LITENING II pod

[hatchet]

Here’s a review of the 1/72 LITENING II targeting pod and F-16 inlet pylon, from Dr. Pepper Resins.

The pod comes in a small ziplock bag with two resin pieces (pod and pylon) molded in cream resin, ALPS printed decals and an instruction sheet.

Pod

The pod is nicely molded, with finely engraved panel lines and rivets. There is a few scratches on the surface, which can easily be removed with about 5 minutes of work with some putty and a sanding stick. It’s a one-piece pod, molded with the ‘ball’ in the stowed position, so if you want to show it active you’ll need to do a couple of minutes work with a sanding stick. The cooling intake is hollowed out and very nice. The pour stub is on the tail end and easily removable.

Pylon

The pylon is cast like the pod, very nice with finely engraved lines. The pour-stub is on the inner side of the pylon, which is ok since there’s not much detail there. The three access panels on the outside are nicely done. There’s also what I believe is a bolt-hole, which could have been a bit deeper. I imagine it’s hard to do though, since it’s quite small. The position of the stub might make it a bit trickier to remove, but nothing serious. Haven't tried it yet tho'.

Decals

The decals are nicely printed on an ALPS printer. While not readable, it’s obvious that something is written on them. They include the metal-coloured latches for the access door on the pod, the cooling grills for the rear end and, I believe, all the stencils for the pod. The latches are especially nice touch, since they are a very prominent feature on the real pod.

Note: The picture is of the early decal sheet which was printed on an ink-jet printer.

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[hatchet]

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When 'building' the pod, you need to remove the pour-stub.

This is easily done with a razor-saw.

Then you need to sand the pod to the correct length.

This is easily done, since there's a small line molded in the pod that you need to sand back to.

Then it's just a question of 'nicing it up'.

After that, it's painting and decaling time and you end up with this

Just needs a flat-coat now

The reason for the missing paint is, that the pylon it's going on will eventually be glued there. It's going on a Peace Icarus 2000 Phantom, which is the reason I'm not using the pylon that comes with the pod.

Dr. Pepper can be contacted here. Maybe we should invite him over

[Mike]

Dr. Pepper can be contacted here. Maybe we should invite him over

Yeah, why not? I saw this one taking shape over on ARC, and he seems like a nice chap

[hatchet]

Yeah, why not? I saw this one taking shape over on ARC, and he seems like a nice chap

You or me?

[Mike]

You or me?

You do it, English isn't my first language - plus I'm shy