Track 48 Discussion Forum: AEF Designs: Beware

I asked a number of posts below if anyone had a positive or negative experience to share about dealing with AEF Designs. Well, I will now relate my experience, as my order has finally arrived. I ordered all three of their Israeli Sherman sets.

Firstly, it took 23 days from the day AEF Design charged my credit card, until the day they actually mailed my product. NOT the day it arrived, but from the day they mailed it. I really feel this is unacceptable.

Regarding the parts themselves: there is a great difference in quality between the various parts contained in my three sets. All three sets contained a turret, different shapes for each set. The casting on these is first rate: no flaws on any of them, and the detail is very crisply rendered.

However, the same can not be said for the smaller parts. The vast majority of these have air bubbles, some so large as to make the parts themselves useless or requiring major fix ups to bring them right. Such parts include the travel locks contained in each set, spare road wheels, jerry cans etc. I will have to use these as templates to scratchbuild my own replacements.

Since these massive air bubbles are very clear on just a cursory glance, one must believe that AEF Design believes such "quality" is acceptable to ship to their customers? These are NOT Fighting48 or Iron Division quality products.

Instructions: basically, there aren't any. Two out of the three sets contain no instructions whatsoever, while one set, the one with the most numerous parts, has a couple of sketches showing the placement of SOME of the parts. The rest is up to the modeler, so you will need good references to use these sets.

The sets don't even have a parts list, so I actually haven't a clue if my sets were complete! I do know that one set isn't, because it clearly says that for a certain series of parts, "the set contains duplicate parts to aid in construction" or some such. Sadly, a couple of these parts are missing, as I have two of some, but only one of others. Again, poor quality control in the packaging of the product. Will I write for replacements? No, because the quality control of the parts is such that I might receive replacements, but if they are of the same quality as the ones I did receive, I would be better off just scratch building replacements.

My conclusion: if like me, you really want some Israeli Shermans in your collection, currently these are the only aftermarket sets available. The sets are not user friendly, containing many poorly cast parts, and basically no instructions. You will be forced to replace a number of the parts with scratch built replacements, but at least you have templates from which to do this! If you want a product that is a drop fit onto a Tamiya or HobbyBoss donor kit, such as those products from Fighting48 or Iron Division, these sets are NOT for you. Also be warned that with basically no instructions, you will need to find a decent selection of reference material in order to figure out where the parts go. Beware.

Cheers,
Andrew

AEF Designs: Beware

Couldn't have said it better myself.