Small Scale Military Headquarters

I was switching around displays today and had the gear door on one of my 21st century ME-262's snap. Not too terribly difficult to fix, but it did raise the question:

Aside from the infamous gear door on the F-14, how have the JSI/Merit releases been as far as plastic quality?

21st always felt more fragile than bbi (to me). Just curious how those that have picked up items after the company switch felt about materials used.

Thanks in advance!

Winterstar, sorry to hear about your ME-262... Replacements are getting harder to find at a good price!

Anyways, I want to say there is a difference in plastics used between the JSI/Merit aircraft and the 21c items. Some have a slightly different feel to them and I know parts on the JSI items in particular tend to be a little more brittle, or at least feel that way. I don't know if what I observe is actually true, but I have noticed a slight difference.

You are right, however, in that BBI generally had sturdier plastic on their models. Their 1:18 scale P-51 feels far more solid than the 21c retooled version, for example. But BBI did have their share of problems... Early on, they tended to use softer plastics that bent over time. The landing gear on the S1 F-18 Hornet and the rotorblades on the Blackhawk and Apache helicopters were notorious for this. Actually, when BBI released its most recent versions of the Blackhawk and F-18, they used harder plastics on the rotors and gears with the result that they don't sag.

I have a few Merit things and I would say they are fairly well made. The kits are injected plastic and is at the same grade as Trumpeter as I think they all use the same factory or factories. Merit/Hobby Boss/Trumpeter are all some how connected.

Some 21st stuff survives a fall from on high, others crack like eggs. I imagine Merit's got similar issues unless they have a more strict or superior manufacturing process. Check out a 21st Weapons Carrier sometime. Good lord those things are like thin glass.

Amen to that on the 21c weapons carrier. Just picking it up wrong can cause something to snap... The command car uses mostly the same tooling, but is much sturdier!

Thanks for the info gents.

Yeah, I picked up the newer hornet release to go with my old wolfpack viper and noted it felt a little different in a positive way.

From what I've heard about the blackhawk re-release it makes me vaguly hopeful that one day we might get an apache re-release. Probably just wishful thinking, but then again, I wasn't expecting figures at retail this year, either.