Has anyone had these few issues????

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Before building a kit, I always check out as many reviews of the kit that I can on the internet. However, for the issues that I’m having below, not one reviewer has mentioned them. Has anyone noticed these things??

  1. Are the exhaust nozzles on the Revellogram F-14A Tomcat completely messed up??

  2. Does the Revell F-15E Strike Eagle sit a little high in the front?

  3. On the Hasegawa F-4G, does the center cockpit section not fit properly over the EWO instrument panel??

  4. Is the Italeri/Revell AG 1/48 F-22 Raptor too heavy for its own landing gear???

  5. …and why does it seem like I’m the only one who can’t get his Mig-23’s to sit level on their landing gears???

Life can be so complicated sometimes…[;)]

2

LMAO!!!

Mate, I feel your pain…although I’ve never built any of those kits, I feel your pain…lol…

The almost total lack of locating references on the Special Hobby 1/72 C-60 Lodestar multi-piece interior, the Mach 2 DC-4…shudder…they should hang their heads in shame for THAT one (it’s a contract build), and so many others…lol…you gotta laugh, or you’d end up crying in a cormer somewhere…

3

Lest we not forget the complete absence of tabs to secure the main gear in the wheel well of the Monogrom F-101B!!!

4

True…But that problem was mentioned in many of the reviews I read. I have that kit, and my gears have only fallen off twice!

That reminds me of another! On the Italeri 1/48 Tornado kits, there are no locating pins or holes to install fuel tanks and weapons to the pylons! How could reviewers not mention this?? Butt-joining is not my thing…

5

Hi aagraata,

I hope I can help you with a few of these.

With the Tomcat, it depends on what you mean by messed up. It should come with one of the nozzles closed if one is going to display it unoccupied. If you’re looking for detail, well it is a Revell kit after all. The seam of the burner can is is challenging to clean up because the seam is very close to the can detail. Here’s how it looks on one I did a some time ago. I didn’t clean it up, so the seam is visible.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/scurrfy/F-14%20Tomcats/HPIM0799.jpg

I’ve built two of the F-15E and I didn’t notice any nose high profile. I’m building one now, but it’s a kitbash and I’ll be using the gear from the Iteleri F-22.

The gear does support the F-22, but it looks fragile, so I was careful with it. All the way up until I gutted it for parts.[:D]

I hope this helps with a few of your questions[:)]

Eddie

6

[#ditto]

I agree with Eddie here. The Revell 1/48 F-14A comes with two types of afterburner cans. The original was very short “open” profile exhaust cans and it also came with the more current longer “feathered” type cans. The “feathered” style cans can be a bit fustrating to assemble and easy to get messy with model glue. The trick here is to assemble them using a round plastic washer about the same diameter as the bottom area of the exhaust can where it will join to the rear of the engine bay. If they get messy from model glue, use a bit of 400-600 grit sand paper to clean them up before painting. Be sure to seal paint with Future and let dry throughly before adding a flat coat.

7

I don’t think I’ve read a review of any kit before I bought it… Most of 'em are in scales I don’t model, types I don’t model, or are so expensive that the only way the reviewer got involved was that he didn’t buy it either…

This month’s FSM reviews were about 50-50 for me… The Widgeon and Boomerang kits were interesting subjects and in a scale I model, but lost me at the price… I didn’t care for the builder using out-of-production paints on the Widgeon, either… The Panzer II looked good, and at the price of 46 bucks, with a Hobby Lobby coupon, is in reach…

I don’t do airliners or 1/72nd, so the Tupe and Gannet were out of the running right at the gate… IF you gave me the kit and PAID me to build it, I’d go for the Gannet… It wasn’t because of the review though, it’s just that I’ve built Revell kits since 1967 and know what to expect, good or bad, lol… However, I digress…

I use a solution for kits that have problems the way I told folks to solve problems in the Army (I’ve cleaned it up a bit, since we’re still talkin’ about a family rag). If it’s All Fouled Up, UN-Foul it and continue the damn mission…

I’ve also noticed that if I’ve built a kit that, later on, I run across a bad review of, I never seem to have had the problems that the reviewers did, or at least they are of no real concern…

Sometimes I think it’s a matter of not being able to throw a tube of Testor’s Red in the box and shake it, and out plops a 1st place winner…

But in the end, to quote my favorite Vulcan, “A difference which makes no difference, is no difference…”

Have any of y’all ever passed on a kit simply because of a bad review? Even by our fellow members here? (The constant harping on the Revellogram P-61 and P-38 come to mind right away) Both of those kits have fit issues, but none are impossible to remedy (without after-market parts, I might add) with a little ingenuity and a lot of sanding… That’s why God made stretched sprue, sheet styrene, and putty, y’know…[;)]

'Course, I noticed that the main issue in this thread is about jets… All jets suck, ya know… (They blow, too…Grin-grin, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more)

Hmm… I’m waxing philosophically again… Must be the Percocet…

8

Tabs aren’t needed. You will notice the upper portion of the main landing gear door fits perfectly into the outer section of the wheel well. You attach the gear strut to the landing gear door. Then you cement the section of the landing gear door that is bent 90 degrees to the recessed section of the outer wheel well. The gear door supports the weight of the entire assembly.

9

I did pass on the Testors 1/72 B-2 due to consistent bad reviews. I don’t have the skill or patience to make that thing look good.