Counterfeit Help?

[norwaystar06]

I just recieved my BBI F6F Hellcat... And i gotta say im largely disappointed... the parts are all extremely loose to a point where they just end up falling off, nothing is stiff clip on like my Mustang and Corsair by BBI (Example. The flaps on both models "clip" into place so you can control whether the flaps stay up or down.) when i connected the wings there is a HUGE gaping hole where the wings (body attachment part) and body meet. then when i connected the actual main wing the folding mechanism theres a gap between the body wing and the main wing. The cockpit window seems to be far too large in width so it atually just falls off... ill post pictures of everything thats wrong to give a visual description.

[norwaystar06]

As you can see in this first picture if i push the left side flush like its supposed to be the right side comes out a good 2 mm



That wing looks horrendous, it seems like the middle is comming out far too much and thats atleast a 2 mm gap at the front and the back of the right wing.

These Control surfaces i have NO control over they will stay down i cant "clip" them into the up position as i have mentioned before.

[flyboy_fx]

You might be able to stiffen the control surfaces with CA glue, and fill that gap with epoxy, sand smooth, and repaint/touch up the plane.

[norwaystar06]

Yeah im salvaging this airplane as we speak. Essentially what i did was buy a $120 PROPELLER!... Using the F6F Hellcat's prop and putting it on my F4U Corsair as a replacement. then putting the corsairs prop onto the Hellcat. This loving bird just became a static no touch model. I rather restore a plane i love and cherish then fix something thats essentially a Lost Cause.

Edit: Also filling the gap with Epoxy wont work. cause of that gap the wing from a distance you can see its going Down about 2-3 degrees while the other side remains completely level. thats a piece of plastic pushing outward.

Edit II: Well that didnt work out quite well... it was very subtle but the Hub on the F6F Hellcat is alot wider in diameter than the Hub on the F4U Corsair so it wont fit

[Snake Man]

If you search the forum archives, there is good info on getting the Hellcat wings to fit better. On mine, I applied a bit of white glue to all the control surface hinges using a toothpick, per a suggestion by a forum member. Now they stay nicely in place, and are moveable if need be.

[aae83]

For the control surfaces, you might be able to use a small blob of blue Tic-Tac mounting material/clay. My Hellcat also has major droopy control surfaces. Looks kinda silly with BOTH ailerons drooped, and the flaps dangling.

In your photo, the fuselage almost looks like it's bowed outward on the right side where the wing attaches. Maybe there's some trick by which heat might be applied to reshape it and make it fit better.

Seems to me someone did something similar with the canopy, also, to make theirs fit more tightly. You might search the forum for that.

Back when the Hellcats came out, the e-tailers also got some extra pilots, propellers and landing gear. My Hellcat came with a horribly heat-deformed propeller: it looked as though it had been wired into the packaging while the plastic was still soft from the manufacturing process. I wonder if there were basic QC/heat issues with the Hellcats that prompted them to ship spare parts?

Good luck with yours.

-- aae83

[Snake Man]

The other issue I had with my Hellcat was an extremely floppy fit on the propeller. I found that putting a standard #10 washer behind it took care of it nicely. I was kinda disappointed with the folding wings. They are not very solid when open, and do not sit at the proper position when folded. When folded, the trailing edges should lean in towards each other, as seen in period photos. It does not take much of a bump to cause them to become dis-engaged from the open position. I think I would rather have them rigid.

[norwaystar06]

Actually i found out why the body was Unaligned like that. It turns out that there was a piece of plastic that clips onto the cockpit floor on either side of the body. But instead of clipping and overlapping like it was supposed to it was actually edge to edge with the cockpit floor... so with a little bit of force i raised the cockpit floor and the body immedietly snapped inward into place. So i am very pleased that it wasnt a deformity rather just a little misalignment internally. As for the droopy control surfaces i tried the Glue and it worked out very well they stay in place but i still wont be moving that plane around as i do with my others (taking them down, switching positions between planes, cleaning them). Glad i found all this out now it looks like a decent model too look at and perhaps alot more stable than before, hopefully my next plane (P-47 Thunderbolt "Blonde Angel) is arriving soon hopefully it wont be as dramatic of an unboxing like this one was Thanks for the help guys

I also need help with something else. Can anyone recommend me a place that sells 1:18 BBI Missiles? My F4U Corsair came with them but at the time i was just simply cool and lost them, now i actually see these as models than toys and i want to make my plane look as busy as possible so i want to add missles to both my Corsair and F6F Hellcat... its upsetting that they dont come with the airplane

[tko211]

The BBI hellcat stands as my most disappointing 1:18 scale aircraft I own. I absolutely hate the construction and execution of this model. The flaps are bad and floppy, the Canopy is oversized, the wing fold is horrid, the main landing gear barely work and typically don't come down and forward enough to sit on them, the prop is loose as all get out, and my biggest complaint... the wings when extended, has the folding mechanism drop down and there is no way to secure it in place.

Basically its got a great looking pilot figure and that is about it. Easily the top of my list as being the WORST 1:18 plane ever constructed!

[norwaystar06]

I could second that point... when I got it I expected it to be a good model from BBI looking at my F4U Corsair and P-51 Mustang as examples of their craftmanship... but I was disappointed that I had to go through the trouble to make it look presentable. It seems I have a "Grumman Curse or something. Cause the TBF avenger is not the greatest model either... the wings at the foilding point droop downward just cause of the shear weight of the wing... hopefully my newest large wing 1:18 aircraft don't present these issues... cause what I know is the p 47 has a 3 ft shorter wingspan than the f6f, which equates to like less than 1/8th of an inch

[tmanthegreat]

It seems I have a "Grumman Curse or something. Cause the TBF avenger is not the greatest model either... the wings at the foilding point droop downward just cause of the shear weight of the wing... hopefully my newest large wing 1:18 aircraft don't present these issues... cause what I know is the p 47 has a 3 ft shorter wingspan than the f6f, which equates to like less than 1/8th of an inch

Glad you made the point about the 21c Avenger. The BBI Hellcat has its issues for sure and is really the worst of the BBI WWII aircraft. However, 21c dropped the ball on the Avenger as well. It was almost too complex of an aircraft for them to produce and market in their typcial style... Yes, all the parts, etc are very accurate, but the planes typically had far more QC issues that most BBI aircraft. Avengers had everything from missing screw covers, cracked canopies, broken props, mis-aligned paint and markings, parts/control surfaces coming loose in the box. Never mind the weak wing hinges and droopy wings. My BBI Hellcat at least has some wing dihedral whereas even my best 21c Avenger does not... It was kind of hard to wait 3 years for the 21c Avenger only to get something that was potentially so prone to QC issues.

Just my 2 cents

[norwaystar06]

I did not know the avenger came with all those issues, maybe mine was just out of luck a good one but the only real issue I had was the wings going downward... to compensate I just keep the wings folded up on display... looks cool that way too people actually question that more than the wings streched out. I have the Flight 19 avenger the last one before they retired it completely, maybe they fixed those issues before the flight 19 model?

[tmanthegreat]

I did not know the avenger came with all those issues, maybe mine was just out of luck a good one but the only real issue I had was the wings going downward... to compensate I just keep the wings folded up on display... looks cool that way too people actually question that more than the wings streched out. I have the Flight 19 avenger the last one before they retired it completely, maybe they fixed those issues before the flight 19 model?

In my experience, the Avengers were hit-and-miss. The very first ones, in the "Atlantic" scheme were likely rushed in production to get them out to Wal Mart and had no screw covers. I initially had one of those and despite the awful look, its wings stayed flat pretty well. When the revised "Atlantic" Avenger that had the screw covers fixed cam out, I got rid of my first Avenger, but the wings on the improved "Atlantic" plane droop significantly. Then came the Flight 19 Avengers. The first one I got (FT-28 version) came with cracked canopy parts. The wings were OK, but had a little droop. I eventually got another Flight 19 plane to use for parts to replace the droopy & broken parts, selling the first. I would say my current Flight 19 Avenger is in decent shape. Slight drooping of the wings, but otherwise great. My last Avenger, the "Bunker Hill" version was near perfect right out of the box, but then one of the prop blades fell off while taking the fuselage out. That was an easy fix, though. My "Bunker Hill" aircraft has a near-flawless paint scheme and the wings stay flat. It is, actually, one of my favorite XD planes.

There is a hobby store in my area that used to carry XD and at one time several years ago had 6-8 Avengers in all three schemes. I noticed the most QC defects with the "Atlantic" and "Flight 19" versions as I described in my previous post.

In retrospect, the Avenger should have been packaged securely in a box design similar to the P-38, as opposed to a large window box. Heavy parts tied to a weak plastic tray that likely wobbled when shipping were the source of a lot of breakages that I saw...

As for the wing droop issue, improving the little clips that hold the wing together when extended so that they actually gripped the plastic and provided support would have worked. Even making the bottom of the wing slightly longer so as to hold it up in the correct position would have helped as well.

I rant on the 21c Avengers as several years ago, they were one of the most anticipated 1:18 planes up to that point. We waited years after the initial announcement before they were complete and the 21c designers really went through a lot of work to craft all the intricate parts. Alas, when the planes finally get released, they were not as perfect as they could have been...