Small Scale Military Headquarters

PICKEL you ve got a great opportunity here as we discussed in another older thread : if the Strakes are removeable you can plan to build a gun pod and even between the gun pods a litening pod for laser guided bombs !!!!! All in one piece !.....

Thanks for the additional pics, Aviatornut. I'll be getting one of these locally when they come to my local Hobbytown store on Thursday. Its bigger than I expected and looks beautiful!

Like most of us, I'm puzzled by the failure to include an opening canopy. Just doesn't make sense given that every other 1:18 scale aircraft produced since 2000 has had that feature. But at least it seems to be an easy fix on the Harrier... One could use styrene or something to make "rails" to hold the piece on and still allow it to be slid open and shut. Personally, I feel I shouldn't have to do that for a $250 dollar model, but whatever. I also don't display my modern jets with the canopy open too often so in some ways that flaw is a moot point. Wonder if the back plate behind the ejection seat could be pried off then affixed to the canopy?

Hobby Master came up with a good solution for their excellent 1:72 scale AV-88B tooling - the canopy with back plate didn't slide, but could be popped off and then affixed in either the open or closed position, secured by a peg that went into a couple holes in the fuselage. Wonder if the JSI/Merit folks were thinking along a similar route at the start of all this.

The gun pods are really missing .....



But i can't wait to receive mine !!!!!

I am getting a lot of questions about the Canopy. The canopy is easy to pop of the rails and once you snap it back on in the close position it stays shut. (see pictures) it will not stay on the plane if open and you turn it upside down.
it really is no big deal. true it is not like other 1/18 scale planes with a hinge but many 1/18 scale planes do the same thing. pull your 1/18 scale Zero out and open the canopy and turn it upside down and see what happens.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the pricing. Someone has these on Ebay for $159.99 plus shipping. How is that possible?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-18-JSI-MERIT- ... 2ca16a51f0

Aviatornut, thanks for updating us on the canopy. That's good to know. I must admit the last photo of the jet upside down fooled me for a brief minute. I had thought I was actually looking at a real jet.

MUDHEN, I see them as $259. Maybe he listed in error and revised it?

Yeah if you look at the revisions on EBay he changed the price at 1733 PDT which is about 90 minutes after I made my post. But he sold 2 of them at the $159.99 price. It will be interesting to see if he will honor that price.

pickelhaube wrote:The canted MARINES printing is not really all that bad.

It may be a little glitch but the over all look is just great .

i agree i despise people who bash something like that and the canopy doesnt matter to me im probably going to display it like its on the tarmac i might even do a camp bastion diorama for it the cockpit is also no issue because the whole thing has features to make up for that

Wow. "Despising" people for an opinion is pretty strong. We are, after all, talking about a toy. I could just imagine the reaction I would receive if I said I despise people who make posts with improper punctuation. Or perhaps, I despise them for run-on sentences?

MUDHEN336 wrote:Wow. "Despising" people for an opinion is pretty strong. We are, after all, talking about a toy. I could just imagine the reaction I would receive if I said I despise people who make posts with improper punctuation. Or perhaps, I despise them for run-on sentences?

I will not argue with someone who thinks that a decal a little bit off is a problem. I have dealt with worse issues than a silly issue like that overall i am happy but those who bash an item for such minor things tend to make companies not want to produce anything anymore i have seen it before with 1/6 manufacturers.

Typically, businesses will decide to produce an item based on perceived demand. If they feel there is a market for an item then they will produce it. I doubt their business plan is based on comments on a website. If they are making money hand-over-fist they could probably care less about my opinions. Unless you feel my comments will undermine sales? I believe other members had some constructive criticism about the cockpit detail and ejection seat placement. Remember these are just a few opinions from a few potential consumers. Rather than silence the critics, it's probably best to let the market decide.

MUDHEN336 wrote:Typically, businesses will decide to produce an item based on perceived demand. If they feel there is a market for an item then they will produce it. I doubt their business plan is based on comments on a website. If they are making money hand-over-fist they could probably care less about my opinions. Unless you feel my comments will undermine sales? I believe other members had some constructive criticism about the cockpit detail and ejection seat placement. Remember these are just a few opinions from a few potential consumers. Rather than silence the critics, it's probably best to let the market decide.

Like i said the one sixth scale companies actually do that many of their representatives are on the forums to test the waters. I have seen it happen. I am just perplexed as to why you are so picky over a word 21st century toys was never perfect but you never hear to many complaints. My only plane from ultimate soldier with such a glaring error was spitfire NKK

MUDHEN336 wrote:Wow. "Despising" people for an opinion is pretty strong. We are, after all, talking about a toy. I could just imagine the reaction I would receive if I said I despise people who make posts with improper punctuation. Or perhaps, I despise them for run-on sentences?

.

I actually do, because as an educator and husband of an English teacher, I find there is no real excuse for not doing it right. I don't care if it's "just the internet"; for many people this is the only part of you they see--your ability to communicate effectively.

Mine is on the way!!! I've wanted a large scale Harrier since the airfix 1/24 kit in the 80's!
I really really wanted a Sea Harrier (Falklands War era)

I think someone posted it here all ready, re canopy: Maybe they ran out of time with remakes and fixes etc... and said we have to let it go! Second release maybe they'll have upgraded it and add the options. Or maybe it was to hide under detailed cockpit? Hopefully the HUD is present. My F-14 "spotcat" have never left the box, so I'm not freaking.

A small 8" 1/18 diecast average quality car is near $200 nowadays, so this is a steal price wise!

For me the "having possession of" is the important part. Granted, a second release will allow an opportunity for a display model.

ability to communicate effectively.

Blame that on the internet and social media! Try face to face talking with a teenager today! My co workers in the 20-30 age range have no clue how to really communicate face to face.

supersonicfifi wrote:PICKEL you ve got a great opportunity here as we discussed in another older thread : if the Strakes are removeable you can plan to build a gun pod and even between the gun pods a litening pod for laser guided bombs !!!!! All in one piece !.....

Wasn't Merit going to do a fallow up ordnance kit with bombs and what not ?

scbvideoboy wrote:Mine is on the way!!! I've wanted a large scale Harrier since the airfix 1/24 kit in the 80's!
I really really wanted a Sea Harrier (Falklands War era)

I think someone posted it here all ready, re canopy: Maybe they ran out of time with remakes and fixes etc... and said we have to let it go! Second release maybe they'll have upgraded it and add the options. Or maybe it was to hide under detailed cockpit? Hopefully the HUD is present. My F-14 "spotcat" have never left the box, so I'm not freaking.

A small 8" 1/18 diecast average quality car is near $200 nowadays, so this is a steal price wise!

For me the "having possession of" is the important part. Granted, a second release will allow an opportunity for a display model.

ability to communicate effectively.

Blame that on the internet and social media! Try face to face talking with a teenager today! My co workers in the 20-30 age range have no clue how to really communicate face to face.

and i hate that on the internet i dont use grammar and punctuation i am usually a great kid to chat with sometimes i just forget or do not care.

Greetings:

Haven't posted here in how long....at least in the main forums anyway

I decided to purchase a Harrier from Aviatornut and look forward to getting it. The plane looks pretty good. Like many of you, I am perplexed by the lack of the opening canopy. The lack of the gun pods is also disappointing. To me, it almost seems like Merit ran out of money developing this or lost interest in developing it further and said "Well let's just release it this way and not worry about the other stuff". Makes me wonder if there was pressure on the development team to stop fooling around with it and just release the product. After all, people have been waiting a long time for this.

In my opinion, this is sort of what has been wrong with the 1/18 hobby from the beginning. Good stuff gets produced, yet it always seems there is one very glaring issue or problem with the product. The F-14 is a perfect example of this. A wonderful model with loads of detail and working features, yet no one ever thought to put a couple planes on their landing gear and test the weight? The F-16 if you remember was overscale...how in the world do you make that measurement error? There are other examples I can point to as well. I know very few models are totally perfect, but some of the manufacturing errors have been so bad in 1/18 scale, its no wonder people who care about the look and the details have gotten upset, and rightfully so. As tman pointed out, the canopy issue is not all that bad, but for $250, it should be right.

Corey

Coreyeagle48 wrote:Greetings:

The F-16 if you remember was overscale...how in the world do you make that measurement error?

Corey

Yeah, which almost happened again with the harrier especially with the fuel pods. Good thing Merit caught the mistake before they had sent it off to production.

You can read more about it here...
http://www.fighting118th.com/2014/07/29 ... rettyPhoto

Pre-flight inspection.

I would imagine lots of yelling from the top "Enough! Send it!! We'll fix it later!"

The Harrier looks great next to the F18

Me like

Go my Harrier this afternoon

Still working on assembling and figuring everything out with it. Lots of moving parts and neat functions. It has a few very minor QC errors but is in otherwise great shape. No spots Is there supposed to be a little plastic piece on the landing light on the main gear? Otherwise, its really a fantastic model.

Talking with the employee I've known for years at my local Hobby Town store (who does model work and consulting for Merit, Air Force 1, and at one time 21c and who also is friends with the president of Merit) he noted that Merit chose the Harrier among other items given that it was a mid-sized jet with some popular appeal. I must say I rather like the tiny size of the jet. I can fit it into certain display areas where any of my other jets (F-104, F-18, F-16, F-14) can't fit and its easy to carry and move about.

My acquaintance also noted that we should be seeing the FW-190 near the end of this year and that it took so long due to a dispute between Merit and the company manufacturing the plane over the tooling. Apparently Merit wanted the tooling done in a way that would allow for different variations of the FW-190A (i.e. the A-5, A-8, etc) that have different bulges on the cowling and whoever is making the moulds didn't want to do that.

Overall, if you are considering getting the Merit/JSI Harrier - and have the cash to do so - its well worth the purchase. I think it should have cost $50-$75 less, but its still a good model.