I have two questions. One has any one had problems with Walther building kits? I’ve built several Wathers kits & found some have poor fit & finish & others are worst, for the money I would think they could be better. They seem to have half the engineering as a model plane kit from Monogram or Revel but twice the price. I have recently finnished there Medusa cement co. & found its fit & finish to really suck. I’ve had problems with there kits before & just want to know if it’s just me or anyone else sick of there quality & price? Also I’ve had most train cars with microscale decals start peeling within a year even with the use of clearcoat. I only have this problem with Microscale & no others, I have uncoated model plane kits 25 + years old with no problems. I paint real cars for a living & know what Im doing with paint so Im pretty sure I’ts not the paint (although I’ve been wrong before). I’m thinking I’ts due to the thickness of the decal film as micro scale seems to use really thin film. Has anyone had this problem & know how to fix it, as I get no reply from Microscale.
I agree that the ‘fit & finish’ can be poor with some of their large structure kits. I use a lot of 1/4" Plastruct & lots of ‘Bondo’ to get a good structure. My round concrete coaling tower took several months of body putty/sanding before I was really satisfied with the basic structure. The add-on details like the converyor for the coal required a lot of ‘fitting’ so that it it looked good. Overall, I really like the structure for the price.
As far as decals not ‘sticking’ - are you trying to apply them over unpainted plastic? I paint ALL of my structures and spray ‘gloss’ clear-cote to the area where the decals are applied. I used lots of decal solvent, and ‘wash’ the structure the next day. I them spray a dead flat over the structure and weather it. Decals do not stick to bare plastic or flat paint very well.
Jim
I would say yes, the fit and finish of their kits is not as good as others for the price point. Of the three I’ve done so far, I had the best luck with the gas & oil dealer. I had similar problems with the cement kit, to the point where it never made it on the layout. Overall, the kits aren’t bad, but you’re right, the quality doesn’t fit the price point.
I’m in the process of finishing a large structure using their modulars and have found the same thing. On the one hand, I get good flexibility to design as I’d like, but on the other, the cost has been extreme. I believe the final result will be ok, but if I had to do it over again, I probably would have kitbashed some others instead.
I like Walthers kits. For the price, they are a good value. I also think it depends on your point of view. I am not trying to create a “museum quality” layout, I’m trying to create something that I can do reasonably well, enjoy myself, and not break the bank while doing it. Yes, some of their kits DO have seams (silos, tanks and some bldgs.) but they’re not deal breakers for me. I only have so much time to devote to my hobby so I find that I can get more done for less cash. I also like the variety of structures etc. Just my 2 cents worth.
The flat sided buildings are pretty good. I had a terrible time with the Walthers N Blast Furnace kit. Worst I ever had. Stoves and oven pieces were warped and it took a LOT of work to get them to fit together.
Yes Walthers has the best selection out there, but I just think for the price they could spend some more time on molds & use better plastics. I’ve gone to scratch bulding & kit bashing. I have also been useing printable paper buildings to fill in till I get real ones done, I’m sick of looking at open foam & the wife would kill me if I spent the money on all the kits I need. There 1\10th the cost & can be done in 1\3rd the time with practace & you would have to look twice to spot most them, use good photo paper. I have put decals on flat paint but I use Champ & Herald decals & have no problems with them just Microscale. I’ve started printing my on decals on thicker film, I’ll let you know how they work over time.
Walthers kits are at the very low end of what is capable with present day injection plastic molding technology in the hobby industry. Comparing a Walthers structure kit to a recent Tamiya, Hasagawa or Trumpeter air plane, armor or ship kit is like comparing a Commodor 64 to a present day home computer. The leading present day hobby molding occurs in China, Japan and Korea - I believe that Walthers kits are manufactured in Denmark (no offense to this country), whereas the most delicate, accurate and best fitting molds come from the above countries.
Parts like walls and roofs in Walthers structure kit often don’t fit precisely and so require a bit of work to properly complete the structures. The worst are multi-piece storage tanks. Nevertheless, Walthers produces a growing number of very useful structures, often larger ones that are more realistic-looking than the many “pip-squeaks” available from other manufacturers. For kits representing wooden structures, however, I much prefer laser kits.
Mark