Silverkite

I bought Transformers and a decal sheet filled with geckos due related projects to Autobots/Decepticons vehicles and also something related to Area88, paper ink and coating is similar if not identical to Jasmine Model decals, kinda sticky so if you store them be sure they DO NOT lay on any kind of paper but tracing paper, this if they didn't change printer settings as I bought them 6 years ago Luigi

Couple of days ago I received a 1/72 F-104G/S box with the extra parts for J and CF version, the J parts also contain four extra bits which are not included on the other three F-104J boxes I own which were released nearly 10 years apart from each-other, their instructions do not mentions existence nor the use/not use nature of said bits. Kits are SP67 QF-104J - 00364 F-104J and a 2012ish release of a the standard CF-104/F-104J D16 box with lots of flash, but Hasegawa box 00670 shows and marks them as unused parts ( sprue D parts 13-14-15) Anyone got an idea of their use? Luigi

AMX 2.0 Luigi

Would be more easy if they researched how many versions you could pour out with a single box by releasing a basic A-4 fuselage with a cut off vertical stab ala A-4M or A-4K with no ECM fairing and let modeller pick his own flavor by adding A-4M, A-4K (both for Kuwait and New Zealand), SuperFox. A-4AR and A-4H parts, then switch to a two-seater to do the same thing and finally making a "All in 1" A-4B/C box with parts for A-4B/C/P/Q/S models and call it a freaking day. Luigi

Attack Squadron drop tanks got reissued by Brengun? Bregun Just adding something amiss from Tailhook references: Italeri TAV-8B, Esci AV-8B and Esci A-4 all have 300 gal drop tanks they are not perfect but deemed ok especially for the ones contained in Esci A-4 box Matchbox drop tanks contained in the EA-6B kit are also very similar to Hasegawa EA-6B tanks, Hasegawa kit got cloned by Hobbycraft and the other one which name escapes me, I do own the remnants s of a HC EA-6B kit and the drop tank parts can be swapped with Hasegawa ones. Airfix/Heller F/A-18 drop tanks are in the 300 gal territory and far away from Hornet drop tanks As Tailhook says Fujimi A-7 tanks are shorter while A-4 tanks are ok, yet the outline sorta matches A-4 tanks and if you cut the rear part and clone Fujimi bobtail tank section you can make a little bobtail army out of them, which is very useful for A-4s as they didn't had that many fin configuration restrictions required for A-7s and A-6s (A-7 mostly flew with drop tanks equipped with three fins in the inboard stations and only two for outboard, don't take this as a definite answer but most of the pictures I saw do show this kind of config) I did a research using old books, magazines and pictures because either Rex or Reddog and SuperHeat on ArcForums once explained fin configurations for those tanks and I wanted to be sure especially because I saw some differences between noses as some are more pointy and kinda slender than others example https://imgur.com/EUN9mlk but this is another story Luigi

Trenches Luigi

Is at least the sameish Alitalia Hasegawa Stratos doable for a 1980 Montecarlo Rally Stratos with Darniche - Mahe VSD markings? Luigi

Are they aware that they only released once the EF-2000B as a limited edition? Are they aware that they only release a certain Osprey variant just once and once again as a limited edition? Luigi

the way it's molded gives a very clear hint that they are not planning to make other variants, at this point I would rather buy more AZ or FineMolds kits than a single swan Luigi

something can be seen here, I'm aware they had a fuel tank installed on that area, but since there are many versions I suppose on some had the tank cells moved elsewhere Wikimedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QUEnjqI49o Luigi

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/292043-f-111e-armament-options/ Luigi

thought in the past they made nearly everything British from WW2 on both scale, guess I was wrong Luigi

EF-111A B/N 66 0041 in the prototype phase with black stripes along the fuselage with red inflight refuel spot markings flew with two drop tanks installed on the outer wing pylons Regarding Sidewinders there it was a discussion on ARC forums and possibly something on F-111.net in any case if you decide to pick the whif route while keeping it loadoutically correct the Aim-9M fins do not have clearance for shoulder mounting, so you have to put them and their dedicate launcher where the usual ground ordnance and its pylon goes otherwise you can slap a Papa at the shoulder station Luigi

My gripe with Airfix is that they potentially have a backyard filled with Cold War Era jets and they barely nailed them. They made a caricature of a Mig-15 The F-86 tooling wanted to be half of this and half of that still something went off Messed up their opportunities with Harrier FRS1 and FA2 variants, I would like to keep my mouth shut for GR and AV-8A variants as I just bought them to maybe steal some parts and slap them on the Esci kits. GR7/9 are kinda ok and I guess I'll use Hasegawa parts to convert two of them into AV-8B N/A and + standards I know they hate them but ffs how can you make a banana out of a Skyhawk especially when B and C are rarer due Fujimi kits being AWOL since 10 years if not more? Hobbyboss didn't make a GR out of their Jaguars despite fuselage arrangement suggesting so and the only game in town is still the Hasegawa kit with lots of resin I suppose they also hate the Tornado and its variants especially the F3 Their FW-190A/F made me purchase more Hasegawa kits, should have said Eduard yet they refuse to make anything past the A8/F8 and as long I will not see Nachtjager variants, A9/F9 and everything between A5/A8 plus ofc Dora variants from them I'll just stick with Hasegawa kits The 262 seems ok yet I kinda like Hasegawa + Revell fix than theirs There is a good helicopter compartment in the middle especially the Westland Sea King and frankly I still don't know how many variants they made with the newer tooling I'll buy a couple of their FG Phantoms, cause I need a solid template of the wing reinforcement straps What else they made? Mustang?Not interested Typhoon, Tempest and Hurricanes? Beaufort? Mosquito? Spitfires? I was interested but it seems some are not that much issue free and I was after two kinds of recce birds, the one with tear drop canopy, something something MK VIII and its very own mess, a Seafire and a Trop or MKVB? frankly I don't remember variant 109? I guess AZ of FineMolds plus fixes for G2 and G6 variants, another AZ or FineMolds for the F variant, whoever makes the best E4 has now my attention, no interest with anything else, not even for Tamiya as they will probably just release the G6, call it a day and forget about other variants or maybe release them in the other scale like they did for the F-16 block 32 TSR-2? Are they planning to add it back to their catalogue or they are planning to do so when ModelSvit will steal the show? Luigi

did Airfix at least made the windshield middle portion shorter as per short nose F-4s or they slapped the longer one like everyone did and still do? Luigi

In 1/72 scale added parts for IDF Eagle are a different sprue for weapons then they added the exhausts plus whatever that dome behind the cockpit does Luigi

Thanks gentleman! Scavenged the web even more it seems like their habit of playing hide and seek with Draken kits worked like this BP-1 No BP-2 Yes BP-3 Yes BP-101 No BP-106 No 00047 01929 01968 02004 and 02281 Yes 00386 No All SP boxes for Area88 (both old and new), Ace Combat and Idolmaster do come with them, ditto for Revell boxes Luiigi

I'm just after Hasegawa stupidity of choosing to omit said pylons ONLY from certain boxes while including it on the others, I scavenged the web but I can't find pictures of the contents of said boxes... call it OCD Luigi

For everyone with boxes: BP-1 BP-3 BP-101 Red Dragon BP-106 Austrian Millennium Can please confirm the presence or the absence of Aim-9 pylons? Luigi

Revell base fuselage is for the A version, if you don't care you can dress it up as C/D and other variants, if not rescribing and other touch ups are required. Tamiya offers you a C fuselage straight from the box Fujimi, Italeri and Esci have common fuselage and sprue breakouts, a couple of things need to be added anyway Fujimi: pylons, drop tanks and weapons are a joke, you can probably save Penguin missiles and its launchers (need some fixes anyway) but everything it's off, Sidewinders are too skinny and small, drop tanks seems to be inspired by F-2A ones 'cept they are still skinny and shorter, wing pylons do look something good for Ace Combat series F-5, F-20 and X-29 airplanes, aligning the cockpit part it's not as messy as doing that on AMT/ERTL and Italeri kits but still on some boxes and I had around 20 spanning from early ones to later ones not only cover sometimes was shorter, it was also asymmetrical in both width and height Italeri made different revisions of their kits...the first batch aka #130 box with green or orange stripe contained longer drop tanks as per prototype and F-16XL variants, GBUs and Sparrow missiles, second revision aka #130 box with sometimes a dark orange striple or no band at all replaced the sprue with longer drop tanks and weapons with a simple A option sprue, 2,5ndish revision that happened when they released the #188 box added some extra sprue for lantirn pods etc, 3rdish revision was when they added ADF parts on #1271 box. Italeri kit comes with its own set of faults, yet is a good source of decals cause Hasegawa is way too lazy to change markings on catalogue boxes let alone doing anything that it's not another overpriced special limited edition variant and Revell is sadly too focused on releasing markings for flying beer cans with no stencils or with plan B markings Esci detail is more finer than Italeri and Fujimi kits, aligning the cockpit cover it's not an hard task, you glue it without worrying about asymmetry, seal the gaps with putty, rescribe and you are gold, yet AMT/ERTL boxes which are basically Esci kits with softer plastic, extra weapons and nozzle sprue shenanigans are mostly to be avoided Luigi

Hasegawa is smaller, if the central section of both F-2 and F-16 is the same the error will probably go through to the upper fuselage section, comparing Tamiya and Revell sections with Hasegawa's F-2 the MLG and tail hook kinda lay at the same place. Problem with Tamiya kit is that AS PER USUAL they freaking pulled another bait & switch, they released the P&W kit only in the wrong scale and I doubt they will ever care enough to ever release an A version. Luigi

So they pulled an Harrier FRS1 without its errors I just have box 72183 FGR2 I doubt they changed anything more during the years, so for lower fuselage part you mean part C40 or the two halves? Both halves are kinda flat and straight and the curvature it's only present on part C40 and starts straight at the beginning of Sparrow's well Luigi

Just wondering since I still have to buy Airfix Phantom, what's wrong with Fujimi kit ( I mean the updated tooling nor the first edition) Luigi

It was a discussion on ARC forums, barely anyone was aware of it, this thread comes with a list of A/C differences, I'm now scavenging for the other thread http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/295433-early-f-15a-from-the-gwh-f-15c/ Ok found it, pics will be probably hard to find through Google, maybe Flickr has them hidden somewhere http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/298797-icelandic-f-15s/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-2861545 and here Dave explains the red/brown thing that surrounds the canopy http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/246071-f-15-canopy-question/&tab=comments#comment-2341947 Luigi

There is another difference ( if I did not shifted into a different universe) at the aft end of the airbrake there are some reinforcement plates which were different between A and C variants respectively U shaped for A and Y-T~ish shaped for C variants, Detail & Scale book shows that, I'm trying to scavenge pictures from my messy folders but it will take time and I usually forget about everything the day after posting something on the forums (my bad :-\) Also MLG wells were painted in metallic green or blue paint, plus there it was all that hell of things I was trying to describe in a different thread but I lost the will to correct myself Probably something can be seen here (Wikimedia pics) F-15A there it was a thread on ARC forums regarding the red/brown canopy sealing F-15C Luigi