MrProd

Not the case, axles are clearly shown in the instructions, the wheels have holes to take the axles and kits bought now have axles. And the retailer agrees. It just the importer have switched off the phones and don't like to answer emails.

Graham Boak, consider the following before replying I only got back into modelling in the last year when I found lots of time on my hands due to being self employed and a pandemic made it illegal to do my job. Lacking experience, trying to put axles on the heaviest kit I've built, knowing that if it goes wrong I've ruined the most expensive kit I've bought doesn't sound like something I want to do. Having spent £63 on a kit I could resent needing to spend more money on tubing, pin vice, drill bits etc. Maybe £63 on a kit is nothing to you but in my present circumstances it was hard to justify and I think it reasonable to expect it to be manufactured to a standard I can build it OOB. If I'd spent £63 on a jacket and found the stitching holding the zip in place was coming away and the zip wouldn't do up, imagine if someone told me to go and buy a needle and thread because "diddums" people used to make their own clothes don't you know. I hope you didn't mean to come across as patronising.

Sorry Circloy, I hadn't explained, I contracted emodels.co.uk in December, they replied that day, asked if I could send photos which I did. They agreed it looked like a manufacturing fault and said they would contact the importer to see about replacement parts/sprue. I left it a couple of months because pandemic etc but hadn't heard anything so I got back in touch. Emodels.co.uk said they're waiting to hear back. Its only after I asked if they could tell me who the importer was (because at this point I doubted emodels when they said the importer couldn't be called by phone) that i found out it was Hannants.

No, I'd seen "in box" reviews, one was on this very site, praising the new Kittyhawk Flanker range of kits for the surface detail and accurate shape. None mentioned the lack of axles. I think the kit was a really new launch when I bought it and its taught me three lessons. First; in box reviews are a bit of a waste of time, if they aren't building it they might not notice things like no axles. Second; newly launched Tamiya kits have been product tested, newly launched Kittyhawk kits? Who knows. Third; just because other model sites answer the phone and reply to emails within 24 hours don't assume they all will.

I've had a problem with a kit that Hannants are the importer for, and I notified emodels (who I bought it from) of the problem at the end of December. I still don't have the correct parts though after 4 months I did get a replacement sprue, with exactly the same fault as the kit I bought. So they've taken 4 months to not correct the faults and the latest request is to send the entire kit back to them! Its a half built 1/48 Flanker. It won't fit in the box without snapping a wing off so that's not happening. I don't know why Hannants can't accept that Kittyhawk have made undercarriage legs without axles as almost every build review mentions the fault, or why my photos of the faulty parts with the instruction diagrams showing an axle aren't enough. I must admit that until recently I was blaming emodels.co.uk for poor customer service but having tried to contact Hannants directly myself, I think I know where the problems begin. You might be in this for the long haul Blecky.

I made a mistake and bought Tamiya F15 1/48, as it seemed a bargain. Its not a good idea. It's a paint mule now. I've built their 1/48 F16c and it's a great kit, if pricey, and really highlights how old and out of date their F15 kit is.

I've read this about one changing the pressure and the other changing the volume but in actual use what difference should I be seeing. I've tried mac valve wide open with the regulator at 10 psi and then psi at about 30 with the mac valve restricting until the air flow felt and sounded the same as before. I can't see any difference in how the paint goes down. What difference should I expect?

I've a box of Microbox drill bits and they are strongly attracted to one another and it's really annoying. Any suggestions for demagnetizing that doesn't involve a hard blow from a hammer? Thanks

Hi Pete, definitely unmanned and as to size I think it looks 'right' stood next to a 1/48 scale plane, but the diorama I've been vaguely contemplating would be using some 1/35 scale figures. Never made a diorama before so we'll see..... I'm unlikely to be able to legally work for the next 6 weeks so I won't be lacking time. Now the progress. Armaments; the kit came with Bit on the small side. Or there was this Bigger, but better? Then there was this Which has some potential, But I preferred this Why have one barrel when you can have five? Started by taking the small gun from the top flipped it round and cut a chunk off I'd been thinking to bring together about 7 or 9 pieces of sprue to make a sort of handheld sawn-off rocket launcher, but then I cam across some wheel inserts in the spares box Drilled out both, used one as a template on some styrene, cut some lengths of copper tube, a piece of brass rod and trimmed a MiG-21 exhaust. Which went together like This has been added to the 'handgun' along with some more detail parts from the spares box The blue grey cone (MiG exhaust) got glued once some priming was done and then Mr surfacer 500 was used to fill the gaps, built up over a few days then sanded back. I'm making a rack on the other side to hold the ammo case, which is two of the kits boxes stuck together with the holey handle removed Be seeing more of that box in the next update which will be paint scheme. And I haven't forgotten this If you've got a sizeable gatling gun in one hand it would be a shame to have such a plain, lame flamethrower in the other. 😀 Thanks for looking. Jon

Love to see some pics of how you get on.

You can only build one kit but it has a range of parts. It has one core torso part where the human operator sits but you then choose whether to have the rest of the torso open (looks like a low rent version of the power loader from Aliens) or closed off like in my photo. There are two pairs of legs and multiple armaments, though these are very basic. See the developments in the work in progress.

So I've been busy attacking the droid (doesn't have a name yet, we'll see) with sprue cutters, files and sanding sticks. First to go were the pegs sticking out all over the place and then a lot of sanding to smooth all the sharp edges and corners, of which there are many. Also I didn't like all the gaps in the arms and that slot around the wrist. Putty in two of the gaps and the wrist, Mr surfacer 500 dabbed and stipled then primed with Mr surfacer 1500 got me to this Much better. Also decided I preferred the alternate legs, the mech type i was going to use were too square and edgy. Compared to the legs shown here The groin area, for want of a better description, is on backwards. The kit would have it the other way round with a set of ladders at the front for the operator to climb in. Dremmel took care of the ladders. Now the torso. Comes with a range of inserts I thought this was the best, but wasn't convinced. Too square, too sticky out and too symmetrical. Hello Dremmel. Realised later that I could have taken more pics during what I'll call the milliput phase, but live and learn. Mr surfacer 500, going for that roughly cast metal look. Heading in the right direction. Embellishments, paint scheme and armaments to follow. The "cannon" or whatever is gone, its replacement is much cooler.... Thanks for looking Jon

I wouldn't care about the colours, it look great. Good to hear no big fit issues, I'm seriously considering a Mig-27 from trumpeter.

I got back into modelling during lockdown vol 1, after a break of approximately 33 years, give or take. I've built a number of aircraft and a helicopter in the months since and whilst I can't say I've enjoyed every minute it has been such a calming and rewarding way to fill my time (due to the nature of my job I can't work during tier4/lockdown). Wanted to do something different and with more freedom and I've always enjoyed sci fi. My youth was filled with Star Wars (I was 5 when I saw Star Wars, mind blown!), 2000AD and Harry Harrison novels so sci fi kit seemed appropriate. I didn't want to spend too much for a first dip of the toe and found this on amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/GODNECE-Mecha-Model-Kits-8cm/dp/B08149TQC2 Why this is sold as Godnece I've no idea. It's made by Rihio, the amazon vendor isn't called Godnece so who knows The parts look like There's some reasonable detail on some parts And then some other parts are just awful The plastic is inconsistent as well. The sprues are not just different colours, they are different plastics with the tan colour being most similar to regular model kits, the metallic grey seems really hard and slightly brittle and the chocolate brown parts remind me of the stuff the little airfix soldiers were made of circa 1981. Touch it with sandpaper and it looks like a scale model of a ploughed field. The parts can be swapped around with other kits in the same series, and there are parts to make an open front mech with the operator visible (think power loader from Aliens) but the figure is garbage and the presence of a human imposes a scale (1:60 allegedly) so that was out. I instead used the closed up body so its a droid. It won't look like this for long. More soon, thanks for looking Jon

That's fantastic. I love it. Great idea, well executed.