POST ALL JSE F-14 QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION HERE

[dragon53]

BIRDDOG:

Thanks---apparently Badcat's website had a technical problem because I clicked on the "Reviews" tab repeatedly this morning and there was nothing there. Now they're back.

[tmanthegreat]

Greetings:

I personally do not think the landing gear are that fragile if they are all connected properly. I realized once everything was locked into position and every tab inserted, etc, they work quite well.

The problem is when you put the plane on the gear, you have to make sure the springs work. If one depresses and the other one does not, you get a unstable model, I suspect that is what is happening to many.

I also found that when you are lowering the gear, if you manually depress the spring a few times, everything goes down properly a lot easier. It seemed to me the more I have used the gear, the better it works. I have rolled mine gently on the floor and haven't had any issues.

I think I have had them up and down at least 10 times. You have to be careful, but it does work properly.

Corey

This is quite true. When I finally saw the instructions on the Merit website which pointed me to the little tab on the side of the gear, that feature greatly strengthened the gear, holding them in the correct position. Incidents of the gear falling back when I was moving the plane have disappeared and the struts also stay in place. I brushed a little WD-40 oil on the main gear to make them depress more smoothly (the hydraulics on the real plane would have had a grease lubricant for the same reason). Graphite powder or some other lubricant should also work just fine.

[Birddog]

BIRDDOG:

Thanks---apparently Badcat's website had a technical problem because I clicked on the "Reviews" tab repeatedly this morning and there was nothing there. Now they're back.

It happens to me too sometimes.....

[warhawker]

I just got a hint of inspiration! Using my new F-14 and my BBI Zero, recreating the classic scene in the movie 'Final Countdown' where F-14 encounters the Zero over the waters around Hawaii.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c2fkjiOP2U

[YT]

Awesome, I didn't even think of that.

[tmanthegreat]

That is a classic "Jolly Rogers" moment

The Final Countdown is a great film with such a random story. I find it pretty cool that they actually got technical support from the US Navy.

[trex0770]

Greetings:

I personally do not think the landing gear are that fragile if they are all connected properly. I realized once everything was locked into position and every tab inserted, etc, they work quite well.

The problem is when you put the plane on the gear, you have to make sure the springs work. If one depresses and the other one does not, you get a unstable model, I suspect that is what is happening to many.

I also found that when you are lowering the gear, if you manually depress the spring a few times, everything goes down properly a lot easier. It seemed to me the more I have used the gear, the better it works. I have rolled mine gently on the floor and haven't had any issues.

I think I have had them up and down at least 10 times. You have to be careful, but it does work properly.

Corey

This is quite true. When I finally saw the instructions on the Merit website which pointed me to the little tab on the side of the gear, that feature greatly strengthened the gear, holding them in the correct position. Incidents of the gear falling back when I was moving the plane have disappeared and the struts also stay in place. I brushed a little WD-40 oil on the main gear to make them depress more smoothly (the hydraulics on the real plane would have had a grease lubricant for the same reason). Graphite powder or some other lubricant should also work just fine.

Here's the real thing.

[/list]

[tkjaer21]

That is a cool find of that pic. Great job!

[firefox91]

Greetings:

I personally do not think the landing gear are that fragile if they are all connected properly. I realized once everything was locked into position and every tab inserted, etc, they work quite well.

The problem is when you put the plane on the gear, you have to make sure the springs work. If one depresses and the other one does not, you get a unstable model, I suspect that is what is happening to many.

I also found that when you are lowering the gear, if you manually depress the spring a few times, everything goes down properly a lot easier. It seemed to me the more I have used the gear, the better it works. I have rolled mine gently on the floor and haven't had any issues.

I think I have had them up and down at least 10 times. You have to be careful, but it does work properly.

Corey

The lack of instructions is likely where the problem really came into place. I saw and used some of the posts and tabs, but I did not see the the T shaped ones for the rear landing gear and did not connect them. Very likely that contributed to the break. But there were no instructions supplied and no warnings about it. Without that, it is still a defect.

I recieved a response from JSI and they told me to contact Merit. I already contacted them when it happened, still no reply. I have a feeling I am up the creek with no paddle on this one.

Fortunately, the plane still displays very well since the flaws are all hidden away. But this experience is really making me question if I want to get their F-15 when it comes out. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a little more from Merit and JSI for the $220 + ship I had to pay for this thing. Some paper instructions in the box would have been all that I really could as for.

[firefox91]

Duplicate post.

[firefox91]

Duplicate post.

[firefox91]

Duplicate post.

[tmanthegreat]

Sorry you had the landing gear breakage on your F-14. I had very similar "bitter sweet" experiences with my 21c ME-262A. That was not a cheap plane either and I've had to go through three of them just to get one where the landing gear doors or canopy did not break after only a couple of uses.

Regarding the F-14, I will agree with you in that the lack of instructions and complexity of the gears is a weakness of the plane, really moreso than the spots. I did have a couple instances where I did not have the gear assembled quite correctly and the plane rolled back on them. Nothing broke, but it scared me each time. I found that by dabbing a little superglue on the tabs and letting it dry to make them thicker helped the tabs to stay in their slots better. Also, the discovery of the little side tabs was very helpful and makes the gear quite sturdy. 100% accuracy is always great in a model, but sometimes the designers take it really too far.

[NWarty]

Got my Cat today. Short synopsis but I'll write a review in the morning:

I'm somewhat satisfied. The model is technically awesome, the gear, although spindly somewhat, is complex, gorgeous and neat to see compress on its struts. So many features; the packaging incredible.

The paint kills it. Now that I have it in hand, the Tomcat could have been GREAT.

More to come...

[forcerecon85]

I got mine this morning but had to wait to open it tonight as I was just heading out the door haha. I'm in awe of it's size. This is my first and only 1:18 scale aircraft as I only collect 1:72's. It's massive! I had a time connecting the cockpit to the aft of the aircraft but did it after more than 5 mins thinking if I was going to break it. The detail in the cockpit and all the markings is awesome and up close the spots don't bother me but I will do the gojo soap to it.

I have it upside down since I don't want to risk breaking the landing gear. I've gone back 20 pages and couldn't find couldn't find the link to the instructions on the Merit Website

[chunks]

Here ya go.

http://www.merit-intl.com/month/vf-84%20landing.htm

[forcerecon85]

Awesome. Okay now that I can add the fins I got a yellow thumb print on the cross bone side of a vertical stabilizer

[NWarty]

Well, I received my Tomcat last night from UPS. Originally bought from MTS, it took six days to arrive here on the West Coast. I felt I needed to write a mini-review, focus on some certain areas and how I feel about JSI's first full-blown offering.

Packaging:
Let me say that when I first opened the cardboard shipping box and pulled out the black JSI Tomcat package, I was amazed. The Tomcat is placed into tight, foam blocks on two levels, no plastic twist ties here. The belly, forward nose section, pitot tube all are on the first tier, while the ordinance, stabilators, vertical stabilizers, belly tanks, arresting hook and rails are all packed separately below. The foam is a tight fit around the ordinance, but nothing arrived broken or loose.
9/10

Features:
The Tomcat is a technological marvel. From the radome, cockpit, steps, glove vanes, speedbrake, and swing wings. The lines of the Cat are almost perfect. Heck, it's "looks" the part. The landing gear is the real beauty here. Each gear, both mains and nose, compress under the weight of the plane, with working struts, rubber tires and metal joining pins. The gear is a pain getting out, meaning that you must be careful to pull and lift the gear bay doors to pull the gear out. Once rotated and lifted into the down position, the mains have three points of contact that need to be locked in place to achieve sturdiness. Fortunately Merit posted a "how to" on their website that is somewhat helpful. No moving control surfaces though, but it kept the cost of the Cat down. Not a huge deal in my opinion.
8/10

Fit:
Here are where some problems arise. First the instruction manual is far from complete, missing the gear instructions completely. Secondly, there is no mention of the boarding ladder or steps. It continues...The canopy will not stay in the open position without something resting under the rear portion. The radar dish on mine is loose and will not stay in the vertical position. The speedbrake will not stay in the up position.

JSI's paintshop also made the mistake of painting the boarding ladder in the shut position, which takes an exacto knife to cut loose. Tweezers and muscle were required to break loose the glove vanes.

The ordinance package, although nicely detailed and painted, has a lot of fit problems on my bird at least. On the outboard pylon, my AIM-9 would not fit onto the mount without help from Mr. Exacto knife again. Even after taking not that each missle is fitted to a certain side, same goes with the rails and Phoenixes.

The vertical stabs aren't canted. We were told it was going to be fixed; in the end it wasn't.
6/10

Finish:
No one in their right mind can deny that the spots look pretty bad, but I'll talk about that in a second. The pad printing is very nice, from the main aircraft body to the ordinance package. The cockpit is a nicely done replica of the real thing. The face curtain handles could have been painted more accurately and I feel JSI flubbed that one, given they are prominent features in such a large viewing area.

The anti-glare black around the cockpit is terrible. Wavy lines, overspray, lines that don't match up and just plain-ole terrible masking problems are abudant here. The textured walk areas on top of the intakes is another sore point for me as someone at JSI's factory tried to cover up a major flaw on my bird with what looks like a Sharpie Marker. The vertical stabilizers have paint goofs everywhere; from their leading edge to the top of the fin.

Red TCS lens??? Don't think so.

The Spots...the biggest beef that many have had with the Tomcat. When I initially opened my box, I didn't realize how bad they really were until I saw them in person. I don't care if you stand 100 ft. from this model or 2mm away from the plastic, they are BAD. I don't mean just BAD, I mean, how the hell did JSI ever get this past QC BAD? I fired off a pix message on my phone of the Cat to several friends, only to get replies saying "Dude, what's up with those spots?". These are folks who no little or nothing about models or naval aviation. This type of attempted "weathering" by JSI is just amatuerish in my opinion.
3/10

Playability:
It's big, it's heavy, it's fragile, it's not a Toy.
5/10

Conclusion:

I'm somewhat satisfied with the JSI F-14, but there's a part of me that is really disappointed in the final product. The JSI F-14 COULD HAVE been great. It could have been the finest 1/18th production model that we've seen to date. The packaging, size, features, were all just spectacular.

These features are overshadowed by an amatuerish paint job. Small nicks, scratches, or even an occasional fingerprint, doesn't bother me. For the price that this model cost, this ridiculous paint job should have never had happened. Period. It shouldn't be up to the consumer to fix a sub-standard paint job. I'm almost embarrassed to let others see the Tomcat in person as I know what their first reaction and words will be. JSI should have never had let this polka-dotted feline out the door.

I'll fix my Tomcat one day. I wanted a Tomcat for many years and never thought I'd get one this big. The money I spent on this bird kind of feels bittersweet. On one hand I have a huge, physically beautiful model. When you see the gear compress, a little smile comes to my face. Then you step back a foot and the Cat looks like it has a case of the chickenpox.

At this point, it's a love/hate relationship with my big Feline.

V/R
Blake

[aferguson]

there've been some excellent and pretty simple spot fix solutons put forward. While it's a nuisance to have to do, it has to be done. I think you'll find when it is done you'll like the Tomcat more than you would have, if it hadn't had the spots.

I paid for mine today and should have it next week..i'm looking forward to seeing it and fixing it up. It looks just great without the spotttts.

[Jericoeagle1]

I pretty much agree with you NW on your review except the paint on mine (save the spots) was pretty good with few flaws. I only had fit issues around the glove vanes. Overall I was pretty pleased but feel that for the cost, QC should have been a lot tighter.

[NWarty]

Rgr JE,
I'll post of photo of her this afternoon with my custom 1/6 VF-84 pilot.

[NWarty]

Here y'all go. Still need to touch up his helmet a bit.

[tmanthegreat]

I like the pilot! However, he seems to be thinking "How the heck am I supposed to fit in that?!?"

[aferguson]

no, he's thinking 'who thought painting spots all over this was a good idea?'.

[YT]

That looks great.