Phantome

RoG has been on a downward spiral compared to their glory days in the 2000s. New 1/72 tools are non-existent now and there's been a couple of stinkers in the near past (the panel lines on that Gripen). 1/48 modellers have been better served, though. Quality control is probably my biggest complaint: so much flash, atrocious canopies, and just a general wear in the molds that you don't see in others that may be twice as old. I recently got my hands on the original F-16C and the canopy was perfectly smooth, those in the newest boxings are terrible. But beyond this, I think Revell has a huge marketing problem, and I think their marketers have little or no knowledge of military aviation and are just suits looking to sell stuff. Revell has had so many missed opportunities in terms of variants that they inexplicably never produced, their fetish for special display schemes, etc. Most of us here would do much better jobs at suggesting better projects than they do. It would be a shame if they had major fallout from the Hobbyco bankrupcy, for all its faults Revell is a modelling institution, they are still capable of phenomenal kits (when they want to) and will hopefully see better days.

Those panel lines... and rivets on the drop tanks.... uggh Huge step down if you ask me for Special Hobby standards (which is usually quite high)

And the F-15E... and the F-16... All their major new jets have been snap kits. Given that Fine Molds and GWH are coming with new Tomcats, not sure this kit will be of much interest to me. What a shame for this once great company.

Which makes their pricing levels even less defensible...

For me I'd be happy if they'd commit to improving their surface detail to modern standards. It is a total waste to see modern versions of 1/72 Harriers come out with panel lines worthy of a die cast. They have improved since then but they're still far from even what you would get from Tamigawa in the late 80s. That's 30 years ago btw. No excuse. Having said that, I think Airfix's comparative advantage would be with subjects that a) haven't been covered, b ) only have pre-80s era kits, or c) newer kits done poorly. Taking c) into account, I think there would be a good market in 1/72 for newer versions of some of Italeri's 90s kits. A semi-decent Mirage 2000C/D would be great, as would a RAF Jaguar given that Hobby Boss strangely never followed up on its superb A version. As for props, how about a Fairey Firefly?

There will always be some customers who will pay anything for something. By this logic you are also justifying Hasegawa's obscene UK pricing on its new kits... clearly *some* people buy them. However, just because some people buy a certain product at a certain price does not mean that's the ideal market price that maximizes company revenue. If proportionally more people buy a Shackleton than what it's price is reduced, then both Airfix and the consumers win. Microeconomics 101. Hasegawa can not care what it sells in the UK market because it's not its main one, but I read somewhere (was it this thread?) that the UK accounts for nearly half of Airfix's revenue. So it's plain stupid. And I will point out the fallacy of assuming that just because a major company makes a certain decision, they "know better". The modelling industry is awash with bad marketing decisions from nearly every major producer (Revell, IMHO being arguably the most egregious)

They are frequently not in stock here in the UK, unlike Zvezda's. The 9.17 was in stock for a couple of weeks and then practically disappeared and has only appeared sporadically. They're not easy to find which makes the price hike all the more surprising. Anyway, I'm hoping for a Zvezda 9.12 soon so I can get my full Fulcrum fix anytime (having said that I do have some issues with the Zvezda Fulcrums, they are far from perfect, and Trumpeters' are a more pleasant build overall despite their accuracy issues).

Not only that but they jacked up the price quite considerably after the first couple of released. I think the 9.12 came out at £17.99 or so (often a bit cheaper) and then jumped to around £22.99. Not sure who as the marketing genius at Trumpeter or Trumpeter's distributor who decided that just as the competition came out with a (in many ways) superior kit.

I love that Airfix has now claimed one undeniable prize... ... most expensive major European model company. Seriously, in what planet does Airfix thinks it exists that models are worth costing 50-75% more than an equivalently-sized Revell model... and still well below in surface detail/fit? It's absolutely bonkers. £30 for a Welly, £45 for a Shackleton when a Revell Lanc or B-17 is £20.

Kinda hoping for that myself. That said the Trumpeter kit is mighty fine too...

Well it's clear none of these show a big load and they've been bombing Syria with mostly dumb bombs anyway. Would be a shame to waste all those weapons in the Zvezda kit though... accuracy be damned!

The Asian manufacturers are more expensive because the pound has never recovered its vale viz a viz the yen compared to the pre-crisis years. European manufacturers are still VERY cheap compared to that. Doubtful after April 2019 if there's no single-market deal.

Btw, I just got my hands on the original Revell F-16 boxing, the Block 50/52 that has a really cool box art of two Spangdahlem birds with HARMS. It's amazing just how well molded this version is. The canopy is impeccable. None of the molding scratches on the wings or fins (where the static dischargers are). Not sure if this was an oddity of the Tiger Meet kit, but also didn't have one of the ventral fin holes blocked by a slab of plastic. Unbelievable that all this passed quality control in later boxings.

I'm curious to see any pics of it after spraying.

That's been out of stock for as long as I can remember...

Hello! Question about the loadout of a MiG-29SMT. I'm on the verge of finishing the Zvezda 1/72 kit which despite a few issues is a crackin' kit and with so many weapons that it's worth the price of the kit alone. I wonder what a realistic loadout would be, although the instructions have various options, I wanted to include a pair of Kh-29s, a pair of KAB-500s, and R-73s However, would this be too heavy for the centerline drop tank? AFAIK the SMT has a payload of 4,500 kg which isn't huge. The instructions have loadouts which include 2 x Kh-29/31s + 2 x R-73 (no tank) or 4 x KAB-500/rockets + 2 x R-73 (no tank). In fact, the only option for a tank is just one with 2 x R-73s Tempted to just not care about realism since it looks awesome with a lot of things under wings, but wanted some opinions first

Sorry, but the Italeri is NOWHERE near as good as the Revell, and no matter how much you try to spruce it up, will never equal it. Anyone who says otherwise is flat out lying. Sadly there is no GR.4 conversion kit available today, the only existing ones are OOP. This is a telling example of the colossal functional stupidity of the resin community: "let's make wheels for an already decent kit rather than a key missing feature in a widely sold kit". Blows my mind really.

I used the following for a Have Glass V F-16 Tamiya XF-24: 5 Tamiya XF-54: 5 Tamiya XF-1: 1 It's really simple, just equal parts XF-24/54 and a dab of black to darken it up.

Excellent, just as I had thought!

Having recently nearly completed a Have Glass V Viper, I can also recommend the following Tamiya combo: XF-24: 5 XF-54: 5 XF-1: 1 Basically it's equal parts XF-24/54 with a dab of black to make it darker, in like with 36118 (of which Tamiya XF-24 is an excellent match). It looks the part although getting the metallic sheen is proving tricky. I tried Vallejo's Metal Varnish but it's basically just a gloss. Perhaps adding a drop of Aluminum would do the trick.

They weren't used, that's certain, but it is my understanding that they were deployed... which means at some point they must have been fitted on an F-15 even if by that point in the conflict they had nothing to shoot down https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DqaZBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT68&lpg=PT68&dq=amraams+fired+gulf+war&source=bl&ots=KsI4uWX_Q4&sig=pw13WYWG3xalMnIj_vleGL08P9Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB9ti8rbfXAhWQ2KQKHT1fBqIQ6AEITDAF#v=onepage&q=amraams fired gulf war&f=false

Ok, got another Gulf War question Some F-15Cs during the Gulf War carried AMRAAMs and as I understand it, usually just two in the inner rail of the wing pylon. This would presumably mean that this rail had the LAU-128 pylon rather than the older style. However, would the outer rail which had AIM-9s also used the LAU-128 or would have kept the older type? I presume at some point in the 90s all the rails were switched to LAU-128s but given that the AMRAAM has hastily deployed to the Gulf War, whether just the necessary launchers were switched too. Thanks! P.S. I could not find any F-15 Gulf War pic carrying AMRAAMs hence the question...

Or they're just stupid and don't have smart enough marketing people? Think of all the wasted opportunities Revell has had in this regard as well. Occam's Razor.

Peepz, Any recommendation for good inkjet decal paper here in the UK? I have only bought decal paper quite a number of years back and was not particularly impressed (it was quite thick when applied on the model) Thanks!

I'm starting to doubt we'll see ANY other boxing of the Tamiya Viper in 1/72... it's been 3 years now and Tamiya has a shoddy record of releasing all variants in 1/72 scale. Which is a shame, because we could really use a good Block 40/42 in that scale. I don't understand why they don't do this, given the obvious benefits