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The Meng 1/72 F-106A is now out!


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Mine arrived this morning... Absolutely beautiful! The F-102 was good but this is to another level - gets my vote as "kit of 2016" :)/>

Got mine today too......excellent kit, better than the F-102.

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Got mine today too......excellent kit, better than the F-102.

Impressive packing and presentation. My initial tape-together shows excellent fit, in particular around the full intakes, canopy, and the wing to fuselage join! I'm not a fan of open panels, however the fit of those around the nose is "acceptable".

It may well be the best 1/72 kit of my long life ... it appears so far!!

Gene K

Edited by Gene K
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How do the shapes look Jennings?

From what I can see so far, spot on the money. This is quite probably the single finest 1/72 jet kit ever made! Wow. Just wow! It’s gorgeous.

It’s got more options and extras than almost any kit I’ve ever seen. You can literally do almost any in-service F-106 the USAF ever flew using the optional parts in the box. You get not only a full missile load, but you get coffins for the AIM-4s and a trailer for the AIR-2. Not only do you get open and closed missile bay doors (one with and one without the M61 cannon fairing), you get the entire M61 “pod” (the structure) that fits inside the open bay. Not only that, you get a very tiny little M61 muzzle assembly that you can see inside the muzzle opening in the fairing!

There are full length intake trunks (you’ll never see them, but they’re there!), intake covers, two kinds of main wheels, F-102 (subsonic) and supersonic wing tanks, optional open or closed speed boards….. WOW!

The clear parts include both main canopy styles. Each is packaged in its own littlle sealed compartment in the poly bag, and each little sprue is further protected by a piece of clingy clear wrap to protect it in shipping (my kits are both 100% undamaged).

There are the early Convair B seat and the later standard Webber seat. You could probably rob the seat out of their F-102 for the very early flight test birds if you cared that much.

Surface detail is just spectacular. The über close-up pics you see online don’t really do it justice. They make it look much coarser than it is. It’s just stunning.

I’m still dancing around the living room, but those are my initial observations.

I’m gonna need at least six… oh hell, a dozen of these!!

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Ladies and gentlemen, please take note of this date and this amazing event: Jennings actually happy - no, GIDDY - about a kit! :thumbsup: A kit from China, no less! :jaw-dropping: :jaw-dropping: :jaw-dropping:

I'm looking forward to building this one, too. For decades, I had been urging Revell Germany/Ace to follow the 1/72 Scorpion and Voodoo that they kinda downscaled from the 1/48 Monogram kits to do so with the Six. Their loss. Hail Meng!

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Meng, GWH, and AMK are head and shoulders above anybody in history. Meng's new 1/35 scale armor is nothing short of ingenious. Clearly *somebody* in China has gotten the message that Trumpet Boss seems to have missed.

Edited by Jennings
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I received my kit yesterday. I could not post photos immediately as I was too busy resizing my decal artwork for the two F-106 sheets I will be releasing for this kit next month; but here are some photos. This is truly a tour-de-force of kit engineering, and it is probably the best 1/72 jet kit I have ever seen.

meng3.jpg

meng4.jpg

meng5.jpg

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Main dimensions are very close the old Hasegawa 1/72 kit, but the Meng kit tail is almost 2mm taller. The Meng kit outlines match scaled-down outlines of the Monogram 1/48 kit, suggesting that the overall fuselage shape is pretty accurate.

Edited by KursadA
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Thanx for the photos, KursadA. What's really nice is that after however many jaded years torturing bits of plastic, there is still something that can work up a froth amongst the villagers.

Mine is likely to arrive next week; I'm already bouncing with anticipation. Too bad it will be briefly cooed over and then stacked alongside last year's Fine Molds Tomcat while I fumble and bumble my way around the wings (folded) of a HobbyBoss Demon...which isn't even the 'right' scale!

Can anyone confirm that the Meng instructions are specific about what seat/canopy/instrument panel etc. is appropriate for which version? Cheers!

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Everything I've measured on the Meng kit is so close to actual General Dynamics dimensional data that it's well within the tolerance of measurement.

So far the only thing I've found that I don't like is the small rear facing exhaust vent underneath the intakes. Meng makes it far too prominent looking, and the shape isn't right.

Really, really nice model!

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Yeah, it is about as nice a model as I have seen in a long time. My complaints are very minor. I do not like the really dark plastic at all. It makes the kit details stand out very well and looks great in the box, but probably not gonna be much fun to work with.

And the color instructions are for Vallejo paints only. No FS numbers or any indications of what they are to help with other brands. Probably no big deal to us, but not much help for casual builders.

And they really didn't pay much attention to the Montana bird. The Blue markings should have a slight metallic shade, and they completely ignored the goofy metallic light Blue interior. And of course the rugs in the foot wells!

Talk about one full box! I suspect this is going to be a rather expensive kit here in Uncle Sam land.

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Given the state of the US dollar right now, it shouldn't be too expensive. You can get it from China for around $25, which is a positive STEAL, given what's in the box.

The metallic Montana ANG markings will shortly be rectified by fündekals! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Given the state of the US dollar right now, it shouldn't be too expensive. You can get it from China for around $25, which is a positive STEAL, given what's in the box.

The metallic Montana ANG markings will shortly be rectified by fündekals! :)/>/>/>

For the privileged few that have put their hands on this new release (on your face, Hasegawa!!!), is the fuselage parts molded in such a way that a twin-seater version (F-106B) could be in the works for the future. I sure would love to have that option.

Thanks a million!!

EDIT: Yes, I'll be doing a "What If.." version of the F-106 belonging the Japan Air Self Defense Force, or a British Quick Reaction Alert, perhaps a Canadian. :)/>

Nice liveries, specially the "Green Eagles"

http://aviazioneaereimilitari.altervista.org/blog/convair-f-106-a-delta-dart/

Riö

Edited by Riö
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While they have covered about every option ever done on this bird, and very well too, the two seat F-106B is not going to be one of them from the way the fuselage,and other nose parts are done in this kit. But there seem to be little hints that it could happen. The tree with the two fuselage halves also has some interior parts and other stuff, but two fuselage parts are on the outsides of the tree, so maybe a new tree with the B fuselage in place of the current A parts could be done. And there is a very large four inch square blank spot in the tree that just screams for an mold insert to be placed there. It is the same size as the area where some of the interior parts are and a set of second interior parts would fit very well.

And the vertical fin/ spine part ends just short of where a two seat spine would have to start.

The more I look at it and speculate the more I can see it happening, but that is all it is-speculation. In view of the fact they have done both versions of the F-102 (well actually they have released the kit three times, but two of them are the same plastic in the box), I think Meng is fully aware of the potential.

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Actually they'll need a new vertical fin as well. The enlarged cockpit/spine fairing on the B intersects the normal spine at FS 464.2. The vertical tail piece in the Meng F-106A extends forward to approximately FS 398.0, just behind the air refueling receptacle. I was surprised by this, but I still think the kit is designed to allow a B to be done... We'll have to see how they do it.

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"Actually they'll need a new vertical fin as well. The enlarged cockpit/spine fairing on the B intersects the normal spine at FS 464.2. The vertical tail piece in the Meng F-106A extends forward to approximately FS 398.0, just behind the air refueling receptacle. I was surprised by this, but I still think the kit is designed to allow a B to be done... We'll have to see how they do it."

Thanks for the response and discovery.

Rio

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