Disappointed in Hasegawa 1/48 GBU-12's

It could be worse...they could be recessed!

The pins are used to push the part out of the mold, usually the cavity side which now that I think about it , is why the marks are on the top side of the part. Nevertheless, they could be better.
John

John,

Thanks for your professional insight from an industry point of view.
This forum is so cool with all of the diversity of people we have.

What exactly is the purpose of the pins?

That is true now that you mention it, how most pieces like that do have the pins on the inside. These are one piece in the head of the bomb and two pieces from the neck of the bomb on back so that is probably why they did it that way.


Mike

Mike, the problem is there are not many good places on that part to place a injector pin. I am surprised they are not on the inside- must be a reason. It looks like they could have groomed the mold more to have the pin marks less defined. I could go on and on about the molding process , I engineer parts for injection molding all day at work and most places aren't willing to pay the extra cost involved to have a perfect mold.
John

I hear you Quincy.

The one I mentioned that was nearest the body is the toughest because it is right up against the bottom of the fin so you have to be careful not to damage the fin. If Hasegawa was thinking when they made the molds they would have had the fins as seperate pieces that you have to glue on like the GBU-24 is in this kit. That would have made it easy to just sand the molding pin mark down and then install the fin. I guess we need to go to Japan and show these rookies how to tool properly!

Mike

Actually, the one on the nose vane (?) would probably bother me the most cause I would probably break it off. Seems to me that there ought to be an adjustment that could be done to the mold to reduce that.