Marcel111 Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 (edited) Hi guys, Chris express shipped a pair of these beauties over to me as soon as they were released, huge thanks. The Academy/Cutting Edge hybrids I had on my F-16C before were the weak point of the model so I am really happy that I could replace them. No other Aim-120's come close. I had also bought the Eduard Brassin Aim-120 set. These are very nicely cast but they have a separate and it seems deliberately oversized nose. That can be easily sanded down but still. Also, they seem to taper excessively at the back end. The Zacto versions are perfect in every way to the extent that the wings almost fit into their locations without glue. The slight mold mark shown on another review are invisible if the missiles are mounted on pylons (that's no accident, I'm sure), I didn't bother to do anything about those. My only improvement suggestion is to include five wings for each of the forward and rear sets. They are very thin (great!) and can therefore easily be broken, so an attrition replacement would be nice. I used decals from the AFV Club F-16B kit and used a very light wash. Note the blue bands are far lighter than the blue bands on the Aim-9X and ACMI pod... the latter are unfortunately decals which are too dark. Cheers, Marcel Edited August 6, 2019 by Marcel111 Menelaos, Kilroy Was Here, Durangokid and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crobinsonh Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 Stunning model and lets face it all the stuff Chris puts out is incredible. Zactoman and Marcel111 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squizzy 78 Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 That looks awesome Marcel, I think that your F-16 does the zactomodels aim-120 justice, and vice versa! Zactoman and Marcel111 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgbgtv8steve Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 Very impressed with your rendering of the Zacto 120 but I'm just as impressed with the AIM 9 and the ACMI pod - where did you source them please? Beautiful F. 16 by the way!! Steve S. Marcel111 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaldEagle Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 They look fantastic, but why oh why do they never come with decals? Tel Marcel111 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 2 hours ago, mgbgtv8steve said: Very impressed with your rendering of the Zacto 120 but I'm just as impressed with the AIM 9 and the ACMI pod - where did you source them please? Beautiful F. 16 by the way!! Steve S. Thx Steve, the AIM-9X is also from Zacto, the ACMI pod is made from 4mm styrene rod and a resin nose (can’t remember from which manufacturer). Cheers, Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 3 hours ago, BaldEagle said: They look fantastic, but why oh why do they never come with decals? Tel Hello Tel, you can source decals from Two Bobs (note that blue bands are too dark though). There are also Aim-120 decals in a number of kits e.g. Trumpeter Superhornets, Academy Vipers. Cheers, Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zactoman Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 On 8/6/2019 at 11:13 AM, Marcel111 said: No other Aim-120's come close... The Zacto versions are perfect in every way to the extent that the wings almost fit into their locations without glue. Thank you so much for doing this surprise review. I couldn't have asked for a nicer build to see these mounted on and this being the first build I've seen them on makes it even nicer. Bravo! On 8/6/2019 at 11:13 AM, Marcel111 said: My only improvement suggestion is to include five wings for each of the forward and rear sets. They are very thin (great!) and can therefore easily be broken, so an attrition replacement would be nice. Did you actually break any of the fins or just suggesting an insurance policy? If you did break one you did a wonderful job of fixing it. The resin I use does have a bit of flexibility so the fins will tend to bend before breaking. On 8/7/2019 at 4:46 AM, BaldEagle said: They look fantastic, but why oh why do they never come with decals? I'd love to include decals but can't afford financing a batch of sheets, plus that would raise the price of the set. And I have no experience in creating decal artwork. Kagemusha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaldEagle Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 I can understand that. It. Was more of a general comment about munitions in this scale. Kits always provide plenty of service stencil markings for the plane, but not the bombs and rockets, and that’s the bit I don’t understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted August 11, 2019 Author Share Posted August 11, 2019 On 8/10/2019 at 8:28 AM, Zactoman said: Did you actually break any of the fins or just suggesting an insurance policy? If you did break one you did a wonderful job of fixing it. The resin I use does have a bit of flexibility so the fins will tend to bend before breaking. Hello Chris, I didn't break any of the Aim-120 fins but did just break off the tip of a Aim-9M fin of yours that I was constructing in the same batch (no biggie since I bought such a huge supply of your Aim-9's :-) ). Having a spare would also just reduce the anxiety levels since losing small parts is also always a risk. But kudos to the resin, the parts have remarkable strength considering how thin they are. Cheer, Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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