Modelmkr
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Posts posted by Modelmkr
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1 hour ago, Thadeus said:
Here is the new nose insert with gun nozzle blanked off http://hobbyboss.com/Uploads/202109/61543763299af.jpg
The fuselage parts do seem the same however as in the E and F. They are all marked as sprue A. I did not see on the pictures these small bumps just aft of the radome.
They seem to be the only ones that are missing.
I have the HB Growler kit. The small side blisters just aft of the radome are indeed there. As these nose parts (A1 & A2) are the same parts included in the E/F kits, those blisters would need to be removed for the HB E/F kits.
The gun gas vents I am referring to that are there on the G (that should not be) are the series of square mesh/vents on the underside of the nose just forward of the nose gear. As you say, the gun muzzle port and side vent part is replaced with a blank part (J7) in the G kit, so that is correct.
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8 hours ago, Brush said:
I am considering this kit to do an RAAF Growler, using Skyart decals. Can someone confirm that the kit has the correct forward fuselage with the gun vents blanked and the additional sensors on the sides just behind the radome. Looking at the sprues on the Hobby Boss website it shows the same nose parts as the E and F. I know it wouldn’t be hard to fill and scratch the sensors (like Italieri) but wouldn’t mind knowing in advance.
cheers
Brush
All the correct blisters aft of the radome are present on the kit (as seen on Growlers, including Aussie versions), unfortunately so are the gun gas vents. These will need to be blanked/ filled in.Another strike, Hobbyboss 🙄
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I just had this kit delivered a few days ago so I thought I’d give a few thoughts and comments:
The base aircraft kit itself appears to be quite nice; well moulded, fine details, no real issues. Flory Models did a nice review on the HB F/A-18E that would be comparable to this kit.
The problem arises when you start looking at all the bits you hang on the kit, namely pods and weapons.
First up: ALQ-99 pods. They “look” nice on the sprue at first glance but there are several issues here. The prominent heat sink panels on each side of the pods are only represented as smooth raised panels; the pods panel lines are very faint, in the wrong place and completely missing on one of the two halves of the pod. The quite prominent raised fasteners for the radome are represented by tiny and faint recessed rivets. Also, they give you four of the Mid/High band pods but not the fat Low band pod to go on the centreline station. Decals for the pods are included but not complete.
Eduard to the rescue if you want accurate ALQ-99 pods, but for the premium price of this kit and one of the most distinctive features on the Growler, this is a big miss.
Second: AGM-88 Harm missiles. Near as I can tell, these look good. Haven’t taken measurements, but they look the part. The issue here is that HB didn’t bother to include the Aero-5/ LAU-118/A launch adapter rails for the missiles and just have you direct mount them on the pylons. Also, the load out map shows you can put them on the intake shoulder mounts too… yeah, don’t do that; not possible. So you’ll have to source some launch rails from either the Hasegawa Weapon sets or you could use the Meng AGM-88s and launch rails from their weapon sets?
Third: AIM-120 AMRAAM. Again the missiles look fine, but the instructions have you build launch rails for them that are not needed on the Growler and make no mention of the braces for the intake shoulder launch positions that will be needed to mount these. They are, however, included in the kit (parts E16).
Fourth: ALQ-218 wingtip pods. Nice pods, look great, mounted in the wrong spot. Any photo of these will show they protrude forward on the wingtips like horns, but HB have them set up to be mounted centred front to back on the wingtips (sigh…)
Last: Extra weapons. Lots and lots for the spare parts box (four sprues worth), BUT… lots of “huh??” going in here. They include 6x GBU-12 bombs but only provide 2 sensor tips for them. This is true for all the HB Super Hornet boxing’s. They include 2x GBU-10 bombs but the bomb body shape looks too fat to my eye. They include 2x GBU-24, but the sensor tip has an oddly exaggerated taper to it that does not look right. And they include 2x refuelling pods whose refuelling basket has no detail on the inside of the cone.
So if you plan to use any of the extra stores for other projects, just beware.
So that’s it. As I said at the beginning, the aircraft kit itself seems to be really nice, just a lot of work and aftermarket/ spares needed to fix up the pods and stores. Again for the money you pay for this, lots of misses. But it is, after all, Hobbyboss ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Enjoy?
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Possibly nothing was fixed? The thread was a while ago, so I’m just going from memory. Maybe it was incorrect weapons included? Yes, the G definitely had issues that were corrected. Seems then they merely created issues with the new H kit that previously were fine.
Modelmkr
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Well… I just picked up the newly re-kitted B-52H from Modelcollect (via Lucky) kit number UA72211. This replaces the previous version kit number UA72200.
This new kit includes the corrected parts that were needed and much discussed on this forum, but there is a problem.
The new kit version no longer includes any weapons (previous one had sprue Z cruise missiles and PE for them), inexplicably NO unit/ sqn marking decals (neither of these are shown to be included in the instructions or parts map) and the common/ stencil decals are all printed in black now vs the correct grey (which the previous kit had properly done).
I’m a bit baffled by this. So I did email Modelcollect to see what they say/ can do about this, but just wanted the community here to be aware if you were considering this new kit version UA72211, so you’ll know what you’re in for.
Modelmkr…
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13 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:
I realize GWH makes beautiful kits, but I remember building the Revell F-15E, and it really didn't need any aftermarket. It was that good. I'm asking honestly. Is there a reason one would build a GWH kit over the Revell kit?
+1
Marc B.
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That very same subject is on my to do list (Tamiya+ Furball).
You did a fantastic job; just love the treatment on the exhausts, really catches the eye.
Marc B.
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1 hour ago, Darren Roberts said:
4
They are actually a business expense. I'm using them for my Steel Beach conversions.
Hmmm, now if I could figure out a way to write mine off…
I've got 2 now and as (fingers crossed) Tamiya release more versions I'll pick up a few of them too.
Marc.
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Jeez Darren, how many of these kits did you buy?
Marc B.
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Jeez, we can't have that Joe.
Okay everyone send Joe a small mirrored base so he can set all his Mustangs on and worry incessantly about the now fully visible wheel wells. 😜
Marc B.
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1 hour ago, Alleycat said:
I do have to say that my BIg Beautiful Doll has been sitting on the shelf in my china hutch display case since 2005 and this is the first time I have picked it up to look under it, so this issue does not bother me much.
To be honest it didn't really bother most people, I think; at least not enough to prevent many people from building a great number of these kits.
The discussion now is that a new, modern tooling has every opportunity to rectify this shortcoming and it would cause an audible gnashing of teeth amongst modellers if this opportunity was ignored.
Marc B.
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2 hours ago, ziggyfoos said:
Ya I tried to capture each specific aircraft's antenna layouts in the profiles.
I noticed that… just letting everyone else know to keep a sharp eye on those details; they are easily missed if you aren't paying attention.
Marc B.
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When doing these schemes, pay special attention to the dorsal and ventral antenna arrangements. A wide variety of combinations were seen from one aircraft to the next.
I learned that from research I did when tackling a few Tamiya VNAF birds.
Marc B.
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1 hour ago, Joe Hegedus said:
I've seen that, too, but I still think I've seen a release (one boxing) that had a filletless fuselage. Perhaps it was done with special tooling that didn't last, or something. Or maybe I'm just remembering something wrong.
Maybe a resin plug for the rear section was included in a special boxing? Hasegawa has been known to include resin conversion parts for some of their kits.
Marc B.
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As mentioned, the first looks like an early beavertail mod (with or without dielectric panels, Brian?)
Is your plan to shoehorn in the Hasegawa beavertail for this?
I'll be interested to see how well it fits, if that's the case.
Marc B.
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Don't know about flat ever being factory standard in those colours, but anything is possible.
Perhaps Tamiya is trying to capture the "in service" sheen?
Marc B.
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Well, that's a personal choice/ budget thing. I can't speak to yours.
The Tamiya kit can be got overseas with sporadic low cost shipping for as little as $70 USD.
I've seen the Hobbyboss go for more.
IMHO, I don't mind paying extra for accuracy and a precision fit that has to be experienced to be believed (Tamiya).
Marc B.
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3 hours ago, ESzczesniak said:
That's not totally what I was looking for. The extent of weathering varies by modeler. In particular, this is a CAG bird in an early 70's paint scheme. The pictures I've seen of these birds are much the opposite of the TPS schemes. I'm certainly not going to do full gloss, but I'd like to know where it started and go from there.
13 hours ago, Jay Chladek said:The resolution is, the paint starts out glossy from the depot
I think Jay did answer your question, actually.
FS16440 over gloss insignia white were the factory depot paints…
Marc B.
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I'll try to answer this objectively.
As always it starts with "it depends".
If you are looking for a later block F-14A and a choice of dropped slats and flaps are of paramount importance to you then, OOB, the Hobbyboss kit is what you want. With that choice comes some inaccuracies (intake angles, e.g.) and a plethora of rivets that are really not visible even up close on the real deal to name a few.
If you are looking for a early (mid to late 70s; very early 80s) era F-14A and positionsble flaps/ slats are not important, but extreme accuracy is (as well as ZERO fit issues) then, OOB, the Tamiya kit is your choice.
Beyond that, I leave it to you.
From a personal standpoint I would say Tamiya. Their tooling suggests a late model F-14A will follow… I will wait for that.
Marc B.
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Boy, talk about turning one animal into another… from a pig to a jaguar.
Excellent work. Gives me hope I may be able to turn mine into something decent.
Marc B.
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Although not always easy to do, your best bet for all those detail combos is to find actual photos of the subject you want to model… can't argue with a photo.
Marc B.
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Darren, I could barely see it myself under full sunlight at just the right angle in my search to see if a seam existed. Under normal lighting it's all but invisible.
So, yeah, big plus in my books too
Marc B.
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40 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:
Actually, that's not a seam line. Those are the lightning strips to protect the crew/cockpit from lightning strikes. I just painted my canopy and there was no seam line that I could see. That in itself makes the Tamiya kit the winner of all kits.
Yes, I see those details and am aware of the lightening stripes, but where they end in the middle of each clear Perspex area there is an "oh so faint" seam. I can only make it out with the right light.
Marc B.
Hobbyboss 1/48 EA-18G Thoughts…
in Jet Modeling
Posted
On the HB kit? Huh… that is strange. I guess they made common side nose parts for the F and G then.