Due to EPA requirements and the added manufacturing costs, Dumas Products Inc. has announced that they are no longer manufacturing ANY model kits with fiberglass hulls. A couple of kits that this includes is the Mister Darby and the Prime Time and the large PT-109. Some of the kits that featured fiberglass hulls will be sold with ABS plastic, vacuum formed hulls after the first of the year. One of the kits to feature the ABS plastic, vacuum formed hulls after the first of the year is prime Time (I was told this today over the phone while talking to Dumas Inc.) Availability has not yet been determined by Dumas. At this time, no fiberglass hulls remain in stock at Dumas. If you are looking for a Dumas kit with a fiberglass hulls I would say to check your local hobby shop. Since Dumas no longer has any of these kits in stock, you may have to find one in a warehouse through your LHS. Tower Hobbies will soon be out of these kits also. Harbor Models will soon be providing a Mister Darby hull replacement... the Saga continues!
Yep...saw a notice on this earlier Seems that plastic is easier to deal with and less harmful to the environment so more and more model makers are moving to the ABS plastics.
I did read a rumor though that the plastic hulls Dumas plans on making will be thicker than the normal model kits out there so they will have better substance and strength than normal plastic hulls but still not the strength of fiberglass.
One thing though (which I'm not sure will happen) is that using plastic should make kits a bit cheaper...at least in theory...
Thinking of the models Dumas no longer makes with fiberglass hull got me wondering a few things. First, the Prime Time for example, this is almost a 4 foot model. Changing this hull to ABS plastic may not work without major supports within the hull. ABS dosn't offer what fiberglass does. Fiberglass is far stronger, it's going to be nice to see what Dumas offers in ABS plastic.
After hearing what Dumas is doing, (or not doing), kind of makes you wonder if Ebay will have more listings of these popular kits. Did ours just go up in value? Not that I would sell mine, but I bet someone out there will see what they can get for these discontinued kits.
I have not really seen people on eBay trying to sale these kits more in the past few weeks. Although Dumas doesn't make them, there is still stock still in some warehouses. And until this "stock" is gone is when the lack of these kits will be felt. That is why I posted to try to get these from your LHS. Although Tower Hobbies is showing a shortage of a few of these kits and I bet Great Planes is also.
Harbormodels claims to have a fibreglass version of Mr Darby. Does anybody have any experience with the Harbormodels version? How does it compare to the Dumas in quality of materials and instructions?
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)