sigtau
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Posts posted by sigtau
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On 3/11/2024 at 4:31 PM, Illu said:
Then you’re doing something wrong. Mine went together perfectly. I used basically zero putty anywhere on it.
Regarding the 2022 F-16 tooled kit, mine was a total dumpster fire as far as fit. I won't completely rehash all my other commentary and photos posted on ARC, you can look that up yourself. But the key flaws with the kit are:
- It's tooled as a block 52 plane.....anything else requires tons of panel line rework and other airframe mods
- The Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) die for the single seat upper fuselage "cut" too deep, resulting in a ~0.4MM step at the wing root. The two seater fuselage doesn't have this problem.
- The "A" early vertical tail has the same shape issues as the original tooling.
- Weak panel lines
- Fit issues everywhere, warped parts, cupping on some parts resulting from mold extraction before the plastic was cooled enough.
I've also built the Tamiya kit. Despite it's age, it's far superior to the Kinetic 2022 kit.
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On 2/18/2024 at 6:55 PM, viperbite said:
That Aces II seat looks oversized and out of proportion like what they did with their F-15 series. But the rest of the kit looks very good.
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4 hours ago, Solo said:
I am asking about those Aires, DEF and MCC because I can buy it directly from the store. I do not trust the quality of PHR or SHR, never had it it my hands, so I would like to choos something from those first three.
I have the DEF set and the Phase Hanger set. I prefer the DEF set due to it's simplicity and lower price.
This thread has a build with the Phase Hanger set. There seems to be an issue with the fit and/or contour of the inlet cowl. I'll still use my set on one of my builds, but it looks like it will need some rework to correct the contour issue:
In that same thread, it's mentioned the fan blades are shaped wrong on the MCC set.
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Why not track down the seller, get a refund? Those parts are most likely missing from the kit because someone stole them to build an M-21 drone carrier using an SR-71 kit.
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I ended up buying a kit 2nd hand that was missing the entire clear sprue. Message me if you have a spare set of the clear parts.
Ken
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On 1/8/2024 at 4:11 PM, Darren Roberts said:
I'm going to be selling off my Steel Beach masters if anyone is interested. I'll probably start doing it over summer when I have off from teaching.
Darren, I'm interested in buying all of your masters. Do you have an inventory of everything?
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2 minutes ago, Illu said:
I know it’s not an attempt to mold fabric covered ailerons, but that’s what it looks like. I’ve got every book ever written on the U-2, and a collection of thousands of photos of them, from the very first to the very last. And yes, you can see some oil canning on the ailerons, elevators, and rudder, but that model looks like a cartoon. And NO U-2 of ANY kind ever had rivets that look anything like those. A complete waste of plastic as far as I’m concerned. Just like the AFV Club kit.
I'm no expert on the U-2, but this photo shows both visible ribbing on the flap and visible fasteners on the wing and fuselage. Sure it's overdone on the AFV and Hobby Boss kits, but they are far better starting points than the Italeri kit.
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3 hours ago, Illu said:
I wasn’t aware that U-2s had fabric covered ailerons (with horribly over done rib effect). What a waste of plastic.
From a quick google search, it's easy to find photos of the U-2 flaps and ailerons. It's not an attempt to mold fabric covered control surfaces. The real thing has a wavy look where the ribs are showing through the skin. The kit seems to be replicating the look, but is somewhat overdone as the previous reply pointed out.
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19 minutes ago, Scott Smith said:
Once again, another example of why I say if you see it, buy it. Even if you don’t plan on building that subject for years down the road. We’ve lost so many cottage industry hobby providers. DMold, Rhino models, Fisher, Cutting Edge….Thankfully BiggTim picked up AMS to keep it going. And it looks like Mike West of Lone Star Models is planning on his retirement sooner than later.
Edit: I forgot to mention Zacto Models has gone radio silent as well.It's truly a shame what has been lost due to the little guys shutting down.
Add to that list True Details/Avionix/Blackbox. I attempted to purchase an extensive collection of the True Details masters that were originally auctioned off after Squadron went under. Greg Cooper (racerhaven on ebay) bought up much of the Squadron inventory, including all of the masters. Instead of auctioning the masters on ebay, he ran a raffle for charity and basically gave them away. That was over a year ago and the winner never did anything with them.
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I just received the order I placed on Dec 2nd. He had several new releases that just came out, such as the F-14 tanks. His original post about shutting down was about a week ago on Facebook. His post a few days later stated he was swamped with new orders and had to turn off ordering.
Hopefully he licenses or sells his intellectual property to another producer to keep his sets in circulation. I asked him what his plan was since I'm looking to buy into a product line like his to start a side hustle in preparation for retirement in a few years.
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8 hours ago, dylan said:
yes the label shows the correct address. the problem seems to be with the electronic entry for the shipping. I just find it weird that it happened 3 times in a row.
There's no problem if you are actually getting your packages. Were the packages being sent via USPS mail services? Any USPS shipping service that includes a tracking number requires a full address to be provided to USPS. That means one possibility is you are putting in your own address incorrectly (I see this quite often when I sell internationally).
It's also possible that due to the geographical location of Sprue Bros, anything they send to Canada goes through a port of entry not close to you. If Sprue Bros is using UPS Surepost, then it might be getting routed through a main UPS international terminal that is on the opposite side of the country.
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That doesn't sound like a Sprue Bros problem. That's all on the Canadian postal system. Try using a different shipper when you check out next time.
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I wondered if I've spent too much with them this year. It worked on my first order in Jan no problem (~$300). The next order was the first with the issue and it wouldn't process unless I reduced the order total below a certain amount (~$200).
But I've done two more orders, which required them to send me an invoice, no issues. It must be some kind of express checkout issue.
I've tried different browsers, done it on my phone via AT&T network, and even tried through my employer's internet service. It's some kind of limitation on my Paypal account. Time to take my chances with Paypal customer support.
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I'm located in the USA and buy direct from Reskit a few times each year. For the the past year, I get a Paypal "400" error at checkout. Paypal is their only payment option now. I then have to reach out to them to send me an invoice for the failed payment order I placed. Once they send me the invoice, problem solved and I pay. The payment goes through "western bid", which is a well known work-around to making payments to Ukraine.
I've believed this was only a Reskit issue, until I tried to purchase items from another Ukraine seller and ended up having the same issue.
Is there anyone else having this issue? Is it a USA only issue?
Any advice is welcome
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1 hour ago, Specter1075 said:
I don't think it's misleading, I think people just don't read the details. It literally say up to 6 months with surface shipping, and the status while waiting is Queued to FCL shipping, which is exactly what you described: the shipping container moves only once its full. If people don't want to wait, then don't choose the slowest option.
I didn't say that the shipping method is misleading. I said you need to understand what you are getting into with this shipping option.
The misleading part was an initial China post tracking number that ended up being fake, along with the multiple customer service responses saying the container had shipped and I should get it by a certain date. Rinse and repeat that 2-3 times over 6 months. LM made it up to me and then some by shipping two kits direct from their US warehouse right at the 6 month mark. The other two kits that shipped direct from China showed up out of the blue another month later via UPS, well after the Paypal claim deadline had passed.
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You have to know what you are getting into when using the cheap surface shipping with LM. I was one of many members here that used their free surface shipping last black Friday. Never again. It took 6 months and basically 4 months of that was my order sitting in their overseas warehouse waiting for space to be thrown into their own shipping container. So what that means is they were shipping kits to their US distribution center, but leaving my order for the same kits to sit and rot in China.
Zero tracking and broken promises about it being on the boat, etc. etc. LM made it right in the end, but it's simply not worth the surface shipping roulette.
As for their domestic USA warehouse shipping, it rocks! I've gotten some awesome deals using that method.
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1 hour ago, BillS said:
sigtau
indeed, the boeing spec is for mms 425 non organic primer. It comes in yellow and famously blue-green metallic on the F-15. I believe it comes in white as well. PPG, Desoto and others make it. In the end what matters is matching the color to your specific modeling endeavor, zinc chromate or not.
I would say you are looking for this color:
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11 hours ago, BillS said:
I’m talking about F-111s, F-15s, and 16s. Those are way beyond 30 years and none had zinc chromate from the factory. The Air Force stopped ZCs use in the 70s due being highly carcinogenic.
I work for Boeing, we still use the modern equivalent of yellow zinc primer on some areas/parts depending on the finishing specifications. We will even sell it to customers in rattle cans!
https://shop.boeing.com/aviation-supply/p/0084331=33
Instead of obsessing over the name of the primer or how the formula changed, you should be focusing on duplicating the actual color. There is no debating the photos posted in this thread, the A-7 bays/exhaust areas were painted a mustard yellow that resembles the paint commonly referred to as "yellow zinc chromate". Some were obviously done up in green.
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3 hours ago, Specter1075 said:
Metallic Details has said their gear wont support the weight of the model and they recommend people use a stand. Not ideal at all. Especially with the ridiculous price. I copy their answer about gear strength below:
"I use photopolymer resin for production. After 3D printing, the parts are thoroughly washed and cured under the influence of hard ultraviolet light. After polymerization, the material becomes glass-like in compressive strength. I tested the landing gear when assembling the model airframe. The material has held up. But the weight of the finished model with all additional parts and modifications will be about two kilograms. (I have already prepared a set of bomb bays for release. The weight of this set is about 400 grams.) My opinion is that even metal pins inside the racks will not help support such weight. I recommend using a clear acrylic stand to support the model."
There is no mention of this problem on their website, which is unacceptable. $400 for this set was already overpriced. They need to use those prints to cast the main gear in brass.
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On 10/27/2023 at 6:05 PM, Dave Roof said:
As of 1800 today, all Flying Leathernecks Decals are no longer on our site. All can be found here:
https://military-and-le-patches.myshopify.com/search?q=decals
While USMC Insignia LLC is located in Corpus Christi, Texas, all FLD stock will remain here in Georgia and orders placed through the new site will be fulfilled from here.
Dave
Question, how do I go about getting the correction insert for FL48023, which I purchased direct from FLD? I saw your post in September on FB, commented recently, and sent an email direct to you. Still no response or answer on when the correction inserts will be mailed out.
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On 10/29/2023 at 7:16 AM, airmechaja said:
Tamiya's F-4B was their finest engineered kit until now. I just finished the F-35A Lightning II and it is brilliant! I have never built a aircraft kit like this one. Tamiya leads the way for airplane kits.
I'm building the F-4B right now and have most of the major assembly complete. Some parts of the assembly are very smooth and support the "finest engineered kit" label. But overall, it's absurdly over-engineered. This over-engineering leads to fit issues. Steps at certain joints are hard to avoid with the spine, intakes, outer wing inserts, and nose cone.
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Just now, Dan Tinklepaugh said:
With no way to sugarcoat, avoid MC at all costs. Big hype, very poor execution. Wrong shapes, sizes, seats, poor instructions/decals, thick but soft plastic. The only kits I’ve purchased over 50 years where I felt I’d been cheated.
Italeri kits are challenging but you can get there with effort and the latest releases have awesome decals and instructions to build antennas.
Concur, after I bought the MC G release, I was like nope. I decided to buy two Italeri kits + black dog flaps + black dog bomb bay sets. There's also a 3D printed replacement set of H nacelles that replace the undersized italeri (AMT) parts.
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5 hours ago, serendip said:
Hi all,
I've changed the title of the topic as I suspect this was not sufficiently clear.
Hi all,
I have the HPH 1/48 B-52H but the fit is absolutly awful, nose profile is off and I'm losing heart to finish it to be honest.
So, plan B is giving up on the HPH kit and getting a couple of Modelcollect 1/72 BUFFs. I'd like to build a pre Phase VI (so no EVS etc.) 'H in SAC NMF and white anti-flash with four Skybolt missles, and a post Phase VI 'G as operated in South East Asia.
What I am having difficulty with is which Modelcollect kits had serious fundamental issues and which later kits had these remedied, as I understand it nose profile, leading edge wing profile and a bunch of other issues.
Hoping someone can advise which Modelcollect kits to avoid and which have the initial issues resolved.
Thanks all,
Marc.
The original G release is the kit with the nose issues. The H version was released later and included the corrected nose and tail parts.
I have the G kit with the corrected parts, which included the wing root fillets and a new set of flaps. Be careful buying a G kit, there's a good chance it's not the corrected version. The tooling is very meh. MC didn't even bother to tool sniper/lighting pod pylons. And several of the external antennas are missing. Overall, not really a drastic improvement over the old AMT/ERTL/Italeri toolings.
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28 minutes ago, Mr Matt Foley said:
Strange, I know others are saying that the older F-16 cans (for the pre 2022 "Gold" series) do not fit.
Manuel mentioned there are alternate parts for the "old" and "new" versions.
In general, the fit of anything aftermarket will depend on what kit was used to size the replacement part. If parts are cast resin, shrinkage can play a huge role as well.
On 9/26/2023 at 11:07 AM, Manuel J. Armas S. said:It works for all F-16 kinetic series.
They do the same shape, exhaust and fan blade.
Tested in both version, old and new ones...Exhaust parts J12 new style and "I3, H3" for the old style.
Kinetic Gold Block 40 F-16C?
in Jet Modeling
Posted
The only gold kit that can build any USAF block in the single seater config is the ANG F-16C kit. It contains the block 30/40/50 sprue that includes the GE exhaust and MCID wide mouth intake.
The F-16D kit also includes the GE/MCID sprue.
In theory, the other gold single seater kits can build an early block 30 w/narrow mouth intake. But you will need to swap out the PW exhaust with an aftermarket GE set.