mawz

Getting an S from a J requires a fair bit of work, mostly to the wing. You can definitely get there from a J, since the originals are upgraded J's Steel Beach used to do a conversion set, but it'll probably be easier and cheaper to just buy an S kit than to track down a conversion.

I have a small gap at the front of the spine, which I suspect is at least half due to order of assembly. I think if you put the aft canopy hinge coaming on after the spine, you have minimal issues and if you do the opposite you have real issues. I had no issues with the radome, but the lower wing/nose section to nose section was challenging to get together right and has minor gaps.

Check again, the lower gun housing is separate parts on both the E and G. They actually ask you to do a bit of filling on the fuselage to remove certain E-specific panels on the nose of the G. I’m building the ZM G now, the fuselage sprue is the same sprue as the E part, and includes E specific tail antenna on the sprue. The most they seem to have done is had a G-specific sprue inserts used in the nose in 2 spots (the vent and the 3 nose antenna per side). The rest of the fuselage is the E and the sprue is clearly not G specific. Sprue A, B,C, E, F, I, L, M , N, R & S are common

ZM tooled a new wing for their G, not a new fuselage. The fuselage sprue is common with their early E kit

-deleted, quoted wrong post-

Not super common, but 2 Maverick's on a triple launcher was a valid load. middle and outer rail loaded.

That build is looking good. I'm currently working on the kit myself, doing the box scheme. Only fit issue I've had is a bit of a gap at the front end of the spine. Not bad at all, just needs a touch of putty (Probably should have installed the spine before the aft hood hinge section), but I haven't got the wings on yet so we shall see. I'm not surprised that ZM tooled a new wing for the slatted E's. They'll actually need two of these (one for slat-upgraded E's and the G's, one for the E's built with slatted wings, which are again different from all earlier models). Given these

I don't think they've popped it since Revell-Monogram USA went bankrupt in 2018 (as part of the Hobbico bankruptcy) The current incarnation of Revell is the old Revell of Germany organization which became independent again after Hobbico disappeared, they did acquire the Revell-Monogram USA molds when they were liquidated in 2018, but they have not put many of them back into production.

To be honest, the internal structure really reminds me of Zoukei Mura's 1/32 kits

On a Block 5 or 10, yes. On a Block 15, no as they came with the enlarged stabs. The MLU upgrade on the 5/10 included the Block 15+ enlarged stab.

The Cockpit issue is generally driven by the same thing across all kits with that issue, which is clearance between the wing and pit. On the real thing, the cockpit floor is actually the upper wing surface (same on Allison Mustangs BTW, but not on Merlin Mustangs which have the wing lowered 4")

The big difference is that the F-8C has the small radome and the F-8E the larger one. That means you need to redo the entire nose to get a C. It's non-trivial to do a conversion without a replacement nose (and that means everything forward of where the nose is faired into the fuselage because the entire fairing of the radome into the fuselage changes, including the windscreen). The C introduced the dual pylons for Sidewinders and Zuni's. the F-8C also was the last version with the rocket pack in the belly, but that's less noticeable unless you want to pose with everything open.

There was a two-seater B prototype, it was never produced. it's usually referred to as the A-10 N/AW, but it was officially designated as the YA-10B.

Pretty sure the SBD-3 is confirmed as the AM kit. As to the F4F and Zero, consider it's the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway this year. Bad luck for Academy that Eduard had the same idea, but I think we'll be seeing a lot of Midway-related releases over the next 6 months.

Special Hobby offers P-39's as well, and the main issue with them (too short aft of the canopy) is also present in the KH kit. Kingfisher's are another story. unlikely we'll see them again in larger-run form unless somebody grabs the KH molds and repops.