Poor Quality of Reji Skoda Fabia WRC !!!!!

[sportracer02]

Hi,

when I saw Sasa´s Skoda Fabia WRC- thread
( http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=349847 ) , at once I took a closer look at my Fabia kit.. Looking at the body of my Fabia I got aware that the upper frame of the doors are very poorly done.



On the left and the right side of the photo you can see the door-frame as it should be, in the middle of the photo it is getting thinner and at the last window parts are missing.
Please compare this to Sasa´s photos of his Fabia body (second and third photo of his thread), here everything is as it should be.

I wrote a mail to Reji concerning the bad execution of the door-frames.

On 20.02.2005 he wrote the following mail back:

“Hello,

thanks under your e-mail.
I am sorry to say you I must say, that body model is in order. Windows have
no trim, that what is on your photo is scrap, which you must clean. We are
yet sold more how 150 piece these Fabia and wasn't no suggestion with
building..
These be for truly experienced modeller ( how is citation on instruction and
cover carton ) and need more work.All in these kits are handiwork and also
therefore cost much more than kit plastic.

Best regards

Jindrich Denk
REJI MODEL”


Of course I know, the windows have no frames, however what he means is not scrap but the upper part / frame of the doors !!!!

Last week a German model friend got his Fabia WRC kit. This kit is even more disappointing. The space for the windows on the left side are now full of resin and if you clean them, the upper door frame falls off, too. One the right side everything is perfect. The body is covered with small air bubbles that must be filled,…

I see things a little bit different than Mr. Denk:

He made a (little oversized) mastermodel and a mold. The first bodies were ok, but the more he produces (up to February over 150 !!!), the poorer the quality gets. Usually a mold is ok for 60 to 80 model bodies!

After a certain time you must decide to make a new mold or stop production and substitue wrong parts to the unsatisfied customers, especially when the price is around 100 Euro !!

My advice: Don´t buy this kit if you hadn´t the opportunity to look at the kit parts !!


Micha

[RallyRaider]

You're right, definitely a molding problem there, but unfortuantely that is what you have to expect with resin kits. Some are better than others, Reji being one of the worst in my experience. On the bright side it should be no big deal to repair. I'd have expected better from their customer service but his last statement is correct. Namely, you need to do a lot more work on resin kits to get them looking their best.

[SteveK2003]

That's a real bummer, especially at such cost.

It's especially a bummer because I was thinking about 'breaking myself in' to resin with that kit, based on sjelic's build (Not confident enough to build it, so I'd just get it while available and hang on to it until them).

Any suggestions on a good resin kit to start with? I'm pretty much only interested in rally cars, the ones not produced in plastic (Skodas, Hyundais, SEATs, etc).

Any news on a Metro 6R4 kit yet? Last one I heard about was a 'solid' body.

[sportracer02]

Hi RallyRaider,

of course you need more work on a resin model, that is absolutely no question. However, a manufacturer must be able to give the customers the same quality. It is very sad that your kit requests much more work just because it is produced later and the mold suffered under the meanwhile produced kits (once again see the price of the resin kits).


Hi SteveK2003,

Racing 43 produces some SEAT Rally cars, Renaissance offers Renault, no idea about the quality.

Scale Production has transkits for the Sierra and Golf.

Gamme CTR has announced a Metro for this year.

Micha

[Sumak]

Hi sportracer02

you' re not right... this belongs not to kit... red selected need to be removed!!!! Look on real car photos an then criticize some work...
I have this kit at home too...



Sumak

[RallyRaider]

Hi Sumak, welcome to AF.
I'm not so sure about that. Check the horizontal recessed line at the top of the B-pillar. It would seem to indicate where the black pillar finishes and the white begins as in the photo below. Cutting back would also make the frame a bit on the thin side. At any rate it is quite easy to fix with some styrene or epoxy putty. Might be a good idea to reinforce the thin quater window separator with some brass wire or similar. It looks fragile and could break easily if doing extensive work around it. All part of the pleasures of working with resin.

[RallyRaider]

Originally Posted by SteveK2003

Any suggestions on a good resin kit to start with? I'm pretty much only interested in rally cars, the ones not produced in plastic (Skodas, Hyundais, SEATs, etc).

Any news on a Metro 6R4 kit yet? Last one I heard about was a 'solid' body.

SteveK, a bit dangerous to recommend something when we all have different expectations and ideas about what is good or bad! I was very impressed with the LMM Audi R8 in my sig. Took plenty of work to tidy up but really not much worse that a more average plastic kit. On the rally side of things I think something like a Racing 43 Big kit would be a good place to start, I have one of their FIAT Puntos and it looks really nice. The odd air bubble here and there but you have to expect that with resin. Some of their older kits are all metal, so be careful with that if you don't like metal. Or there is the likes of the Renaissance Peugeot 306 Maxi that Seb just finished, a great model obviously lurks in there! The Reji Skoda kit that is the subject of this thread even looks quite okay, you just have to see what Sasa has done with his.

In the final analysis just pick a subject that you find extremely interesting. You could well need the extra motivation to put in the extra effort required to make a resin kit work. But if you have a few plastic kits under your belt, with the odd modification thrown in you should be up for the challenge!

Dunno about the Metro, MRM international used to make one but don't know what it was like.

[sportracer02]

Hi Sumak,

welcome in the AF. It is nice to get some response from the Czech Republic, where the kit and the 1:1 car come from.

You can be sure, before I post a thread like that I look twice and more at the kit and the 1:1 car.

I wanted to post some pics of the 1:1 car, but RallyRaiders photo is perfect. When you look at his photo you can see, that the door frame around the windows is quite thick, 5,5 to 6 cm at the 1:1 car.

In scale 1:24 this means 2,0 to 2,1 mm. If I sand away what you made red on the photo of my body, less than 1 mm remains on the left side, while the right side is close to perfect (2,0 mm).
Please compare the photo of my kit-body once more to Sasa´s model: his kit has 2 korrect sides, especially when you see RallyRaiders photo.

Micha

[Guido]

If we are talking here that every model should be inch or mm perfect, then a lot of models including plastic kits have issues and then with this kit you are right.

You can find the same on aircraft kits, where you can have models where the tail is completely out of measure. 2 things you can do, or you accept that, live with it and finish your model or you cannot and then go the whole way and correct it.

I'm the type of modeler that chooses the first option most of the time. The Reji Huyndai I build had similar issues. I cleaned the frames and there is even a bit of difference between left hand side windows and right hand sigt windows as far as opening is concerned. However, the finished model looks splendid and everyone justs loves it - including me. No-one ever came up with a measurement to say this window is 1mm to large...

The quality is for sure not in the same league as plastic kits, BUT... we all know that.

However, if you're willing to be every single model inch-perfect, then you're right.

Good luck.

[sjelic]

Sorry not to answer this one before but I was not near computer for almost two weeks. As for this matter I am preparing full list of things that will have to be considered when you are makeing this kit. It will be in bullet points with all the "problematic" issues (and trust me this window thing is not the worse )
All in all we should all be aware that Reji makes nice subjects in a little "for experienced modelers" models and the only thing you should realy take care of is that you are prepared for every chalange. As for the trim (well not the trim but part of doors) you are right you have a problem with that. Mine didn't have that problem but it had one of the intakes on the hood missing (well not missing but it looked like resin residue and as a matter affact it wasn't) so I made a new one. Right front winndow was something similar to yours but it was easily fixed with putty. The most important thing is to fit vacuforms before you paint the body because there is a lot of work on them.
But like I said you will find the complete list once the model is finished.
I would only add that you should take resin as it is and make it the best way you can, this process (of makeing resin models) is not the same as the plastic, they are what they are, hand made master peaces and it is only up to you will it be good enough at the end so take your time ant a lot of sanding paper and putty and you will make it at the end.

[_835_]

Originally Posted by RallyRaider

Dunno about the Metro, MRM international used to make one but don't know what it was like.

And profil24 is making a new one :



was shown at retromobile.

[M4tt83]

Damn, that 6R4 looks fantastic, but already have too little room as it is.

[sportracer02]

Hi huudo, hi Sasa

thanks for sharing your opinion. Yes, you are right:
There are plastic and resin kits with nearly perfect measure and those with some faults. They have a certain price and when I know that a kit has a fault and I buy it in spite of the fault, I must decide like huudo described in his posting:
“I accept the fault and live with it / finish the model or I cannot and then go the whole way and correct it”.
Reji makes nice subjects.
Resin kits can hardly be compared to plastic kits.
They need more work and are for experienced modelers.
Their quality depends on the mastermodel. If there were mistakes or wrong measures, the kit I buy has these mistakes, too (meanwhile I know that, because I also made some mastermodels and I know a lot about producing resin kits)

- absolutely no problem with all that.

But my posting aims into another direction:
the first produced Fabia kits had very good quality (if they are 100 % accurate concerning the measures isn´t interesting here at all).
The later the kits were produced the quality seems to sink, while the price is the same. This can be caused by the mold that gets a little more worse after each produced kit. In my first posting you can read in Mr. Denk´s (from Reji-Models) mail, that up to February more than 150 Fabias were produced. This is quite a lot and is a hint for me, that the mold is –depending of the used material- rather finished.
This fact a manufacturer must see and decide to fabricate a new mold or stop producing the kit.
However, producing the kit at the same price with sinking quality is simply not fair to the modelers.


Hey 835,

the Metro looks great!!!!

Micha

[Technoman]

Originally Posted by _835_

And profil24 is making a new one :

was shown at retromobile.

Any ideas on availability? Looks fantastic!!

[RallyRaider]

I would have thought that since rubber molds do not last very long, the manufacturer would have to make new ones on a regular basis? Might only last 20 or thirty times. I know I've often had to remove bits of rubber mold from resin cast pieces - that mold wouldn't work any more. However you have a good point if a caster is using a mold for too long past its best and results in a less than ideal part. Could also be due to something like a misaligned mold.

I guess it boils down to quality control. Some companies have it and others don't.