review Zactomodels AIM-120 AMRAAM Missiles

[LSP_Kevin]

Howdy folks,

 

Brian Leitch reviews a new missile set from Zactomodels:

 

Zactomodels AIM-120 AMRAAM Missiles

 

 

Thanks, Brian! And thanks to Chris at Zactomodels for the review sample.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Kev! 

These are really well done and will be a great addition to any model.

[LSP_Ray]

5 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Thanks Kev! 

These are really well done and will be a great addition to any model.

Seconded!

[Zactoman]

A quick thank you to Brian for taking the time to review these. Sorry for my delay, but this last week was hectic.
Brian did a much more thorough and in-depth review than I was expecting and I'm pleased that his bottom line was "HIGHLY recommended!". Coming from a modeler with Brians skill and experience this means a lot to me.
Thank you Brian...
And a big congrats on getting married!!!

 

In the article Brian describes a flaw between the mounting lugs on one of the missiles as a "casting bump". That is actually a seam where the mold is cut that didn’t quite align properly when I casted that copy. That seam runs all the way from the tail end to a point about an inch past the front fin mounts. Aligning the seam when casting is difficult (sometimes seemingly random) and the misalignment visible on the cast parts can vary.
I do ship parts with that misalignment if it isn’t “too” bad but reject parts if the seam is unacceptable on an area of the part with detail that would be too difficult for the modeler to fix. For the most part if there is a visible seam it can be easily sanded, as described in the article, but in some cases a little primer/filler may be required.
This is the case with all of my missile sets. One seam on the pylon mounting surface.
Fortunately the AMRAAM seam is almost completely hidden by the pylon it will be mounted on, so in most cases doesn’t need to be dealt with.

 

[Marcel111]

Soooo nice to have these out! I will finally be able to load up my F-15C when I get around to that one.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Out2gtcha]

Just now, Marcel111 said:

Soooo nice to have these out! I will finally be able to load up my F-15C when I get around to that one.

 

Cheers,

Marcel

 

Yes, you wont regret that purchase, they are surpemly nice in hand.

[Marcel111]

16 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

Yes, you wont regret that purchase, they are surpemly nice in hand.

That is what I love about Chris' products: You can have absolute confidence that they will be the best AM available, best available accuracy, perfectly cast and engineered to be easily assembled.

 

Incidentally I did purchase the Eduard Brassin Aim-120 A/B set, thinking that Chris will only release the C's. I am assembling those right now to retrofit on my F-16C Aggressor. The Eduard missiles are perfectly cast, with very fine wings. On the down side, it seems like Eduard like to introduce detail where there is none, for example the nose cone is very slightly larger in diameter than the preceding missile section... easy to sand down but still a bit strange. Also, the rear is a little too tapered IMO. I ordered two of these sets so don't want to bin them, I'll live with the back end tapering considering I am building the dummy missiles. But going forward I for sure will only Zacto.

 

Cheers,

 

Marcel