This set by Black Dog is meant to allow you to add a full interior to the Trumpeter M1117 Guardian Armored Security Vehicle (ASV). I will not comment on its accuracy. The purpose of this is to express my frustration with the quality of the castings. I admit I am spoiled by products by Legend, Live Resin and SKP. There is a ton of very sharp detail on most of the parts. I am just dismayed by the amount of distortion seen on most of the parts that should be flat. I’ll not write any more on the subject but will let the photos speak for themselves.

Breakdown:
42 Resin
21 Photo Etch

The instructions are grayscale photos printed on heavy A4 format paper. They are clear, but parts placement will be up to you and your references. I do not have any reference books on the M1117, but I did contact Robert Skipper (18Bravo) and he was able to send me quite a few nice photos of the real thing with some nice interior shots.

Here are the photos. These first photos are of all of the parts.

























These next few photos show the amount of distortion present on most of the parts. Does Black Dog stand behind their products, or am I on my own here? Trying to flatten these pieces will be next to impossible. I may just use the turret interior and scrap the rest. Should I contact Black Dog directly, or should I contact the vendor? I really can’t hold any vendor responsible for something like this. If the box was in any way damaged and the parts had breakage then that would be my first try. But that clearly isn’t the case here. Any ideas?








Maybe I’m just being dramatic. Let me know what you think.

It looks like they melted.

The interior wall parts don't look that nice, but perhaps when placed against the plastic exterior parts they fit better?

Your biggest problem might be the roof part and resin part No5.

I totally agree that they should be in much better shape but maybe in the end they are not such a big problem?

Matthew, it does look like they melted. That was my first thought. There was also a ton of potato chip shaped packing foam crammed in the box. That along with some heat in transit could have caused the damage. I probably will attempt to flatten the parts with a blow dryer when I get around to building the ASV.

Regards,

Eric

I had also distortions problems on parts of their Land Rover Snatch conversion and their MTVR conversion. The problem is also the enormous casting blocks difficult to remove without breaking the parts.

I think that the parts was in to hot area ,that's why they look melted ,just my 2 cents .

Thank you for the great photos Eric. This looks interesting!

So, if parts placement is up to available references, why no comment on accuracy? Is it bad? Do the parts remotely resemble the photos?

Robert, in all honesty I haven't looked at a single photo to judge its accuracy. I was just so frustrated with the warping that I wanted to ask people's opinions about the damage and if others have experienced it. At some point i will get around to making comparisons. Sorry! I will try to take a look in the coming days and post my impressions.

Regards,

Eric

Eric, I understand your frustration. I had a similar experience with Black Dog, warping, poor fit, etc.

Someone said the warping occurs when getting the pieces out of the mold too soon after pouring, when the pieces did not fully cure in the mold. There are number of tips on the net about stragthening parts like these, perhaps these are worth trying.

Mario

Agree with Mario, must be a QC problem, perhaps a lazy worker releasing the mold too early.

Parts can't be deformed like this with ambient heat.
He probably does not let the parts cool enough before removing them.

Alex, with the distortion some have had with even large blocks of resin I can believe Black Dog isn't fully letting the parts cure before they are demolded. There was also a fair amount of mold material stuck in the parts. Black Dog must really go through them in a hurry.

Mario, I saw what you want through with the GMV. I'll have to look into the tips you spoke of. I'll be able to make it work. I just hoped it would be easier for the price.

Regards,

Eric

I even have mold fragments stuck in some parts !

Eric, those parts do need help. You would think the Black Dog would be doing a better job with their molds and casting on such expensive sets. However, the solution is not that hard.

While back Paul Fisher shared his secret with me on how to straighten out a distorted or uneven resin part. He told me to boil a cup of water and while it's boiling...dip the uneven part into the boiling water for 5 to 10 seconds. Pull out the resin part and let it cool naturally and it will go back to it's original shape. Of course, you might have to do it more then once for stubborn parts. Just make sure you do not dip the entire part completely unless the whole thing is out of shape. Just dip the section that needs help. I tried this to number of resin parts out of black box, true detail, etc with great results.

Make sure to use twizzers or something to hold the resin while it's in the boiling water unless your related to superman and extreme heat has no effect on you. In that case, alrighty then...disregard the comment and carry on

Well, hope this helps you.

Thank you Mike for the tip about the boiling water technique. I'll give the blow dryer a try first to see how Black Dog's resin reacts to the heat. I've had good luck and I feel I can control the app!location process a little more.

Regards,

Eric

The blow dryer technique works extremely well. I've used it to lay down resin tracks numerous times. You can control it better if you cover the areas with a towel that you don't want heated.
I've also used the boiling water technique, and it works, but at least for me, parts did not spring back on their own, they needed quite a bit of coaxing, i.e. warped roof on Mig M1114 conversion.

A few seconds in the microwave oven works too to reform the parts.