Gulfstream G-450 - Amodel + Welsh Models kitbashing/scratch 1/72nd

 

 

Who said that two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time?

(The step by step building article is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2021/09/gulfstream-g-450-172nd-welsh-modedls.html

My dear friend David the Logarithmically Tall flew in the real plane and wanted a model of it. In order to replicate the version intended, G-450, since it doesn't exist in natural state in the modeling 1/72nd universe, two kits had to be combined: Amodel's Gulfstream G-550 and Welsh Models' Gulfstream IV (in its C-20G boxing). I hereby freely and willingly declare my almost total ignorance on the matter, or any jet matter, in fact. And I wish to remain as ignorant as possible, since it is not within the envelope of my modeling interests. Give me a Farman Jabiru any day.

I can't really write a fair review of either of the two kits involved in this endeavor, as I combined parts of the two, but I am familiar with Amodel, as I built some of their kits, and I must say that they are not the friendliest to build, but they do have an array of very interesting and truly appealing subjects, if many times with some issues: ill or indifferent fit, plenty of inconvenient engineering, absence in many cases of locating devices, accuracy issues, and too often puzzling or vague instructions. Being completely uninterested in jets as I mentioned, can't comment much either on Welsh Models, but I am thoroughly familiar with resin and vac kits and multimedia releases, and I also have built a great deal of them. If you are willing to put the hours and the effort, you will end up with a nice model, provided you have enough experience. Welsh Models vac parts have surface detail and a good, convenient gage; the resin parts are fair, but need a small degree of filling and re-working; the kit has no instructions whatsoever. The white metal parts in general are good and well defined, and have nice detail, but in contrast the instrument console is crude, and the solution for the (clear vac) cockpit transparencies is not very practical, plus there are no cabin windows provided, only decals for them. No real interlocking, or locating devices, or securing means are offered, assuming I think that the buyer will be experienced enough to provide the necessary engineering solutions. So be prepared for the extra engineering and work, and no little head-scratching. I tend to be lenient with a cottage endeavor like Welsh Models, but I expect more from an established company like Amodel, that has greater resources. Neither kit provides masks, but the Amodel kit has a few P.E. parts. So far my personal nitpickings, and yet, you can see an encouraging number of Amodel and Welsh releases made into very nice models on the Net, so it can surely be done if in able  hands.

Due to the high amount of kit surgery needed to be performed, I -needless to say- ended up with much more that I had bargained for (when the project started, my friend thought that the Amodel kit was the right variant, but, of course, it wasn't), which consumed much more time and effort than either kit alone would had, so I ended up enacting a strange version of "Dances With Sandsticks", not very happily, if I may add.

To add interest, I opened the cabin door and fabricated some of the interior to the extent it could be seen from the entrance, and acquired a wonderfully detailed aftermarket 3D-printed stair. The same company, Click2detail -in Shapeways-, offers cabin and cockpit transparencies and flaps, if you really want to go to town.

This time-consuming, kit-crossing, detail-adding enterprise produced what I think is a fair representation of the type and -at least to me- a credible model, being this my first corporate jet. Sometimes, for some reason or other, we extend our subject horizons, and thus get involved in some curious modeling adventures. This time we were fortunate enough to get away from the Knights Who Say "Ni!".

My gratitude to friend and fellow modeler Christos Psarras and his unsinkable dogs, who provided important input for the build (I am referring to the dogs, of course), and to Mika Jernfors of Arctic Decals for producing the wonderful sets that save many of my builds from oblivion.

 From these two kits the new bird arose:

 

A bit of the interior was scratched to reveal a partial interior with the opened door:

American Champion Decathlon - VFR Models - 1/72nd 3D-printed kit

 

Do you want problems? Buy one of these kits.

If you, fellow modeler, looking at the photos of the completed model, feel inclined to buy it (or a similar offering), I suggest you first read the step-by-step construction article and review, as what you see here is a serious amount of effort (additions, refinements, corrections, modifications, substitutions, etc) on a kit that needs all of the above.

For the step-by-step building post and impressions on the kit, please go to:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/02/american-champion-decathlon-vfr-models.html

This is the plane where my good friend David TallMan of Chicago, after being the passenger on a particularly aerobatic flight, disbursed the contents of that morning's breakfast, followed by the past ten meals he had, and then some he didn't even remember having, redecorating in the process the interior of such plane, an occasion that for some unfathomable reason he wanted to have a memento of. I know. My thoughts exactly.

Photos of this plane show it with wheel pants and plain yellow spinner, or without the pants and a ribbon on the spinner (as my friend flew in it). But what interest me in this case is the exploration of the 3D printing medium, and its results.

As a new medium, 3D-printed kits are perhaps something alike to what vacuum-formed and resin kits were in their onset in respect to injected plastic kits, that is, cottage industry alternatives for types that the mainstream manufacturers were unlikely to touch. Those alternate media were not and are not necessarily below injected standards, as there are many vacuum- and resin kits that easily surpass a number of the injected offerings. Some end up being better, in able hands, than the run-of-the-mill offerings. The general thinking is: if you want something more esoteric, you will have to go the alternate path. Different media challenged the modeler to familiarize with new techniques, materials, and building strategies.

It seems that the recent emergence of 3D-printed kits would be somewhere in those lines. And in part it is, being their main (and perhaps only) appeal that they offer types that again mainstream won't likely touch. There are, as with all the other media, bad 3D-printed kits, and others that are better, but even those better kits suffer the bane of 3D-printing: those layering ridges, and in some cases deformed parts, not very clear transparencies, and decals that leave a bit to be desired. So why chose them? If you are not a scratch-builder, and you really, really want a model of the plane you love, then they may be an option. Or if you are not particularly demanding or fussy. They offer some interesting approaches though, in this case a full, hollowed fuselage (no seams to deal with) and a detailed interior in one piece. That's great, but at the same time occasionally it may hinder other operations (see the building thread for this model). It would also be desirable if the manufacturers of 3D-printed kits, who surely have a profound grasp of digital technologies, for which they are to be admired, would apply some practical common sense regarding how models are assembled and painted by modelers, thus providing good engineering in the areas of parts' breakdown, proper locating devices, self-alignment features, sensible assembly and painting sequence, mechanical strength of the parts, and finally by remembering that reality is not what appears on the screen of their computers, but the final parts to be assembled into a model by a human modeler.

I think that in the same way that photo-etched parts have their place in modeling, but look in some cases unrealistic when entire models are made of them, 3D-printing has a place in the accessories aftermarket. Just recently I bought a 3D-printed stair for a Gulfstream jet model I built that looks quite good, for example.

Now, a high-res printed kit, where those ridges were completely minimized and could disappear under a few coats of primer and paint, with good transparencies, good decals, sensible engineering and well researched, would be something that surely many modelers would support.

Are 3D-printed full kits the way of the future? I honestly don't think so, but they seem to be making a niche for themselves along the other media, and you can see a number of them built on the Net, if with varied results, depending as always on kit and modeler. Many hurdles were encountered during the build, as you may read in the building posting, so I deem this kit (and similar offerings) as suitable for the more experience modeler, resourceful and patient enough to sort out the many issues of this type of kits as they are today. I do love, though, the wide array of very interesting and appealing civil subjects they offer, and only wish the quality would be better.

So far, I don't see any great advantages in 3D-printed kits, as their standards are below of what a good vac, resin, or injected kit could offer, which relegates 3D to the occasion when no one else would produce the plane you want in a better medium, or, as mentioned before, when you are not expecting much of a kit, other than represent more or less the plane you like. The unusual amount of time spent on this kit, and the many necessary corrections, additions and adjustments, decided me to give this medium a pass for now. Time will tell if this 3D fad has a future that puts its products on par with other media. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Note: the decal set for the specific plane replicated here was commissioned from Arctic Decals in Finland.

P/S: nice colors, by the way... they remind me of certain valiant country now under unprovoked attack and invasion by a despicable clown, "friend" of the one we used to have here.