Small Scale Military Headquarters

Greetings:

Suersonic got an F-14 with Jack's gear fix but remember the postal service was hard on the model and the gear broke at the bottom or something like that. Someone else got one with a gear fix too, but forget who they were.

I've had no problems with the gear at all on this one. The only problem on my first F-14 was that the arms that extend into the gear area kept falling out. But otherwise, the gear on both stayed up fine and showed no signs of any problems for breakage.

As far as the pilots and ground crew go, it'd be awesome but really not a deal breaker for me. The stuff would probably just get stored in a box anyway. Neat idea though if it would show up.

Corey

Jack's works is awesome : the Landing gear looks so nice !

The only problem was during the delivery (from the US to FRance !)

Some small parts were broken ( the antena attachement , speed brake and one gear door)

The main problem was the small plastic part of the landing gear ( The other one is so neat !)

Jack put a metal tube inside the landing gear : it looks so real !!!!!

you can see on the picture where the damage was done by the postal service :







But jack told me to send it back (it's so nice of him!) he will fix it for me!

I am going to remove carefully the pin and the whole lower landing gear and send it back to him (With a bullet proof packaging!!!!!!!! )

here is another picture (with my modest temporary repair) but you can see it's a nice detail to have some shiny metal parts inside....



The bottom line is that the landing gear looks SO real & dirty that i really hate the postals guys who played FOOTBALL with my tOMCAT !!!!

The email I sent and the reply from Merit I got today. To their credit, they are responding reasonably quickly and I didn't even have to send them the pics to prove the parts were broke. Still upset about the whole episode, but at least I'm getting some kind of replacements.

"Dear -------,

We will be sending your replacement parts today or tomorrow. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

Best regards,
for Merit International Limited

Veronica

17421-B East Gale Ave.
Industry, CA 91748
626-912-2212
626-912-2202 (Fax)
www.merit-intl.com

-----Original Message-----
From: P C [mailto:@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 6:32 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: JSI 1/18 scale F 14 broken parts

To Whom It May Concern:

I purchased the JSI F14 as a Christmas present from one of your retailers (-----------------in St. Louis, MO). The paint scheme was a disaster to say the least, but I spent a good 10 hours masking and repainting the entire plane so it looks great now.

Unfortunately, after only displaying it for a couple hours one of the gear broke causing strain on the other gear and it snapped as well.

Upon inspection, I noticed a metal rod was missing from the first gear that broke leading to the collapse of the second gear. I tried inserting a carbon fiber rod into the gear and gluing back together, but to no avail. Both gear again broke in different spots.

When I opened the box originally, the radar dish mount had one of the tabs that holds the dish broken and laying in the packaging. The dish was loose.

After all the gear breaking and the radar dish I'd like to return it. But unfortunately I'd already painted the plane before attempting to display it on its gear.

I read Merit's instructions on their website about the gear and knew about the fragility of the gear before displaying. Myself and another adult were very careful connecting everything correctly and ensuring there was no undue stress and both gear were compressed equally during set up.

The problem is the JSI Quality Control on these. The missing metal rod in the one gear led to the failure.

I know Merit has sent replacement parts to at least one other person as they posted on a website for military collectibles that I follow. For this reason, I'd like to get replacement gear for both the main gear. If possible I'd like a replacement radar dish mount as well since it was broken in the box. I can provide pictures of the damage if you need it.

Your handling of this matter will go a long way towards influencing my purchase of other JSI and Merit International products.

My address is:

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Regards,

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That's good to hear Merit is sending replacement parts. I actually purchased 2 special AWOH lighted F-14's from Bad Cat in early December one for me and one for my Dad. Absolutely horrible condition. I contacted Bad Cat about a week later. They said they were in discussion with JSI about replacement parts.

Saturday Matt at Bad Cat called me and asked me to ship back to BC both bad F-14's. He told me JSI was making another batch of lighted Tomcats to replace some of the worst examples and other parts for lesser examples. Mine was so bad they necessitated replacement. On both Tomcats here are the issues:

1. Front landing gears superglued in the pivot point. One broke. After realizing why, I inspected the other and left it alone.
2. Broken radar dish mounts.
3. Broken pitot tubes on the side of the fuselage. Not a biggie, one can easily glue them back.
4. Front strut on the right main landing gear missing on both planes. Ya know, the long angle strut that attaches at the FWD end of the landing gear bay.
5. And here's the clincher of them all. The back shells on the main fuselages weren't even attached all the way. They were merely snapped in a couple places and the mounts on some other spots were broken. Therefore I could easily remove the shells and view where all the wiring went and see the gear mechanisms for the swing wings.

If all the other crap wasn't crap and the shells were the only issues, I would have kept them and would have easily been able to do some customizing like removing the main landing gears for reinforcements or work on smoothing the inside of the intakes or even put in somthing that looked like an engine behind the fan blades.

They were shipped today. Hopefully these replacements are okay and even better if they didn't weather them at all!! Two spotless Tomcats would make my day!

PCOUGHRAN,

Is the broken part from the radar dish thev same thing as the mysterious "T-shaped" broken part everyone is finding in the F-14 box?

Greetings:

The T-Shaped parts come from inside the plane. When I disassembled my first F-14 I found out where they come from.

They serve as a support for the top shell of the airplane and the bottom shell. They go on the inside near the intakes. When I took mine apart, another one fell out from that area. They look to serve as extra supports on the inside and have nothing it seems to do with any of the other parts on the plane.

But they come from inside the airplane. My guess is when the planes are being packaged and push into the foam inserts, pressure was put on the outer surfaces and these were breaking off and falling out from the intakes, as the part is glued inside near that location. There's plenty of support inside the aircraft so I don't even know why they are needed.

Corey

dragon53 wrote:PCOUGHRAN,

Is the broken part from the radar dish thev same thing as the mysterious "T-shaped" broken part everyone is finding in the F-14 box?

No that isn't part of the radome/dish assembly. See CoreyEagle's comments above.

COREYEAGLE48:

Thanks for clearing that up. I kept mine just in case. My radar dish flops when I try to put the radome on and that made me wonder if the broken T-part was a factor, but I couldn't find a broken area on the radar assembly.

UPDATE:
I got the replacement gear from Merit today. Not too bad, only took 10 days total from the time I sent the email till they arrived at my door. They also sent a new Radome/Dish mount since mine was broken also.
I dread taking the F14 down off it's perch (pizzaguy's beautiful acrylic stand) to mess with these atrocious gear again, but guess I'll give it a try this weekend and see what happens. I don't have much faith after my first experience. Hopefully these both have the metal rod in the strut, I'm afraid to mess with pulling pins out to check so will just install them and hope for the best.

Just some final comments on JSI's F14, from my own personal perspective.
Now that most of the "dust" has settled, and I am able to reflect on what many of us went through to get our F14's "fixed", here are my thoughts:
As I look over at my F14, sitting proudy on my somewhat inaccurate but functional attempt at an aircraft carrier deck, I have to say that I love the way that plane looks...Despite the extra money I had to spend for the Skyworks repaint & gear fix, at least I now have (yes, I know, it should have been that way to start with), a magnificent 1/18th scale aircraft that has become the "Crown Jewel" of my collection (over 70 1/18 scale aircraft strong!)
I don't know if JSI will ever make another plane, or if AllGo will actually produce anything, but if they do, I will keep buying it as long as I am able to...I love the planes, I love the scale, and it's a lot cheaper than the Corvette I'll probably never get

Coreyeagle, thank you for solving the great T shape greeblie mystery for me!

Help a IDIOT out. How the heck do you keep the canopy up on the F14

I wouldn't call yourself an idiot regarding the canopy... I have two college degrees and it took me a little bit and the help of another boardmember to find out myself

Anyways, there should be a little white pushrod that attaches to the canopy and goes into a little slot behind the rear ejection seat. While holding the canopy up, use your finger, a pencil, or something else to gently push the rod towards the rear of the plane. When you get it into the right position, the rod will rest on a little ledge and hold the canopy open.

Hope that helps

okay trying to do this without getting myself in trouble. my wife and i are thinking about starting a 1/18 f-14 repaint service. we plan on making a website soon. plus i plan on selling my first few planes on ebay to help me decide in final pricing. for those who are interested in having their plane/s repainted you can contact me through pm here or at our email ([email protected]). more to come, plus pics. first plane will either be vf-102 hi-viz or a vf-84 low-viz using fightertown decals.

tmanthegreat wrote:I wouldn't call yourself an idiot regarding the canopy... I have two college degrees and it took me a little bit and the help of another boardmember to find out myself

Anyways, there should be a little white pushrod that attaches to the canopy and goes into a little slot behind the rear ejection seat. While holding the canopy up, use your finger, a pencil, or something else to gently push the rod towards the rear of the plane. When you get it into the right position, the rod will rest on a little ledge and hold the canopy open.

Hope that helps

did any one try the McD coffee stick painted black idea...

i know there has been talk about someone doing a bombcat, well i am going to attemp it. and put it on ebay. the bombs i'll be using are the 7 and a half inch. this will also be my first plane up for sell on ebay, not here, please no pm messages here. if your interested you can contact me through ebay or at [email protected]. i hope all this is within the rules set here, if not let me know, and i'll edit this. i hope to have it done in a few weeks. so pics will follow or just check it out on ebay.

I have had mine for about 2 weeks now and have yet to even open the box.

I got mine from Aviator Nut . Iknew from the start ( he did to ) that it has a broken under carrage.

He is sending me the rJSI repair kit.

Maybe some day I will open it and view those beautiful spots

Modern stuff aint my thing but I have learned if it is 1/18 GET IT !!!!!

pickelhaube wrote:Modern stuff aint my thing but I have learned if it is 1/18 GET IT !!!!!

That's the truth! The F-14 - once the spots are either abated or completely removed - is one of the most beautiful and complex of all 1:18 aircraft. It was a wise puchase

Iranian F14 pics
http://www.merit-intl.com/month/iriaf%20f-14.htm
The story on their homepage about it is kind of confusing. Sounds like JSI made a prototype Iranian F14, and sent it to someone to customize it.

thats what i'm thinking too.

This would look so cool being shot at by an F15I...

Ferrari250GTO wrote:Iranian F14 pics
http://www.merit-intl.com/month/iriaf%20f-14.htm
The story on their homepage about it is kind of confusing. Sounds like JSI made a prototype Iranian F14, and sent it to someone to customize it.

The decals are way too noticeable on this "customized" one. It's a shame as the overall paint looks pretty good.

WOW! +1 for Merit's effort!

I just got a tracking number for a replacement part for my F-14!

I wonder if the refueling probe actually deploys like in the photo of the Iranian version?

Greetings:

Got the color guide missing from my box quickly from them. They are trying to make what they can right.

Kind of neat to have.

Corey