When I opened the box, I saw a mysterious spring about 1-1/2 inches sitting on top of the fuselage. Unfortunately, this was a harbinger of things to come. Then I saw a separated tire under the fuselage and an unidentified broken piece with a screw.
The F-14 includes an instruction sheet showing how to open the landing gear doors and deploy the landing gear struts. Some of the doors were very difficult to open. After finally getting the doors open, one of the struts has a missing metal pin which locks the tire to the strut which explains the separated tire---the missing pin was not in the box.
Both bomb pallets have a middle tab which are supposed to lock into fuselage slots, but they don't. Consequently, both bomb pallets have a gap in the middle where they bulge out.
The right rudder will not fit all the way into the fuselage, so it too, sticks out.
There is no instruction sheet explaining how the afterburner, etc. lights work.
I still don't know what the broken part with the screw is or what the spring is for.
I'm going to email Merit (since it was shipped directly to me from Merit) to see if I can get answers to these problems afflicting my F-14.
Overall, for $300, I am disappointed in the mediocre workmanship on this F-14.
As for the weathering, it is OK---it has less weathering than the BBI F/A-18 Hornet with the weathering confined to seams and the sliding-wing area.
This is the broken part (about double the actual size).
UPDATE:
The latest on my Black Knights F-14......
All the problems have been resolved on my F-14 with the help from Merit International.
To replace the broken landing gear door part and the missing landing strut pin, I was sent a replacement fuselage. To replace the ill-fitting right rudder and pallets, I was sent a replacement rudder and pallets. I also received an instruction sheet on how the F-14's lighting works.
Thanks very much to Merit for their assistance in resolving the problems and for standing behind their product.
