Cassini Models Skydiver
from Gerry Andersons' UFO
Resin Kit Review Studio Scale
Page Number
Bits...Large...Well cast...Well Cool
'Nuff Said
And the last of the resin cast goodies here now.
The sail/tower bit.
Cleanly cast for the most part but with some surface defects
here and there that will require sorting for definite.







To my mind with the air bubbles along the panel lines,
A going over with filler, then a sand down and lastly a
light going over with a good quality panel scriber
will see those nasties dealt with I do believe.

And now to the main bulk of this bit.
And a fairly bulky bit it be too!





A well cast piece indeed considering the size of it.
One thing I will mention, the overall even thickness of the resin.
i've encountered a few hollow cast/rotocast bits in my time and this is a very nice piece of work.
it's almost a uniform 1/4" thick pretty much all round so a fairly sturdy bit of work to be sure.
Most of the others i've seen with my own peepers have been very hit and miss with uniform thickness so this is a goodun!

The mould seam line around it may look a smidgen horrendous in the photos but it isn't trust me.
in reality i'd say the worst stepping if you can call it that,
stacks up to about 0.2 to 0.4mm if that.
Not an impossible task to deal with for certain.

The surface detail is pretty crisp and has a few surface air bubbles to be deal with
but they are not in any way excruciatingly bad.

















Just had to slap the sail on top with the rear bulge for a look see.



Me likey what me see!
Lastly, the dead tree edition destructions.
Two pages of text assembly stages, one diagram page for parts assembly
and four pages of colour pics.
Same ones as you can get on the Cassini Models web site.




Final Thoughts...
Well sadly I won't have the honour of building this beastie so as to how it goes together, good question.
I may or may not get the chance to build one in times to come so well see how it goes.

So thoughts and conclusions on what is in the boxes.

Well let's begin with the accuracy side of things.
To be honest i'm no expert at all but from what I know and reference comparison,
i'd say 'nailed it good and proper' is not too far off the mark there.

Casting quality, yep there are some issues there and to be frank
it will depend almost exclusively on what sort of modeller you are as to how bad or otherwise they are.
Speaking just for myself, I didn't see anything that could be considered a big deal in terms of sorting out
and nothing that I haven't come across before in other resin kits.

On the back of that with the parts cleanup, there isn't a whole heck of a lot to do.

No hack sawing off large pour stubs of resin or the like.
The biggest stub I could see was on the canopy for Sky 1 and that wasn't much more than 2mm high at most.
So nothing that some careful sanding couldn't take care of.

Now all that taken in to account, the overall quality assessment from a purely personal point of view.
I would consider it 'up there' in the quality of resin kits available.

it's certainly not a 'pour in a bottle of glue, shake and out falls a completed model'
yet to build a resin kit myself that is,
but it's far and away better than some i've personally seen regardless of size of model in terms of casting quality.

Looking at the assembly instructions and trying a few dry fit routines,
this is one of those 'probably will need some metal pins here and there' to
beef up the joints or at least make the assembly a bit easier.
it's no easy task to build slots and pins into something like this to be cast in resin and still have it all fit.
There are limitations to any medium and this is one of them.

Saying that, builders of this kit will have (or should have) plenty of experience under
their belt so I don't foresee too much wailing and gnashing of teeth going on here.


The parts all have obvious placing positions and plenty of dry fit work will get the job done
in familiarising yourself with how all the little bits make up the big picture 'fore the time
of the 'gluing it up proper' is upon you.

On the value for money side of things, I would say it is certainly that.
For the money which cost my friend £484 and change for the kits
and shipping in pounds sterling at the time of purchase,
it may not be considered a cheap kit but it's not the most costly for what will stack up to be
a 32 and a bit inch long and very accurate model once built.

in the end, how you build and what you do to get to the end product is a matter of choice
of course and anything in this review is just my own point of view.

Also it's is something to remember that with resin kits, even two from
the same manufacturer may have slight differences in casting quality and so on.

Cookie cutter injection moulded sameness is not an option with this medium.


So in closing, Cassini have scored a good one in this turn out.
it's a solid product in my view and good on cost and quality.
Any modeller experienced in resin kits and also a UFO fan
will not go wrong at all with this one in their collection.

And that's me a done for now.
You lot take care of yaselves out there now.
Page Number