TheGloriousTachikoma

The only other access is at air shows and with walkarounds. They know the rough published dimensions so they just take lots of photographs and scale drawings out as best they can. Modern computers have helped make that process more accurate and easier but it still results in *some* inaccuracies.

Or about $87 shipped if you buy from LM. Teensy bit less if theres another root you want to combine shipping.

I recently bought one of those and the old Hasegawa weapons sets are really long in the tooth. Raised panel lines and it's almost impossible to get missile halves lined up correctly. The level of detail is very high and fine but the molds are getting long in the tooth.

Thst looks gorgeous for sure. But knowing what Meng charge for their Super Hornet kits I wonder what kind of market they will have above the ZM kits. That many people wont be super hard for the AGM-78 will they? Maybe it will be more about Euro and Asia availability since I dont think ZM have much market penetration outside of JP and USA.

Breakdown into lots of small parts isnt the problem if the quality is there. Going back to Bandai their RealGrade line (sand newer Master Grade kits) uses lots of tiny parts to get color separation on weapons in a similar manner. It comes down to how finely engineered the locating pegs are and if the plastic is suitably hard to support that finesse.

This is a big reason why I admire GWH and AMK so much. They are molding their missiles and bombs in one piece. I hate trying to line up halves of round objects, it almost never ends up right. Even with Gunpla kits where Bandai's legendary fit applies, there is still usually a tiny step and the glued and sanded parts are out of round.

Well...not one that existed irl at least. 🤪

Does it still have the same sprue as the E model with the cannon muzzles?

It's still for sale on Lucky Model but that appears about all. Ever since I discovered how badly undersized the intakes are on the Kinetic Kfirs my interest in buying more dried up like Lake Mead this year.

That's not my point. In Japan the ZM Phantoms cost ~$75, over here they cost ~$75. Over in Europe the Italeri F35 is $70 (and Asia it seems) but it's being listed for $130 here. Not even the Tamiya F4 or F14s cost that much, and the g35 features none of the gimmicks that command a premium price (such as one piece molded ordnance like AMK or GWH feature for a2a and small lgbs). My point is that something doesn't smell right here.

Yeah...I really dont buy that theory. If that's the case then why are the Zoukei Mura phantoms $75 from spruebrothers despite the boxes containing a crap ton of plastic with better engineering and detail, and no mis-shapen ordnance (seriously at this point HOW do you screw up a GBU12?), and being shipped across a much bigger ocean than the Italeri kits? Btw the Japanese msrp of those kits is pretty much the same as the price at Spruebrothers. This kit is up for pre order on Luckymodel. Grab it and one of kinetic's new f16s and you have a not bad price after shipping. But then again

I read this and it reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is dating a woman with a good side and a bad side to look at. The photo makes it look like the RAM tape is at least twenty to thirty thou thick. It looks like BANDAI made a F35.

Despite my winging I had put this kit on my list because it's a cool kit...this strikes it back off hard.

If you dont mind waiting I notice that Super Hobby over in Poland has much lower prices on Italscary kits than over here. Order enough and express shipping is free. Takes between 1 and 3 weeks for an order to show stateside.

Sorry to revive a dead topic bit I'm looking at the sprues on cybermodeler and it looks like this kit comes.with two sets of landing gear, does it have both the land and naval landing gear?

My understanding was that the basic airframe itself was the same between all versions to keep costs down, and in terms of fuel, I also thought the F-4J and earlier only had six fuselage fuel cells where the F-4E added the 7th to balance out the cannon.

As far as I can find, the empty weight of the F-4E is listed in the range of 29,535 to 30,328 depending on source. The F-4J seems to have an empty weight of 30,700lb, but another source seems to indicate the 30,328lb that a different source listed for the F-4E. The general consensus seems to be that the F-4E is measurably lighter than the F-4J. This despite that the F-4E has roughly an extra 1000lb of aluminium and steel in front of the cockpit. Do the BLC, ram-air turbine, and wing fold hydraulics really weigh that much, or is there more that isn't terribly obvious suc

The photo is grainy but it looks to me like a -17 nozzle.

For the Wave parts, HLJ usually has them in stock for super cheap, and they're small packets so if you buy like...a dozen or so, the DHL shipping option still makes it cheaper than if they were in stock over here.

It appears that the nozzle is modular enough. You might even be able to get away with just using the nozzle itself and use the kit jetpipe, that will minimize the cutting you need to do, and as those nozzles look like they're molded "closed", you won't see very far inside anyway. I say give it a go.

That is a chilling, cataclysmic sound. 😍 I ordered some -15 nozzles a week back for experimentation. I'm not liking how these Mirage F1s look with -17 nozzles poking out the back (far enough back not to incur the same aerodynamic penalty the Kfir suffers) and they will squat on the tail with the elevators installed. The -15 nozzles should put the burner cans a bit further forward and maybe I get away without using nose weights. Could the continued use of an ejector nozzle be a reason why the M53 was...not up to the same standard as its contemporaries, or would a turbofa

It makes sense. It's just a couple small sprues and new decals. I wish there were test shots out though. I want to see what ordnance it comes with. I'm also curious about the magnets. Is the modeler going to have to glue them into the kit parts or will they lock in to cavities? The best way I see this being done is with metal in the ordnance and magnets captured in the pylons/rails, but getting a steel wire in the core of 1/48 Aim9 or even aim120 will be interesting. I tried using tiny neodymium magnets with an aim120 and its lau and the results are not too good, one can barely see the hole f

The Whiffer community here isn't big but as the configuration has been tested, its not nearly as far as a stretch as my compulsion to imagine a J79 retrofitted into every 2nd and 3rd gen Euro fighter. Make it how you want. Maybe some Misawa AFB decals and pretend its flying hypersonic missile defense missions.

I didnt realize images could be directly uoaded here. There is definitely a difference here. It might not end up being a big issue. I keep digging and it is sounding like Dassault serruptitiously made most of the Kfir fuselage and wings for IAI in the first place, which lessens my need to choose the Kfir over the Mir3 for this what-if project.

For cooling yes, alot of the literature I've read indicated the Kfir had larger intakes than the Nesher. The Kin Kfir intake mics at 14.5mm (x48=696mm) like you indicated. The Kin Mirage-III intake mics at 15.7mm.(x48=753mm) I have a Hasegawa 1/72 kit I picked up a long while back just to walk out of the hobby shop with something, lol. 11.8mm.(x72=849mm) So we've got a bit of a scatterplot here it seems but your 1/32 Mirage is almost-on for what the Kin and AMK Kfirs measure out to. Its just...look at Kfirs on Airliners.net. Then look at the 1/48 Kfirs and tell me somethi