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54 minutes ago, foxmulder_ms said:

 

 

"Twisty".. no??

2.jpg

 

 

Bladder rubber height to edge ratio should be around 1/3 when the rubber is extended to "full". 

 

1.jpg

 

 

Also, please look at this picture where rubber is pressed with the wing on AMK kit: looks pretty spot on to me:

 

2v2EdJ94ox9trR.jpg

 

 

 

If you have the kit, why don't you just photograph it at the same angle as the photo of the real aircraft?

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51 minutes ago, shion said:

 

 

Really?

 

https://www.facebook.com/avantgardemodelkits/posts/1121789291319230?comment_id=1122637474567745&comment_tracking={"tn"%3A"R"}

 

In November 2018, Tamiya'd already released F-14A (Nov 2016) and F-14D (Aug 2018) kits. 

 

 

Shion, your passion against AMK, getting into trouble to search in past 2-3 years of posts, says a lot to me...

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1 hour ago, foxmulder_ms said:

 

2v2EdJ94ox9trR.jpg

 

 

 

The airbag is misshaped, the top should be straight across and the rear should not slope down to meet the fuselage. When the wings sweep back it pushes the airbag down but the rest of the airbag does not bulge upward, it stays flat and follows the same line as the fuselage.

 

And as noted earlier, the area by the stab back panel (panel above and forward of the stab pivot point) slopes down too much and that area should not have that downward curve between the airbag and stab bell crank cover (pivot point hump).

 

 

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48 minutes ago, GW8345 said:

The airbag is misshaped, the top should be straight across and the rear should not slope down to meet the fuselage. When the wings sweep back it pushes the airbag down but the rest of the airbag does not bulge upward, it stays flat and follows the same line as the fuselage.

 

And as noted earlier, the area by the stab back panel (panel above and forward of the stab pivot point) slopes down too much and that area should not have that downward curve between the airbag and stab bell crank cover (pivot point hump).

 

 

Thank you. The above ^^^ post from someone with years of experience turning wrenches on the real F-14.

Happy modeling!

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44 minutes ago, Don said:

Thank you. The above ^^^ post from someone with years of experience turning wrenches on the real F-14.

Happy modeling!

 

Is the comment to add validity to the errors stated? Honestly asking...

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15 minutes ago, DIO said:

 

Is the comment to add validity to the errors stated? Honestly asking...

GW8345 has more experience then pretty much anyone on this thread when it comes to the real Tomcat. If he says something is off then I'm going to lean towards his real life expertise. Honestly answering...

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2 hours ago, GW8345 said:

The airbag is misshaped, the top should be straight across and the rear should not slope down to meet the fuselage. When the wings sweep back it pushes the airbag down but the rest of the airbag does not bulge upward, it stays flat and follows the same line as the fuselage.

 

And as noted earlier, the area by the stab back panel (panel above and forward of the stab pivot point) slopes down too much and that area should not have that downward curve between the airbag and stab bell crank cover (pivot point hump).

 

 

I think this is really it. 

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4 hours ago, Tapchan said:

If somebody decides not to wait with the decision of giving up on AMK's Tomcat at least until the model comes to the vendors then well... he was not really into it anyway.

 

That's a pretty asinine thing to say as I am one amongst a large amount of modelers that are waiting for the kits to hit the vendors and see what they look like after others build it.

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2 hours ago, DIO said:

 

Is the comment to add validity to the errors stated? Honestly asking...

My intent is not to validate or invalidate anyone's assessment of the kits shape, my intent is to provide modeler's an assessment of the shape of the kit from someone who has worked on the aircraft while it was in operational service.

 

I have no axe to grind against the manufacture, I am not being paid by anyone and I couldn't care less about a 1/48 scale Tomcat kit. I am just providing my insight of a model kit based on years of experience of actually working on the real thing, something most modelers appreciate and want.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, madmanrick said:

Wow, I've never seen a Tomcat that looked SO much like a Hellcat in ALL my life!

 

 

<sarcasm>

 

Wow! And this is where you are being rude, not really sarcastic. Think that it is actually a fellow modeller that has built this...

 

Nice looking model by the way.

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1 hour ago, PlasticWeapons said:

I saw some more photos of this build on FB; does the kit seem to sit a bit low?

 

Maybe, but not as low as that of Tamiya.

I don't have the kits in hand. Just from what I see on the web too.

The old monogram is perfect. Should compare against it.

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So if i am understanding correctly, the problem starts with the wing bladder bulging up too high just behind the wing, and then sloping too low after the wing bladder?

I wonder how much of the exaggerated slope is caused by the overly bulging wing bladder? The reason why I say this is because removing material from the wing bladder via sanding will be a lot easier than adding material to the rear engine fairing.

 

Can we start another thread analyzing Academy's F14 shape errors? That would be quite fun.

 

Edited by dryguy
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29 minutes ago, dryguy said:

So if i am understanding correctly, the problem starts with the wing bladder bulging up too high just behind the wing, and then sloping too low after the wing bladder?

I wonder how much of the exaggerated slope is caused by the overly bulging wing bladder? The reason why I say this is because removing material from the wing bladder via sanding will be a lot easier than adding material to the rear engine fairing.

 

Can we start another thread analyzing Academy's F14 shape errors? That would be quite fun.

 

No, it's not a matter of removing material from the bladder, the entire outer ledge on the rear flanks is too low: you'd have to actually add material (polyester putty, modeling board, etc.) and gradually re-sculpt the surface from the vertical tail outward. The bladder "floor" would also have to be raised to correspond with the higher  outer ledge, and the bladder itself scratchbuilt... And that's a best-case scenario, because we don't know what else may be off and how that will affect the fitment of the kit wings. Gotta remember than an aircraft is a complex puzzle of interacting shapes: you can't just change one element without corresponsing elements being affected.

 

As a professional model maker with decades of experience, that's a sh*t job, to say nothing of how much of a handful it would be for your average hobbyist. Better just to build the kit as-is, no one would fault you for that. I happen to think that gb_madcat_sl's build is very nice indeed. If anything, I'm curious to hear about this new separate frame canopy and how it looks on the kit.

 

And for what it's worth, those of us that rivet-count do so with the hope that a given company will, eventually, make even better models based on our findings. In my case at least it's not about bashing AMK or anyone else. It's quite the contrary in fact: I criticize because I believe in them and their potential to do even better. The Academys and the Italeris I don't bother with because I don't think anything useful will come of it.

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