Academy 72nd F-16CG/CJ Initial Review

Here you can discuss paint schemes, kit details etc. for flying and non-flying scale models.
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by Habu » 18 Feb 2010, 21:32

Heh, man you really need to come over to zone-five.

www.zone-five.net
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by kampfer1945 » 18 Feb 2010, 23:51

That I can do. I'll take you up on that recomendation.


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by Habu » 19 Feb 2010, 03:49

It's a fun place, we have a ball over there.
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by ViperEnforcer » 06 Mar 2010, 23:10

kampfer1945 wrote:True Kinetic is a fledgling company, but I don't believe they have attempted to copy anyone in fact they have in fact released kits of the latest most advanced Vipers. These being Block 50, 52+, and 60 aircraft with the conformal fuel tanks, appropriate targeting systems and payloads.


It’s quite obvious Kinetic used the Tamiya kit as a basis for their F-16. The proof is in the pudding, or tooling in this case. The design break down is near identical for one. There’s also the most significant copy-cat feature in the tooling of separate aft upper fuel saddle bay panels. There is NO reason why these panels should be tooled as separate parts, yet Kinetic copied Tamiya to the letter. This is not a problem with the Tamiya kit, as those panels fit “clean”, but on the Kinetic kit, the fit out right sucks.

kampfer1945 wrote: Only one other company has produced a Block 52+ F-16I Nesher with the CFT's which is Hasegawa and I don't believe they got it quite right on that as they omitted one of the most obvious features of advanced Vipers is the targeting pods and again payload!



I think you might have the Israeli name for the F-16I mixed up, as it’s not the “Nesher”, it’s the SUFA. I agree that Hasegawa didn’t quite get the F-16I right, but neither did Kinetic. Kinetic mis-shaped the “Sufa” specific EW/RW and ECS scoops, while Hasegawa did a much better/accurate job of those parts. The Hasegawa cockpit is quite dated and half represents a “B” model, but on the other hand, Kinetic pooched the cockpit in all their kits, as they are too shallow, seats under-scaled, the detail is quite soft and dimensionally wrong.

kampfer1945 wrote:Now back to Tamiya I have always stood by their products, but they too are guilty of pure laziness and lack of research on some of their kits. I am a lover of the A-10 Warthog which Tamiya over the years has released in several guises. However the kit is wrong! wrong! wrong! It's not even up to gulf war standards. It's based off of a pre-production aircraft. Several years ago they made some minor revisions to the body of the kit in question. Still they fell very short of complete. The cockpit still is very basic with a poorly represented ejection seat and decals for the consoles. Luckily Eduard and True Details came to the rescue for that area. The wings are still incorrect, still being based off of a pre-production aircraft as the trailing edges of the flaperons would indicate, secondly they still have not molded in the inherent chaff/flare dispensers in their respective spots under the wings, they have left off the slime lights from fuselage, wing tips, and vert. stabilizers. Modern A-10s have the Laste systems fitted to them, again omitted by Tamiya. Lastly the weapons payload is all wrong these weapons were assessed for use by the A-10 but never approved for carry on the aircraft by the Air Forces Flight and Weapons center, and Tamiya still hasn't attempted to mold lenses for the I.R. sensors on the AGM-65 Mavericks still leaving only blank holes at the ends! Well enough about that.


Wow, all that over a kit that’s well beyond 30 years old? Seriously look at what you’re comparing too. Tamiya’s standards, experience, and detail some 30+ years ago in NOT the same as today; or the past 15-20 years. It would be quite unfair for to compare the 48th Tamiya F-15 or “original” F-16 to more recent or modern kits. If Tamiya (or Hasegawa) were to do a 48th A-10 today, I would bet my next paycheck that it would walk all over the Hobby Boss A-10 kit! Also note that the A-10 does not have “Flaperons”. It has Flaps and decelerons.

It should also be noted that the Monogram A-10, though not the best fitting A-10 and not representative of a modern A-10, it still has the most accurate shape, with a canopy that’s dead nuts on! Despite its raised panel lines, it has the most accurate raised rivets BTW.

kampfer1945 wrote:Hobby Boss or Hobby Boos as you call them is the only company to have produced a tandem seat N/AW-10 Warthog which is completely original and a great and accurate kit.


Negative on the accuracy claim. The N/AW A-10 has been a subject that I and a good friend of mine (Erik Mark) have researched for years now. Having crawled all over the only example that still resides here at Edwards, I can tell you that the HB N/AW A-10 kit is not that accurate. The canopy has an inaccurate profile and tapers in the aft transparency, which leads the spine into being off as well. The cockpit is totally inaccurate, and the back tub and instro panel look like they were tooled another company. That’s in addition to the Hobby Boss standard A-10 shape errors in the nose, engine inlet/exhaust, and the under wing tips, which are grossly too shallow. Also, the ordinance provided for the A-10A are not all that useful, since the majority are pre-Desert Storm. You also don’t get a “full” LASTE configuration, as they forgot to include the lower altimeter antennas. Another major problem was the pylons, which are so grossly over with recessed riveting, that you can actually see daylight through the LE of the kit pylons! HB ruined what otherwise could have been some decent pylons.

kampfer1945 wrote:Revell of Germany has released some kits that have been pretty good, but the staple or majority of their releases are reboxings of kit toolings from other companies like Hasegawa, Italeri, and Zvesda or tired out kits from the Revell/Monogram America line with raised panel lines that are as old as King Tuts Tomb. Which has me wondering whatever happened to their Pro Modeler Line? It looked so promissing and then well it just Petered out.......I applaud some of these new companies for trying to produce kits to appeal to advanced and moderate modelers alike.


I agree some here. Eduard is as good in quality and detail as the Japanese kits, but ROG needs a lot of work on their tooling quality. Most of their kits have issues with sink lines and soft surface detail, but at least they tend to get the shapes right; something the Chi-Com companies can’t seem to grasp.
The Pro Modeler line didn’t pan out as well as expected in the beginning, but did pick up later on. Initially, it was old Monogram kits reissued in a cool box with “quality” decals, and in some kits, additional PE detail. They tried retooling their P-51B with recessed panel lines, but that was somewhat of a disaster. The next evolution was Pro Modeler boxed Hasegawa kits; P-38, F4U-4/5, Ju-87, F-4E, AR-234, etc… While those were successful and at the time, much cheaper than Hasegawa’s retail, they line seemed to just stop. I think this was due more to company leadership changes than sales.

The more recent kit makers (Kinetic/ HobbyBoss/Trumpeter) have not exactly put out a high quality product and even with major shape inaccuracies, they are charging Tamiya prices. I guess that’s going to be the trend for a while now.
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