jonbryon

Chris Becker has highlighted the poor fit and engineering on his YouTube channel, and Bernhard Schrock did the same in his superlative build I linked above. The refuelling probe is an improvement, as was the tail rotor. The exhausts saved some seam work, but they missed an opportunity to engineer them to fit after the fuselage halves/pod halves are joined. The intakes were rubbish and the main rotor hub deeply disappointing. Jon

Thanks 🙂 The decals were great to use and I loved the choice of aircraft available. Jon

Are you planning on releasing the parts relevant for the AH-1G in a separate set? Cheers Jon

It's the ResKit set, but detailed with some wire, ANYZ connectors and plastic card. To be honest, the ResKit set was a disappointment. It's way simpler than the real thing and lacks even some of the more obvious morphology that Academy managed to mould. There are quite striking 3D print lines. The worst aspect is it's not engineered to fit the kit at all - the rotor mast is a lovely casting that fits to absolutely nothing. They replicated the actuating arms with very poor PE - I replaced the more obvious ones with brass tube. My efforts are still very poor compared to

Thanks everyone for the feedback - I've very much enjoyed reading it. I know I should have put a decent exhaust stain on for the #2 engine, but for some reason I didn't feel like doing it - maybe the fear of messing it up! It's a fragile monster - I've already snapped the sensor arm off once. I used magnets for the refuelling probe, the blades into the hub, and the hub to the rotor shaft: Cheers Jon

@ziggyfoos Many thanks for the photos and for producing the decals. It ended up looking like this: Cheers Jon

For those in the UK, the Lucky price is also pretty good. With the latest coupon I've paid £62 shipped (Lucky Air). Jon

Yep, bought as soon as it came out 🙂 Jon

Yep, I've still got the instructions, but these extra photos are fantastic and help me with quite a lot of detail questions. Thank you so much! Cheers Jon

Thank you so much! That port side shot is extremely useful. Cheers Jon

Hello all, Last year I made the Academy 1/48 CH-46E using decals from the excellent AOA HMM-264 Black Knights sheet, and this year I've started the Academy 1/48 CH-53E to be made also using markings from this sheet. I want to model EH-20/161252 'Lady Luck', which was on USS Bataan in 2006. I've got the brilliant Cavu book, but would love some photos of this particular airframe if anyone has any. It would really help me pin down colours of various parts and some details of the aerial fit, etc. Many thanks for looking Jon

Thanks 🙂 I don't think the Eduard seats are as good as the Sparkit ones, but for being under closed canopies and at their price point, they're good enough. Jon

Eduard also do resin seats for an early F-4B: Jon

The UK is not in the EU 😉 Jon

Thank you Haneto. And well played, sir, well played 🙂 Jon