So I finished and presented the Veteran representation earlier, next up is the kit’s own gun.
The base plate is ok but lacking the detail from the Veteran PE part. Molding is fine, however, the resin is better.
Even though the gun barrels are molded nicely and with much effort - they even have open muzzles - they are simply too big, looking clumsy compared to turned brass. So the have to go. Replacing them was not really easy, I cut away the lower part of the breech, since it was just too small for drilling…
Here’s the completed Veteran again, and the body of the Dragon, and one converted barrel. In the middle a ‘huge’ 1mm drill…
Brass parts added, makes the Dragon guns look pretty nice though.
And completed.
Dragon and Veteran.
And here’s the last one, Flyhawk.
That one looks very two-dimensional at first, and has etched two-dimensional ‘barrels’. Those have to go, no question. I tried to replace them directly on the breeches, but I’d say that was too early. It’s probably easier to just cut the etched barrels off and insert the turned ones in the end.
All in all, the Flyhawk builds into a really nice little gun. The etched base plate looks better than the Dragon molded piece.
So here’s the comparison.
All three are not perfect, since they are all ‘firsts’ for me, they all need different approaches to build, and I’m sure once I start a production line the slight misalignment of the barrels will be eliminated. But all are fairly fine models, and if the Veteran and Flyhawk offerings would not exist, with the Dragon one nothing would be missed.
But personally I rate the Veteran the best, followed by Flyhawk and then Dragon. What I don’t like with the Dragon kit is that the barrels are too far apart. This is probably due to the limitations of molding the parts, especially the barrels, finer and thinner. From all three, Flyhwak are easiest to build.
So I will try to get supply for the Veteran, if possible a bunch of sets that will help me with future builds, too. If I can’t get the Veteran sets, I’ll try to get Flyhawks. If that doesn’t work either, I will fall back to the original kit’s parts with turned brass barrels, without one of the others next to them they should look fine and the distance between the barrels should not be too obvious.
Anyway, what seems not a way forward is a mixed load e.g. Veteran/Flyhawk - small kist that they are, they all look pretty different. But they are all the same size, so it looks like Veteran, Flyhawk and Dragon agree on the dimensions. As it should be - however, I would not be surprised to see them different…
That’s it for now, next week busy again with my 1:1 F225, so no bench time. I hope to find time on the next weekend.
For now, thanks for looking, all comments welcome and cheers
Jan