RESIN: If you've been building for any length of time, you've seen the progress the resin casting industry has made. Remember when the disclaimer sheet came with every resin car you bought? The one telling you how to fill casting flaws? Sort of explains why some builders have stayed as far away from resin as they could. But most of the casters have gotten REALLY good, bodies that we once would have considered the norm are now considered rejects and those micro bubbles sit on the shelf. Unless, and this is the crux of this whole thing, you buy from R&R.
OK, we all know that the Modelhaus is IT for resin casting. Don can even control the surface smoothness of his castings. I've never gotten a flawed piece from them and I've never even heard of anyone that has. Barely below them are F&F, SMH and Hendrix (and others that belong here but I won't list them until I buy from them and can state their qualities from experience).
I think F&F nudges ahead of Hendrix not so much on quality but on completeness (and they plate their parts if needed), but this is not to make light of the wonderful "crispness" Hendrix's castings show.
Any of this top tier will consistently provide you with a nearly flawless casting every time. But R&R seems not to be able to make that little leap from usable to good.
THIS IS NOT A SLAM, per se, it's frustration. Example, I've got an R&R '58 Buick, very cool car, pretty good casting, BUT I'm going to have to completely rework the front fender eyebrows and headlights to make it buildable. And this is not an isolated example. Every piece I have that came from R&R has at least one major glitch! What's frustrating is that they come SO CLOSE with such cool applications. I don't know about you, but I'd LOVE to see them give that last little "nudge" to the quality of their castings.
Now, what's the point of all of this? Simple. As problematic as I find R&R's castings, I still buy them and build them. I would also dearly love to be able to praise and recommend them. They have been around so long that they are a intregal part of what we do and if they would just kick it up one last notch they could once again become a vital part of our hobby...
