annie.shikinami Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 No no, not the widely known windscreen problem. This time it's the rest of the canopy - and multiple of them! I was test fitting my next hornet build and found that the canopy was too wide. I have 11 of these kits on the shelf, so I went ahead and grabbed another. Same deal, it's too wide for the fuselage. The third one, pictured here on the far right, is the worst. All of these kits were purchased in 2023 and are either from the Gold series CF-188 or Aggressor boxing of the kit. I've built I think 8 of these Kinetic hornets now, and while all but one of them had issues with the front windscreen fit, the rear canopy was never an issue. I'm wondering if this is some kind of issue with recent production of these kits? BUT! The story doesn't end there. My most recent order was another CF-188 last month, and I was sent a non-gold series boxing. So to test my hypothesis I grabbed the rear single seat canopy from that kit and... The fit is perfect. Now I'm going down a whole rabbit hole. Like I mentioned, I have 11 of these kits in the stash (i know i know). I grabbed the canopies out of all of them. 6 out of the 11 are like the first 3 pictured here in this post, while the other 5 fit fine. Since all of these kits come with dual seater canopies as well, I tested a few of them out and thankfully there weren't any issues there, so on the off chance that I can't get replacements for these from Kinetic not all is lost I guess. Has anyone else here had this problem with these particular kits? The fit of the front windscreen is a really common problem, but at least that usually seems to be workable. This is another story. Really frustrating. Especially since this is the only kit of my favorite aircraft that's decent and readily available (hence why I have so many of them.) I'll be contacting Kinetic about this tomorrow and hoping it doesn't take them months to get a response like the last time I needed parts from them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Niels Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Just curious, if you gently press the canopy together - will it fit then? Not being an expert on mouldings, I do however have a suspicion that this could be from the sprues going out of shape in the cooling down phase of production? This would also mean that although putting the parts on the kit gives the result you describe, when you glue the canopy shut the problem is no more provided you ensure the canopy is glued in with sidewards gentle pressure? And similarly when leaving the canopy open - is this noticable? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Camus272 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 I have had problems with their F-16 canopies. I hate them. I have had 2 come cracked in the box. I unmasked one on their F-16XL and cracked during painting, so I got a replacement from them. That one is deformed and doesn't fit right in the closed position. I'm going to look at adapting other brands to their kits.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
annie.shikinami Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 6 hours ago, Niels said: Just curious, if you gently press the canopy together - will it fit then? Not being an expert on mouldings, I do however have a suspicion that this could be from the sprues going out of shape in the cooling down phase of production? This would also mean that although putting the parts on the kit gives the result you describe, when you glue the canopy shut the problem is no more provided you ensure the canopy is glued in with sidewards gentle pressure? And similarly when leaving the canopy open - is this noticable? I actually tried to see if I could apply a little pressure to get one of them to fit right after I made this post and it resulted in a cracked canopy lol. There just isn't much flex in the parts. A few of them are so splayed out that the side of the canopy go completely over the canopy sills so in any case those are completely unworkable. I do think that they'd be fine to use with the canopies posed open, as the problem is much less pronounced towards the rear of the part. Unfortunately for me tho I greatly prefer to close the canopy on my builds and lately I'm building a lot more kits in flight. 😑 6 hours ago, Camus272 said: I have had problems with their F-16 canopies. I hate them. I have had 2 come cracked in the box. I unmasked one on their F-16XL and cracked during painting, so I got a replacement from them. That one is deformed and doesn't fit right in the closed position. I'm going to look at adapting other brands to their kits.. I actually had one of their new tool F-16D kits arrive with a cracked canopy a few months ago and only just got them to send a replacement this week after a few unanswered emails, so I'm really not looking forward to having to contact them again this time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Niels Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Just now, annie.shikinami said: I actually tried to see if I could apply a little pressure to get one of them to fit right after I made this post and it resulted in a cracked canopy lol. There just isn't much flex in the parts. A few of them are so splayed out that the side of the canopy go completely over the canopy sills so in any case those are completely unworkable. I do think that they'd be fine to use with the canopies posed open, as the problem is much less pronounced towards the rear of the part. Unfortunately for me tho I greatly prefer to close the canopy on my builds and lately I'm building a lot more kits in flight. 😑 Have you tried warming it with warm water to soften the plastic before trying to reshape it? As the cockpit is "too wide", it should be possible to get a more conform shape/width when warming in hot water, gently squeezing and then using cold water to "freeze" into correct shape? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 13 hours ago, annie.shikinami said: No no, not the widely known windscreen problem. This time it's the rest of the canopy - and multiple of them! I was test fitting my next hornet build and found that the canopy was too wide. I have 11 of these kits on the shelf, so I went ahead and grabbed another. Same deal, it's too wide for the fuselage. The third one, pictured here on the far right, is the worst. All of these kits were purchased in 2023 and are either from the Gold series CF-188 or Aggressor boxing of the kit. I've built I think 8 of these Kinetic hornets now, and while all but one of them had issues with the front windscreen fit, the rear canopy was never an issue. I'm wondering if this is some kind of issue with recent production of these kits? BUT! The story doesn't end there. My most recent order was another CF-188 last month, and I was sent a non-gold series boxing. So to test my hypothesis I grabbed the rear single seat canopy from that kit and... The fit is perfect. Now I'm going down a whole rabbit hole. Like I mentioned, I have 11 of these kits in the stash (i know i know). I grabbed the canopies out of all of them. 6 out of the 11 are like the first 3 pictured here in this post, while the other 5 fit fine. Since all of these kits come with dual seater canopies as well, I tested a few of them out and thankfully there weren't any issues there, so on the off chance that I can't get replacements for these from Kinetic not all is lost I guess. Has anyone else here had this problem with these particular kits? The fit of the front windscreen is a really common problem, but at least that usually seems to be workable. This is another story. Really frustrating. Especially since this is the only kit of my favorite aircraft that's decent and readily available (hence why I have so many of them.) I'll be contacting Kinetic about this tomorrow and hoping it doesn't take them months to get a response like the last time I needed parts from them. Please contact me at raymond@kineticmodel.com This is the first time i heard this. If this really happens, it may be related to certain batch where the parts get "warpped" during injection. Normally the workers cut the corner by releasing the parts without reaching the settlement time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
annie.shikinami Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 53 minutes ago, Raymond Chung said: Please contact me at raymond@kineticmodel.com This is the first time i heard this. If this really happens, it may be related to certain batch where the parts get "warpped" during injection. Normally the workers cut the corner by releasing the parts without reaching the settlement time. Thanks Raymond, I've just sent you an email. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 On 1/13/2024 at 1:18 AM, annie.shikinami said: Thanks Raymond, I've just sent you an email. We run out of the part at the moment and we reproducing the parts. And we check with the finished stock, the canopy is right. maybe your batch is defective only. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mustang381 Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 What is interesting more, Mr.Raymond told me that I will recive replacement part for my honest payed model kit, and I dont understand why is hard to tell me when they will send it to me, and why is such a fuzz about their customer support... I realy dont understand , this just kills mojo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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