POST ADMIRAL TOYS F-86 DISCUSSION HERE

Sabrefan · Post by **Sabrefan** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:29 pm

Eddie,
I have mine here right by my side. It seems to follow me from room to room. It really is a great looking plane.

JOC · Post by **JOC** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:18 am

Can anyone tell me if their main landing gear on the Sabre locks down? Mine seem to come down alright but have a tendancy to collapse if the plane is moved. Also does your canopy snap closed? Mine has some sort of tabs on the leading edge of Canopy but nothing to catch onto the main windshield portion.
Thanks
JOC

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:24 am

My nose wheel doesn't lock, but is stiff enough that it doesn't collapse; the same can be said for my main landing gear as well. My canopy is also a little loose, but not by very much. One of my flaps, however, is rather loose and can come out of place easily. I'm still working on a satisfactory solution for that.

Website · Post by **Teamski** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:29 am

IIRC, BCT mentions in their review that the gear don't lock into place....

-Ski

JOC · Post by **JOC** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:26 am

Glad to hear that I am not the only one with Gear Problems. Not glad that it happens, but that I am no imagining things. Seems that maybe a stronger sort of spring or support bar like on the corsairs could have been used to support the main gear. Not complaining, its a great addition to our collections. For the first time out of the box, Admiral did a fantastic job.
JOC

digger · Post by **digger** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:14 pm

UPDATE 3/17/06: The F-86s destined to fill Preorder #2 have been loaded aboard ship in China and will leave port in a few hours. These Sabres will have several minor improvements over the original batch including more positive gear downlocks. We are projecting a shipping date somewhere in the vicinity of April 12th, barring no customs delays.

Great to hear about improvements

All you guys who did not jump on round one have something to celebrate.

KAGNEW · Post by **KAGNEW** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:47 am

i got my 2 last nite
i'm happy to report no problems found on the one i put together

eddie372 · Post by **eddie372** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:07 pm

JOC, you're right about the main landing gears' tendency to collapse. The problem seems to originate with the alignment of the wheels themselves. As you look at the aircraft from the front, the wheels appeared to be somewhat pigeon-toed, which causes the gears to collapse as you move the aircraft in either direction.

It would be interesting to find a fix for this one though!

As for the canopy, mine latches and slides very well. The bottom tabs seems to click on the airframe body itself when you close it.

A friend of mine told me that the inside of the airbrake surfaces is supposed to be red. Can anyone verify that? In the pictures I've seen so far, it's been impossible to tell.

Ed

JOC · Post by **JOC** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:14 pm

Eddie:
It appears that Admiral has done a fix on the wheel situation with the next shippment of planes coming in. No idea what we will do with all of the first editions that are now out? Short of using glue or some sort of clay in there to hold it, it is better not to move the plane at all, or it will collaps.
My forward windscreen seems to be installed a little off so as not to let the canopy lock in place. I don't want to break off the front windscreen to fix it. Admiral emailed me about that problem and wants me to send the fusalage back to them to look at the problem. I did not want to start anything with them, I could live with that, but they want to see it and are sending me a UPS slip to send it to them. It looks to me like they are really serious about their Customer Service.

Sabrefan · Post by **Sabrefan** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:39 pm

My F-86 had two broken main landing gear doors when I took it out of the box. I sent an email to Admiral on Tuesday, and on Friday I got a replacement wing from them. They even sent me two drop tanks as one of mine was split. It is great to see this kind of customer service. Thanks Admiral.

Post by **p51** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:49 am

Inside of the brake doors...

USCGSARdog · Post by **USCGSARdog** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:52 am

Hmmmm, I would guess that they are red.

Nice pic p51.

-Rob

scbvideoboy · Post by **scbvideoboy** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 5:58 am

Sabrefan wrote:My F-86 had two broken main landing gear doors when I took it out of the box. I sent an email to Admiral on Tuesday, and on Friday I got a replacement wing from them. They even sent me two drop tanks as one of mine was split. It is great to see this kind of customer service. Thanks Admiral.

So I guess I should take mine completely out and inspect it...

Dave

eddie372 · Post by **eddie372** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:47 pm

P-51, that picture answers my question very eloquently, doesn't it? Thanks a million for a great shot.

Ed

Quixote511 · Post by **Quixote511** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:12 am

I think this might be a variation thing. Some might have the red and some might have the zinc chromate.
Aaron

scbvideoboy · Post by **scbvideoboy** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:44 am

So I decided to take mine out of the box to inspect it after the posts started with broken parts, doors etc...

I didn't see any parts broken during shipping, I did see the forward fuselage seams had to be re-pressed together, and saw what the cockpit looked like hehe...

However my front gear door broke off as I tried to open it and found the plastic pivot protrusion glued to the bulkhead and twisted off as I tried to open the door.

The wing looked ok, but I see the doors are a weak spot with the little pivoting protrusions.

Overall very nice, and a great platform for the serious modelers to customize to perfection.

I will wrap with tissue and replace back in the package.

dave

KAGNEW · Post by **KAGNEW** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:42 am

HI GUYS
i checked with a friend of mine Duncan Curtis, i think he is the most knowledgable F-86 guy out there.
he said USAF F-86 speed brakes interior green 1947/1956
USN FJ Fury speed brakes red 1947/1958

kevrut · Post by **kevrut** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:25 pm

I took my F-86 straight out of the box, put it together, then hung it from the ceiling. I didn't see any paint problems. I never opened the landing gear doors yet.

JohnLumley · Post by **JohnLumley** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:45 pm

Put mine together this weekend and all was perfect except for some permanent marks left on the sliding canopy... probably due to rubbing against the foam packaging during transport.

John

Post by **aferguson** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:50 pm

So far it sounds like Admiral Toys first effort in the 1/18 aircraft arena is a beauty. Except for some pretty minor complaints, for the most part the quality, packaging and detail sounds top notch on the F-86.

I'm worried about their very generous customer service policy backfiring on them though. I know they want to make everyone happy but i'm afraid people will take advantage of it.

I know how certain collectors can be, perfectionists for whom nothing is good enough and with AT willing to replace parts or even whole planes free of charge and paying shipping both ways they could run into some pretty big expenses trying to satisfy everyone. They are a new company and don't need the extra hassle or expense, i can bet.

If we think back to 21c's and even BBI's first offerings they were not perfect either but were, and still are fantastic value for the money. These are $50 toy planes, not thousand dollar custom models and i hope everyone is thrilled with what they have come out with and not nit pick them to death.

We all have a vested interest in keeping them around for years to come...but if it were me running Admiral Toys, i could see myself getting pretty discouraged and frustrated by a lot of microscopic complaints and returns. They are people, working hard, just like you and me..

KAGNEW · Post by **KAGNEW** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:03 pm

i agree with you.
if Tamiya did them they would be $500.00 instead of 50.00

Razor17019 · Post by **Razor17019** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:07 pm

AFerg,
I can see the ME-262 or next Admiral Toys offering as being less generous in returns...
Companies gotta live and learn.

Sabrefan · Post by **Sabrefan** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:31 pm

My F-86 had a couple of broken main gear doors. I contacted Admiral and asked how I could get some more doors. They sent me a whole wing. I didn't ask for that, but it was nice of them to do that.

eddie372 · Post by **eddie372** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:40 pm

Agree with AFerg in all respects, and hope that at least the members of this forum will not abuse their excellent customer service and their obvious willingness to please us.

But then again, there's another side to the customer service issue: I just bought two more F-86s from them, no so much because I needed them, but because I want to help them out. It's kind of like 'you scratch my back and I scratch yours' deal. Would I have done that if their CS was lousy, or if they'd have given me a hard time about replacing the missing parts in my original order? No way Jose!!! (as we say in Miami).

Eddie

scbvideoboy · Post by **scbvideoboy** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:46 pm

I'm not really complaining, well I'm not bringing complaints to Admiral Toys, I just wanted to state what others were stating.

I'm enough of a modeler to fix it. Money going to my toys is expendable and I don't do returns unless it's totally hosed and in 10 little pieces

All this feed back is good to know, now if AT are reading they know what to address on series 2, and ME 262 and Zero or future planes. I have mine sitting apart on the box and every time I walk by I have to study it.

I have a website and love to hear feedback on my products, packing and shipping results. Without feed back you don't know what to fix or improve.

Now where's my ME 262!!

Dave

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POST ADMIRAL TOYS F-86 DISCUSSION HERE

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