Eduard AN/AAQ-14 LANTIRN 1:48

[Solo]

I have just received new Eduard's resin of AN/AAQ-14. And I am not so sure is it just the same LANTIRN used on F-14D Tomcat?
Shape looks similar, but I am not so sure about shape of air inlet on the side of that pod.
Anyone can confirm that this is proper LANTIRN for Tomcat D model?

Edited June 26, 2020 by Solo

[Darren Roberts]

I've tried to find pictures of it, but none of them show the inlet. It should have a downward angle from right to left.

LANTIRN pod

[Solo]

I think Eduard's pod has got a little bit to concave edge of inlet.

 

That is Eduard's pod:

 

 

And here is much better picture of real one:

 

[Darren Roberts]

You are correct. That surprises me that they got it wrong. There is so much reference out there and that's a prominent feature of the LANTIRN. That intake is definitely off.

[mrvark]

FWIW, the USAF LANTIRN pod is the AN/AAQ-14; the USN's F-14 pod was the AN/AAS-25. That said, I think they were identical externally. Here's a good side shot showing the inlet.

 

[Mstor]

Not only too curved, but too small in both height and length.

[ElectroSoldier]

Most odd for Eduard to get it wrong.

[Bob Rock]

4 hours ago, ElectroSoldier said:

Most odd for Eduard to get it wrong.

 

Not odd at all, so far I used their AIM-9s, AIM-7s, AIM-54s, R-27s, Mk.82 bombs and MERs, all of them were either too long or too short. The worst offenders were Phoenix missiles, from memory they were 4mm too short, they looked silly on Tamiya Tomcat AIM-54 pallets. I ended up chucking them in a bin.

[Shorty84]

From time to time one reads about inaccuracies of Eduard weapons on forums but for most of the time they get "waved through" in reviews. I guess the reason is that there are almost no dedicated scale plans for weapons like it is the case with aircrafts or tanks (if you are lucky, weapons are part of aircraft scale plans). Therefore it is not as easy to detect errors with them except you really take your time hunting down references.

 

If reviewers would take the same amount of scrutiny like on aircraft/tank kits or at least would check the basic dimensions I guess we would see a lot more critical reviews. But so we mostly get reviews like: Better detailed than the kit part...perfectly cast...excellent addition...definitely recommended 🙄

 

Cheers

Markus

 

 

[Solo]

Maybe Eduard ordnance has some issues, but it is still absolutely the best resin ordnance (and pods) on the market.

[Dave Williams]

13 minutes ago, Solo said:

Maybe Eduard ordnance has some issues, but it is still absolutely the best resin ordnance (and pods) on the market.

No argument that their stuff looks good, and the detail and resin quality is excellent, but they don’t get a free pass for their many “issues”.  If there is a alternate available from Zactomodels, Sierra Hotel, Videoaviation, or Barracudacast, to name a few, those will have at least comparable quality without the accuracy issues.

 

The main thing that Eduard has going for it is that they have a lot of different items, and they are easily available.  Not that they are necessarily the best.

[Dave Roof]

46 minutes ago, Solo said:

Maybe Eduard ordnance has some issues, but it is still absolutely the best resin ordnance (and pods) on the market.

 

Not for too much longer.......

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

I guess the reason is that there are almost no dedicated scale plans for weapons like it is the case with aircrafts or tanks

 

Cheers

Markus

 

 

 

Then again, some of us actually worked with the stuff and have a lot of photos, drawings and measurements.......

[Solo]

I am talking about modern jet's weapons and pods: missiles, bombs, rockets, pods. Eduard makes the best ot them.
I like ordnance of ResKit or Armory, but those resins are far behind the quality of Eduard's products.

[Dave Roof]

7 minutes ago, Solo said:

I am talking about modern jet's weapons and pods: missiles, bombs, rockets, pods. Eduard makes the best ot them.
I like ordnance of ResKit or Armory, but those resins are far behind the quality of Eduard's products.

 

I'm talking about modern jet's ordnance and pods as well. 

[Solo]

Wish to have some better looking bombs or missiles. But now I can't see such resins on the market.

[habu2]

1 hour ago, Dave Williams said:

....Sierra Hotel....

 

Are they still in business?  The "News" section of their website hasn't been updated in over seven years and, scrolling thru 4 pages of "Product", I see 107 of 112 sets are either "Sold Out" or "Coming Soon".  Only 5 of 112 items shown in stock (presumably) and four of those were for the A-10. 

[Dave Williams]

53 minutes ago, Solo said:

I am talking about modern jet's weapons and pods: missiles, bombs, rockets, pods. Eduard makes the best ot them.
I like ordnance of ResKit or Armory, but those resins are far behind the quality of Eduard's products.

You must have some different ResKit products than I do, because I don’t find their quality “far behind” Eduard.

 

Whatever.  You obviously love Eduard stuff and nothing is going to change your mind.

[Dave Williams]

Just now, habu2 said:

 

Are they still in business?  The "News" section of their website hasn't been updated in over seven years and, scrolling thru 4 pages of "Product", I see 107 of 112 sets are either "Sold Out" or "Coming Soon".  Only 5 of 112 items shown in stock (presumably) and four of those were for the A-10. 

I got a number of 1/32 sets from Mike last year.  A couple of A-10 engine sets and F-4 exhausts.

[Solo]

15 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:

You obviously love Eduard stuff

I obviously have eyes and that is enough.

Here you can find small comparison of GBU-31 made by Eduard, ResKit and Arma Hobby.

Do believe picture says more then 1k words:

 

 

 

[Shorty84]

1 hour ago, Dave Roof said:

 

Then again, some of us actually worked with the stuff and have a lot of photos, drawings and measurements.......

 

Hi Dave,

that is the point I tried to bring across. While I'm sure you and other guys who served have such information they are hardly available on the net (unlike aircraft scale plans).
I simply assume (maybe wrongly) that most modellers who read such reviews are not necessarily participating in forums like this and therefore do not have access to such knowledgable people.
And maybe it is different in the US but in my little corner of Europe most people in modelling forums and clubs are just enthusiasts and not (ex-)service members. Therefore most of them never had (or have) the chance to get near such equipment, let alone measure them.
 
I've tried myself many times to get dimensions of drop tanks, missiles, bombs and it was much harder (and sometimes impossible) to get them at all.

 

Case in point, I tried to get the dimensions (lenght, diameter, span of the front and rear fins) of a Soviet AA-2 Atoll missile as the one in the Bobcat Yak-28P kit looked not correct when compared to photos. It took me hours to get all the specific dimensions while it just takes me minutes to locate decent scale plans of the
Yak-28 itself.

Furthermore, often the dimensions given for missiles don't mention the actual version they are applicable to.

 

Therefore, while most people here seem to expect that a good kit review at least explores the accuracy of it too I wish the same would apply for aftermarket ordonance as such information are much harder to get. As Bob mentioned, when such items are too short or too long I would like to know before parting with my cash (obviously he was surprised too).

 

Disclaimer: I don't want to bash Eduard or any other aftermarket outfit. I have quite a lot of aftermarket weapons from different manufactureres and I'm glad they are around. I just wanted to mention my observation regarding reviews of such items.

 

 

Cheers
Markus

[Darren Roberts]

On 6/27/2020 at 2:58 PM, mrvark said:

FWIW, the USAF LANTIRN pod is the AN/AAQ-14; the USN's F-14 pod was the AN/AAS-25. That said, I think they were identical externally. Here's a good side shot showing the inlet.

 

 

Thanks for the gouge. BTW, what is that blueish color on that Tomcat? Is it photo processing?

Edited June 28, 2020 by Darren Roberts

[mrvark]

39 minutes ago, Darren Roberts said:

 

Thanks for the gouge. BTW, what is that blueish color on that Tomcat? Is it photo processing?

I think I captured that pic off the Internet--just image color.

[Dave Williams]

2 hours ago, Solo said:

I obviously have eyes and that is enough.

Here you can find small comparison of GBU-31 made by Eduard, ResKit and Arma Hobby.

Do believe picture says more then 1k words:

 

 

 

If the Eduard one is the one in dark gray at the top, I don’t see how the ResKit one in the middle is “far behind”.  The middle row of rivets around rear of the bomb body seems a little vague on the Eduard set.

[Napalmakita]

5 hours ago, Dave Roof said:

 

Not for too much longer.......

 

 

 

 

Then again, some of us actually worked with the stuff and have a lot of photos, drawings and measurements.......

Bring it😀

[Bob Rock]

Out of all three, Reskit one looks like most detailed. I have a few Reskit Russian ordnance sets and they all look better than equivalent Brassin sets.