More Plastic Kit History
The first plastic models were manufactured in the 1950s by the British firms Frog and Airfix. American manufacturers such as Revell, AMT, and Monogram gained ascendancy in the 1960s as French Heller SA in Europe. Since the 1970s, Japanese firms such as Hasegawa and Tamiya have dominated the field and represent the highest level of technology. Brands from Russia, Central Europe, China, and Korea have also become prominent recently. Many smaller companies have also produced plastic models.
While injection molding is the predominant manufacturing process for plastic models, the high costs of equipment and making molds make it unsuitable for lower yield production. Thus, models of minor and obscure subjects are often manufactured using alternative processes. Vacuum forming is popular for aircraft models, though assembly is more difficult than for injection molded kits. Resin casting, popular with smaller manufacturers, particularly Aftermarket firms (but also producers of full kits) yields a greater degree of detail molded in situ, but as the moulds used do not last as long, the price of such kits is considerably higher. In recent times, the latest releases from major manufacturers offer unprecedented detail that is a match for the finest resin kits, often including high quality mixed media (photo etched brass, turned aluminum) parts.
How to Build Plastic Models
Most plastic models are injection molded in polystyrene, and the parts are glued together with plastic solvent. While often omitted by novice modelers, specially formulated paint is applied to assembled models. Complex markings such as aircraft insignia are typically provided with kits as slide-on decals.
A recent trend has been to offer kits where the parts snap together, with no glue needed, and with a paint scheme reapplied to some or all of the parts. Plastic ship model kits typically provide thread in several sizes and colors for the rigging.
Model Scales
Almost all plastic models are designed in a well established scale. Each type of subject has one or more common scales, though they differ from one to the other. The general aim is to allow the finished model to be of a reasonable size, while maintaining consistency across models for collections. The following are the most common scales for popular subjects
Aircraft 1/24, 1/32, 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144, with 1/48 and 1/72 being the most popular
Military Vehicles 1/35, 1/48 ,1/72, 1/76
Automobiles 1/12,1/16,1/18,1/20,1/24,1/25,1/32,1/35,1/43
Ships 1/96, 1/350, 1/450, 1/700, and other odd scales
In reality, models do not always conform to their nominal scale; there are 1/25 scale automobile models which are larger than some 1/24 scale models, for instance. For example, the engine in the recent reissue of the AMT Ala Kart show truck is significantly smaller than the engine in the original issue. AMT employees from the 1960s note that, at that time, all AMT kits were packaged into boxes of a standardized size, to simplify shipping and the overriding requirement of designing any kit was that it had to fit into that precise size of box, not matter how large or small the original vehicle.
