Whats the big deal about resin?

[GobotFool]

Hey all, I am wondering, I have seen bunch of resin kits and really I don't see how it is a better material than say injection molds. I have seen G-systems stuff which is astounding however I always atributed that to the sheer scale, 1/35 of course its going to have even more detail than a 1/60th. Is this just another issue where some people swear by it, others swear at it? Looking at alot of the 1/100 resin kits out there compared to a MG I personally find them lacking, am I missing something vital?

Edited September 15, 2003 by GobotFool

[Valkyrie]

The various materials all have thier pros and cons.

Injection kits are usually relatively cheap. The steel molds used to make them are very expensive to produce, but the kits are mass produced, so they're usually easy to find and fairly cheap when they're still in production. Levels of detail and accuracy vary greatly. Anywhere from crappy (Arii) to magnificent (Hasegawa).

Resin, on the other hand, is completely different. First and foremost, the big advantage is variety. There's resin kits out there of MANY Macross subjects that have never been done in plastic (for example, I can think of 7 different VF-4 resin kits off the top of my head. There's never been a VF-4 plastic kit.)

Detail levels vary greatly here as well, as can accuracy. But I've seen very few Macross resin kits that are noticably inaccurate.

Also, resin kits are almost always cast solid, unlike most injection kits. So they can be very solid and hefty, unlike hollow, flimsy injection kits.

The prices are considerably higher, but that's often because they're limited run kits. And the time and money (in mold material and casting resin) that go into them necessitate the high pricetags.

In both cases, sizes can vary greatly. Both resin and injection kits can be very small or very large (though large resin kits are VERY expensive)

But like I mentioned earlier, the biggest advantage of resin kits is variety.

If there's never been a model of some mecha, and you want to make one, then you, yourself can make and sell a resin kit of it. You just need a bit of sculpting talent, and some resin casting skilz

[David Hingtgen]

My answer:

Nobody uses resin because it's better in any way, it's used because it's easy to make. Sure, Bandai can spend $100,000 to make a steel die for an injection-molded plastic MG Gundam. But no single person can, nor many smaller companies. So if they're going to make something more obscure, with low production runs, then they'll use resin, since resin doesn't require expensive laser-cut acid-etched copper-lined steel molds (which is AFAIK the best you can get, used by all the top makers). Resin can use simple poured/cast rubber/latex molds.

I mean, I just bought some resin parts to convert the USS Missouri to the USS Iowa. I'm probably one of a only few dozen, (maybe a few hundred, but I doubt it) to do so. Yes, injection molded plastic would be much better, but then it wouldn't exist, since it would be prohibitively expensive for the manufacturer to design and offer such a "obscure" item. But being some simple resin cast parts (as opposed to injected into a die), it does exist, and doesn't cost too much.

In summary: resin is the only way to get a lot of obscure/rare things, because injection-molded plastic simply costs too much. Yes, Hasegawa can sell all the VF-1S's in the world, and pay off the cost of the mold. But there's simply not ever going to be enough VB-6's or VF-3000's etc sold to justify the cost of making a die for it. But with resin, you just sculpt one master, and make rubber molds from that. Cheap and easy.

[cobywan]

Resin kits are better than styrene because the process in casting allows for serious detail and undercuts to be put into one part. If you ever got a decent resin kit you wouldn't have made this post. Just be carefull of the crap kits that are out there.

[David Hingtgen]

Umm, whom are you replying to? For I did not say one word about quality or details, simply how the molds themselves are made and how much that mold-making process costs. There's a huge difference between me saying "resin isn't superior" and "resin sucks".

[VFX]

All the above answers are correct. I would like to add that resin can hold sharper egdes and deeper details than IP kits. Only the recent Hasagawa kits have approached the level of detail resin can hold.

And as was mentioned above, you'll never see a resin VF-4 or VF-5000

[the white drew carey]

Quality and detail issues aside (which are not subject whatsoever to the material, but to the production), David Hingtgen has hit it right on the head.

[tetsujin]

Whatever the reason, a lot of resin kits out there are simply gorgeous, where the injection-molded equivalents (if any) are often bland at best and downright cheesy at worst. I attribute this to the differences in the process: with a resin kit you have a scratchbuilder/sculptor building a model, and then recasting it. Very little consideration is necessary when designing the model to make it castable. On the other hand, injection-molded kits need a lot more consideration to get the same level of quality: parts count has to be higher to account for draft angle/undercut issues, and given the comparatively high cost of producing a mold, it's not as common for an injection-molded kit part to be redesigned if problems were found after the mold was produced. I think the relative simplicity of producing a resin kit is a big factor in why they often look better - the sculptor can refine things, create what they want, and the product of that is exactly what the modeler gets. It's possible for injection-molded kits to be just as good as resin, but in practice it's not that common.

In Bandai's case, the injection-molded versions come out sort of cheesy-looking a lot of the time because they apparently don't care about quality of detail, at least in robot kits. They'll dig trenches like canyons and call them panel lines so they can avoid having to complicate the molding, and they'll needlessly split up parts for color, while leaving structural detail areas molded in a minimal number of parts. A lot of MG and PG kits have molded-in cables and such. If you look at Hasegawa, on the other hand, the gap between resin and injection-molded kits isn't as wide.

I love resin kits. A while back I got the B-club Gelgoog-J conversion set, that thing is super-pretty. That's pretty much how it goes - having found a few resin kits that really appealed to me, and worked with one of them, I can appreciate resin and justify the cost in those kinds of cases. In other cases, I stick to cheaper options.

[Gundamhead]

Jeez bash the IP kits. However, resin is more hazardous and warps easier. They're both excellent mediums and have strengths and weaknesses. It all depends on what you're looking for in a kit.

[rocco_77]

You guys think you know everything.... PFFT...

[Skull Leader]

It also seems to me that making modifications to resin model parts is a little easier, if a piece doesn't fit just right, you can sand it down for a more complete fit, instead of just tiny edges meeting. On my YS SDF-01 Storm Attacker kit, I somehow got one too many of the wrong edge for the feet (all four corners had a different piece), so I simply sanded down a new ledge for it to rest against, and now you'd never know the difference.

Resin kits do tend to require a considerable bit more modeling experience, but don't let that scare you away from them... how will you ever learn how to do them if you don't try? My SDF-01 Storm attacker was my first resin model, and it was a giant to tackle! I'm not finished with it yet, but so far I've not run into any complications that an injection-mold modeller couldn't tackle. I know they're often expensive (finding a kit worth building for less than $50 is a difficult thing to do), but WELL WORTH IT. While the SDF-01 was my first kit, I HAVE finished a couple of other kits between now and then (I did a wonderfest 1/72 action pose VF-1S kit and a YS Super Ostritch kit for a friend of mine) and I got a greater sense of accomplishment out of those than any injection-mold model I've ever built! Give it a shot, you won't be sorry. Just remember to take your time.

[MacrossX]

In summary:

Resin kits:

Pros:

1) modellers can cast what they want, they have much more control on the details, shape and proportionality of the kits.

2) Easy to repair and reshape

Cons:

1) Expensive. These kits are made in low volume (home made) and the material costs are expensive. Have you seen that 1/35 Ex-S Gundam? $2100 US?

2) Depending on the quality of the resin, it can chip easily.

3) It takes time and patience to produce

4) Parts will loose details if the cast is used many times.

5) Parts are usually heavier because they are not hollow. The 1/35 Ex-S Gundam is about 60 lbs I think, the shipping cost will kill you.

Don't let the word "resin" scares you. If you just assemble a kit, it is relatively easy.

Plastic Injection kit:

Pros:

1) Cheaper. Much larger production runs and much higher profits if the kits are popular.

2) It saves your time making it yourself.

3) Lighter than the resin counterparts.

Cons:

1) You have to do a lot of re-modelling if the parts are not in the shape, proportion or details you want. For example,most think the MG Ex-S Gundam's head is too big and it makes the shoulders small.

2) You have no control on the quality of the kit.

Edited September 16, 2003 by MacrossX

[Skull Leader]

there really isn't anything "wrong" with injection-mold... it's just that some things are better done in resin.