What is it like to build a Lukgraph Model?

[Gazzas]

Please, share some of your experiences.  They have too many things I want, but I'm held up by my hatred of attaching everything with CA.

[vince14]

They're good kits that get better with every release, but you do have to treat them with a bit more respect than an injection molded kit. You need to be careful removing the 3D printed parts from their runners, and I recommend washing and then priming all 3D printed and resin parts before starting. The old 'measure twice, cut once' rules apply.

 

Having said that, they're at the better quality end of the resin/3D printed model market and build up well. If you're looking for a relatively simple Lukgraph kit to get started with, either the 1/32 or 1/48 De Havilland DH.90 Dragonfly work well, or the recently released Hanriot HD.1.

[Rick Griewski]

Tape is your friend.  Tape before glue. Always plan at least one next step.  Similar to billiards…. Where is the q-ball sitting for the next shot?

 

Have a small fan blowing the flue fumes away from your face 

[Jan_K]

Generally the Lukgraph models are good. 
I prefer the older kits having the struts made of cast resin with wire reinforcement. 

I have also their new  Hawker Nimrod, which has the struts 3d printed  from VERY fragile plastics. 
Center section struts already came broken. I am about to make a silicone moulds and cast all the struts (interplane+center+undercarriage) with some wire reinforcement. 

Something which can be done but I would prefer a 200+ Eur kit to be ready to be built right off the shelf.
Cast brass would be nice as the kit is significatly heavier than a regular injection molded kit.  (and the struts are lot weaker than  the injected ones)

Edited March 11 by Jan_K

[Borsos]

7 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Please, share some of your experiences.  They have too many things I want, but I'm held up by my hatred of attaching everything with CA.

Do it like me: buy what you want and put it in the stash, planning to build it one day 

[Jan_K]

 

12 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Please, share some of your experiences.  They have too many things I want, but I'm held up by my hatred of attaching everything with CA.

The CA dries way too fast to align the parts as required.  Use 5min epoxy or regular epoxy for all the bigger parts.
Use CA only for small parts - cockpit or similar.

Edited March 11 by Jan_K

[Gazzas]

13 hours ago, Jan_K said:

Generally the Lukgraph models are good. 
I prefer the older kits having the struts made of cast resin with wire reinforcement. 

I have also their new  Hawker Nimrod, which has the struts 3d printed  from VERY fragile plastics. 
Center section struts already came broken. I am about to make a silicone moulds and cast all the struts (interplane+center+undercarriage) with some wire reinforcement. 

Something which can be done but I would prefer a 200+ Eur kit to be ready to be built right off the shelf.
Cast brass would be nice as the kit is significatly heavier than a regular injection molded kit.  (and the struts are lot weaker than  the injected ones)

 

That's not the kind of thing I like to read.  Fragile struts definitely weaken my interest.

[Christa]

My Lukgraph kits have reinforced struts. I do not have a Hind because it was said to be flawed as reported. I would be surprised and disappointed if Lukgraph repeated that mistake. In my opinion Lukgraph produce good kits that build into pleasing models.

[Archimedes]

19 hours ago, Christa said:

My Lukgraph kits have reinforced struts. I do not have a Hind because it was said to be flawed as reported. I would be surprised and disappointed if Lukgraph repeated that mistake. In my opinion Lukgraph produce good kits that build into pleasing models.

Hear, hear Chris.

 

They do correct mistakes when they find them; viz their Albatros W4 fuselage correction. Please can no-one say ‘Well, they should have got it right in the first place’ because all manufacturers make mistakes; few own up to them in the way Lukgraph have. Kudos to them. 

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[Kenneth]

I have been interested in their 1/32 DH.89 Dragon Rapide. I have only found three completed builds on the Internet, and they were also accompanied by pictures of the building process. All three noted too short struts between the engine nacelles and the fuselage, various wrong or missing details and quite a few other issues. Not for me, is my decision…

[mozart]

On 3/12/2024 at 6:39 AM, Christa said:

My Lukgraph kits have reinforced struts. I do not have a Hind because it was said to be flawed as reported. I would be surprised and disappointed if Lukgraph repeated that mistake. In my opinion Lukgraph produce good kits that build into pleasing models.

Lukgraph don’t make a Hind Chris to my knowledge, though you had me excited there for a moment! Are you thinking of the Nimrod? 

[Christa]

I believed myself incapapable of a 'senior moment' Max. Oh dear . . .

[mozart]

14 minutes ago, Christa said:

I believed myself incapapable of a 'senior moment' Max. Oh dear . . .

Nature can’t be denied Chris…..even “capapable” like you my friend! 

[Christa]

For Hind, read Nimrod with apologies to Max for unintended heart flutter. I have put off the Nimrod until the strut issue is sorted. Some years ago I strengthened a set of struts for an Academy Sopwith F 1 Camel using brass rod and filler - slow but simple and effective. That might work for Gazzas' Nimrod.

[Borsos]

On 3/12/2024 at 3:42 AM, Gazzas said:

 

That's not the kind of thing I like to read.  Fragile struts definitely weaken my interest.

I haven’t build a Lukgraph kit yet, but some WNW, Roden, Special Hobby injection molded WW1 kits and also some resin WW1 kits. When it comes to struts my experience is, that they‘re always weak if the original struts were made of metal and are therefore of a way smaller diameter than wooden struts (wooden struts as injection molded parts are no problem.) It doesn’t matter if these metal struts are made of injection molded, resin or 3D printed resin kit parts. I like to replace all these struts of all biplane kits with brass rod. It’s not that difficult: Just cut a brass pipe of the exact length like your strut with as scalpel blade, insert a smaller and a little longer piece of steel wire as a core and flatten the whole thing with a pin vice (Albion Alloys once offered a tool called „the strutter“ for that purpose, but its long o. o. p. now). You might have to smoothen the edges with a file.

 

That’s how they look like (brass struts for a Roden Albatros D. I)

 

Here is an example of the finished thing. It’s the WNW DFW C. V, the original machine had metal struts. It is highly recommended to replace them with brass to add strength.

 

Also these struts are made of brass pipe with a steel wire core. 

Wooden struts are no problem in general, because they’re thicker. But it can be sometimes fun to replace them with real wood.

 

And that’s my WNW Albatros B. II. Here I used the kit parts and did NOT replace them with brass pipe:

 

 

 

What I wanted to say is: Most struts on any biplane kit are wobbly when not replaced by e. g. brass struts. It doesn’t matter if they are made of resin, 3D-printed resin or injection molded plastic. It’s not difficult at all to replace them with stronger material. It shouldn’t take you away to buy a Lukgraph kit. I do not intend to use a single of these struts in my Lukgraph kits, besides of using them as templates to make my own.

I hope that helps a little.

 

Andreas

Edited March 13 by Borsos