Re: Which kit is better? Now A.W. Meteor...

[The Wooksta!]

AFAIK, KP have never reboxed Heller kits.  Smer certainly have - Fi 156 Storch, Hawker Tempest & Hurricane, Me 262B, being several that spring to mind.

[kitnut617]

Looking through A-Model listing doesn't show an Su-11, Su-15 and Su-26, yes.  The book has been known to be in error sometimes.

A-Model Su-11

I don't know how good (or bad) the A-model kit is, but it has to be far better than the Leoman trench digger's special.

The book goes as far as 2001, so this might be something released after the publish date.  I can get some update volumes for the book though, I might just do that as they're supposed to correct mistakes found in the big book.

[Daryl J.]

My bad.    I thought Rollmodels listed a Su-11 from KP in 1/72 .     A recheck shows the -7 and -9 only.   

[frank2056]

The book goes as far as 2001, so this might be something released after the publish date.  I can get some update volumes for the book though, I might just do that as they're supposed to correct mistakes found in the big book.

It seems that Amodel has produced far more kits in the last few years. Often it's just variants on a basic kit (ex. the Yak-25 and Yak-28 families) but it's still a large collection.

[rickshaw]

Now to Chinooks.  Again, 1/72.  Which is better?

Revell?
Italeri?
Trumpeter?
Airfix
Matchbox?

All are variations on the theme of course of a big, twin rotor, chopper.

[Mossie]

The Trumpy kits & Italeri CH-47D & MH-47E should suit your purposes.  The Revell MH-47E or HC.3 & Airfix CH-47 (RAF & Spanish decals) & HC.1 (Gulf war decals) are the Italeri kit reboxed.  I believe the Italeri/Revell MH-47E/HC.3 kits are the CH-47D with extra sprue, so it might be worth picking this up to put all the extra lumps in the bits box.

The Matchbox kit is older, although it doesn't have any vices the newer kits surpass it.  You might find older Revell boxes of an RAF Chinook, I think this is the Matchbox kit.  The Italeri ACH-47A is fine, but there are open hatches that you'd need to fill & given your in for enough PSR anyway you might want to save yourself any extra work!

[Maverick]

It's also worth noting that the Spec Ops variants (MH-47 & HC.3) have the larger sponsons that requires surgery on the kit parts along with some other tweaks.

Regards,

Mav

[PR19_Kit]

It's also worth noting that the Spec Ops variants (MH-47 & HC.3) have the larger sponsons that requires surgery on the kit parts along with some other tweaks.

Have you, or anyone else, actually seen a Revell HC3 (RAF) with their own eyes?

Despite looking for ages, and having one on order from my LMS for well over 2 years now, they've never actually appeared. I believe that Revell planned to release the kit, the Revell/Italeri MH-47, with RAF decals but never actually did it, despite piccies of the box art appearing on the net, possibly because the RAF mothballed them after they found the flight software didn't work. Now of course the HC3s are being 'downgraded' to HC2 1/2s and are worth building in model form using the still current US MH-47 kit.

[Maverick]

Can't say I've seen the Revell boxing Kit, only the box-art as you've suggested.  I'd assume the mods would be the same, if the model existed, but perhaps that's a moot point.

Regards,

Mav

[Mossie]

It did happen, I saw one & remember thinking I might get it just for the whiff factor.  Revell were pretty quick in stopping production once it was cancelled, IIRC.  They go on ebay occasionally.

Even got as far as a review on ARC:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal6/5601-5700/gal5630_Chinook_Groombridge/00.shtm

[PR19_Kit]

I think so too. I have the MH-47 kit, Italeri box, and with the add-on bits it would be a dead ringer for an HC3.

I was lucky enough to clap eyes on a real HC3, ZH902, the first one through the downgrade process, at Odiham in 2008. It had flown into the airfield a few days before for compatibility trials, then went tech and they just left it on the ramp while the Families Day was on! The pilot looked a trifle bemused when I asked him how the trials were going..........

[PR19_Kit]

Mossie,

That's good to know, perhaps I can persuade Revell to part with a spare decal sheet then?  

Mind you, the real thing is so devoid of markings it may not be worth the bother. Interesting to see that the new big side tanks don't come up high enough as the real things clearly obscure the bottom 3" or so of the 'portholes'!

[McGreig]

A bit late in the day, I know, but going back to the Su-11 question:

Assuming that you want an Su-11 rather than an Su-9, the A-model Su-11 is the best available kit. It is accurate and goes together relatively easily - it's not to current Revell or Hasegawa standard, but it's much better than early A-model.

If you include the earlier Su-9, the Unda/Co-operativa/KP Su-9 is OK in outline and fit but has a very strange, thick wing leading edge which will need to be considerably thinned down.

The Leoman resin and plastic kits are related but are by no means identical. They were produced at a time when good plans of the Su-9/11 series were not available and suffer from this - overall, they are slightly too large and too chunky. They are also relatively crude, the plastic ones in particular having a mix of deep engraved lines and coarse raised line detail.

However, despite this, they can be turned into quite nice models - the photos below show, in order:

1) Plastic Leoman Su-11 (minus its nose probe and one tail counterbalance). A modest amount of filler was needed and the raised detail was sanded down to make it less prominent, but it is otherwise straight from the box

2) Resin Leoman Su-11 (minus u/c doors).  The fuselage is thicker than on the plastic version, emphasising the chunkiness of these kits but the detailing is all engraved, if slightly deep, and better than on the plastic kit.

3) Plastic Leoman Su-9 (identical to the Su-11 kit apart from the nose section). Again, apart from the fins above and below the nose (it's a real world aerodynamic testbed), this has been built straight from the box like the plastic Su-11 and the deep engraved lines on the fuselage don't look too bad.

4) Plastic Su-11 that I'm building just now. The basic airframe construction, filling and sanding has been done and you can see that (in my opinion, anyway) it doesn't take too much effort to produce something that looks a lot more promising than the contents of the box suggest a first glance.

[P1127]

It's also worth noting that the Spec Ops variants (MH-47 & HC.3) have the larger sponsons that requires surgery on the kit parts along with some other tweaks.

Have you, or anyone else, actually seen a Revell HC3 (RAF) with their own eyes?

Despite looking for ages, and having one on order from my LMS for well over 2 years now, they've never actually appeared. I believe that Revell planned to release the kit, the Revell/Italeri MH-47, with RAF decals but never actually did it, despite piccies of the box art appearing on the net, possibly because the RAF mothballed them after they found the flight software didn't work. Now of course the HC3s are being 'downgraded' to HC2 1/2s and are worth building in model form using the still current US MH-47 kit.

I've got one! Got it in the Modelzone sale a year or two back, in fact it's next up on my desk (One I finish these two Revell 1/144th ones - become rather obsessed with Chinooks this week). The box top was the MH-47E with the HC3 as second option. Came out in 2005. Standard Italeri Chinook parts with an extra sprue for the MH-47 bits, and some updates to the mould that made it the best 1/72 so far at that point.

It was the first Italeri-originated Chinook to have the correct profile rotor blades (Later included in the current Airfix HC1 (Gulf War Box)) - SFTB you can't build an HC3 in any of it's incarnation, the closest is as originally delivered (But missing a couple of little bits). The reversion to HC2/2A avionics saw a lot of the SF adaptions removed and variations on the standard HC2 DASS fitted (CMK do a  nice little add on that gives you some of them). If anyone is interested in doing a real-world HC3, either as delivered, pre-reversion or in current form, drop me a PM and I'll share what I know!

One turned up at Leuchars airshow last year:

[kitnut617]

I've got the Italeri kit, those extra sponsons came in right handy ----