Apollo Elite Platinum Fountain Pen Kit

Apollo FP

PSI has some very interesting new kits. I posted about the Olympian a few days ago. When I placed my initial order the Apollo was out of stock - they are in now, and I just made one. The Apollo looks at first glance like a copy of Berea's Churchill - it is not! It's actually a very different pen! They borrowed the clip shape and the overall round ends, but that's it. The brass tubes are different - the cap take a 9/16" drill bit. So parts are not interchangeable with the Olympian / El Grande / Churchill. The buhings are a 3-bushing set - personally, I prefer 4-bushing sets for more flexibility. No big deal. What was a bigger deal with the bushings I received is that they were severely undersize and I had to use brass shim stock to get an adequate fit that let me turn a quality pen. The other thing I found odd is that despite the fact that this looks like a straight-barrel pen, both barrels have a .005" difference end to end! I don't understand that - but be aaware of it at assembly time! So much for the so-so - neither one is a show-stopper. The pen in my eyes is a clear winner. Starting at the nib end: The most obvious difference to the Churchill is the grip section - they use metal. Of course I am not a fan of all that metal plus the weight that comes with it, but I know many folks (at least in the US ;-) prefer that for whatever reason. The grip is comfortable, the end is rounded over nicely, and the steel nib looks very nice and is stamped with M - another nice touch. The lack of width stamp really bothers me on the Churchill / El Grande. Under the receiver tube there is a lose accent ring - I like the Corinthian design. Importantly, the receiver tube is threaded. So the cap posts by threading rather than the friction fit. My experience with the Churchill (and El Grande) is that the cap sits back too fat and there is this weird gap. (This is done better in PSI's Olympian) The disadvantage of the threaded posting is that the multi-entry thread will position the grip often in the undesirable down position that interferes with large hands. On the rollerball version of course this is no issue. The thread engages relatively easily, but it's not perfect pre-alignment. What I really like is that the threads are fairly fine, and are nearly invisible. I think it's because they are black. In the photos I posted you see them of course because I shot at exactly 90 degrees. In real life they pretty much disappear! The cap is also very nicely done. The centerband metal goes to the edge, there is no plastic rim. There's an internal step in the metal, and a corresponding step in the plastic threads. I really like the look of this, in both the closed position as well as posted. The edge of the metal has a slight chamfer, softening the transition. It looks excellent to me! The instructions say you have to trim the plastic - I don't understand why, since the internal step in the centerband matches the raised set on the threads. Maybe I was just luck ;-) The clip end is standard fare - the rounded metal cap, clip and clip plate are the same design as the Churchill's. I like that mounting methof. The thread alignment is not bad, but could definitely be improved - at the point just before thread engagement, the end of the section is not restrained within the cap thread piece, you can cock the pen and cross-thread. This could easily be fixed in a design revision, if PSI chooses to do so. The pen comes with 2 cartridges, and no conversion pump. I have pictures in my gallery, starting at http://www.penmakersguild.com/gallery.php?gallery=kleinhenzr&page=171 I have to say I am really impressed with this pen. I like large, light pens. Unfortunately, for my liking it's on the heavy side at 48g with Schmidt conversion pump (not included). But it looks great closed and posted, and the centerband treatment is new (at least I have not seen it in a kit). With better bushings and better thread pre-alignemnt I would give this pen 5*