I’m interested in whether this is any good, and what it contains, please.

What is the description of 714? Might help?

Jim

I don't have an answer about that specific item, but my experience with AEF is that some parts will be pretty nicely cast, & some parts will be so badly cast that they'll be utterly useless. I picked up many years ago the turret upgrade for the Tamiya T-62. The turret casting was very good with just a couple air bubbles, & it came with a metal barrel. But every other single piece was so poorly cast that they were unusable. If you can physically see the castings & they are up to your standards, I'd consider it. But I'm never buying anything from them sight unseen again.

Damon.

I seconded Damon's input.

Didn`t realize that AEF Designs is still in business.

Good point; it is, “Achzarit 2008”, an update with Katlanit rws and aquarium commander copula. Thanks,

I don’t believe he is, either, but was wondering whether this is worth finding somewhere on the Internet...

I don't think they are but sometimes owners of oversized stashes clear out some stuff and sell it second hand on ebay and similar sites ....
/ Robin

They are not.AEF Designs has been out of business since 2012 I think.

I always thought their masters were pretty good. It would be nice to see them get reissued by someone that actually cares about product quality. But I think quite a few items in their catalog are obsolete now...

Damon.

And that is exactly what I was wondering, too.

AEF Designs inventory, masters and library have been purchased by another person.

I do not know if he will recast and have products available in the future, but judging by the previous castings he has a lot of work ahead of him in order to get a decent/complete product.

Under no circumstances buy an AEF kit without actually holding it in your hands and looking at all the parts. Every one.

Seriously.

His reputation is/was soooooo bad that it is highly likely that any AEF kit offered for any amount, no matter how small, will come with a lot of unusable parts, if not ALL unusable parts.

Don't do it. No matter how alluring the subject is.

Just, don't.

Herein endeth the lesson.

Paul

Tankmodeler, copy that, out.

I take it you’ve had a bad AEF experience, then?

I ended up throwing out every single AEF kit I had. They were horrible. Half the time, it appears they just recast the factory plastic part in resin and added a bunch of resin blobs and flash covered crap parts that never fit. Warping was insane on many parts in most of the kits I had as were air bubbles. I couldn't even use the stuff as a starting point to remake them or to convert on a kit part. I found it way easier to scratch build the conversion than use AEF stuff. But that's me. Your mileage may vary.

A friend taught me the lesson long ago before I bought anything off him. The one time I had a chance to actually see his stuff, in person, at his table at a show, none of it was worth buying.

He went away pissed at sales and never came back, but it wasn't the show's fault. Everything he brought to sell was rubbish.

While he was in business, the forums were rife with horror stories about not only the quality of the stuff he would ship out but also his abusive attitude towards anyone who dared ask for replacement parts. On top of appalling quality issues, his interpersonal client interaction skills were, if at all possible, worse.

Paul

Thanks for that, Paul.

I'll leave it where it is and hope maybe legends or Blast do the necessary update of a Katlanit rws and cupola.

Kylie

Hi Everybody;

FYI;-- AEF when they first started were A Cottage Garage type of just A few individuals who came out with Russian and mainly Israeli Items in 1/35 scale. When they first started there offerings were not to bad depending on which individual cast them; At the Time I purchased quite A few set's of T-55 items like different fuel panniers, and at the time they offered A large selection of items that you could use for different version's !! Now I am talking quite A few Years ago, 80ish; After A few years the coalition started to fall apart and they all went there separate ways, and this is when things started to fall apart Quality wise. Only later did A different individual from A Certain Northern State tried to take over, and this is how AEF Ended !!!!!!

CHEERS; MIKE.

Katlanit same as Samson?

Hi Paul,

The Samson is a 762 mg, the Katlanit is a 50cal or 762. The Katlanit is the more modern of the two, and itself has been superseded by the Drakonit (Dragon) rws in Israeli service. Yeah, I know, I’m a bit of a trainspotter like that.

Always saddens me when I see posts tearing into AEF with such hatred. Gotta keep in mind lads, back in the late 80's, AEF was pretty much the only outfit releasing stuff for Israeli and modern Russian subjects (aside from maybe Verlinden, which didn't have nearly the same product range and whose quality wasn't exactly perfect either).

Some of their kits were rough but I used their IDF TOW jeep, T-55AM2, BMP-1 & 2 interiors and T-62 correction sets and was very happy with the results. Was everything perfect? Nope. However, I was able to overcome the flaws and built models that otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to.