AMK 1/48 F-14!!!

[delide]

4 hours ago, quang said:

That is your opinion. Just permit me to have mine.

Thanks.

Quang

Of course you can. I just don't understand when it's about things one cares, everything can look so amazing, but when it's about things that matters to other people only, then suddenly one turns blind/all appears completely meaningless... I heard many times it's just a toy/hobby, personally, I can't care less about the definition of toy/hobby. If you indeed had stronger feelings like "turned on" or amazed by a kit, then I'd guess you would suffer, if you were to find pleasure elsewhere and never return. To some it's more like a passion, but then again I don't care what it should be called.

 

In regard to building a model, I would agree that roughly 70% is on us, then again, 70% is on us too if we build egg planes only. In regard to required research of the subjects, IMO it's roughly the other way around, as the manufacturers have more possibilities to access the real things, to get official support, etc. In regard to faithfully reproduce the shape of the original machines, which is the biggest point to me, I'd say 90% is on the manufacturer, unless scratch building it, there are limits we can change with sand paper and things, also time is limited, and our reference/own research should be inferior in theory. In short, I for one want more manufacturers to do their home work properly and professionally. 

Edited December 14, 2019 by delide

[ElectroSoldier]

On 12/13/2019 at 5:19 PM, niart17 said:

Doh! you caught on to my dastardly plan. I was going to con them out of a kit by bumping up the thread count. I was hoping to retire to the Caribbean if i won by selling it on Ebay. Or it could be that it's just a fun way to discuss the subject while also learning stuff along the way. Nah, you're right. it's a con.😁

 

Misdirection by over emphasising what you do want disguised as what you dont...

 

Im not a betting man but if I was I would bet body parts as soon as this thread hits 300, which im sure it will, somebody will assume somebody will get a free model and its all been worth it.

 

Without looking back through the dross that this thread is can somebody tell me what exactly is wrong with the kit.
I mean I know Im not Tomcat expert but it looks ok to me. 

[Darren Roberts]

38 minutes ago, ElectroSoldier said:

Without looking back through the dross that this thread is can somebody tell me what exactly is wrong with the kit.
I mean I know Im not Tomcat expert but it looks ok to me. 

 

But you'll miss so much fun if you don't go back and read it from the beginning!

 

Let me see if I can sum up the thread for you.

 

The issue that has most people in a tizzy is the oddly-shaped rear fuselage. The slope of the area from the outside of the verticals down to the horizontal stabs is a bit steep. That throws off the perspective of the rear fuselage, causing it to look like it has overly-curved "hips". The other issue that seems to bug people is that the IFR bay is positioned at a wrong angle. As the kit has been built, it's been discovered that some of the surface detail is not symmetrical, with some areas being more detailed than others. Those are the issues that have driven this "conversation" that are factual. From there, it all devolved into arguments and opinions. Some of the opinions included things such as the panel lines detail being too soft or the fit isn't great. The arguments involved rage against the manufacturer for botching the PR of the kit and taking Indiegogo money and not delivering the kits first to those people. While all that may be true, it doesn't pertain to the actual plastic. There has been some reasonable discussion, but lately it's simply a couple of people doing their best to shred the company by beating a dead horse of a topic over...and over...and over...and over...and...well, you get the point. There are those on the other side that have also defended the company and won't acknowledge the mistakes that were made. And so it goes round and round. It almost emulates the way the US government is functioning (or not, as the case may be) right now. Oops, I better not bring politics into this. Then it will REALLY explode! 

 

So, that's the gist of the thread. I'm currently building it right now. The intakes have some fit issues, but nothing that a reasonable modeler can't fix with about 5 minutes of work. The cockpit detail is beautiful, probably the best of all 1/48 Tomcat kits on the market. I tried the instrument panel decals, and, while nice, I didn't like the dark gray color for the consoles. I'm going to pull them off and paint the panels. The detail for the landing gear and wheel wells is outstanding for an injection molded kit. Again, it's probably the best detail on the market. The instrument panel coamings lack some detail and the canvas covers look more like a solid material than a fabric material. The NACES seats look a little fat with no cushion detail. I'd replace them with a resin set. That would finish off the cockpit quite nicely. I've found the surface detail to be very nice. I don't get the argument that it's soft. It will really look good under paint with a wash.

 

I'll provide more insights as I get deeper into the build. At the moment, I'd rank the AMK kit as the second best overall kit of all 1/48 scale kits. For those who view accuracy as the most important issue, it will probably drop down to about the 3rd best, with Tamiya and Hasegawa (though that has its issues as well) ahead of the AMK.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Darren Roberts

[ElectroSoldier]

Thanks Darren.
I dont know a manufacturer who gets the seats 100% in anything. That seems to be a model makers lot.

How do the wings look? I saw that the flaps can be dropped I think.

[flanker27]

Someone posted some pictures on facebook four Tomcat partly build stackup on top of each other, Hasegawa, Hobbyboss, Tamiya and AMK

[Darren Roberts]

I just worked on the intake ramps. All I can say is the design is crazy stupid. Way over-engineered. The detail is great, but it's difficult to get everything to fit the way it's supposed to. I ended up gluing the rear ramp to the intake tunnel itself instead of on the assembly. Why can't manufacturers make this area easier to assemble? So far Tamiya is the only one that has been easy. When I build another AMK kit, it will have intake covers. That will solve everything.

 

BTW, I don't have pictures because I dropped my hosting service. You'll just have to take my word for it. 😁

Edited December 15, 2019 by Darren Roberts

[Darren Roberts]

1 hour ago, ElectroSoldier said:

Thanks Darren.
I dont know a manufacturer who gets the seats 100% in anything. That seems to be a model makers lot.

How do the wings look? I saw that the flaps can be dropped I think.

 

The wings look great. I'll be working on those in the next few days and let you know, although I'm going with the hard wing. I don't want everything hanging down. 

[Darren Roberts]

Engine nacelles went on fantastic. That was a neat bit of engineering. No seams to clean up at all. The fit of the boat tail wasn't bad. I've heard some people say the fit wasn't good. Mine fit just fine. The speed break doors were a bit fiddly, but with some light sanding they fit in the recesses without problems. At this point, my opinion is that it's a very detailed model, but it's more work than I'm willing to put into it, as I want everything clean and buttoned up. If you want everything hanging out, this is the kit for you.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Darren Roberts

[Darren Roberts]

I got the rear fuselage together. The engines went in nicely and connected to the intake tunnels well. The rear glued together will little effort, but I needed some tape to squeeze the shoulder seam together. I test fit the cockpit into the one-piece fuselage. Some have had some trouble with this area, but mine slid in with no problems and dry fitting didn't reveal any issues to the rear fuselage. 

[Falconxlvi]

15 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

I just worked on the intake ramps. All I can say is the design is crazy stupid. Way over-engineered. The detail is great, but it's difficult to get everything to fit the way it's supposed to. I ended up gluing the rear ramp to the intake tunnel itself instead of on the assembly. Why can't manufacturers make this area easier to assemble? So far Tamiya is the only one that has been easy. When I build another AMK kit, it will have intake covers. That will solve everything.

 

BTW, I don't have pictures because I dropped my hosting service. You'll just have to take my word for it. 😁

Darren,

 Try Imgur for your images - it’s free and easy to use.  I made the switch after the photobucket ransom debacle.  
 

Steve 

[Hubbie Marsten]

On 12/14/2019 at 3:55 AM, Martin @ AMK Models said:

How is this? I'd be interested because not many other companies put sprues into cardboard boxes..... tell us who and how - thank you kindly.

 

You know very well how it is, Martin. It's what shop owners all yap about; when you devise the size of the box not to protect the content but so that size stays below shipping fares, then it's like stuffing a pound of ground meat into a small size of skin. As a consequence, sprues are stuffed in so tight that it'll be impossible to put them in back together after you've taken them all out for inspection. This is how contents are crushed/parts damaged or warped because of the pallet load/stuck up limit while in transit.

Proof are those warped and cracked parts pictured above.

 

On 12/14/2019 at 6:46 AM, Jan_CZ said:

Greetings to your wife. She translated the text exactly.

 

She's a Ljubljana beauty. She's fluent in a lot of languages round there.

[Darren Roberts]

9 minutes ago, Hubbie Marsten said:

 

This is how contents are crushed/parts damaged or warped because of the pallet load/stuck up limit while in transit.

Proof are those warped and cracked parts pictured above.

 

 

 

 

In my sample, I had no damaged parts at all. I felt the packaging was done quite nicely. The only problem is once I took everything out, I couldn't remember how to put it back in! 😁

[Dave Roof]

27 minutes ago, Hubbie Marsten said:

 

 

Proof are those warped and cracked parts pictured above.

 

It's obvious you don't have the kit. The warped parts are inside of a box and positioned in such a way that stuffing the kit box isn't what caused the warpage. It is a fragile part and really no different than the Hasegawa canopy frame in their A-7D/E kits which had a tendency to be bent/broken as well. Like I said before, I have four kits on hand and three were bent. However, once the clear parts are installed, the warpage should easily be straightened out.

 

As far as putting the kit sprues back in the box once they're removed? Absolutely no issue there either. Again, this is from someone that actually has the kit in his hands...........

[Hubbie Marsten]

11 minutes ago, Dave Roof said:

It's obvious you don't have the kit.

 

Dear Lord! I wonder how you knew...  It's not really necessary for me to have the kit in order to learn how it is, Davie. I'm sure you are able to think of at least three or four ways that someone who doesn't have the kit could still learn about it.

Let me help you with one hint: I use to go to the hobby shops. 

[Greg Long]

The kit is out  at Sprue Bros.

After 284 pages of complaining who of you will buy it,its only a model kit, makes you think what would have been said over the real aircraft

Now its out good luck with it if you buy

A mate of mine is building the ICM 1/48 B26 and it has issues

[Falcon053]

20 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

I just worked on the intake ramps. All I can say is the design is crazy stupid. Way over-engineered. The detail is great, but it's difficult to get everything to fit the way it's supposed to. I ended up gluing the rear ramp to the intake tunnel itself instead of on the assembly. Why can't manufacturers make this area easier to assemble? 

I'm with Darren, I am working on the intakes and think this was over engineered and something simpler could have been done. I prefer having intakes showing than a cover over the opening. 

[Darren Roberts]

Just finished up installing the cockpit into the one piece fuselage. I needed to sand the outside of the sidewalls and the cockpit slid right in. I had dry-fitted the front fuselage to the rear and it looked like it was going to fit okay, but when I went to glue it on, I noticed that while bottom fit quite well, the top had an issue. The rear fuselage join area was wider than the front fuselage join area. It was different from the problem that was pictured in the other thread. However, by pushing down on the spine, hitting it with CA glue, and doing some aggressive sanding, I got the join smooth. I still have yet to actually use any putty on any of the seams, which I found interesting. On a scale of 1-10 for fit, I'd give what I've done so far about a 7.5 - 8. But simply sanding seems to take care of the fit issues I've experienced so far.

 

I also installed the engine shrouds. I had to use some force to push them into place, as the fit was quite tight, but once in place I had no gaps. I also tested to see if I could install the wings after the fuselage was assembled. I used the hard wings, and they slid into place with no problems. So, you can paint and decal the wings and install them afterwards.

[Zactoman]

I thought the packaging great. My only damaged parts were the two separate rear canopy pieces that had flexed at the attachment sprue to the point that stress fractures appeared on the part. This unfortunately means that those parts can't be used.

I previously mentioned this and posted pics of the flawed windscreen here: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/285277-amk-148-f-14/&do=findComment&comment=2980597

 

After reading several comments saying that it was difficult putting the parts back in the box, when I first unboxed my kit I labeled the bags with a Sharpie, putting a large #1 (and the sprue letter) on the top left of the bag, 2 next and so-on. When I got to the lower bags that were side-by-side I put the number on the left corner of the left bag and the right corner of the right side bags.

 

1 hour ago, Dave Roof said:

I have four kits on hand and three were bent. However, once the clear parts are installed, the warpage should easily be straightened out.

If the bend/damage wasn't due to packaging it likely happened after injecting and dropping into a bin full of parts. A part this thin and fragile should either have a molded-in protective cage (extra expense) or be treated differently than other sprues that are OK dropping into a bin (also an extra expense). 3 of 4 parts is unacceptable. With a high rate like that, whoever is packaging them had to have noticed and chose to package them anyway.

 

[zerosystem]

1 hour ago, Darren Roberts said:

Just finished up installing the cockpit into the one piece fuselage. I needed to sand the outside of the sidewalls and the cockpit slid right in. I had dry-fitted the front fuselage to the rear and it looked like it was going to fit okay, but when I went to glue it on, I noticed that while bottom fit quite well, the top had an issue. The rear fuselage join area was wider than the front fuselage join area. It was different from the problem that was pictured in the other thread. However, by pushing down on the spine, hitting it with CA glue, and doing some aggressive sanding, I got the join smooth. I still have yet to actually use any putty on any of the seams, which I found interesting. On a scale of 1-10 for fit, I'd give what I've done so far about a 7.5 - 8. But simply sanding seems to take care of the fit issues I've experienced so far.

 

I also installed the engine shrouds. I had to use some force to push them into place, as the fit was quite tight, but once in place I had no gaps. I also tested to see if I could install the wings after the fuselage was assembled. I used the hard wings, and they slid into place with no problems. So, you can paint and decal the wings and install them afterwards.

 

Darren, use a razor saw and make 2 cuts along the "shelf" where the rear of the canopy sits, you can spread the sidewalls to match the rear fuselage.

[Darren Roberts]

6 minutes ago, zerosystem said:

 

Darren, use a razor saw and make 2 cuts along the "shelf" where the rear of the canopy sits, you can spread the sidewalls to match the rear fuselage.

Great idea!

[Zactoman]

On 12/12/2019 at 4:36 AM, Dave Roof said:

The LAU-68's in the AMK set are wrong anyway as they're over a scale foot too short. If they did in fact use the CAD info above, those are wrong as well. 

I sent pictures, drawings and text data that I found on the interwebs to HazMAT for the Bronco weapons as well as many more weapons systems for other projects.
As for the LAU-68, I mostly contributed to warhead info and assisted AOA decals with stencil data. The change I recommended was moving the holed (is that a word? or is it holy?) disc closer to the opening. If you compare the CAD images to the plastic (or real pics) you can see that they did this.
As for the dimensions, as I said, I provided them, but it appears that something got lost in translation.
Comparing the pics of the AMK parts to the Bronco test shots, they look identical. I wasn't aware until you pointed this out and I measured the Bronco plastic which is also short.

 

On 12/12/2019 at 10:36 AM, Solo said:

Maybe, but those weapon set is full of the best plastic bombs and missiles I have ever seen.

The weapons included in the Tomcat kit are nice and in many ways superior to those included in the Tamiya kit. They include more detail, though a bit soft, including much more detailed exhaust sections thanks to slide-molding and/or separate exhaust parts. They do have the disadvantage of having 4 tooling seams to deal with vs 2 for conventional molding.
I did discover that 3 of the 4 Phoenix included had flawed fins making them unusable without extensive work. The front corners have short-shots and the edges of one of the fins is mangled.

 

All this weapons talk reminds me that the posts about the Sparrows being in the wrong location were deleted when ARC suffered a database loss. Here is the pic I had previously posted:

 

And then there's this:

 

 

[masanissa]

3 hours ago, Greg Long said:

The kit is out  at Sprue Bros.

After 284 pages of complaining who of you will buy it,its only a model kit, makes you think what would have been said over the real aircraft

Now its out good luck with it if you buy

A mate of mine is building the ICM 1/48 B26 and it has issues

The kit is still available and in stock at Sprue Brothers and also Kit Linx. They haven't sold out. There's a number of eBay sellers offering the kit as well at about $85 including shipping. Best price on the kit including shipping is Sprue at $78. It's about the same price as other manufacturers F-14Ds if you shop around.

[gb_madcat_sl]

24 minutes ago, Zactoman said:

The weapons included in the Tomcat kit are nice and in many ways superior to those included in the Tamiya kit. They include more detail, though a bit soft, including much more detailed exhaust sections thanks to slide-molding and/or separate exhaust parts. They do have the disadvantage of having 4 tooling seams to deal with vs 2 for conventional molding.
I did discover that 3 of the 4 Phoenix included had flawed fins making them unusable without extensive work. The front corners have short-shots and the edges of one of the fins is mangled.

 

 

 

Hmm. That's interesting. I'm looking at the sets from the Tomcat kit as well as the ordnance set and all 8 of mine are molded perfectly. Maybe @Sio or @Martin @ AMK Models can arrange for a set of replacements to be sent you way?

 

Mark

[Mstor]

4 hours ago, Zactoman said:

After reading several comments saying that it was difficult putting the parts back in the box, when I first unboxed my kit I labeled the bags with a Sharpie, putting a large #1 (and the sprue letter) on the top left of the bag, 2 next and so-on. When I got to the lower bags that were side-by-side I put the number on the left corner of the left bag and the right corner of the right side bags.

 

I'm doing the same thing. So far I've gotten to the number 2

[Don]

3 minutes ago, Mstor said:

 

I'm doing the same thing. So far I've gotten to the number 2

And the next number is...

LOL! I'll leave now...

 

Happy modeling all!