[tpa05]

Are all Armor Hobbies SDKFZ 250 kits made of Egg Shell.....?

Yup, the title says it all. I've spent the last 2 weeks on MY FOURTH AH250 and once again here I am shaking my head. I know, I know, I should have learned with the previous 3 and later after giving one away - (only to have it given back - yeah, because it was just too much to work to fix...) I'm shaking my head because my two-steps-forward from earlier today has again been negated by (at least) two-steps-back as I'm now having to deal with yet another series of piece(s) that have broken. So while the glue dries I just thought I'd ask a simple question....

.... were all of these made with such bad plastic?

Two weeks ago I opened up my fourth kit and, just like all the others, it too came with already-made cracks that immediately indicated I was one of the lucky one's. And there went a week just making the kit usable again having had to repair the cracks and reinforce the rest.

I just want to get this thing put together. I decided that with the bogie wheels and tracks shattering that I will instead just make it an 8-wheeled vehicle using some plastic wheels from Home Depot. Nice idea (and the wheels from Home Depot fit great in place of the disintegrating track). My mistake was believing the two wheels up in the front would hold up.

No. They're what's dryin' in the garage. I knew almost immediately not to use the suspension that came with the kit as the mount for the front wheel cracked the first time I tried screwing the wheel on. Tonight it was the wheel itself.

 

[dadrab]

I'm sorry for your troubles.

It's ridiculous that repairs have to be made before you can build your kit...just ridiculous.

Plastics are known commodities these days. They have been studied and formulated for nearly 100 years now.

For you not to be able to build the kit as supplied because of shoddy material is unforgivable.

Because of this company's (if it's even a real, legal business entity) location, most in the world are unable to take any sort of legal action against this type of nonsense. What's more, since this scenario seems to be a pattern with this company, they know the issues and don't give a damn. And, they're not the only ones.

Even more unforgivable.

I don't have a remedy, but, if it were me, I'd not buy one blinking thing further from them, no matter how cool it is.

Social media might be the answer, but, as stated, they clearly don't care.

 

[Goobikza]

Is this a new problem? I had 2 of these back in the day when they were new and I never had a problem, and believe me I am not the most nimble fingered person. I even bought and installed a 37mm gun kit from Armorpax on one of them. The only difficulty I remember was the front steering/suspension was a pain.

 

[tpa05]

Hey guys,

As for whether this is a new problem, there have been other posts/threads both here and on other boards that discussed this (me included) however goin' Four-for-4 made me ask not so much whether this was a new problem but how prevalent. It's currently 7:45 PM here in Tampa and I'm heading to Home Depot for some more "FOR SALE" signs that I'll cut-up and use to reinforce more panels that nain't holdin' together.

The first one that I put together is R/C. The Sprockets and track are from a Stuart and the Bogie Wheels are Plastic Coaster Wheels with a groove cut down the middle. Was hoping to have a wheeled R/C version (my first attempt didn't pass muster) and so still up in the air as to whether to make this new/wip R/C as well. To be honest it's stopped being fun and now I just wanna get it on the shelf and out of the way.

 

[tpa05]

I'm sorry for your troubles.

It's ridiculous that repairs have to be made before you can build your kit...just ridiculous.

Plastics are known commodities these days. They have been studied and formulated for nearly 100 years now.

For you not to be able to build the kit as supplied because of shoddy material is unforgivable.

Because of this company's (if it's even a real, legal business entity) location, most in the world are unable to take any sort of legal action against this type of nonsense. What's more, since this scenario seems to be a pattern with this company, they know the issues and don't give a damn. And, they're not the only ones.

Even more unforgivable.

I don't have a remedy, but, if it were me, I'd not buy one blinking thing further from them, no matter how cool it is.

Social media might be the answer, but, as stated, they clearly don't care.

Ed I think you worded it perfectly. It's now 1:16 PM here on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I've got the day to myself and looked forward to putting this thing together. Instead I'm done. After an hour of fixing more (insert bad words here....) I'm too frustrated to even touch it!

For years I've been able to depend on one-six to put models together and both have fun and escape the 1/1 world for a while. No, not today. I'm thinking even as I'm typing that I would have had more success if I'd just built one from Scratch.

Too much time is spent here at OSW complaining about so many things and so I'll stop. If anything just remember what's been written here and keep it in mind if/when considering purchasing one in the future.

John

 

[Hammer's Africaners]

I have two, yes the plastic can be a little brittle. In my two it is the track and road wheels. I moved one side ways to dust it off and the track snapped in one spot and a road wheel crack along the rim. Of course I was pissed but in the long run with some work you'll have a very nice vehicle for your collection. I like them because they are open topped so you can display some figures inside. Go over to Sixth Army Group or Sixth Division board and you'll see a lot of ideas to use on yours and see some great built ones.

 

[onesixthpolice]

When you were at Home Depot, you shoulda picked up a big ball pean hammer.....that’s been known to fix those things....:wink

 

[russcal]

.
Heya all!

Here’s my two cents on the subject: I seem to recall reading way back when these first came out that the manufacturers realized there was an issue with the plastic blend that caused it to be overly brittle. The ones that were released to sale were the “survivors” of the initial production, and were released at huge discount. I bought mine for $120, they generally were being sold off between $100 and $150. Monkey Depot used to have a big supply of all the smaller parts, surplus from when these were seconded and scrapped.

Virgin polystyrene is fairly brittle, additives are put in increase its mechanical strength and to add color. I vaguely recall discussion somewhere that it was the colorant added that was thought to be the issue.

I’ve noticed how prices on these are going up, despite all of them originally being sold at discount, which proves out one of the main sixth scale “truths”: what is old is rare, and rare is worth more!
.

 

[tpa05]

When you were at Home Depot, you shoulda picked up a big ball pean hammer.....that's been known to fix those things....:wink

Police man the thought of just smackin' it occurred to me more than a few times. And although I played Rugby (and so obligated to dismiss anything soccer-related), a nice round-ball penalty kick might have worked as well.

 

[Panzer2014_Faust]

Does anyone have any idea what year these were first released? Thanks.

 

[panzerwerk]

Does anyone have any idea what year these were first released? Thanks.

around 2003 -2004 I believe , but it may have been a little earlier .

 

[Panzer2014_Faust]

Thanks, I was trying to figure out if I got the 1st release of these. Hate to think the two unbuilt kits I have in storage will shatter if I look at them to hard.

Regards.

 

[egonzinc]

I've put together 5 of these along the years. I still have three more programmed. I just hope it is not something that gets worse with time. Some piecs of my older figures, hands for example, get very brittle. In one of my AH builds I had trouble with the tracks. My method to link them previously, turned out to put to much stress on the pieces of that particular model. I look forward to tackling another one in the future and see how it goes. I'm very careful with the ones I have built. Put them down gently and don't dare roll the tracks. I live in a place that is hot and humid. I have a feeling that the weather conditions of where these models are stored, makes a difference. But if course I'm not sure...

I agree they did several runs, but the don't agree that the reason they were sold later at a discount was because they were defective models. I have a feeling they just made MANY and they did not sell as well as expected. I even got extra tracjs loose, just to make sure I had plenty. When these came out the hobby was a bit crazy in general and in particular for vehicles. Everyone wanted vehicles but no one wanted to pay their worth. Remember 21C and their Stuarts? Many were happy to get them at Walmart for $50, but it was the end, that meant we would never get the PERFECT Panzer III for $250!!! ROLLEYES HERE! Jajaja.