Small Scale Military Headquarters

Due to the growing number of F-14 threads and the intense debate over if the F-14 is amazing or not... I'm starting two end all threads.

These will be heavily moderated, so be warned STAY ON TOPIC.

This is the CON thread. Discuss the not-so-good things about the F-14, like the spots. This can also be of complaints about putting it together, issues with the Tomcat itself, etc.

The Bad,

The Awful Weathering, lack of clear instructions especially on the operation of the landing gear. The landing gear can be tricky to deploy if you aren't patient. There are some fit issues around the engine intake areas but they are easily rectified. On the special edition, the lights are not accurate and more of a 'novelty' feature. Some of the parts fit loosely and fall out of place easily, I found a little tape on the fitting tabs takes care of that.

......... the SPOTS ! ! ! *


- MG

Jericoeagle1 wrote: especially on the operation of the landing gear. The landing gear can be tricky to deploy if you aren't patient.

Is it worse than the P-38s gear? I always found the P-38 gear to be hard as heck to get out, and always afraid I'm going to break it...

p51 wrote:

Jericoeagle1 wrote: especially on the operation of the landing gear. The landing gear can be tricky to deploy if you aren't patient.

Is it worse than the P-38s gear? I always found the P-38 gear to be hard as heck to get out, and always afraid I'm going to break it...

With no instructions its hard to tell how to deploy or retract them. I'll try and write a guide for them later this evening if I can get my camera back from a friend. The nose gear is simple once you figure it out and its actually quite strong. The mains I believe because of the compression springs in them are a bit more spindley.

Yeah. watch those main landing gear. They do seem a tad on the delicate side. Lots of moving parts to break.

...spots.

....and more spots...

I'm not sure about everyone else but my NAV lights are blue on the RT side. Hum...... they should be green.

My nose gear had glue/ paint that dried at the pivot point. I almost didn't get it out. I must have spent about an hour with every tool trying not to break it. She finally deployed.......3 green.

My ladder won't deploy either. I did everything short of breaking it, and it still won't come out. I am getting ready to hand over an F for build quality. Worst build quality I have ever seen in a 1:18. TOTALLY Chinese in every respect.

What do you mean by 'ladder', the hinge where the ladder is folded up in? Or the actual ladder?

How about posting some photos...

SierraMikeBravo wrote:My ladder won't deploy either. I did everything short of breaking it, and it still won't come out. I am getting ready to hand over an F for build quality. Worst build quality I have ever seen in a 1:18. TOTALLY Chinese in every respect.

I have the same problem. I wonder if the paint had sealed it up. I am afraid to slice it until I actually know where it is.


It is hard to show a picture until you know where it is actually located. On mine, there is no indication that it will even open up.

It’s sealed up with paint. Take a very sharp exacto knife and go around the panel to allow it to move free from the paint.

One of my steps doesn't come open either. Tried exacto and pushing at bottom to make it open neither works.

Also be very CAREFUL taking the canopy section out of the packaging. The radar dish is exposed and mine broke right at the hinge. I don't know if it broke coming out or was already broken as a result of shipping. There is only a very tiny piece holding it on on both sides. I'm trying to glue mine back on but don't know if it will hold as it appears the nose cone bar that holds the nose cone on will push down on the piece I need to glue back. They should have had something covering the radar so it couldn't have any pressure on it. Where the white dot in the pic below is where I am attempting to glue it back

I just want to chime in once more on this - when you go through the effort of mass-producing such an amazing pre-finished model - it is every bit a technical miracle at $200 - it is SUCH a ball drop when a decent shading technique couldn't be worked out before production. That seems to me like a minor facet of the whole execution and it can't be just explained away by the model's virtues or price point. And not for nothing, but Merit and BadCat really got caught with their pants down IMO - and they should be very apologetic for falsely allaying customers' well-founded concerns about this quality issue without concrete info.

Are they not taking returns?

BadCat isn't taking returns nor is FlyingMule

Booming Island is...they still have the paint master photos, so not only can you get a return (their store policy) but if they dont give you the return, you can burn them on ebay (feedback)

Also, did anyone else notice the yellow warning decal to the right of the star is out of place? it should be directly below the RIO seat, partly overlapping the star banner, it's wayyy too far right

The thing that troubles me most about the F-14 is not the spots. Sure, they are no where near perfect or even a good attempt at weathering, but I can live with them. What troubles me most about the F-14 is the sheer complexity of it. All the little moving parts, hinges, pushrods, etc. It is all wonderfully fine detailing, but it is also just that much more which can break. My plane came with one of the pushrods for the airbrakes under the fuselage loose in the box, and there was some other plastic tab that broke off from somewhere, but which I cannot identify. The complexity and seeming fragility of the landing gear struts also concern me...

Otherwise, this is one heck of a model

My pilots stick was broken off and missing.
Also one of the fin antenna is no where to be found.
I may have broken it off but I doubt it. Easy enough to scratch build another.


EDIT
Found the antenna, Must have been barely glued on.

SierraMikeBravo wrote:My ladder won't deploy either. I did everything short of breaking it, and it still won't come out. I am getting ready to hand over an F for build quality. Worst build quality I have ever seen in a 1:18. TOTALLY Chinese in every respect.

Worst build quality in 1/18? Over a ladder that's painted shut?

If it were totally American in every respect it would've cost about $600..or more!

All 1/18 is totally chinese.

SierraMikeBravo wrote:My ladder won't deploy either. I did everything short of breaking it, and it still won't come out. I am getting ready to hand over an F for build quality. Worst build quality I have ever seen in a 1:18. TOTALLY Chinese in every respect.

This ranks next to the other Faux Pas: Melanine, Lead Paint, and other toxic by-products. I'm surprised that the letterings on the aircraft were NOT written in ENGRISH.

We can expect Cheetah stripes, Paisley patterns, or worse, neon colors on the F-15 and the SU-27. This F-14 is just a sign of things to come. So close yet soo far.

DEVGRU wrote:This F-14 is just a sign of things to come.

If so, then what were the Corsair, Stuka, and Lightning?

is it me or did the IQ level just suddenly drop in here?

Guys....knock of the racial garbage now or leave and don't come back (preferred). If it weren't for chinese labourers making less than $1 per day almost everything you buy would cost about 100 times as much.

Minor build quality issues are to be expected on a compex and large aircraft such as this. The dorky spots were inexcusable but the other stuff is nit picking. Part of the reason this had a high price tag is because of the low production run. So at $200 it's not really going to be twice as good as a BBI F-18, which had a production run of probably 3 times as much.

Regardless, ridciuling the chinese is not cool and not acceptable. You can spout that crap anywhere you want....except here.

This is the one and only warning you're gonna get.