The good news is :-) Greatmodels has announced the release of a 1/35 Ontos SP recoilless rifle vehicle by Hobby Fan. The bad news is they're listing it at $90.

It is a re-issue of the Hobby Fan kit. Supposed to be giid, but pretty pricy.

Guess I'll keep plugging away at my 1/40 scale Revell kit

Has anyone here built the Hobby Fan kit? Do you think it is worth the price?

As long as there is people willing to pay that price, they will charge that price, there is a certain amount of justafacation, then there is all out over price, it all depends on how much money you have, and how much you are willing to spend.

Howdy animal,

In response to your question. I have the kit, and have not built it because it is....lacking.
I don't doubt that an OOB build can be acheived, but then we get into that funny 'perception' thing again.
The hull mouldings are pretty accurate, the tracks are a variation of the L&L configuration where the section where the track wraps around the drive sprocket (etc.) is already pre-moulded, and the amount of extras resin 'flash' is a little more than standard. The weakest part of the kit are the Rifle's. But, replacing them with maybe a set of Skybow Rifle's would fix that. Also, the resin used in the castings is extremely lightweight.
hth.

Tread.

Oops, sorry. You asked if it was worth the price. Not $90.00

If anyone needs them, I have walk-around photos in my webshots account that I took at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The web address is below:

http://community.webshots.com/album/109956948yHqCPD

Hope this helps!

MPK sells this kit at NT$2030, about 60USD. But I heard that they don't accept overseas order at the moment.

I have 3 Hobby Fan kits. I bought one locally when their price dropped. The other 2 are ordered from MPK, and instructed them to ship to my relatives in Taiwan, who bought the kits to me when they come visit me.

To begin with, Hobby Fan is the very best in quality control and packaging. All parts are very carefully packed in small bags, and the box is filled up with foam. Among the 3 kits, I found only one broken part. Strange enough, there is an extra piece of that broken, Seems like they notice one part is broken, and putting another good one inside without taking out the bad one.

Though I haven't start building, I have done a lot of clean up work. It is tedious, as these people like to break down everything into very tine parts. But casting is first class. No bubble. No mis-cast.

The M-163 conversion I got is a beauty. But it will be hell of a challenge to put it together. Something like 20+ pieces are the wiring. Probably it is easier to make those with vinyl, but these people have them casted in resin. So the shapes are very good, but it will be nightmare to remove them from the plugs, and to glue them into exact places. Instruction is also shaky. And that why I haven't started building yet.

If you're buying at the MPK price, it worths. But you have to be very careful, and have fingers defty like a surgeon.

Hi Al,
I have the Hobbyfan Ontos and I like it alot. Their quality control is very good and is most likely one of the reasons for the price being so high.
I have started to hollow out the inner hull halves to scratch-build an interior and it's going good so far, but I'm still looking for more reference before I begin... although I tend to lean toward overkill when it comes to ref. pics.
If I can help with pics, just let me know. And the 6 rifle barrels are machined aluminum.

HTH
Chuck

So the reason that this kit is so expensive is probably cause no body else makes it and on second place that the HF one is a good kit i think. But anyway we ve seen in boxes a lot of armor or vehicles even unknown or experimental or hardly used , so why some bug company dont hrow an ONTOS in the market what;s the problem for Tamiya, Dragon, Academy, Trumpeter, AFV to make on . i dont get it ?

I assume you want to say AFV Club? Right? AFV Club and Hobby Fan are the same company.

The cost. I have two friends that run C&H Minatures and they specialize in Century-Series Two seat conversions for 1/48 Monogram kits (Airplanes with torches in their butts.) Their greatest expense is for the rubber to make the molds. The resin is relatively cheap, but rubber is expensive. The life of a mold depends on the complexity of the part being molded.

Then of course, you have to add retail markup and profit, etc.

You got it. Let me give an example here. I make resin sometimes. To make an upper hull of a medium size tank, I need a least 500-600gm of rubber, that is $10-12.

How long this mold last? Here is the problem. The first mold usually produces nothing, as I may screw up with the layout. Then I have to do some modification and redo the mold.

If I am lucky I got a working one the second time. I re-use about 20-30% of the rubber, so this time it is $8-10

If I am lucky again, this mold produces 12 copies. But actually I consider it very good if it can be used for 6-8 times.

For a 1/35 upper hull, something like 40-50 gm of resin is needed. So it is $1.

Let say I am going to make 100 copies, total material cost will be something like $120-150 for the rubber, and $100 for resin. But you can't avoid wastage, 20-30% will be reasonable, and with other stuff needed, the total cost will be $300 at least.

So that costs me at least $3 for one hull, and many days of dirty works. Adding my own wages and other bills like electricity and water etc, is it too much if I ask for $7 per piece? But I tell you, if I charge $7, it will becomes $15 when it hits the shelf. And it is the case when I haven't hire anyone to make the master.

That's why I am not in this business It is a very hard way to make a living.

Just imagine how many molds they will need to produce the Ontos.