Faust

I can see where you're coming from, Ventris, and I know exactly what is implied. I don't disagree that, indeed, the evidence woudl point to a certain ham-fistedness on my part! There were folks who said the same when they saw the underside of the wings on my Spitfire F.22. However, you can see from my website that I build a lot of different kits, and not all of them are very good kits right from the get-go (although that Academy Stuka was amazing!). Still, while I'm no IPMS Nationals winner, I do think I'm a competent modeller. My range of experience (especially in 1/72) from Farpro to Matchbox to Academy, (new and old) Airfix and now Zvezda, gives me, I would say, at least sufficient credit to be able to be given the benefit of the doubt on some things. And, I do think I can get some pretty good results from some rather poor and dodgy kits. So, while I may appear to be all thumbs to some in this case, I think it's fair to say that I actually do know what I'm doing. Not everyone has had the trouble I had. I'm glad of it. I'm in total agreement that some shapes need multiple parts, too! However, for me, it's just HOW the intake is split up that made it difficult to deal with. Again, they tend to get fancy when it's not necessary; the Yak-130 is proof to me of that... That's the good (and bad, sometimes) thing about modelling, or any art, really: Everyone is going to be good and bad at different aspects of it. I've built some kits that others have said were unbuildable and that they abandonned (my Monogram GTA is one such, and the Ford Probe gave a lot of people issues, too, it seems), but I was able to complete. It just so happens that I'm not on the same page as Zvezda on how to get this thing assembled easily, and I think they could have done a better job making it behave more like the Tamiyas and Hasegawas they're trying to compete with. I have no doubt all this will clean up fine and will look good when I'm done. I just wish I, personally, hadn't found it so pointlessly complicated. I wanted to put my impressions up here because they were so different from what I expected, and I wanted others to get a less-than-ravingly-positive perspective. I'm not going to believe I'm the only person on this planet that found parts of this kit needlessly tough.

Well, if it helps, I DO have a Megane, a Renault 5 (LeCar) police car and a Renault 16 hatchback. Do they count? So many interwar French bombers LOOK like cars (well... rail cars) that you COULD count that.. :) Remember my criteria are weird and sucky (there are a few others, but they're the big ones); how can French cars not fit into that mould! I would love a Fuego, and I have a Burago Renault 11 (I think that's the Alliance's name) I want to customize at some point... You're never safe, man. Not from me. Bwa ha ha ha!

About the Yak: I haven't written it up yet, but it does NOT brook any change in the order of assembly. Which sucks, because to me, it's illogical. There are too many things that go inside other things to fit around other things. It reminds me of a really badly executed MG Gundam (although I'm not sure there is such a thing). It's amazing engineering, but what's the point when it makes the build tedious and difficult? I know you know what I mean! I love the Firebar as a plane, and I have an old A-Model of it. I'm going to stick with it, because some A-Models are total garbage (Anakonda... that's you I'm staring at) and some (like the Firebar) look okay. well, sorry, mine's a Brewer, the "PP" version. I definitely won't bother with the Bobcat! By the way, wasn't "Bobcat" the name for the super-simple Heller kits, like my Harrier T.4 (you can find it on my site)? Seems to bode ill. I don't mind a crappy fitting kit. I know what I'm in for when I bust out a Matchbox or a Heller, and I'm good with that, because that challenge is part of what I'm looking forward to: Can I make a silk-ish purse out of this sow's ear? However, if I get a nice-looking new kit, I expect it to behave as such. I agree, life is too short to have models be crappy when you don't want them to be! :) (Let's face it, a good MPC kit would just make me question the entire fabric of reality!)

Well, that's your take. You've seen mine. My feeling is though, given that this is a pretty modern and relatively expensive kit, that there's a lot of ways that Zvezda could have done the intakes better. With such a long seam and no real positive location, getting things to line up right is not that easy. I've built a tonne of kits, and this is the only one I've seen that had intakes that were this odd. If you can do those intakes with a little spot of Mr. Surfacer, then I applaud you. However, I am building this kit, not you, and I found the intakes rather tricky. You can see from the pictures that it took more than "a blob" of Mr. Surfacer. Now, they look fine when done, but it's getting there that's a pain in the burner cans... I don't disagree that the parts breakup is well thought out, but again, it conveniences Zvezda, not the builder. A good kit can do both. A perfect example, as I cited, is the Hasegawa Valkyries. They have lots of different variants, some catered to by different wings, or noses, or whatnot. However, in those cases, the applicable assemblies are either given as new parts, or extra parts. the integrity of the Super Ostrich/Elint Seeker wing isn't broken up by just making the wingtips different pieces. Hasegawa gives you whole new wings that are appropriate. Same for the 1 vs 2-seaters; It's not just a bit of a stretch, it's a whole new nose. The SMT could have been engineered the same way. When a company makes life hard for the modeller because it's easy for them, I take exception to it. I take more exception on a newer kit that clearly is great in many ways, but disappoints where it shouldn't. You wouldn't want to hear my take on things like Kittyhawk kits where you have a seam on the canopy glass that has to be sanded down. That's equally inexcuseable. See, for me, the cockpit detail doesn't matter. At 1/72, I don't think you can see much, and I close my canopies. So, I don't care if the interior is great or not. I do care if the kit fits together well and makes sense. To me, an old Matchbox makes more sense than this thing. But again, that's my call, not yours. Criticism is like beauty, don't forget; it's a personal thing. To me, their Yak-130 is even worse. It's a friggin' puzzle. You'll really hate it when I write that one up! 😉 At the end of the day, it's as simple as this: It looks like a Tamiya but builds like a mid-'80s MPC. It's still the only game in town, I think, for this airframe, and I'm glad I've got it, but I was surprised it was as tough as it was. Since I figured others might want to know these pitfalls about it, I wrote it up. If others have better luck, then I'm very glad that I'm the one who had trouble, rather than someone else.

I don't know if you can blame gravitationally induced phenomena, but yeah... I have a model of the Trabby and would love a Yugo kit! Oh, by the way, did I mention I have a COBI (Polish Lego) FSO Polonez? Yeah baby! Jealousy will get you nowhere. The cars I love will do the same! :)

A challenge is one thing, but sometimes you just run into something that’s just difficult for no reason, and it seems as if the designers can be heard sitting in their conference room snickering “Hah! Let them figure THIS out!” Sadly, the Zvezda Mig-29 SMT is one such kit. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a nice enough looking kit, and all the weapons and features it has still make it cool. However, there are some design choices that break the “questionable” boundary and spin off into the void of unnecessary complexity. A perfect example of this latter kind of design are the intakes on Zvezda’s lumpy Fulcrum. I know a lot of people were eager to see this one built, so I thought I’d best warn everyone that this is one Fulcrum that might push YOU past the tipping point! Check out my build report below, and don’t say I didn’t warn you about this one! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/2019/12/04/mig-29smt-update-more-work-than-it-ought-to-be/

Some people say you can never have too much of a good thing. Then there’s the person who coined the term “Embarrassment of riches”. Well, somewhere between those two things comes something I think most modellers are familiar with: a collection. Now, I don’t just mean a collection of things that are related, like “British side-by-side Two Seaters” or “Third Reich Research Aircraft”. No, I mean when you have multiples of the same basic thing, like “All Subtypes of Navy Phantoms” or “Every Sherman Variant” or, my favourite “A Boatload of RX-78s, even though they’re not your favourite Gundam”. I’m sure we all have such things that we just can’t seem to get enough of. Given my bent towards loving the automotive underdog, it might not come as a surprise to find I have a bit of a Monza fetish. Yes, GM’s sporty-ish H-body from the mid-‘70s just seems to be something I have recently taken a shine to. I blame Ashbrook’s Hobby in Richmond MI – that’s where I got a lot of them! Five, in fact. But fear not, I actually have a full six! Check out this most colourful and intersting variety of a car that was adored by the kit makers back in the day, and which Round 2 has even seen fit to reissue! (Note: that’s a Monza I didn’t buy… I only buy period Monzas. I’m a Monza-Snob!) Don’t forget to vote and/or comment on which one you want me to review first! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/scores-and-collections/monza-mayhem/

Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that I love loser cars, everyday cars and the stuff that most people don’t even think about. Well, there’s not much more of a loser everyday car than one of the best-selling, but most boring, of all the ‘70s three-box sedans: the Ford Granada! Unfortunately, while the real car sold well, there wasn’t a lot of interest from kit makers. Just imagine the awesome MPC decal variants that COULD have been made with an early Granada kit! However, I recently was given quite a rare little gem; one of the 1/32 Lindberg Ford Granadas! Depicting a ’76 Ghia, from what I can tell, this simple little kit is not one you see everyday. Depsite its simplicity, it’s still a good replica, especially form about 2 feet out! Check out my Out of Box review for the Granada at the link below! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/out-of-box-reviews/lindberg-1-32-1976-ford-granada-oob/

Amen!

There’s nothing quite like the unknown to get the old imagination cranking. One facet of this from a modelling perspective is to embrace sci-fi subjects. However, there’s another way to go about it, and that’s “What-If” or “whif”-type subjects. Of course, for some of us, both are equally as much fun, and my stack of anime kits and Luft ’46 creations attests to this. One of the cooler Whifs that’s kind of real, but still not really known, is the stealthy Blackhawk (?) derivative used in the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Sure, the raid left a tantalizing souvenir in the form of a tail rotor pylon, but even after that, little has come to light about the chopper, and the entire program remains rather closely-guarded. Amazingly, only Dragon (so far as I know) has bothered to try to kit this famous “boogeyman” of an airplane, and sadly only in 1/144. Still, as far as Whifs go, it’s a pretty cool subject, and the small scale only helps hid that not a lot of detail is known about the bird. Check out my out of box review for it below; make sure you’re wearing a tinfoil hat, though, first! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/out-of-box-reviews/dragon-1-144-stealth-blackhawk-oob/

There’s nothing quite like the unknown to get the old imagination cranking. One facet of this from a modelling perspective is to embrace sci-fi subjects. However, there’s another way to go about it, and that’s “What-If” or “whif”-type subjects. Of course, for some of us, both are equally as much fun, and my stack of anime kits and Luft ’46 creations attests to this. One of the cooler Whifs that’s kind of real, but still not really known, is the stealthy Blackhawk (?) derivative used in the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Sure, the raid left a tantalizing souvenir in the form of a tail rotor pylon, but even after that, little has come to light about the chopper, and the entire program remains rather closely-guarded. Amazingly, only Dragon (so far as I know) has bothered to try to kit this famous “boogeyman” of an airplane, and sadly only in 1/144. Still, as far as Whifs go, it’s a pretty cool subject, and the small scale only helps hid that not a lot of detail is known about the bird. Check out my out of box review for it below; make sure you’re wearing a tinfoil hat, though, first! [/B] https://adamrehorn.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/stealth-blackhawk-oob-001.jpg?w=400[/IMG]

Holy crud! I thought I put a lot of work into things! Man, that' is awesome! You're rocking this thing, and it looks great so far! Looking foward to seeing this one! Just don't put "Boss Hogg" on the fender, like the old Ertl 1/64 car. God I hated that...

Summer is a great time for road trippin’, and nothing makes a trip better than getting some good sprue along the way. I did well on a two-pronged trip in August, and I just got the stuff organized. I thought it would be fun to share my haul from Michigan to Hamilton , Ontario! Check it out at the link below; if you thought I had eclectic tastes before, well… just think that now I’m going from Barbie Vette to nuclear missile, and all points in between! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/model-kits/scores-and-collections/2019-end-of-summer-haul/

No, it wasn't my intention to do that to the front suspension! I actually never noticed it until earlier this morning, and then I was very much "What the..." and went and checked the model, and yup, it wasn't just the camera lying. While it was a neat idea, and the wheels did fit over them, the whole "Front disc" brake thing was troublesome, and they were hard to get glued in at the right angle. That's why it looks that way. It just didn't fit any other way! I wonder if the Reissue is the same?

I think this might redefine “labour of love” for me; the BRAT is finally done! It took a lot, and there were so many big and little things that had to be done to get the darned thing together, but I have to say it was all worthwhile. Since turning one down at the dawn of my interest in car kits, I’ve always wanted a chance to build one of these lovably oddball machines. I got my chance when I picked one up about a year ago, and now it’s done and on my shelf. Check out my original AMT BRAT, with custom-resized decals in all its chicken-tax-evading glory at the link below, and let me know what you think. Who out there is building the resissue? I’m interested to know if it has the same issues! https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/amt-matchbox-1-25-1978-subaru-brat/