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AMK IAI Kfir C2/C7 in 1/72, new tool


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4 hours ago, Gene K said:

Thanks for the link. :rolleyes:

 

Gene K

 

You probably wouldn't be interested, Gene, as I think MiG-Mech is talking about a German shop (also AMK's importer for Germany, AFAIK) and shipping to the US is usually ridiculously expensive. But here's a link anyway: LINK!

 

6 hours ago, MiG-Mech said:

It's available.

 

I know! :coolio:

 

35705436180_a30e6be711_o.jpgKfirs3 by Motschke, on Flickr

Edited by ChernayaAkula
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I think it's gorgeous! :thumbsup: Very happy with my purchase.

 

7 hours ago, Laurent said:

Has anybody received their (production) kit ? I haven't yet and I'm wondering about something.

 

Yes, one or two. :whistle: (see above). What do you need to know?

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37 minutes ago, ChernayaAkula said:

Yes, one or two. :whistle: (see above). What do you need to know?

Does the wing leading edge dogtooth area stick out of the wing plane and are there steps in the area of the parabrake fairing ? Close-ups pic would be appreciated.

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On 7/22/2017 at 7:27 PM, ChernayaAkula said:

 

...  shipping to the US is usually ridiculously expensive. But here's a link anyway: LINK!

 

Thanks for clearing that up! I'm really looking forward to that one.

 

Gene K

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10 hours ago, Laurent said:

Does the wing leading edge dogtooth area stick out of the wing plane and are there steps in the area of the parabrake fairing ? Close-ups pic would be appreciated.

 

So, tried to get some pics.

 

35955635132_956e9fe534_o.jpgKfir_01 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

I hope I understood you correctly and this is really what you were getting at. It seems that the area of the dogtooth (red outline below) is indeed ever so slightly raised from the rest of the wing. It can be seen in certain lighting, but your finger will easily notice it when going over the area. I've tried to get a pic with the lighting creating a bit of a shadow. Fix? A couple of swipes with some sanding sticks.

 

35991875211_328bf3786a_o.jpgKfir_02 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

Parabrake housing.There are indeed some steps, both in the connection to the spine/fin direction, as well as towards the fuselage. They're not faired in. The area marked red is a tad exaggerated, but it shows the general idea.

Fix? Bit of putty, let it cure for a couple of minutes, then smooth it with a cotton bud dipped in in nail polish remover (or similar).

 

35955634292_8042b76705_o.jpgKfir_03 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

35955633862_44165f938c_o.jpgKfir_04 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

Some cool bits:

Love this bracing. Pinching the fuselage can be a problem on aircraft with a one-piece lower wing (especially on deltas), but this helps mitigate that.

Good thinking; AMK! :thumbsup:

Fuselage basically clicks together and will stay that way even without glue. Almost like a snap-fit kit! Halves can be taken apart, though.

 

35991872791_e53448867a_o.jpgKfir_05 by Motschke, on Flickr

 

Dry-fit of fuselage halves, wings, intake splitter and intake part. Great fit! The lower wing section also more or less clicks into place and makes for a positive

And it shows that AMK really did modify the intakes when it became apparent they were off during the CAD stage. Kudos to AMK for going the extra mile! :worship:

 

35955632112_6f1fdb4e2d_o.jpgKfir_06 by Motschke, on Flickr

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Thanks Moritz !

 

- dogtooth: yes it easy to fix. The issue could be related to use of inserts (in case of future C1/F-21)

- parabrake fairing: yes I guess putty could help

- bracing: good idea indeed... it helps fixing the area ruling bug I guess

- wider intakes: splendid !

 

How does the canopy profile look like ? Curvature at the front and not spread over the canopy length ?

 

 

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Well that looks very nice!!! But I guess I should ask Hobby Easy where the 3 that I pre-ordered are hiding????!!!!!

If I am going to guarantee them the sale prior to the kit's release then they should at least make an effort to get the kits into the hands of those pre-ordering kits ASAP!!!

I haven't heard a peep from them and the kits are now on sale in North America!!!!

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5 minutes ago, Flyboyf18 said:

Well that looks very nice!!! But I guess I should ask Hobby Easy where the 3 that I pre-ordered are hiding????!!!!!

If I am going to guarantee them the sale prior to the kit's release then they should at least make an effort to get the kits into the hands of those pre-ordering kits ASAP!!!

I haven't heard a peep from them and the kits are now on sale in North America!!!!

I have ordered a single kit from them in August 2016. No news... hey the release date has changed today: was July 20th yesterday but now it's July 27th.

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21 hours ago, Laurent said:

<...> How does the canopy profile look like ? Curvature at the front and not spread over the canopy length ?

 

Somewhat in between, I guess. While definitely not a continuous curve, the curvature is probably not as pronounced as on the actual aircraft.

I just noted that the pic shows that the canopy is not 100% in place. It was kinda difficult to balance without glue. It'll come down a bit further at the front, which should eliminate the step to the windscreen part. I guess the tight fit tolerances mean that the parts will suck right into place once a little glue is applied.

 

36108472356_cb5ba5d881_o.jpgKfirCanopy by Motschke, on Flickr
 

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Thanks Moritz ! Good enough for me.

Well I just have to wait for my kit. I've  done it for close to a year so I'm used to that now :rolleyes:

Edited by Laurent
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On 7/23/2017 at 11:48 PM, ChernayaAkula said:

Fuselage basically clicks together and will stay that way even without glue. Almost like a snap-fit kit! Halves can be taken apart, though.

 

LOL.  The highest praise modellers can give a kit is that the fit is "almost like a snap-fit!"  And yet Meng release a snap-fit P-51 and modellers are all like "boo!  I'd never buy that, snap fit kits are for babies!"  

 

Modellers are a silly bunch.

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On 23.7.2017 at 8:25 PM, ChernayaAkula said:

I think it's gorgeous! :thumbsup: Very happy with my purchase.

 

 

Yes, one or two. :whistle: (see above). What do you need to know?

You already did it. Thank you!
Looks good to me. I guess I will have fun with it. Also when I am finally start to built my IAF fleet. :)

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On 7/24/2017 at 11:04 PM, ChernayaAkula said:

 

Somewhat in between, I guess. While definitely not a continuous curve, the curvature is probably not as pronounced as on the actual aircraft.

I just noted that the pic shows that the canopy is not 100% in place. It was kinda difficult to balance without glue. It'll come down a bit further at the front, which should eliminate the step to the windscreen part. I guess the tight fit tolerances mean that the parts will suck right into place once a little glue is applied.

 

36108472356_cb5ba5d881_o.jpgKfirCanopy by Motschke, on Flickr
 

 

 

mmm... looking at the picture I'm afraid for the F-14D in 1/48. The fit is good , great, but the details are far form crisp compared to Tamiya!!

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I heard from the store in Hong Kong ref. my order; they say that North American distributors where whining that stores in Asia were getting to sell the Asian kits sooner than they could. So the company delayed orders to the Asian stores!?!?!?!?!?!!? Duh; when the company manufacturing the kits is in your backyard of course the kits get there faster???? WOW some people......

Oh & my kits are on their way!

Edited by Flyboyf18
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7 hours ago, joscasle said:

but the details are far form crisp compared to Tamiya!!

 I was thinking the same when I first saw the test sprues and everyone said the final product will be better. But I agree they lack the sharpness I was hoping for.

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59 minutes ago, Craig Baldwin said:

 I was thinking the same when I first saw the test sprues and everyone said the final product will be better. But I agree they lack the sharpness I was hoping for.

 

Craig,

 

I got mine yesterday here in Florida, USA (thanks to the link from Johnopfor to Victory Models), and I was impressed ... as I think you will also when you have yours in hand. :thumbsup:

 

Gene K

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1 hour ago, Craig Baldwin said:

 I was thinking the same when I first saw the test sprues and everyone said the final product will be better. But I agree they lack the sharpness I was hoping for.

I believe one needs to take macro photos with a pinch of salt: when you look at a kit, you don't have the eyes stuck 2 centimeters over the parts but you have a more global and subjective perception. When I'll have the kit I probably won't be too bothered with the panel lines. For the other things, I don't know.

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^ Yeah, what Laurent said re macro photos! :thumbsup: When holding the kit next to the pic on the monitor, the pic is about 5 times bigger!

 

That said, the panel lines on the fuselage parts do seem to be less crisp than those on the wing parts. The wing parts are about equal to Hasegawa's recent standard, thin and sharp. The panel lines on the fin, canards, nose, pylons and tanks are closer to the wing parts in terms of definition. 

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1 hour ago, ChernayaAkula said:

That said, the panel lines on the fuselage parts do seem to be less crisp than those on the wing parts. The wing parts are about equal to Hasegawa's recent standard, thin and sharp. The panel lines on the fin, canards, nose, pylons and tanks are closer to the wing parts in terms of definition. 

I'm no plastic injection engineer but I may have an explanation. Perhaps AMK uses 3-axis CNC. With this kind of machine the cutter axis is perpendicular to the metal part base. Precision is good for flat parts (wings, canards) or areas (fin) and fine details can be done. However, the more the cutter axis gets tangent to metal part surface (edges of the fuselage half for example), the less precision is good and the less details can be done. Workaround is using slide moulds for areas near the edges of part (fuselage half top and bottom typically) but that makes the tooling more complex and expensive.

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On 7/25/2017 at 0:04 AM, ChernayaAkula said:

I guess the tight fit tolerances mean that the parts will suck right into place once a little glue is applied.

 

 

A little sanding of the front of the windscreen yielded a great fit with no step. Overall, my trial fit tape job was very enjoyable, with no problems.:thumbsup:

 

Has anyone heard of future AMK plans for more models in the Mirage series? I sure hope it is so!!!

 

Gene K

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