POST ALL JSE F-14 QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION HERE

[bobb428]

I have a little red bar with a hole at each end left in the box. It's about 3/4" long. Whats it goe to?

[firefox91]

After a few e-mails and quite a bit of waiting, I finally got my replacement parts from Merit.

Original problems: Nose cone hinge frozen, radar dish arm broken, right landing gear snapped off.

So they sent me a new radar dish assembly, left and right landing gears, and a new nose cone.

The new nose cone did nothing for the hinge being frozen. The cone wasn't the problem. After inspection, I determined that the hinge was frozen in place on one size either by glue or paint. Either way, I fear forcing it because it might break. The cone goes on and stays on normally so I am willing to just let this one go.

The radar dish assembly they sent included the back panel, the dish arms, and a new dish. The only thing I really needed were the arms. I removed the old arms, re drilled the holes for the pegs and put it back in. Not sure why they sent me a new back panel. There is no way in hell I would have gotten that off. Pretty sure the plane has to come apart for that.

The landing gear was the biggest challenge. The metal pin holding it in was too far in to grab it and pull it out with pliers. I had to use a dremmel tool to cut away at the gear. Once I broke that off, I could use pliers to slide the pin out. Then I put the new gear in, inserted the pin, and it was fixed.

At this point, I am very much on the fence on if I will buy another JSI product again. The F-14 is fantastically detailed but incredibly fragile and poorly designed in some places. No instructions were provided on the operation of the landing gear in the box, nor instructions on how to replace the parts. However, Merit did make sure I got replacement parts with no hassle, just some waiting. So it is clear that they care about making things right.

Bottom line, I understand the desire to have 100% accuracy in these models. But functionality is incredibly important. While the landing gears on BBI planes are not accurate or sexy, they are also not prone to breakage. I think JSI needs to consider this.

If anyone needs any of the following F-14 parts, send me a PM as I have extras as a result of Merit sending more than what I needed.

nose cone
left landing gear
radar dish
radar dish backplane

[tmanthegreat]

After a few e-mails and quite a bit of waiting, I finally got my replacement parts from Merit.

Thanks for sharing! Can you give us the contact info you used for Merit? I am in no need of the replacement parts (my F-14 is doing just fine) but I know there are many others who could use it

I have a little red bar with a hole at each end left in the box. It's about 3/4" long. Whats it goe to?

As for the little red bar, it may be a pushrod to one of the airbreaks. You will want to open them and see where it goes in. I had one that had fallen off when I got my plane and it was an easy fix.

[firefox91]

Thanks for sharing! Can you give us the contact info you used for Merit? I am in no need of the replacement parts (my F-14 is doing just fine) but I know there are many others who could use it

Ahhh, that was stupid of me not to share that info. The e-mail address I got most of my contact from service@merit-intl.com.

[pcoughran]

Thanks for sharing! Can you give us the contact info you used for Merit? I am in no need of the replacement parts (my F-14 is doing just fine) but I know there are many others who could use it

Ahhh, that was stupid of me not to share that info. The e-mail address I got most of my contact from service@merit-intl.com.

I just sent my horror/sob story to Merit (since you had success). Hopefully I'll get at least new gear out of it (this time both better have the metal rod in them). I also had the broken radar dish mount upon arrival, but that's less important to me. Their response will go a long way towards influencing my purchase of another JSI product in the future. I'll let you know how it turns out.
By the way, how long did it take to get a response from Merit anyway?

[Jwcarpenter]

[I just sent my horror/sob story to Merit (since you had success). Hopefully I'll get at least new gear out of it (this time both better have the metal rod in them). I also had the broken radar dish mount upon arrival, but that's less important to me. Their response will go a long way towards influencing my purchase of another JSI product in the future. I'll let you know how it turns out.
By the way, how long did it take to get a response from Merit anyway?[/quote]

It took about 3 days to get an email response, they then asked me to take pictures of the broken parts so that they could send them to the factory. About 60 days later, they told me that they had got the parts and asked for my address that was last week. So new parts are on their way.

[Jwcarpenter]

Did anyone else get one of these (F-14 color guide) with their JSI F-14A? It is in color and gives descriptions of the Jolly Rogers squadron history and the history of the F-14 and the combat experience of the F-14. Also my new one was packed a little differently much better with the Radar dish being completely protected in the new packing?

[pcoughran]

Did anyone else get one of these (F-14 color guide) with their JSI F-14A? It is in color and gives descriptions of the Jolly Rogers squadron history and the history of the F-14 and the combat experience of the F-14. Also my new one was packed a little differently much better with the Radar dish being completely protected in the new packing?

No F 14 color guide. Can you post a picture of the packaging for yours as I'm curious to see what they did different. They are admitting they screwed up if they did in fact change packaging. It'd be nice to have as proof if they give any trouble getting replacement parts.
thanks,
Phil

[tmanthegreat]

Did anyone else get one of these (F-14 color guide) with their JSI F-14A? It is in color and gives descriptions of the Jolly Rogers squadron history and the history of the F-14 and the combat experience of the F-14. Also my new one was packed a little differently much better with the Radar dish being completely protected in the new packing?

Yes, I got one of those with my plane, in addition to the assembly directions. Its a neat little booklet and a nice touch to include, but a lot of the history part was copied from the Wikipedia article for the Jolly Rogers

No one has mentioned getting that item before, so I wonder how many of us really got one given all the packing issues, etc that seem to have popped up.

[firefox91]

I wish I would have gotten one of those guides. That would have been something nice to have.

Funny that they made you take pictures of the broken parts. I just e-mailed them and they mailed them out a while later.

Don't count on getting a metal rod in your landing gear, it isn't in there. It is still solid plastic in the middle part of it where mine broke. After I replaced it, I just retracted it and decided never to deploy it again. It is way to fragile to risk that again. Maybe this isn't a good idea but I have few other options. I have mine on the shelf resting on the fuel tanks. They are stable and it balances perfectly. It is also up high where no one can bump it. I may look into hanging it sometime later but I have high ceilings throughout most of my house so it makes that a challenge.

[pcoughran]

I wish I would have gotten one of those guides. That would have been something nice to have.

Funny that they made you take pictures of the broken parts. I just e-mailed them and they mailed them out a while later.

Don't count on getting a metal rod in your landing gear, it isn't in there. It is still solid plastic in the middle part of it where mine broke. After I replaced it, I just retracted it and decided never to deploy it again. It is way to fragile to risk that again. Maybe this isn't a good idea but I have few other options. I have mine on the shelf resting on the fuel tanks. They are stable and it balances perfectly. It is also up high where no one can bump it. I may look into hanging it sometime later but I have high ceilings throughout most of my house so it makes that a challenge.

Did both of your struts not have the metal rod inside? One of mine had it (the left gear) and the other was just hollow in the middle (the right gear). They are supposed to have a metal rod in the lower strut (portion connected to the wheel). Even after putting a carbon fiber rod in the hollow one, it broke right where the rod ended - where the wheel actually connects to the strut. It would seem pointless to send replacements that are missing he metal rods as you still couldn't display on the gear.

I highly recommend pizzaguy's acrylic stands. They are very nice and fairly affordable. See this link:

viewtopic.php?t=5999&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=80

[firefox91]

I wish I would have gotten one of those guides. That would have been something nice to have.

Funny that they made you take pictures of the broken parts. I just e-mailed them and they mailed them out a while later.

Don't count on getting a metal rod in your landing gear, it isn't in there. It is still solid plastic in the middle part of it where mine broke. After I replaced it, I just retracted it and decided never to deploy it again. It is way to fragile to risk that again. Maybe this isn't a good idea but I have few other options. I have mine on the shelf resting on the fuel tanks. They are stable and it balances perfectly. It is also up high where no one can bump it. I may look into hanging it sometime later but I have high ceilings throughout most of my house so it makes that a challenge.

Did both of your struts not have the metal rod inside? One of mine had it (the left gear) and the other was just hollow in the middle (the right gear). They are supposed to have a metal rod in the lower strut (portion connected to the wheel). Even after putting a carbon fiber rod in the hollow one, it broke right where the rod ended - where the wheel actually connects to the strut. It would seem pointless to send replacements that are missing he metal rods as you still couldn't display on the gear.

I highly recommend pizzaguy's acrylic stands. They are very nice and fairly affordable. See this link:

viewtopic.php?t=5999&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=80

Honestly, I am not sure at this point. I know that it did have a metal rod in the gear somewhere but the part that was broken had no rod. I really didn't give the new one much of a look. I guess I don't have the attention to detail most modelers do. But I am not a modeler. I collect GIJoe and could not pass up my favorite aircraft being made in a scale that fits my favorite toy line. I would confirm it but I really don't want to bring it down off the shelf and play with that landing gear again.

I will check out that stand, it looks perfect. Thank you!

[JOC]

I have Pizza Guy's lighted F-14 stand and it is just FANTASTIC. Don't wait to see what it's like, just get one. You won't be sorry!
JOC

[CW4USARMY]

I have Pizza Guy's lighted F-14 stand and it is just FANTASTIC. Don't wait to see what it's like, just get one. You won't be sorry!
JOC

Agreed! The stand looks great, especially when lit up! Great work from Pizza guy!

[dragon53]

Is the color guide worth emailing Merit to get one?

[NWarty]

Where the heck are the Tomcat pilots?

[crickets chirping]

Shouldn't we have seen the prototypes by now?

[crickets chirping]

Must be in the hospital with a case of chickenpox...Or JSI's gunshy about releasing anything at the moment

[tmanthegreat]

Is the color guide worth emailing Merit to get one?

I would say no, unless you want it to go with your plane for the sake of product completeness. The guide is nice, but as I noted above, much of the information came straignt from the F-14 and Jolly Rogers wikipedia articles and it all can be found with a few clicks of a mouse on google

[dragon53]

TMANTHEGREAT:

For the price I paid and the spot removal I have about to begin and the pilots I'll have to pay extra for, I want as much of a return on my money as possible.
I may email Merit for the color guide.

[JoeS]

Not sure how far its true, but according to this long standing seller in Germany - the next paint scheme for the F-14 looks like an Iranian cat.
http://www.warbirdmodelle.de/ Look at coming soon 'Preview' or under 'Vorschau'.

Just took delivery of my F-14 thanks to MTS. I think I'm one of the first in the UK to get one...maybe..

[NWarty]

After completely FUBAR'ing one of the ole girl's prettiest schemes, they would want to do THIS scheme without trying to complete a DECENT US Navy paint app. first?

Did JSI drink the bong water too???

For the sake of the 1/18 I hope this isn't the case. Just my opinion.

[CessnaDriver]

Blech.

Give us Fightertown USA 'cats!

[NWarty]

Blech.

Give us Fightertown USA 'cats!

Heck, I'm waiting Fightertown Decals' low-vis first run. After that, nice knowin' ya JSI...

[ww2collecter]

Well since xmas my 'Cat has been sitting on the gears. I have it parked on top of mirrors on a table. I did have a few issues early on with the strut support falling out of the rear gears. I had to use force to make them snap in. Its scary, cause u think its gonna break, but you will feel them go in. Also, I just cant get the damn canopy to stay up.

Other then that no malfunctions. And the plane is standing tall

[mcaulk]

The only explanation for doing a 1/18th F-14 in Iranian markings is the following scenario. The decision makers at JSI got their hands on several well aged kegs of the Chinese equivalent of some super potent turbo grade, mind-numbing, brain-freezing, Jack Daniels and at the peak of imbibing, seconds prior to lapsing into an alcohol induced comma mumble to themselves... "Iran... that's right Iran is where the money is!" Or maybe they think Iranians will be less sensitive to last minute weathering treatments or maybe they are mad at us for complaining or maybe they just don't have a clue. Just to bad because this could have been a real success story. I hope this is some sort of German inspired miss-guided stab at humor. Hans we are laughing, LOL, LOL. We shall see.

Mike

[Ferrari250GTO]

Or maybe, because this isn't a confirmed paint scheme! Sheesh!
I think everyone goes way too crazy way too fast about everything they see in terms of new products.
Same thing with the "$100" Passion Wagon. Who confirmed that?