Separate parts just for the sake of Separate parts.

Hi , DON :

   In this you are right . Remember the old REVELL ship kits ? The bulkheads met at the centerline of the portholes . Remember that ? Then , if you could you had to fill the seam and sand carefully to get a verticle surface .

   When REVELL started doing the decks with little braces to hold them on , to which you glued panels .Well , now that produced a lot better looking model i/e the model of the U.S.S. FORREST SHERMAN , Then you had edgeitis .There was a very definite seam between the deck and the panels . Better but no cigar ! Now along comes " SLIDE - MOLD " technology and VIOLA the product gets better !!

    I guess there isn't a chance of anyone getting it perfect in any venue .You have to have ejection pins .If they are adjusted right then barely a mark . If not , they mark the plastic (which is hot ) and we have to fix it . Nothing is going to get or be perfect .Models are NOT supposed to be shake and bake , are they ? TAMIYA comes close , though . 

    In this I have to mention the OLD model of the " SHELL WELDER" offshore tanker model . first , (to my knowledge) by FROG , then AIRFIX , then MATCHBOX ad-infinitum .This ship , although larger scale is done the old REVELL way .Trouble is the molds are now so old , if the RUSSIAN producer decided to re-release it  ,It would need a LOT of work .There are many parts because of shrink holes and pin marks that are that bad (almost unusable ) . BUT , she's my baby , so I have to make this kit work .       Tanker-builder

Digital_Cowboy

FlyItLikeYouStoleIt

Same thing on my Spitfire, split tires that don't even rotate. Not really an issue. Stuck em together using generous amount of liquid cement, Sanded that by gradually rolling the glued tire on sanding pad. You could also chuck the tire into a dremel and spin it CAREFULLY against sanding pad. I re-created tread by heating a piece of metal window screen til red hot and rolling the tire on it. One of my extreme peeves, though, is every damn aircraft model's fuselage molded in halves where the joint is NEVER along a natural seam!! They could mold em so the joint follows panel lines but nooooooo.....

Bill,

     Both sound like good ideas, and THAT is a VERY good question.  Why don't they mold kits with mold lines along "natural" brakes?  Where they can be hidden or camouflaged so as to be less visible?

Ha! All 109 kit fuselage halves fall on a natural panel line! Anyway, careful assembly yeilds only a swipe or two with a sanding stick so no big deal to me.

I'd like to take up the issue someone mentioned about why sometimes a part has to be in multiple pieces.  The following is just one example.  Take deckhouses on ship kits.  The real deckhouse undoubtedly had vertical sides and a horizontal roof.  Now, some kits mold such deckhouses in one piece, a simple box.  However, with die casting you cannot mold something like a box with all 90 degree corners- the piece would get stuck in the mold.  So, the die cutter has to provide a "relief angle" to allow the part to come out of the mold.  It doesn't have to be a lot, but there has to be some relief angle, so sides cannot be exactly 90 degrees to top.

Now, to eliminate this problem a few kitmakers, such as Trumpeter, make a deckhouse from five pieces- a top and four sides.  A lot more work to assemble, but more accurate.  Some folks do not mind a few degrees of relief angle on parts, others do. So you pays your money and takes your choice.

Same thing with all genres of models.

FlyItLikeYouStoleIt

Same thing on my Spitfire, split tires that don't even rotate. Not really an issue. Stuck em together using generous amount of liquid cement, Sanded that by gradually rolling the glued tire on sanding pad. You could also chuck the tire into a dremel and spin it CAREFULLY against sanding pad. I re-created tread by heating a piece of metal window screen til red hot and rolling the tire on it. One of my extreme peeves, though, is every damn aircraft model's fuselage molded in halves where the joint is NEVER along a natural seam!! They could mold em so the joint follows panel lines but nooooooo.....

Bill,

     Both sound like good ideas, and THAT is a VERY good question.  Why don't they mold kits with mold lines along "natural" brakes?  Where they can be hidden or camouflaged so as to be less visible?

TarnShip

split wheels are a way of life for us, even in 1/72,,,,,some kits have three piece wheel/tire combinations

the company runs the risk of sink marks when molding any part thicker than the fuselage walls of the model,,,,,,,,thick plastic shrinks as it cools

so, some parts have to be split into more pieces, in order to give us a usable part

Rex

Rex,

     I have to say that that does make a degree of sense.

Aww man, now I'm all worked up! How about those that come with 35 parts for cockpit detailing, but no engine. Or, having 15 parts (yes, fifteen) just for the seat assembly in a British plane, showing every last nut n bolt in precise accuracy, but the pilot looks Asian???

Heller 1/35 scale armor kits were like this. There motto must have been (in French) "Why mold it in three pieces if we can do it in eight." Over-engineering was their staple.

A lot of limited run kits tend to have detail on just one side of the mold. I guess it reduces the amount of tooling and polishing to the back side of all your molds. You basically only have to detail one side of the mold halves. A lot of eastern European armor models are like this.

Khalee2, Like Flyit said, put them on a Dremel and do some "touch and goes".  Perfect wear and tear for tires!  

Same thing on my Spitfire, split tires that don't even rotate. Not really an issue. Stuck em together using generous amount of liquid cement, Sanded that by gradually rolling the glued tire on sanding pad. You could also chuck the tire into a dremel and spin it CAREFULLY against sanding pad. I re-created tread by heating a piece of metal window screen til red hot and rolling the tire on it. One of my extreme peeves, though, is every damn aircraft model's fuselage molded in halves where the joint is NEVER along a natural seam!! They could mold em so the joint follows panel lines but nooooooo.....

split wheels are a way of life for us, even in 1/72,,,,,some kits have three piece wheel/tire combinations

the company runs the risk of sink marks when molding any part thicker than the fuselage walls of the model,,,,,,,,thick plastic shrinks as it cools

so, some parts have to be split into more pieces, in order to give us a usable part

Rex

With the tires, you're doomed to sand either way. If they moulded them as one peice, then there would still be a mold line you would have to sand anyway. No reason to putty the seam on the two tire halves, just use liquid cement, then sand away the oozed out melted plastic carefully to preserve the tread detail. It certainly isn't molded that way just for the shhitz and giggles...

I agree,some kits are over engineered for sure.One of my pet peeves is split hulls on ships,no need for that,