Does anyone know anything about SMER? They have some fairly reasonably priced WW1 biplanes etc. Just wondering if there is a reason they are cheap, maybe the quality is really bad??

i have built a few of these kits and its fair to say they are a lttle rough around the edges, very basic , clunky detail, and for some reason the markings are moulded onto the kit unless its somthing you just can't get anywhere or you like to do scratchbuilding the low price may be a false economy

Hi Ryan

A lot of SMER kits are re-moulds of some really early plastic kits. They certainly don't come up to modern releases in terms of detail. I can quote from Harry Woodman's book, but I think we need a timely appearance from Jack Flash to properly outline their accuracy...

All the best

Rowan

Poof!
What the ...how did I get here? MERLIN!!!!! Soakin wet from the shower fortunately I had just grabbed a towel.

Uhhh Greetings all. Merlin informes me that your interested in Smer kits. According to the ancient writings of Brad K. Hansen;

Smer of the new Czech republic carried on the fine tradition of other countries in reissuing the old Artiplast /Merit WWI aviation kits in 1976. Some of these were infact copies of the old Aurorakits. The Ansaldo, DH.2 and Avro 504K were from the Italian based Artiplast from 1968. The exception was that several of Smer'sown kits were added. These kits are designed for building and if you want an out of the box highly detailed or more accurate kit I would suggest Roden or Eduard. You pay for what you get .

Some of the drawbacks to Smer / Aurora / Artiplast / Merit kits is that they are mostly 1/46 or 1/50th scale. They have etched surfaces marking the locations for kit decals. Some kits have Czech or Soviet markings and conflkict with the embossed markings mentioned.

But hey while I am fully AMS afflicted I don't expect anyone to sweat my concerns. These are just models and were the starting point for many WWI aviation enthusiasts. For the price I can recommend them for sheer enjoyment. For accuracy...scratchbuild or as mentioned Roden or Eduard are your best bets.

Drizzle drazzle dizzle Aerodrome time for this one to go home. . .

While it is a nice paint job and a nice tribute to Old Rhinebeck aerodrome's bird but here are some of the detractors;
1. Struts too thick out of scale
2. Prop wrong shape and pitch...too thick.
3. Rigging wires are out of scale and too bright.
4. turnbuckles are too large.
5. black squares are too large.
6. Wrong serial number and none on the rudder.
7. spine markings should run width wise not lengthwise and be thicker.
8. No Scariff ring as per the real a/c.
9. rotary engine... details way to large..out of scale.

All above is true. I have bought SMER kits just to have the enjoyment of building the old Aurora kits again.
capnjock

but apart from that,jackflash what did smer ever do for us?

Actually the afore-mentioned companies did keep WWI 1/48 scale kits in the public eye for most of The Great Drought (1968-1989.)