Jan_G

Hello All, I’d like to share my experience building the Jetmads C-21A kit, based on production number 204 out of 500. While the kit is definitely buildable, it requires significant effort and patience to achieve a good result. Unfortunately, despite my initial high expectations, the project turned out to be a major disappointment. That said, I’m still glad to have the C-21 in my collection. The kit is a mixed bag. While some areas are decent, the overall design and production quality are poor. The packaging is premium, though I didn’t care much for that. The Cartograf-printed decals are excellent, but it would’ve been great to have decals for the wooden interior parts. The kit could benefit from PE parts or 3D decals, especially for the IP, which is poorly printed and difficult to fix. The printed seatbelts are also useless; PE, 3D, or fabric ones would have been far better. It’s puzzling why they didn’t include masks for the cabin windows, given that the designer had all the data. Manually creating two sets of masks was a hassle, especially since the windows aren't uniform in size or shape. The instructions are average, with small, low-quality color schemes, forcing you to rely on references. It’s frustrating considering there’s a beautifully printed internal cover that adds no value. There’s also no front view for the wing dihedral, which is crucial since nothing helps guide the correct wing position. Sanding the fuselage was the most rewarding part, but many 3D parts were subpar. Some small parts were so poorly printed that I had to replace them with plastic profiles. The resin parts were disappointing—after six months in rather cool dry storage, both wings and stabilizers warped. All the main resin parts had some defects. Wings had visible 3D printing texture which had to be sanded down. One wing was not fully casted, where part of aileron was missing, The horizontal stabilisers are not the same size, one of it is smaller by 1 to 2mm on trailing edge of elevator, rudder is too short in upper part which needs to be adjusted by some plastic profile. Wings do not have same thickness of the profile, horizontal stabilisers ditto. All, proud moments of Jetmads quality control. Ventral fin is off in vertical geometry or to state it mildly the whole rear resin section of the fuselage is off in geometry so some compromise with proper adjustment is required here. Clear parts are disappointing as well. Front cockpit windows are too small creating 2mm gap on one side. To get some decent fix you need to sand down heavily the front fuselage part and mounts of clear parts. Another proud moment of the quality control. Cabin windows have visible layers and the guy did not consider during the design that maybe people will sand down the main fuselage part and paint the windows frame so again you will need to adjust fuselage part and windows to get some decent flat fit. The fit of the main interior parts is so bad that for the first time in my modelling life I went mad or maybe (jet)mad, because literally all parts had to be heavily sanded down sometimes loosing big portion of it including details to get decent fit. All seats needed to be adjusted by some profiles and sanded down heavily. The pilot seats are in their own league. With so many references and high resolution pics around one could wonder what was the intention of the designer to design such, and let’s stay polite, simplified generic seats (it looks like some generic simplified design for some 1/72 seats of unknown plane???), which instead of most of the interior are clearly visible through the front cockpit windows? So yet another proud moment of the quality control. Fit of fuselage parts is tricky with different thickness especially between rear fuselage resin part and main fuselage 3D part. However, the front 3D fuselage part did not fit far better and extensive use of putty, sending and polishing is required here.Most of the panel lines had to be rescribed, thankfully there is not a lot of them on C-21. To achieve final geometry of fuselage, wings and tail is undertaking by itself without any designed proper support system. And finally the wingtip fuel tanks. Honestly, once I checked the parts I was laughing. They are ridiculous low quality, with different cross section when compared to each other and definitely does not have the circle cross section. And the guy decided to split it to accommodate the front parts of the U-36A version. But why? To save cost or weight? With the wisdom of hindsight I went back through the emails I have received during the waiting for the kit to be delivered. And in the first email announcing the delay there was this statement (quote): “It has been our practice to have three independent and experienced modellers, non JETMADS members, build two kits each before we start shipments of any release. Our team makes several test builds before any production for sure and to us all seemed to be ok in general, however these outsiders have flagged out areas of improvement during their builds in early May, giving common feedback leading to the necessity of some redesign of a few parts and modification of some others for a better assembly, fit and modelling experience.” So who was checking what and when??? That remains a mystery to me. Jetmads should have done better. And I hope they’ve improved with their more recent releases. Thanks for looking, and sorry for the long post and low-quality photos. Jan

wow, this is great Walrus Bruce! congrats on crossing the finish line with HPH kit. I really like your finish and chosen subject.

Very sad to hear about your loss Kev. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Jan

Super finish and interesting camo Miloslav! wow!

Well, looks like impressive model. I have expected such price, catapult/base seems to be included which is nice touch and justify the price even more. And while HPH kits deserve a lot of attention and patience, their chosen subjects are exclusive. And the most important - it's flying boat! we need more planes in 1/32 that can land at sea and take off again

Superb build Dave! Amazing finish

Great build Chuck, wow! The finish is awesome

wow that is one great build Miloslav!

new rebox - SWS 23 https://hobby.ec.volks.co.jp/item/4518992232492.html

Would love to have one as well Thierry, but I hope that they will keep price somewhere in 600-700€ range, when considering there are no engines and no undercarriage and I would guess they will sell catapult separately. They will be in Moson during the weekend so maybe we will have some price estimate.

Mirek posted some progress on this one https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105045&start=5580

Mirek posted pics of finished model on modelforum.cz it should be available to order during the May https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=152824

superb build Mike!

new rebox of A-4 available for preorder from March 30th

Wow! Impressive model. I can imagine all the effort you put in it.

There are just too many missing. I fully agree with Kev about He 177. However being these days into airliners somehow it would be great to have: 1. C-46 2. DC-4 /6 3. Martin 202/404 4. Convair CV 240/340/440

seems that Bv-138 is almost ready Mirek posted some updates over on modelforum.cz and states that first pieces should be available for the Moson Model Show (20th of April)

Episode 5 so far the best one, however, I have seen first 4 episodes for couple of times already and I really like it. I have read the book for 3 times in past 2 years so it’s easy for me to follow the characters and events but I could imagine that for audience without any knowledge of 8th AF it could be really hard to build connection to main characters

new sets ready to order from Infinity https://www.infinitymodels.cz/inf-3206-8--full-cockpit-3d-print/ https://www.infinitymodels.cz/inf-3206-9--engine-3d-print/

thunder model has annouced even the bigger version MIL-44 seems that we will get more from them in 1/32, fingers crossed

Just saw the first episodes. Wow! Superb. Can’t wait for the rest

posted in their 2024 catalogue https://www.italeri.com/en/article/830 preview catalogue download link https://www.italeri.com/uploads/news/0hFsarN8VqpofmHNCQiD0phaHkvlSZQY30JTdrFK.pdf

Wow! Great news. now it seems I will build my first Bf 109

some tests of printed IP on their FB page. https://www.facebook.com/people/JSProducts-WestlandSikorsky-Sea-King-Range/61554900021700/ and comment from JSProducts regarding the planned release schedule: "Mid 2024 is the target window for the CH-124 and Mk 50, followed very closely by SH-3 types, and MK3 back half of 2024. Then the list moves to the various Westland European mk's."

It's great to see that the guys at the Border are bold enough to release even twin engine plane and that they are improving with every new release. Considering myself 1/32 "scaleist" I'm pretty happy that they have announced He-111 and not Ju-52, G4M (IMHO 2 possible future releases for them), He-177 or other multiengine plane not kitted in 1/32 before which could change my one scale rule for the aircraft models. Seems that the Border is avoiding US subjects (maybe to please "Big Brother"??) so I don't think that we will see anything like C-47 or PBY in near future. On the other hand I have several ship kits in 1/35 in my stash and Akagi deck with some planes to display (Kate and A6M) fits to this category Btw this is interesting concept and I can imagine part of Mogami flight deck with some F1M2 or E13A1 reconnaissance floatplanes as a future release. Even better would be to get nice kit of crowded deck of USS Enterprise before the Midway or Hornet deck with Doolittle's B-25B