jgrease

As an observer to this from the outside, Kitty Hawk have had some very able assistance on recent projects like the UH-1 series and the MH/SH-60 series. Most recently the UH-1N kit was released with the incorrect rotors in spite of the information provided by the very informed advisors, and there were obvious missing parts in the MH-60 kit (the stub wings featured on the box cover!). For almost every error in those helo kits that were pointed out online, the response from the advisor was "well, we told them about it", and KH still put out kits with needless errors. One can only hope that their recent history won't be repeated on this project. John

My two cents - I'm in the middle of building this kit, and there are a few typical Kitty Hawk issues. There are seam lines from the molds in the fuselage halves, and some of the sprue attachment points are in the worst places making removal of parts like the minigun barrels very tricky. Another typical KH problem is the abundance of ejector pin marks and flash on some parts. However, I was very impressed with the fit and look of the main cabin assembly - the only issue is that the two side pieces where the crew chief windows are need a good bit of sanding to fit the completed assembly into the fuselage halves. further - I found the fit of the motor/main rotor assembly to the fuselage to be the highlight of the build so far. Everything fell into place way better than I would have expected. I can't speak to the overall accuracy of the kit to the SOAR helos, but so far I'm actually happy with this kit.

Dave - my point is that the reviewers are getting kits with figures, and even they don't know if they're meant to be included or not. Further, if you look at the Amazon listing the customer reviewer says he got the figures. I ordered the same kit from the same listing and didn't get the figures. Feel free to explain that to me. This is bad communications from KH.

I just received my kit that I ordered on Amazon from Kitty Hawk. Despite the previous buyer review saying that they received figures with theirs, I didn't get any...

Agreed - KH have burned me more than once, but like any abusive relationship I'll give them one more try.

I'd love a quality kit of the -2000 in 1/32, but KH has routinely disappointed me for the last couple years. I gave their 1/48 Su-34 a chance, and it wasn't even fun to work on. Prior to that, the F-86 fought me and won about halfway through after the cockpit came together fabulously and I reached the assembly of the fuselage which refused to mate up properly. I just can't...

I would have forgotten all of my bad experiences with their previous kit in order to get a nice F-5 in 1/32, and then they left out the intakes. SMH. If I'm spending that kind of cash for a kit, it should at least be complete.

My only question is how many segments will the fuselage be made up of? I'm going to guess anywhere from 6-8.

Tanmodel is a small company based in Turkey. It seems to me like they are getting some Turkish subjects out the door to get some cash in and keep their home market buzzing. They've done two boxings of their 1/48 RF-84, a 1/72 T-33, as well as the aforementioned 1/24 TB2 drone and the 1/35 Korkut SPAAG. Seems to me they are getting the job done for a small manufacturer. Their next two projects would appear to be a 1/48 Buccaneer and the 1/32 Sea Flanker.

Bryan, I miss working with good people, but then I remember why I chose to retire. I had a great time but I don't think I could work patrol these days in this environment. There were definitely neighborhood "cop bars" in some places. My last command we tended to just drink on the street behind the precinct - LOL. Still, make the most of your time now! John

Bryan - I know you didn't get to leave on your terms, but you did make it out. I've been retired since '07 from NYPD, and I've been building models ever since! Enjoy retirement - and good work on the car! John

Joel - you're a better man than I. I've bought and tried to build my last KH kit. The 1/48 MiG-25 was just awful, and I had won the 1/32 F-86 at our club's show. I really wanted to build a Texas ANG Sabre, but after assembling the cockpit nothing else fit together properly - a series of butt-joins and bad engineering. My time is precious to me and no model kit is worth getting aggravated over. I'm looking forward to your perseverance. John

Great work Joel! I've been lurking on your build for a while - keep it up! John

Wow- just a great build! John

Great work so far! Regarding the HUD glass, I do the same thing- just paint the edges with clear green to give the clear part a sense of being "glass". I honestly would not paint the entire part. John