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Kittyhawk RF-101C 1/48


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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!! 

 

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Hello Graham,

 

it’s nice to see another stunning Voodoo here! Looks great, congratulations :thumbsup: Still got mine stashed, but I really want to build it now!

 

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

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!

Mmm... Because of an available versions to be build OOB, every RF-101C kit from the Kitty Hawk has a second clear sprue with the spare canopy and G/H camera windows, isn’t it? I think it’s the best way to «fix» the problem.

 

Cheers! 😎

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18 hours ago, Nikolay Polyakov said:

Hello Graham,

 

it’s nice to see another stunning Voodoo here! Looks great, congratulations :thumbsup: Still got mine stashed, but I really want to build it now!

 

Mmm... Because of an available versions to be build OOB, every RF-101C kit from the Kitty Hawk has a second clear sprue with the spare canopy and G/H camera windows, isn’t it? I think it’s the best way to «fix» the problem.

 

Cheers! 😎

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

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What are you moaning about?

It took you less than ONE MONTH  to complete a rather adequate OOB version of the Kitty Hawk kit. I can assure you that the old Monogram would take much longer than that.

Isn’t it that the proof that some Kitty Hawk kits are NOT ‘unbuildable’ after all?

 

Cheers,

Quang

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On 1/14/2019 at 6:58 PM, quangster said:

What are you moaning about?

It took you less than ONE MONTH  to complete a rather adequate OOB version of the Kitty Hawk kit. I can assure you that the old Monogram would take much longer than that.

Isn’t it that the proof that some Kitty Hawk kits are NOT ‘unbuildable’ after all?

 

Cheers,

Quang

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.  

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That looks really nice . . . Just LOVE the Century Series aircraft. I've just started building the Kitty Hawk F-101B version of this kit ( A Christmas present) and found an excellent in depth review with lots of helpful tips on the scalespot.com website, so will be referring to that quite a lot as I progress. If it looks half as good as your model  I'll have no complaints . :cheers:

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2 hours ago, Graham T said:

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!

I must have been lucky, as mine is OK. however, I did have to open up the locating slot for it, which was no biggie.

 

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On 1/18/2019 at 2:03 AM, Graham T said:

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.  

Hi Graham T, my post was meant to be a compliment to you. Sorry you took it that way.

As for the ‘unbuildable’, I was not referring to you but to the wagonload of lemmings who think so without even looking at the plastic.

About the ‘not so easy’ fixing short-mold tab on the horizontal stab, there’s nothing a humble guitar string inserted in the tab would’nt do.

 

I’m leaving you to your rant. Cheers

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