I have had this kit in my collection for quite a while. I remember picking it up when my local Walmart still sold them, and it was only about $13 if I remember right. I decided on a whim to add the aftermarket decals even though they are sized for the Hasegawa kit.
So off I went thinking an older Revell level 2 kit would not be too bad. Wrong assumption. This thing pushed me all the way along. I came close to using it as a lawn dart a couple of times.
Here is what I found to be problematic with this kit (in no particular order):
The left wing was badly bent in the sprue. Some heating and gentle bending got it back “close”. This led to a large misalignment with the end of the wingtip when it was fit into the main wing.
The nose landing gear strut MUST be put in AFTER the main gear door panel that sits next to it. The gear strut will literally touch it and there is no room to slide the panel into the wheel well bay if you put the strut in first which I did.
The previous item leads to this one; the instructions are poor in some areas. The main landing gear doors are multi-piece assemblies and then they fit into the wheel wells. There is really nothing to guide you during this process except the final “look and feel” when done. You should assemble each panel and then the actuators rather than doing them all first.
The two rear rudder tail planes are tab and slot affairs. When fit in place there is a small but visible gap at the join between the tail fins and the fuselage. Only the rudder itself should not touch. I snipped off the tabs and still needed some filler to close that gap.
I assembled the canopy closed. That led to the pilot’s seat being slightly too high to allow the canopy to close firmly. I had to snip down some of the bottom of the pilot’s seat. Also with this, the rails attached to the inside of the canopy are too thick when the canopy is to be closed. This causes the canopy to “catch” and seem to be too narrow. I had to sand off a section of the rails and the interior aft portion of the canopy area to allow it to fit.
The forward piece of the canopy is slightly too narrow for the fuselage and leaves a noticeable lip.
There was a large gap when sliding the forward section of the fuselage into the aft section. Getting a snug fit along the top line, left the gap along the bottom and vice versa.
The main gear themselves have a neat semicircle attachment point that makes the alignment easy, BUT with the other bits attached it became hard to get it all in and attached to where it was supposed to go. With the weighted wheels attached, you need to make sure it is completely level or you can see any “lean”.
No issues with the decals, but couple of things did pop up.
There were a lot of two-part decals. All the green and yellow numbers, letters (the large A over C), the words *** and Gunslingers on the fuel tank, and even the US star insignia were two-part… Lots if back and forth to align the yellow and green to make it look right. The light bars were also a light-yellow strip and then you have to lay a small black strip over it. Now the tail striping and the VFA-105 strip along the top side of the fuselage were all one piece. Why two-part for the rest is beyond me, and it made for a lot of extra work. Why would the red piping on the US star insignia need to be laid over a plain white and blue insignia I don’t know. You can see that these were not meant for the Revell kit as the tail fin stripes leave some black along the forward edge. The decals themselves were great to work with and set down very well.
The paint was Mission Models Light and Dark Ghost Greys. The wheel wells were Mission Models White. The tail fins were Mission Models Black. The cockpit was done with Model Color Acrylics. The red was also Model Color. The exhausts were Vallejo Metallic Jet Exhaust. Finally, the tires were Panzer Aces Dark Rubber.
The other thing was that with the paint being light and dark ghost grey, and a lot of the stencils being in white, it was hard to see exactly where the tiny decals were in some lighting. White and light ghost grey can be very similar when trying to line up “no step” to these old eyes.
I just hated those intakes, so I decided to try some Apoxie Clay to make the intake covers. Easy to work with, and they came out very well I thought. I then decided to use the Apoxie Clay to fill those pesky gaps as well. I then primed and had a big mess. My Stynylrez was almost empty and I guess what was left was bad as it spit and spattered all over the place. I pushed ahead as I had no other to use. I should have waited to get some more, but I didn’t. When I was done, my finish was not very good and the gaps needed some more work. I was frustrated and didn’t want to sand all that work and then go back and spray again, so I just went forward. You can see the gaps and there was some silvering of the decals. No fault but mine on that stuff.
So, would I build it again; I would say no. OK, it was only $13.00, but you will spend a lit of time filling and guessing. I would rather have spent more and had a more relaxing build, but that is up to you. Also, the kit decals won’t do much to make it look better than it is. They were old and looked a bit thick.
Here are some pics of the final VFA-105 Gunslingers CAG bird:
