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I’m seeking advice from anyone who has actually BUILT relatively large models with solid resin wings. Examples: 1/72 Welsh Models or Authentic Airliners, or any other large kits with solid resin wings.
Have those resin wings drooped over time–AFTER they were built?
Though I really dislike Welsh Models’ strategy of using vacuform fuselage and solid resin wings and tail, I have about a half dozen of his 1/72 kits in my stash. Every single one of them has warped wings and tail parts. I finally started working on their Airbus A.320. The wings are very badly warped, as is one of the stabilizers and the rudder. I’ve never had any luck with the hot water method for straightening warped parts, so I have been making chord wise cuts with a saw, then shimming the kerf with sheet styrene and super glue. That’s been working well–for now.
In summary, I know how to fix warped parts during the building phase, but is that enough? Once the model is completed, can I expect the wings to droop over time?
Life is short, the stash is large
I have build over 30 resin models (Authentic Airliners, Welsh, RusAir, F-RSIN, PAS) and none of them have ever have the wings droop over time. The oldest build being 15 years old. Not even the ones I bent back into shape with the warm water method. So I wouldn’t worry about it.
Strange that the warm water method doesn’t work for you. It always works well for me (though the water needs to be very hot, 80 degrees C at least and you need to put it in for a few minutes).
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I have build over 30 resin models (Authentic Airliners, Welsh, RusAir, F-RSIN, PAS) and none of them have ever have the wings droop over time. The oldest build being 15 years old. Not even the ones I bent back into shape with the warm water method. So I wouldn’t worry about it.
Strange that the warm water method doesn’t work for you. It always works well for me (though the water needs to be very hot, 80 degrees C at least and you need to put it in for a few minutes).
Thank you for your reply. I greatly appreciate your sharing of the methods you have used.
I’m guessing from the list of manufacturers you provided that you build mostly 1/144? I too have a number of smaller resin models, some built almost 30 years ago, that have never drooped. Unfortunately now I’m starting to get into building bigger models in 1/72, in other words twice as big and most likely well over twice as heavy. This is new, unknown territory for me, hence my concern over drooping with time.
The 1/72 Welsh Models Airbus A.320 I’m currently working on has a wingspan of almost 20″ (50cm). The wings are warped like bananas. Based on my past experiences, warping has always come back after using the hot water method, so I don’t even bother with it any more. Straightening the wings with chordwise cuts and shimming works well for me, but will that be enough to prevent the wings from drooping over time?
Anyone else have experience with big, heavy solid resin wing models such as 1/72 Welsh Models or 1/72 Authentic Airliners?
Thank you for any additional information.
Life is short, the stash is large
Strange that the warm water method doesn’t work for you. It always works well for me (though the water needs to be very hot, 80 degrees C at least and you need to put it in for a few minutes).I also have a resin warpage problem with a kit from Anigrand.
The horizontal stabs are warped and I tried the hot water method but, after compressing the parts under heavy weighs for a couple of hours, the parts reverted to their original state of warpage (probably abusing the English language at this point).
I was reluctant to leave them in the water for too long and at too high a temperature not knowing how the resin might react (eg disintegrate) but I may try this method again based on your comments.
Can resin withstand 90+ deg or is there a maximum you’d recommend?
Failing that, I may try to get someone to replicate them with a 3-D printer.
Tom.
So many kits, so little time …
All my resin builds have been Authentic Airliners 144 kits, the largest being a 747-400, no warpage. The oldest is a 707 that I built 10 years ago, still holding dihedral just fine.
I managed to warp my A340 kit wings by trying to cure putty in front of a heater and it caused a bowed shape. I fixed it by grabbing a hair dryer and warming, then re-bending, to the correct shape. If you’ve not tried a heat gun or hair dryer, maybe give that a whirl.
On the kits where the wings have drooped, is it the vacform fuselage that’s bent, or the wing itself? I could see a heavy wing eventually deforming a vacform fuselage.
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On the kits where the wings have drooped, is it the vacform fuselage that’s bent, or the wing itself? I could see a heavy wing eventually deforming a vacform fuselage.
It’s the resin wings themselves that are warped, though your question about the vacuform fuselage bending makes perfect sense. I have done a crazy amount of reinforcement in the fuselage to prevent precisely that problem.
Hearing all the good reports about 1/144 resin models not drooping makes me wish I was building in that scale, but I’ve been a dedicated 1/72 builder for 50+ years. I have a big commitment both with kits in the stash and completed models, and I really like seeing scale continuity in the display cabinet.
Life is short, the stash is large
I finished a 1/72 Authentic Airliners 727 about a year ago and have had no issues so far. But the wings were unwarped when the kit arrived.
I’ve also used the hot water method with success, but with a few kits had to do it several times to get things to look right.
Hope you get things resolved!
Jeff
I finished a 1/72 Authentic Airliners 727 about a year ago and have had no issues so far. But the wings were unwarped when the kit arrived.
That’s good to hear! I have an Authentic Airliners 1/72 Viscount in the stash. The wings are not warped, and since they are relatively short and light I’m hopeful that they won’t become an issue over time.
Life is short, the stash is large
Thank you everyone! I greatly appreciate your advice and the sharing of your experiences. What I’m hearing has been encouraging.
OTOH, I am a very cautious person, so I’ve decided to do an experiment. I am going to take the remaining Welsh Models in my stash and fix the warped wings and tails without actually building the rest of the model. Then I will temporarily mount them on blocks of wood which will serve as fuselage stand-ins. Those mockups will then go into the display cabinet for a year or so. If there is no drooping in that time I think it will be safe to go ahead and actually build the models.
Life is short, the stash is large
Good call on doing the test. One thing that may have happened with some of the earlier models was a bad batch of resin or a different type that has some sort of a “memory” problem. If the AA kits don’t have the issue, that leads me to wonder about materials and process.
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If the AA kits don’t have the issue, that leads me to wonder about materials and process.
Yes, I was wondering about that too. About 30 years ago I produced a small line of cast resin 1/72 kits, conversions and accessories. I was fortunate enough to be mentored by a man who had retired from working in the R&D prototyping shop at Bell Labs. He taught me about different RTV and resin formulations, mold making and casting techniques, and about the use of vacuum, pressure and heat. I ended up building a vacuum chamber using a cutoff piece of 16″ diameter steel pipe I found in a scrap yard, and a converted refrigerator compressor for the vacuum pump. I got a 5 gallon pressure pot from Grainger’s, and enclosed it in a homemade oven heated by an array of 100watt light bulbs. Using that apparatus I was able to produce 10″ long hollow fuselage castings with an average wall thickness of about 1/32″. Thirty years later those castings are as perfectly straight and warp free as the day I pulled them from the molds. Trying to cast those same pieces with no heat and pressure was a disaster–unstable, guaranteed to warp and completely unusable.
Based on what I’m hearing about Authentic Airliners kits, I wonder if their castings are also cured under heat and pressure.
Life is short, the stash is large
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