Model Card(?) Fokker G.1B

[Darwin]

Model: Fokker G1.B
Publisher: Model Card(?) Nr. 3
Designer: Miroslaw Zbyryt (?)
Scale: 1:33
Format: Hardcopy
Distributor: Out of print


Six parts pages (two pages of thin, four of cardstock). Sufficiently detailed construction diagrams for all but the least experienced card modelers to successfully perform the build. The parts are printed on poor quality card stock...more like heavy manila-colored construction paper than actual card. Level of detail poor....no cockpit, no wheel wells, engines 2D graphics. Printing quality fair....noticable color voids, but good color registration. No ink smudging, but poor quality of paper wicked the ink and made crisp lines all but impossible to achieve. Draftmanship good, considering the model appears to be hand-drafted, not digital. Artwork fair, more cartoonish in style than realistic. No attempt at shading or weathering. Construction method is butt-jointed segments. Kit is occasionally available on Ebay. I would not recommend this model to absolute beginners, but would be a good kit selection for anyone having mastered the basic papermodeling skills.

Model Card is only a guess on my part as to the publisher...the cover contains only "Model Kartonowy," which for all I know could be just a statement it is a card model rather than the name of the publisher. Judged as a construction kit, it would at best be only average by 1984 standards (apparent publishing date of the kit), and just manages a passing grade by today's standards. Overall grade a D+. I would not recommend purchase of this kit if intended for construction rather than a collector's item, unless you have a real soft spot for the subject. The kit may make a starting point for someone into kit redraws, but would require the aircraft equivalent of a Scorpio to ever become impressive.

Instructions: C+
Paper quality: D+
Level of detail: D
Printing quality: C
Artwork: C+
Value for money: NA
Skill level: Novice

 

[shoki2000]

Darwin:
Publisher - Model Kartonowy
Designer: Mirolsaw Zbyryt
Year - early '80 (don't have the model but remember it when it was published)

You have to remember that at the time of publication it was THE ONLY competition for Maly Modelarz and at the time the standard of those models published by MK was excellent comparing to MM.
Remember that the kit is about 20 years old and comparing it to the kits published today is not fair...

 

[Darwin]

Thanks for the corrections, Michael. Your point regarding the fairness of the comparisons is well taken, and one I wrestled with before doing the review. The stand I took was that people reading my reviews will be considering buying the kit now (and usually on Ebay, where auction fever often sets in...most of the selling prices recently are really overinflated from standpoint of buying first an foremost to have a construction project), not in the market that existed when the kit was initially produced. That means even the best of "vintage" kits are going to fall short when compared to recent Halinski kits. I try to mitigate some of the sting by acknowledging in the review that in some ways the judgements become apple-and-orange comparisons. It is not fair, but then who ever said life was fair and really meant it? I am not going to mislead a buyer in today's market into thinking that he is bidding on a "top-quality build" when the kit is primarily of value as a collector's item. Were I evaluating this kit as a collector's item and normalizing the scores to "historic" rather than "contemporary" standards, it would be up there at a B or B+. Just shows that not all things age gracefully, I guess.

Rest assured, I am not particularly picking on anyone, and will review "nostalgia" kits only if I have recently seen them showing up on Ebay with some similance of frequency.

 

[shoki2000]

Well said.......

From time to time I place on E-bay parts of my private collection and I always include year when the model was published. I have a few of them which really are "collector's item only" by which I mean that there is really no way to build those models

Models designed by Mr. Zbyryt (he also is responsible for Spitfire Mk IXc, Mustang Mk III, Avia S-199, La-7 and probably few more I don't remember) are really well designed and go together rather well. It is true that the paper they were published on didn't age well but I already heard that impregnating it with watered down white glue could solve this problem. Colors, that's completely different story...