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Modeling in General
General discussions about modeling topics.
Dragon DS and Hobby Company
retiredyank
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Arkansas, United States
Member Since: June 29, 2009
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Posted: Thursday, July 26, 2018 - 09:11 PM UTC
I have Dragon's Sd.Kfz.251/16 C flammpanzerwagen #6202, in my stash. It is the older boxing and the DS still looks new. I have also built the Mk.III, with DS tracks. That was five years ago and have held up well. One may be a glitch, but two is a trend. I will check a couple of other Dragon kits' DS stuff for damage.
phantom_phanatic309
#372
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United Kingdom
Member Since: March 10, 2010
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Posted: Friday, July 27, 2018 - 03:04 AM UTC

Quoted Text


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Why mold wheel well inserts from the stuff?



Stephen, the Bf 109 E and earlier series had a canvass ring around the inside of the wheel wells to prevent dirt and dust getting into the airframe. It lined the inner rim of the well, acting as a flexible “seal”, and had a zipper it. I’m assuming Dragon chose to replicate this with the DS material because it made it look more “realistic”. But why would they also make the entire Soyuz capsule out of DS plastic when they could just as easily have done it in styrene or resin? I think they were trying to sell it as a “gimmick”, making the kit more complicated than it needed to be (their Bf-109 is the nicest one on the market though).
VR, Russ



Ah, now I get it. I suppose they could have done it styrene but it might not have looked as good. Let's be fair to them Dragon have pushed what it's possible to do with traditional injection moulding. Nothing wrong with the styrene parts.
I do wonder if the problems DS is down to bad batches? Two of the Shermans I've had atleast 5 years and they had been on the shelf of my lhs for some time then.
Oh and my Hummel is 6321.

Anyway, I had a look in my stash this afternoon and pulled out my Tamiya 25pdr to see if I can make some copies of the wheels.
But I also found Broncos Humber armoured car and I'm glad I looked in the box, as it provides two sets of black vinyl tyres. Now I'm going to have to check sizes but they look like they might fit the Dragon wheel hubs. Here's hoping!
Bravo1102
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New Jersey, United States
Member Since: December 08, 2003
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Posted: Friday, July 27, 2018 - 04:56 AM UTC
It probably is down to bad batches. Sometimes a chemical just breaks down even though it's not supposed to. There's also extreme heat. I got a package from Asia and the contents of the box were hot to the touch. The container or was shipped in had been in the sun or something. The contents were ruined and no longer available so I had to get other stuff with the credit.

Melting vinyl goes back to Airfix in the 1960s. The tracks would melt into the plastic of the kit. Brittle vinyl goes back to any number of Japanese kits of the 60s and 70s. I had a whole collection of 1/40 scale German armor where the tires just fell to pieces. Why should brand new, better than ever chemistry be any different. 🙄

Yeah, new and improved-- uh-huh.
brekinapez
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Georgia, United States
Member Since: July 26, 2013
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Posted: Friday, July 27, 2018 - 05:18 AM UTC
At any rate, I'd still rather have link-and-length track like Tamiya is using, and as Academy did with their Jagdpanzer 38(t) kits; at least it can be molded to show appropriate sag for German track. The DS is no better than regular vinyl in that respect. For live track it's fine, I imagine (I don't build any live-track armor so don't know firsthand).

Beyond that, Magic Tracks and regular links are the best for saggy tracks if you can't afford aftermarket.
Jmarles
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British Columbia, Canada
Member Since: November 02, 2008
entire network: 1,138 Posts
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Posted: Monday, August 06, 2018 - 06:25 AM UTC
I wish manufacturers would just make clickable tracks standard. It can't be that hard can it?!
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