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New 1/48 Kinetic Hornet Kits


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Hyperscale has now reviewed this kit with lotsa photos. The surface detail looks nice; I still can't make up my mind (or maybe my eyes?) about the nose shape. But yet again, the main gear bay plumbing is symmetrical -why is impossible to tool this correctly in styrene? :bandhead2:/>

Taking Neo's point, the integrally moulded rudders also look good, but would need to be cut out and angled to depict most parked aircraft. That would destroy the lovely, fine hinge detail.

I'm sure this is a fine kit, perhaps even a great one in parts, but the Ultimate Hornet in this scale has not yet arrived and I can't help thinking that some opportunities were missed here.

Just my 10 English pennies...

Now you have set off my AMS! LOL

What's wrong with the nose?

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Interestingly, the Kinetic kit's splitter plates have a small slot molded into the back which may be for a brace but just not called out in the instructions. They seem to have missed several parts during the assembly sequence. Of note is the lack of instructions on installing the wingtip launchers.

Mark

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Does anyone have a build review going on this kit? I'd really like to follow along on a build to see how it is, pitfalls, etc.

Mike

I've had one on my desk for the past week and started to put pices together. I haven't had the time to snap any pictures yet but I'll try to do that after the long weekend. Overall, I think it's a good value at $39.99 but I'm not unloading my Hasegawa kits just yet. Some parts drop together beautifully while others leave you scratching your head. The nose area is really problematic in that you have no less than 8 different parts all coming together in the same small space. And, it will undoubtedly be the first part of the model that you look at. Several folks have commented that they were suspicious of the nose shape based on early test shot builds. My hunch is that the shape was off on these builds because of the difficulty in getting all the parts lined up correctly. As noted elsewhere, there are a number of mistakes in the instruction sheet and you need to take your time working through the build.

Cliff

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thanks Cliff! I'll be interested to follow your build. I guess my question would be after it's done, is it really that much better than the hasegawa or just more options?

cheers,

Mike

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Cliff

The parts on nose has 8 pc because we need to provide different option on different block of the hornet not to mention the refuel prob. The fitting is good. All you need is the sequence of assembly.

If you compare with Hasegawa, we have better option than it also our surface detail is better than them.

Option that we provided more than other offering:

Fold wing, refuelling probe, full intake truck, more detail cockpit, correct wing tank, weapon included.

For fitting we provide the one pc hull to reduce the trouble in the lower hull installation. For those advanced modeller, we seperate the MLG well so the aftermarket option cane be installed more friendly.

As for the instruction we may miss few no and we will update it and post here.

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That's too bad!!! :angry:/>

To me, that little part was always a royal pain to install on the Hasegawa kit (I've built at least 8 of them). It is very difficult to see, and personally I don't care if it's there or not.

Spoiler alert: I have sometimes NOT installed that part on my Hasegawa kits!

ALF

:rolleyes:

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To me, that little part was always a royal pain to install on the Hasegawa kit (I've built at least 8 of them). It is very difficult to see, and personally I don't care if it's there or not.

Spoiler alert: I have sometimes NOT installed that part on my Hasegawa kits!

ALF

:rolleyes:/>

Say it ain't so....

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Hey Raymond just wanted to say thanks for the great Hornet kit.

Having built my share of Hasegawa Hornets it's going to be nice to build a kit which seems to fit beautifully from my test fitting.

Lovely surface detail and a boat load of weapons for the stash.

Very impressed so a few more orders to follow!

Edited by dehowie
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I am really looking forward to when the A and B versions come out. I will certainly buy a few. Any idea how long it will be before we get the earlier versions?

ALF

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I got mine today from Lucky Model. The price was $39 plus shipping. I'm not a Hornet expert - but it looks really nice - and I really like the separate main gear wells. The missing antenna is the size of a pinhead - and shouldn't be an issue for almost any of us. The decal sheet is beautiful - with a great weapons sheet as well. Most aftermarket Cartograf sheets alone cost around $20, so by in large - any other Hornet kit would require an aftermarket decal sheet, putting this kit (by my estimation) to be quite a bargain. I only looked at the parts / instructions and decals - but from what I could see - it looks great - with plenty of options. I would think it would fit the bill very easily for most modelers.

Hitch

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The rush to find an error, missing detail, etc is crazy. So the kit missed a plastic part. antenna on the nose. Not the first time a kit was missing a small detail. Black box years ago did an F-18 update set which had those very pieces included. The brace on the inside of the intake, well ever had to use a piece of rod or sprue on a build? What I am saying is that Raymond has delivered a very, very good kit in the F-18. Better than the Hasegawa kit in shape, detail, design, build ease and price. This kit I think over the years will become the Tamiya F-16 to F-18 builders. Those who rush to find fault have likely never designed a kit, kept track of 250 parts, managed not only design, but research, development, packaging, marketing and spent your own money to do it. Most older kits, like the Hasegawa F-18 were never seen by the modeler during the design phase with design drawings (CAD details in the case of the Kinetic F-18, AMK MiG-31 etc), shown to the modelers of the world for comment. It is exceptional transparency that a manufacture of a kit would do this. I would personally like to commend Raymond, Martin, Vadimir and others, manufactures like Airfix, AMK, Eduard, Kittyhawk and others for allowing the modeler to see, comment and be part of the design phase of the kits. I've worked for a kit manufacture and have been called into the CEO's office several times and questioned why so and so is commenting on a part while the kit is in the design phase? Tried to explain that is called research and obtaining input from experts in that particular area, but they were not happy that anyone would have knowledge of a kit's design or details before it was released. I am excited that my Kinetic F-18's are on their way to me, and will certainly clear off any projects on my workbench to begin this kit. Like the F-14's I love the aircraft, but earlier kits were too expensive to build very many (Hasegawa F-18), hard to build (Hasegawa F-14) or when affordable just tough to build (Monogram F-18). A very big thank you to Raymond Chung and Kinetic for this kit, for being interactive with the modelers, for allowing us to be part of the design phase, and most especially being part of this great hobby. Some manufactures work hard to become better with each kit, others seem to have gone backwards (in my opinion other un-named manufactures in China). So now its just a waiting game with the postman.

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Mike....there will be a CF-188A released by Kinetic a little later this year, I believe. So yes, the vertical stabs will be corrected.

Thanks CK!

I am really looking forward to when the A and B versions come out. I will certainly buy a few. Any idea how long it will be before we get the earlier versions?

ALF

ALF,

If you order direct because of a reasonable price, please let me know so we can buy in bulk...if you have no objections, of course?

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The rush to find an error, missing detail, etc is crazy. So the kit missed a plastic part. antenna on the nose. Not the first time a kit was missing a small detail. Black box years ago did an F-18 update set which had those very pieces included. The brace on the inside of the intake, well ever had to use a piece of rod or sprue on a build? What I am saying is that Raymond has delivered a very, very good kit in the F-18. Better than the Hasegawa kit in shape, detail, design, build ease and price. This kit I think over the years will become the Tamiya F-16 to F-18 builders.

From my perspective, no one "rushed" to find an error or missing detail. The missing part and error in the instructions were noticed by the modelers that got the kit and mentioned on the forums. How they were brought up, or the tone in which they were, varied among those that posted.

Whether it is the first time a kit was missing a detail or not is completely irrelevant. Those kits have absolutely nothing do to with this kit whatsoever. Are modelers just supposed to accept a kit with missing or incorrectly shaped parts? Are they just expected to keep their mouths shut when they find errors in the instruction guides? How are manufacturers supposed to improve the products they bring to market if errors aren't brought to their attention? How are modelers supposed to actually build the model correctly if the errors in the instructions aren't discussed?

It is this exact type of critical input that has brought these types of state of the art models to the modeling world. Those that criticize the "rivet counter" modelers simply don't stop to think they are the reason we have the outstanding plastic kits that are being produced today. If it wasn't for "rivet counters", there wouldn't be an AMK working on a masterpiece F-14, or a MENG with an awesome ZSU-23 or a Kinetic trying to bring a better F/A-18 to the scene and on and on. It is also because of "rivet counters" that we have aftermarket! Their attention to detail is what brought the current ranges of resin details and decals to the forefront.

Yes, Kinetic has released a very nice F/A-18C kit in 1/48 scale. However, in its current state, it is not better than the Hasegawa kit. It is missing a part, the vertical tails are incorrectly depicted and the instruction guides are not complete. It doesn't matter if modelers can scratch build the missing parts, what matters is that they shouldn't have to!

Now that the problems with the F/A-18 have been brought to Raymond's/Kinetics attention, they will be addressed in subsequent releases. The vertical tails will be corrected in the F/A-18A release and the incomplete instruction guide will also be addressed. There is also a good chance that the next kit Kinetic starts to work on will be gone over more thoroughly before it is released.

We don't expect perfection. We expect the best possible products to be released and our goal in pointing out errors is to help manufacturers do just that.

Dave

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From my perspective, no one "rushed" to find an error or missing detail. The missing part and error in the instructions were noticed by the modelers that got the kit and mentioned on the forums. How they were brought up, or the tone in which they were, varied among those that posted.

Whether it is the first time a kit was missing a detail or not is completely irrelevant. Those kits have absolutely nothing do to with this kit whatsoever. Are modelers just supposed to accept a kit with missing or incorrectly shaped parts? Are they just expected to keep their mouths shut when they find errors in the instruction guides? How are manufacturers supposed to improve the products they bring to market if errors aren't brought to their attention? How are modelers supposed to actually build the model correctly if the errors in the instructions aren't discussed?

It is this exact type of critical input that has brought these types of state of the art models to the modeling world. Those that criticize the "rivet counter" modelers simply don't stop to think they are the reason we have the outstanding plastic kits that are being produced today. If it wasn't for "rivet counters", there wouldn't be an AMK working on a masterpiece F-14, or a MENG with an awesome ZSU-23 or a Kinetic trying to bring a better F/A-18 to the scene and on and on. It is also because of "rivet counters" that we have aftermarket! Their attention to detail is what brought the current ranges of resin details and decals to the forefront.

Yes, Kinetic has released a very nice F/A-18C kit in 1/48 scale. However, in its current state, it is not better than the Hasegawa kit. It is missing a part, the vertical tails are incorrectly depicted and the instruction guides are not complete. It doesn't matter if modelers can scratch build the missing parts, what matters is that they shouldn't have to!

Now that the problems with the F/A-18 have been brought to Raymond's/Kinetics attention, they will be addressed in subsequent releases. The vertical tails will be corrected in the F/A-18A release and the incomplete instruction guide will also be addressed. There is also a good chance that the next kit Kinetic starts to work on will be gone over more thoroughly before it is released.

We don't expect perfection. We expect the best possible products to be released and our goal in pointing out errors is to help manufacturers do just that.

Dave

Couldn't have said better.

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Most older kits, like the Hasegawa F-18 were never seen by the modeler during the design phase with design drawings (CAD details in the case of the Kinetic F-18, AMK MiG-31 etc), shown to the modelers of the world for comment.

The internet didn't exist when the Hasegawa F-18 kit came out, we just had paper magazines in those days.

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