiving and easily damaged if the knife slips.

[Orso]

Try  https://www.loctiteproducts.com/en/products/fix/super-glue/loctite_plasticsbondingsystem.html

I used it on the old Airfix 1/76 tracks. When I first bought the glue I trid it by glueing two of the Esci 1/72 figures together. Usually nothing sticks on that type of plastic but I had tu pull hard to separate them.

 

[P-3s rule]

Looks like I might be best off waiting for gecko, meng, or bronco to release an abbot, stalwart,  and hopefully other members of the cvr(t) family. Or keep looking for the old Nichimo 1/35 abbot kit ....just not at exorbitant prices!

[Rob S]

You should have been at PX in May and bought the Nichimo one that was there. 

 

Airfix Magazine in about 1973 or 1974 had some Articles on detailing the solid plastic 1:32 “toys”.  I’ll see if I can find what they did and which issues they are in. 

 

[P-3s rule]

Yep, send those articles up if you find them Rob. Would be much appreciated mate.

[Troy Smith]

On 31/07/2022 at 12:28, Rob S said:

Airfix Magazine in about 1973 or 1974 had some Articles on detailing the solid plastic 1:32 “toys”.

 

35 minutes ago, P-3s rule said:

send those articles up if you find them Rob

Archive.org has a load of scanned Airfix mags.

https://archive.org/details/airfixmagazine

 

there is a contents list for the 1970's Airfix mags here

https://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mags/contents/airfix-magazine-1970s-contents-listing.htm

a quick has not shown anything obvious, but there are a series of articles in 73/74 about then current British vehicles,  which maybe where these polys are discussed.

 

"Vol.15 No.3November 1973

In the Air – Cranfield air pageant, Yeovilton air day; News from Airfix; Fw 190A-8/U1 two-seater (1/72 scale tone 3-view drwg); Shottesbrooke vehicle rally; Model Soldiers in 54 mm; 8th Army in the Desert part 5 – modelling the armour; First principles; Charge of the Light Brigade 54 mm figure; Renaissance Warfare part 6 – Henry VIII’s army; Fighting Colours 1914-1937 Part 17: The Bristol Bulldog (3 tone profiles); Aviation photopage; Buildings for wargames; Military Modelling – Alvis Stalwart; Mosquito footnote – some revisions to the conversion; Squadron Codes and colours 1939-1956 DX-9D; New Kits and Models; Books for Modellers; Letters to the Editor"

 

Nov 75 has an article on  British SPG, though not much from a quick look

https://archive.org/details/Airfix_Magazine_1975_09

 

One point, what was 'good' in 1973 is now often pretty crude.

 

As for polythene, I have found Mr Surfacer useful for figures, old articles suggested PVA.  All you can really do is add a 'shell'  which tends to be fragile, but maybe OK if careful when working and won't then be touched when displayed.  unless you get into specialist glue or paint which can bond to polythene.   Suggestion, look for car related paints that may bond to difficult plastic.

You could just add things by pinning on parts, or by heat welding bit on.  

 

HTH

T

[Rob S]

The November 1973 (the first issue I bought with my own Pocket Money instead of Mum and Dad's hard earned!) article is by Dick Steeds on scratchbuilding a Stalwart in 1:76. 

 

Travelling today and no idea when back but will have a look for any articles when back.  Pretty sure now though that any articles may have been centred on the WWII soft plastic ones and not any of the post war hard plastic ones. 

 

Just a thought too on priming the soft plastic ones - you can get a primer for such plastics on cars (usually RIM parts like front air dams etc) from places like Supercheap Auto, Repco, and Autobarn in Australia.  I haven't tried any of them yet but do have the one from Supercheap in the shed to try when I get the chance. 

 

[sandsmodels]

great archive, thanks for posting