 deadhead  | 14 Feb 2025 10:56 a.m. PST |
Dumb question but I am puzzled. I always thought Italeri (ex-Esci) RHA figures showed great detail, so, when I found a box in Edinburgh yesterday I had to get them. How disappointing when I got them home to see how they compare with my originals. I immediately wondered if they were Far Eastern rip offs, but seems not. Why do they fail so badly?
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| RittervonBek | 14 Feb 2025 11:22 a.m. PST |
Is the figure on the right a softer plastic? That might account for the lack of sharp detail. |
| bobspruster | 14 Feb 2025 11:52 a.m. PST |
The molds used for soft plastic injection molding are usually made of steel. If the steel was not of a high quality I suppose some wear is bound to occur. If Italeri is still using the ESCI molds after they've been in use for the past 38 years… |
| Perris0707 | 14 Feb 2025 12:50 p.m. PST |
That is quite a difference. I would suspect that RittervonBek is correct. |
| deadhead | 14 Feb 2025 1:12 p.m. PST |
Many thanks. I would certainly be reluctant to buy any more on line, or even in a store, without opening the box surreptitiously. It is such a shame. The originals were superb (for all their accuracy faults…they made better drivers than gunners) |
martin goddard  | 14 Feb 2025 2:12 p.m. PST |
Looks like a lower injection pressure was used.
Old steel moulds tend to flash rather than lose distinction martin |
| deadhead | 14 Feb 2025 2:28 p.m. PST |
Really interesting responses. The deterioration is extraordinary. I remember when Airfix introduced the KGV battleship in 1/600 the deck moulded-on detail was so sharp. A decade later I saw nothing but rounded blobs all over. These are no longer in their catalogue, I now see, but they will find a use for figures that need no lace detail. Hard to compensate for the lack of facial features though. The real shame is that I was really coming around to the idea that plastic figures had moved on from the Airfix Cuirassiers or French Napoleonic Infantry quality. Maybe metals stand the test of time better? |
| bobspruster | 15 Feb 2025 6:09 a.m. PST |
+1 Martin Goddard, I thought the same thing after my first post. |
 enfant perdus | 16 Feb 2025 10:21 a.m. PST |
Nobody has mentioned that companies also change the formulation of their plastics. This is readily noticeable in ranges that have been around for a long time, not to mention those where the molds have changed ownership. It is usually a cost issue as raw material prices and company fortunes fluctuate. Besides things like definition, this usually becomes apparent with brittleness over time. |
| deadhead | 16 Feb 2025 11:06 a.m. PST |
Thanks again for an input. The difference here is truly awful, but it is a product now off the Italeri catalogue (just as well, so beware if buying on-line. You could end up with blobs or mouldings to die for) These are softer, but desperately lacking in definition. Yet Airfix RHA still stand the test of time (OK, they are obsolete products, only to be found on eBay) |
| deadhead | 17 Feb 2025 2:20 a.m. PST |
I sent an e mail to Plastic Soldiers Review, wondering if there would be any response, let alone almost by return on a Sunday! But there it was. They agree steel moulds are very robust and stand the test of time and agree that the fault lies more with the plastic, whether too low a temperature, too soft or a low pressure. Also said that mould failure causes leakage and flash, not loss of detail. The hope must be that we will see these back in the catalogue one day and up to the original standard. How impressed am I by PSR yet again? |
| Cacadoress | 30 Aug 2025 5:39 a.m. PST |
I have some original Airfix infantry from the 60s. The plastic is so hard as to be almost brittle. The only modern figures with close to that hardness are Caesar Miniatures. The contrast with the flexible plastic most companies use nowadays is immense. It would seem to me more likely that these low-quality mouldings were either using some manky formulation or the mould-runs were not fully filled. |
| ScottWashburn | 30 Aug 2025 12:04 p.m. PST |
I was digging through boxes of old stuff and found my Airfix figures from the 60s when I first got into gaming. The plastic had become incredibly brittle and some figures literally crumbled in my hand. I can guarantee you they were not like that when I bought them! Time has caused them to deteriorate. |
| deadhead | 31 Aug 2025 1:44 a.m. PST |
The damaging chemical in those early plastic models has now been removed I was told in an earlier posting. I had wondered whether modern plastic figures would survive two centuries the way Siborne's metal ones did. Phthalates was it? I failed to answer the question posed way above. The new figure is in a much softer plastic indeed and desperately disappointing |
 Old Contemptible | 31 Aug 2025 11:25 p.m. PST |
More reasons to stick with metal figures. |
| DevoutDavout | 01 Sep 2025 7:05 p.m. PST |
Right looks like some of my endeavors with printing. "But it's ten cents of resin." Sometimes I'd rather have ten dollars of tin. |
paints brigs for the British fleet.
