Marushin PPK/s Casting blow-hole problem

My first kit - a Marushin PPK/s - was pretty straight forward to assemble. Easy to follow instructions and all the pieces readily identifiable.

It was a joy to make, and being my first kit, the only problem I initially encountered was the trigger bar and getting it to work properly. You ready do have to ensure it is bent in all the right places, so that it doesn't disconnect from either the trigger at one end, or the sear at the other. But it only took about an hour or so. (I was using caliper to check the dimensions of bars and screws etc.) ''


I really felt quite proud of my achievement......until it unexpectedly stopped working! ''

At first I assumed I had done something wrong in my assembly. So I disassembled it all and visually doubled checked everything (or so I thought)! Reassembled everything and.....Na! Repeated the exercise and .....Na! again. Repeat once again for luck and ......same result..... everything worked, but as soon as the hammer was cocked, the hammer lost tension and wouldn't fire.

By this point I'd run out of ideas, tired and frustrated. But at least I could disassemble and reassemble a PPK/s in under 3 minutes!
So I went to bed; then work the next day. After dinner, I stripped it down again and decided to focus on the hammer. At first it appeared normal. I then felt inside the hammer slot with a small tool and felt a slight recess was present, where there should not have been. Grabbing a magnifying glass I examined the recess and probed it with a small jeweller's screwdriver and slight pressure on the screwdriver made the slight recess collapse into a bigger hole!

Having discovered this, the loss of tension of the hammer was explained - as soon as it was cocked the hammer spring/bar assembly simply dropped into the recess and all tension was immediately removed from the hammer!
''
To fix it, I cut as brass shim to fit the width and length of the slot on the hammer, slightly oversized at one end. Then wedged and bent it into shape.


Upon re-assembly - 3 minutes later - it was working perfectly - and it still is 4 months later!

This was my second experience with casting blow-holes in a modelgun (see my MP40 post for the first one) - so I consider myself Marushin's New Zealand expert in quality control!

My next kit was an Enfield revolver - and the only challenge I had was one hole in the hammer needed enlarging!
I LOVE kit sets now - I learn so much! ''

Kits are somewhat of a challenge, glad to hear you solved issue in yours :-D

My experience is, unfortunately, opposite, and it had put me off the kits for now :-/
https://mp40modelguns.forumotion.net/modelgun-problems-f5/marushin-sw-model-2-army-revolver-kit-problems-t1512.htm

I did not take assembly pictures - I was hurrying to get it completed :-) And later frustrated by the problems...
I will post a brief review eventually, even if it's my least liked model.

smootik wrote:

Kits are somewhat of a challenge, glad to hear you solved issue in yours :-D
I did not take assembly pictures - I was hurrying to get it completed :-) And later frustrated by the problems...
I will post a brief review eventually, even if it's my least liked model.

I read your post Smootik - and some of the other posts.
I guess that Quality Control must only happen in the factories AFTER assembly and not before! ''

So I guess that's the risk in buying a kit. Is it worth the saving?
Well in New Zealand our dollar is only worth US 65-70 cents - so kits are a great way of saving Kiwi money!! At the risk of frustration and the need to fix possible problems!

But I guess that's a national Kiwi trait - historically we like fixing things and our governments frustrate the hell out of us!
I look forward to your brief review - with pictures I hope!

It is likely that people assembling models at factory either correct all these problems or just pick up other piece if there is a problem.

I might have been just unlucky with my kit, I will probably get another one sometime to see if things work out differently and dispel this single bad example.

You are right that not only money are saved, but also built process is something to enjoy (especially for Kiwis!) :-D