Graham T

I noticed the seats in your build & thought they didn't look right with that enormous head box, however I Googled & found matching pics. NEVER seem them before on a Hawk!

Shiney, shiney!! Nice work

Looks brilliant! I find AK metalisers slightly more forgiving than Alclad when it comes to handling the model after painting for adding the final details & decaling. I always found Alclad would start to ware away.

One other matter I forgot - the starboard stabiliser. Initially I thought the locating tab was broken but it appears others have encountered this problem & it's actually "short shot". Not an easy fix!

Got the F-4S & it looks GREAT in the box!!

Where did I claim it was "unbuildable"? It was challenging & for £50 in the UK I'd expect better cockpit, instructions & decals. I built the Monogram kit many years ago & found it a whole world better, at least in the first two areas; technology AND expectations have moved on in the 30+ years since the Monogram kits appeared and I'd expect better from a modern kit in this "premium" price bracket. But unbuildable it isn't.

I think you're right......but sadly, I'd binned all the unwanted sprue by then!

Really, REALLY glad to get this finished after hanging around on the bench like a bad smell since before Christmas. The fit isn't that bad & surface detail is good as are the u/c bays & legs but the cockpit & seat are woeful, comprising little detail with what there is provided by etched placards & decals which IMHO is simply unacceptable with a kit of this price. All kinds of issues surrounding the "instructions" that for instance show where one end of an actuation strut fits but not the other & strange colour call-outs with contradictions on the colour illustrations, for instance the u/c bays are called out in interior green (correct) but shown in red (correct for the flap & airbrake interior). The decals were strange in that the large decals such as the walkways & national insignia seemed to be very thick but the smaller ones are commendably thin. Anyway apart from the walkways they settled down eventually. However I wasn't entirely innocent as I lost some parts such as one of the landing lights on the nose gear & the clear cover for an aperture under the nose & THEN, when all was just about done, I decided that the canopy wasn't sitting right so tried to remove it for refitting only for it to CRACK right down the centre! By this time I was just about on the point of junking it but thought of the cost of the damn thing. Rather than attempt to glue the canopy back together, I attached the two halves to the opening independently, lining up the edges of the break as best I could & to be honest, from most angles it's almost impossible to see the join! Main paint is AK polished aluminium with Alclad jet exhaust for the burner cans & rear fuselage, dry brushed with some black, silver & bronze to try replicate the finish in these areas. It's a big kit that takes up a lot of space on the shelf. Kittyhawk produce other 101 versions & I was thinking of the their F101C but frankly I think I'll look for one of the old Monogram kits - can't go through all this again!!

Wow!

Bit underwhelmed if I'm honest. LOTS of re-releases - some of which I remember fondly from my childhood which is nice. Re-release of the Sea Vixen is welcome but really wondering why they went for the F4 rather than a full FGA9 with the Hunter (will still buy it though but WHERE is the F6 I've had on offer since the summer?) Apart from that not much for me to get excited about but I'm sure 1/72, armour & maritime modellers will beg to differ & I have no problem with that!

That didn't happen! Anyone know the latest?

No such issues with the FR9 I built recently which I assume uses the same parts as the F8.

Thanks old boy, hopefully worth persevering with. TBH I suspect that when completed, painted & recalled it won't look TOO bad. Slightly misleading instructions & illogical build sequence along with a poorly detailed cockpit make it seem worse than it really is....hopefully.

Merry Christmas all! Getting near the paint stage on my Kittyhawk RF101C. It's been a struggle so far & before I get much further I thought I'd ask whether KH decals are any good?

Nice Wessexes/Wessi?