Good god, people! You will not believe the hellishness of this kit! It’s the Revell 1/48 F-22. It’s a re-box of the Italeri kit that came out a little bit ago, so I expected it to be decent. Well, it isn’t. I have never used so much putty in my life. I’m doing the whole thing with all the doors and crap open, and it’s a good thing because the fit of this kit is terrible. It supposedly has options to build it gear up and weapons bay doors closed, but good luck with that because just getting the fuselage to fit together right has been a nightmare. Tails, fuselage, flaps, intake, NOTHING fits right.
I read a few reviews of this thing (after I bought it, lucky me.) and this seems to be the norm. I just hope after all the sanding and putty I can make it look decent. It’s a damn shame. There are very few options for this awesome airframe. Italeri brought out two kits, a 1/72 and a 1/48 then Revell re-boxed both of them. From what I gather there are absolutely no differences between the revell and the italeri.
Hey Academy! Build me an F/A-22, F/A-18 style, eh?
The fit on Italeri’s F-18E/F (1/48) is as bad…
I tell 'ya, some of Italeri’s more recent aircraft kits look GREAT in the box. Then you go to actually build one…
More often than not I’ve been disappointed whenever I’ve worked on an Italeri kit. I can’t comment on their 72nd line, I don’t build little scale. But very few of their 48th kits will find their way into the dungeon again. Some of the old stuff is nice, though.
And as far as armor goes, I’m still a casual armor modeler. All I have to go by is the advice of the track heads in my club, and I shall stay away from Italeri armor as well!
Wait, this is the Aircraft forum… Shame on me…
Fade to Black…
My vote for worst has to go to
the Bilek Mig 19 -
there are no two parts that fit together, the nose and fuselage is a matter
of glue together, cover with putty and sand to shape
but the decals are good…
Worst fitting kit ever? Starfix Spitfire! 'nuff said.
Oh, the decals sucked too. Still, I enjoyed working on it and gave it to my dad, who loved it.
Regards,
-Drew
I started that F-22 and put it back on the shelf until I feel more masochistic.
It’s my impression that many of Italeri’s kits are reboxed Svezda kits. Anybody know if that’s so? (which makes Revell’s reboxed Italeri kits doubly reboxed Svezda kits? [:0] )
It’s a dang shame that Italeri’s new kits suck so much, they seem to be the only ones doing kits of the more modern aircraft.
You’re right, John, some Italeri kits are indeed Zvezda kits… Ad I’ve yet to meet someone who can praise a Zvezda kit…
Usually, pure Italeri kits are great!
The Italieri 1/72 kits seem to be all bad. And watch out! Tamiya is reboxing some Italieri 1/72 kits for the asian market without any improvements. Still says made in Italy. Some wind up on ebay. Tamiya’s 1/72 WWII plane are astounding though.
When the Iron Curtain first went down and products from the East started coming West, Italeri did indeed rebox Zvezda kits and Bilek ones. Usually it was clearly stated on the box what the kit origins were.
I learned my Zvezda lesson from their 1/72 SU-30, I won’t say anything more about that kit because I can’t say it without serious profanity.
Italeri, sadly is becoming hit and miss. Pure Italeri kits are good, but its so difficult to tell whats in their boxes these days. A whole load of old Esci has found its way into their product line and I’d say that’s not exactly for the best.
The Italeri 1:48 GR3 Tornado was great… Wasn’t too sturdy, mind… Then again, I think it ended up under something heavy…
As for worst fit? Airfix 1:24 FW 190… Worst I have ever had the displeasure to dupe myself into buying…
Can’t say this is the worst of all times, but Monogram’s 1/48th scale Huey gunship was a real bear to get together, not so much because the fit was bad, but because the engineering left a lot to be desired. It was bad enough for me to have to break out the Eurosoft putty, something I don’t often do for aircraft.
Tom
Revell-Mono’s P-40B! Had me so frustrated, it’s back in the box and on the shelf.
I also have the P-51D kit and am afraid to open it!
I built the P-40B… It wasn’t that bad. I just loved the wing-to-fuselage connection EXCEPT the underbelly. Other than that, I still I would still build that kit for accuracy.
My vote would go to Monogram’s 1/48 F/A-18 (the white one with the prototype markings – their first issue, I believe). I used alot of putty and there sre still parts that i can’t figure out how to close up!
Worst fit I have had so far was the ex-Ocidental/MPM Spitfire Mk. IX… I had gaps 5 mm wide at the wing to fuselage joint!! Used a ton of styrene and super glue to fill those… And use a lot of putty on the rest of the aircraft. Fit on most of the 1/72 Italeri kits is not that bad usually. I have the F-22 on my shelf, so I guess I will have to prepare for some serious bodywork on that one… [:(]
My nominee is the 1/48 scale Hobbycraft, Canada CF-105 Arrow. The fit was so poor I was having flashbacks to Hawk and Lindberg. If filler putty were
metallic based, I could never get the completed model through airport security. But since I am obsessive-compulsive (like most modelers) I persevered and ended up with one of my better efforts. In the words of the old wise men of the clan,“Builds character, son.” Yeah, right.
Tony Ryan
I remember some old Testor’s stuff from the 80s being awful- like their “fictional” Soviet Stealth fighter.
TOGA!! TOGA!! TOGA!!
This manufacturer has to be the worst. I got the Russian Torpedo Bomber as a raffel prize. Holy Mother Pearl…there ain’t enough filler in the world for this mess. But they got the torpedoe right…nice tight fit…go figure.
Well, after hearing some of the other stories, perhaps it ain’t all that bad! But really, I just expected better. My biggest complaint of all is the top of the aircraft where the front of the fuselage meets the rest of the body, which is right along the wingspan axis at the wing root. What a terrible place to join on this airplane. It creates a joint that shouldn’t be there. That is where all my attention is going now. The tails suck, too. But like I said, if one wanted to excercise the gear up, bay doors closed option, (which I did) it would be a real pain.
Just to kick myself in the head I’m going to get the 1/72 version of this thing. I love this airplane, and in time more of them will hit the shelves. I don’t know what the hold up is, it’s been flying since '97!
Monogram 1/48 F-101B. The nose section is round and where it joins the fuselage is oval. The main landing gear struts just mount into the top of the bay with no way to support them. The lower wing where it joins the fuselage doesn’t fit flush and requires sanding down part of the fuselage. There is also a large gap where it joins but it is hard to use putty because of the operating weapons bay door. Compared to their F-100D, F-102A. F-104C, F-105D/G, and F-106A, it was a big let down. I have tried to build two and finally gave up.
Revell 1/32 P-40, no really, it’s horrible…welll…wing to fuselage and cowl panels are, everything else is ok for a 30 year old kit.