annie.shikinami

i recently tried this over MRP lacquers and the X-20A took it clean off. didn't effect the mr. surfacer underneath tho. however, a light coat of GX100 over the MRP before working with the inks and X-20A was enough to protect it. i've had no issue with the X-20 over mr color paints.

i've had luck removing just the decal using tamiya masking tape in some cases, even with a couple of clear coats on top. however i think the kind of decal solutions used (if any) makes a difference. i started using solvaset a while ago and that stuff makes decals tough as hell. a couple of times i've stripped a model down to bare plastic with 91% isopropyl alcohol and even with all the paint & primer gone, the decals (and underlying paint) remained. lacquer thinner eventually got them off, but even that required a bit of work.

i started this kit with less than a month before my local IPMS show, totally rushed through it, and ended up taking home gold in 1/48 scale jets and best overall aircraft. wasn't expecting that! (i thought one of my other entries was much better...it got 2nd) this kit was an older boxing of the Rafale M, apparently before Revell updated the molds. this kit has a different instrument panel, tail, and upper fuselage without flare dispensers molded in. by the time i noticed it was too late to really do anything about that, though i did replace the tail with one from a rafale B kit tha

gaia notes has equivalents for regular mr color thinner, mr leveling thinner, and rapid thinner. you can also get them in 1L size bottles. i use them interchangeably with the mr hobby stuff and find they work just as well. last i checked newtype had most of them in stock.

i've bought from Chinese sellers a few times and never really had any issue. mostly things that aren't available in the states, like Galaxy mask sets or decals. it doesn't seem like it's a viable option anymore though. $100 dollar shipping for a $21 dollar mask set, yikes. this more on the extreme side, but shipping charges that were either free or very cheap are now either enough to make buying an item no cheaper than it would be buying it in the states, or so outrageous that no one is really going to pay them.

the oldest i have right now is a Hasegawa Phantom FG.1. not as old as what's been mentioned here so far, but it is older than i am!

i just got mine in today. it's a fantastic looking kit as expected. however as someone who likes to build stuff in-flight i'm pretty disappointed in the way all the control surfaces are done. all of the control surfaces on the wings are molded in the down position, and the rudders are toed-in. unless i'm missing something there doesn't seem to be an option to build them any other way. i think some of them could just be fixed by clipping off the attachment tabs but the trailing edge flaps for example are molded in such a way that if you straighten them out there's a huge gap.

I think that jet in the link is the same VFA-83 jet as the pic embedded in the post actually. both pics are in the same gallery on DVIDS, and it looks like VFA-103 is on the Ford along with VFA-83. the flag on the flaps is a VFA-83 thing as of late, and it's got the black at the tip of the vertical tails like in the embedded pic, so i'm pretty sure 211 is theirs. VFA-103 is still wearing the USS GWB markings above the formation lights and also doesn't appear to have any tail codes at all in the gallery pics. they're also sporting the same 200 modex numbers as VFA-83 so i can see h

thanks everyone! yep that's the term. it was a bit more symmetrical, but i had an AMRAAM fall of one of the rails while taking pictures and just kinda left it as is lol

i placed an order on Sept 13th and it's been silent for me as well. i ordered my stuff after i read the post about shutting down so i figured it would take some time.

nah the arm was sturdy enough. the forward phoenix pallets meant that i had to try and place the action base adapter further back than the center of gravity, and so the kit was just too heavy, and was causing the whole base to want to tip over. i ended up just going with a big acrylic rod. thanks! i like using the patches in my displays for the low-viz jets especially. gives a nice contrasting splash of color!

i use Bandai action bases for a lot of my in flight displays. these aren't very pretty at all but they're very cheap and low effort. they're made for gundam stuff but ear easily adapted to work with aircraft. i wouldn't try to put anything too big on them tho. the growler all loaded up is pretty heavy and is about as big as i would go.

i've gotten replacement parts from them twice. once was a single broken F-16 canopy. i had to email them twice before i got a response. their website gives a different email address for replacement parts than the one provided in their manual, so included both on the email. took about a month to get a response but i eventually got my part. the second time i had a big issue where 6 of my new F/A-18 kits had defective canopies. i made a thread about it here on arcforums and Raymond reached out to me. i had the parts a few weeks after that. i think reaching ou

I've got the same problem going on right now. Total bummer! I'd only ordered one item but was planning to get more in the future. Wish I'd had seen this thread before placing an order.

buttoned up, canopy closed, and in-flight with a crew in the cockpit are my preferences. open panels on a kit usually kinda put me off cos of how hard they often are to close up properly. but boy howdy do i love it when other modelers go nuts with the open panels! love seeing the kinda work that i'll probably never do myself lol