Well to put this to bed I will just post
The Conclusion
What can I say. After the initial joy of a modern new tooled Model of maybe one of the best looking jets of its time, my joy turned to horror. All the in box reviews praised it to the clouds, with some comment on the errors in the instructions, which where 'corrected' with photocopied corrections (sort of).
Then the build reviews started to turn up. The kit was put way to the back of the stash.
Many years later, I got the urge to build it. Most of the build is well covered in the thread so I will not go into that to much but sum up on a few points.
First point of note the parts where swimming in release agent and had to be well cleaned in warm soapy water and scrubbed with a brush! Generally the plastic was good and the detail fairly sharp. Close examination did reveal some softness in detail here and there, mostly curvy corners not quite pulling it off.
Things that where just silly: the way that the top wing surface was joined.
Airfix did a very easy one part top main wing part. Kitty Hawk has the wing in two parts joining at the fuselage, resulting in a joint right through all the panel and rivet detail. Why do this in such a prominent place?
All the open panels where made as just that. OPEN! with no option of just closing them. I am pretty sure that if all was built up as intended, the build would have been OK. However, if you are going to do a kit that has this feature, you might want to actually put the detail in the exposed bays..
Of the hundreds of photos of the Jaguar with very cleare photos of what went where, they missed a chance to do it right and just did the 'meh that'll do' job.
A sprue of panels that fitted as a closed option will save a lot of work for those not wishing to spend hours fettling to get then to fit or even more time scratching the parts.
No way on this Earth can the full engine be fitted and close the doors, so that also needs a work round.
The way that the undercarriages are made up and built are also very awkward to do. A lot more detail would not go amiss either. There is more plumbing on the legs of this bird than there is in a small home. Not One wire, tube or hose was even attempted! Poor show.
So It can be built, but is a lot of work. But as in my last post. (la silencio playing in the back of my head) Due to the strange way that the model is designede and the (excessive) use of CA all ended in a fatal collision with a table top and floor.
Could I fix it up... maybe
Do I want to....nope.
If you have this kit, build it 100% as intended and it will be OK.
If you want one closed and parked buy the
Airfix one.
PS I have today got the last of the CA, and all the layers of paint off my thumb!
Ian M
).
... and also for this...
