Amercom And Italeri Lines Arrive In The U.S.

[Dauntless]

Good greif the thing is huge at 15 inches long, nearly twice the length of my Corgi CH-47 Chinook which is 9"

Got one too.

[aferguson]

the 15 inches is including rotor overhang but it is big. Fuselage will be about 12 inches long.

[Dauntless]

Ok, I was measuring the fuselage on the Chinook too.
Here's one lifting a CH-47
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USMC- ... 2C-182.jpg

[aferguson]

Epap.......where has the Italeri line landed in the US? They have a couple of 1/72's i want to pick up, the Predator and RQ-170 but they're super expensive on Ebay.

[Epap]

Aikens is carrying some of them, AF. I tried posting a link but it won't connect. Just search under manufacturers for "Italera"---a misspelling, of course.

[aferguson]

hm.....Aikens is no good for me. They have a flat rate minimum of $40 shipping to Canada, regardless of size. I could order a tiny item and shipping would still be $40. Not sure what some of these etailers are thinking about when they set up their shippng rates. They must get almost zero international business with rates like that.

I hope somebody else gets them in. Italeri itself has a webstore and good prices but they only ship to Europe. The only other place i can find them is a Swiss etailer but they cost about $40 a pop, with shipping added in. Too much to justify. Ebay prices are worse.

These things cost about $15 or less in Europe, so i'm not about to pay $40 to $50 for them. I'll just have to be patient and hope to find a reasonable etailer at some point.

thanks for the intel, Epap.

[aferguson]

for anyone looking to supplement the Amercom WWI planes line, Model Power makes a Fokker D.VII, which is pretty nice.

I picked up the Berthold (blue and red) version and am quite pleased with it. It's listed as 1/70 scale but comes out to 1/71 by my measurements. Could do will a bit of detail painting but otherwise, it's one of the nicer model power offerings i've seen.

[aferguson]

Dauntless: have you received your Amercom Sea Dragon helicopter you orderd from Amazon, yet? The tracking on mine still hasn't been updated since Nov 5 and is still 'en route to Canada'. I have confirmed from the vendor that it is coming by surface mail but it hasn't been scanned anywhere except the Polish post office yet.

[Dauntless]

Nope, haven't seen it yet Aferg. Mine says a similar thing on Amazon. It's taking a while, then I suspect it'll get caught up in the X-Mas log jamb.

As long as I do get it and it's not damaged. The latter is asking a lot though from past experience.

[aferguson]

agreed......i'm in no rush for it, so the waiting, while annoying, is not a big deal. I'm just thinking it will be pulverized travelling on a ship for weeks. It's a delicate model to begin with so i think considerable (re) assembly willl be required when it arrives (next year).

Anyway, i'm glad you haven't got yours either......misery loves company.

ps the seller told me that he has stopped selling the model for now.....it's too big (according to him) to ship airmail and surface takes too long (i guess he's had a few complaints).

[Dauntless]

Check this out. Looks like US retail is going to get the Sea Dragon. Mine better arrive before that and intact.

http://www.flyingmule.com/products/AM-ACHY40

[Dauntless]

Update: got mine in the mail today. Everything intact except for one of the two nose antennae that fell out of it's slot, an easy glue back in.

Haven't opened it yet, but it looks impressive.

[The_Helicopter_Pilot]

I guess I lucked out on the sea dragon, getting it at $24.49 shipped the day it come out in Poland a few months back, before the price change on it, the flyingmule has the lowest price I've seen sense then, though IMHO, I don't think it's worth the $39 price tag on it, the original $17 is more reasonable IMO...

[aferguson]

glad to hear yours arrived, Dauntless. Maybe there's still hope for mine....still nothing has changed on the tracking. Do you remember what day you ordered yours?

[Dauntless]

I think it was just a few days before you did, maybe within a week.

[aferguson]

well goody.......my Sea Dragon has finally arrived in Canada. Tracking is showing it in Montreal. Should be here in another week probably. So total of about 8 weeks to arrive. Yowsa.

[sluff]

Unfortunately mine arrived last week and the ifr probe, both antennas, nose gear and tail rotor were damaged. I will have to get a new one from the flying mule in March

[aferguson]

anyone looking for the 1/72 RQ-170 or Predator by Italeri, there's a well known Polish seller on Ebay who has them for $10 each plus very reasonable shipping.

They're selling quick and while he has lots of them, i'd buy sooner rather than later if i were you as he has a tendancy to raise his prices when he discovers he has a hot item.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131075371450?ss ... 3964wt_896

[tmanthegreat]

So I got my collection of the Amercom WWI aircraft a few weeks ago. They have some good ones and some not so good ones. I'm happy to have some WWI planes in 1:72 scale and Amercom gave their planes some positive features, including the pilot figures and wire bracing on the wings. Lots of little details included as well, such as pitot tubes, gun sights, windscreens, etc. But there is the occasional slight misalignment with paint, somewhat loose parts, and the S.E.5A model has this ungodly "bulge" sticking out on the underside of the fuselage (so that it can attach to the stand) that totally kills the look of the plane.

So in some ways I'm left a little frustrated and in some ways I'm very much happy with them. But I have to keep reminding myself that these are $17 diecast models, so I can't expect perfection

[aferguson]

hm....i was just about to get the SE 5 when i read your heads up. I looked up some pics of it and see what you mean. I gather the fuselage is metal as with other Amercoms but is the protrusion molded to the fuselage or glued to it? If glued it could probably be pried off and the area underneath sanded a bit and touched up with paint.

It's odd they did this with the SE5 but not with any other of their WWI planes.

[The_Helicopter_Pilot]

hm....i was just about to get the SE 5 when i read your heads up. I looked up some pics of it and see what you mean. I gather the fuselage is metal as with other Amercoms but is the protrusion molded to the fuselage or glued to it? If glued it could probably be pried off and the area underneath sanded a bit and touched up with paint.

It's odd they did this with the SE5 but not with any other of their WWI planes.

I've had the SE5 for some time now, and unfortunately aferg, it's part of the casting, and not glued on, there's something else is like to point out as well, there's a also a small piece of metal sticking out the front of the engian, keeping the prop from spinning completely around (could be sanded I guess)

[aferguson]

unfortunate about the SE5......the only possibility would be to try and snap it off and that will no doubt cause lots of problems. So i guess i'll have to pass on it.

My Sea Dragon fiiiiiiiiinaly showed up today. A huge impressive model that is unfortunately totally the wrong colour. It's a medium blue instead of an extra dark grey as it should be. Disappointing.

On the bright side there was not a single piece broken off.......not bad for something that spent nearly 2 months travelling to me.

[aferguson]

i opened my Amercom Spad XIII a couple of days ago and have been tinkering with it a bit. Nice little model. However today, when i hung it up on the wall it became apparent that the upper wing is twisted with respect to the lower wing. I hadn't noticed it while it was sitting on the counter or on its stand or while i was holding it but on the wall, where i was getting a direct top view i can see the twist now. It's rather obvious. I'm not sure if this is a flaw with the way my particular model was assembled or is a design flaw...i think it's a design flaw as everything looks to be lined up the way it is supposed to be.....the upper wing is just twisted with respect to the lower wing.

Otherwise it's a neat little model and a good copy of the Corgi Spad.

[aferguson]

As it turns out, the lug under the SE 5 model does come off. It is a seperate piece that is just glued on with rubber cement. So some wiggling with pliars will get it off. Apparently the plane still sits on its stand just fine without the lug, too. Seems a few of the Amercom planes have this lug underneath and in all cases it can be removed.

So Tman, if you haven't discovered this already, you can get the ugly lug off of your SE 5.