JeffreyK

The fuselage sides meet the wing vertically, slab-sided. The Hasegawa and Academy kits have "blown" sides, i.e. they bow out laterally and meet the wing kind of tucked in. I'm sure the Clear Prop F-86A will be correct on this if it's been designed from the ground up from quality reference material. J

If it did then that would be bad news for Clear Prop as the Hasegawa cross section is wrong... J

Air brakes are always open on the ground and as Duncan said, at the front those aren't gun bays but the blast panels, there were a few different setups over time. I was sure we'd see an A kit before long, but I would have thought it would be a high pressure moulded kit by one of the mainstream mfs, . Looking forward to it. J

No, none of the existing moulds/tool were altered. The shape was changed in CAD before the steel for the long nose Phantoms (E, G) was cut but the existing short nose kits all remain as they are/were. J

Available from me right now: https://www.hypersonicmodels.com/product/kinetic-f-16a-bundle Cheers, J

Excellent photos! I've been to Komatsu, sadly, the aggressors were not there at the time. Iwakuni is on my to-do list, I just never get round to going... Jeffrey

Friends at BM, I just realised I dod not communicate this on here... I currently have two bundle deals available on my website, consiting of full Kinetic plastic kits (without decals, but with their respective original PE fret) plus Hypersonic Models resin/ 3D print sets. 1: Kinetic (new tool) F-16A (MLU) + HMR 48055 F-16A Block 1, 5, 10 backdate set 2: Kinetic F-104A/C + HMR 48057 F-104A (Late) update set. Even with shipping factored in, the prices are very competetive There is only a small quantity available. Many thanks for your attention!! J

...and spelling of the brand...

My solution: keeping the canopies open. The error doesn't go away, but is much less visible. J

I’d say yes. I don’t know if there is a defined “retirement” date for original A-6A’s. It seems to me more like they were either converted to other variants or were lost or struck off service individually. But not sure how many were still active in original A configuration in the late 70s. Especially with the available decal options. J

The GRU-7s were installed in the mid 70s, but were there many original A-6A still around that were not converted to other variants by that time? J

The shape of the fin tip is incorrect, as per their 1:32 and 1:48 offerings as well. Along the same lines, they also don't include Mk. GRU5 seats as would be correct for A-6A's and have exteriour detail such as the doppler housing, nose wheel door etc. not right for A models either. With all that basically taken over from their larger scale cousins, I can't work out how they managed to "lose" the CAD information for the forward main wheel well. J

I was thinking about doing a corrected fin tip but at this level of stupidity I'm not going to bother spending a lot of money on getting a sample. J

Hi Warwolf, I'm sorry that my posting this picture was/is inappropriate. I'm a modeller and run a model business so research and references are a key component of what I do. I have thousands of photos saved on my computer (in addition to all the stuff in print) and whenever I see something of interest to any current or future project I right click and save. There's really no way ro keep track of where and when all the photos come from. I have no intention of re-appropriating them, publish them or anything else. I just want to see the detail, that's all. 99% for my own use, but occasionally to illustrate something to others as in this case. And saving photos is 100% better than bookmarking websites as a) websites or their content disappear over time and b) when viewing photos just in a web browser you can't zoom in on things which I frequently do. I think watermarking is certainly a good way to keep track of your photos when you post them. Jeffrey

While the fabric surface rendering is not right, the U-2R/S's control surfaces are not smooth either. The effect varies, but oil canning is definitely observable to some degree. Jeffrey