Closed a deal the other day with Chris Ross - I think he's currently going by "Guest1701" at Starship Modeler and cougar187 (I think, cougar-something) at Hobby Talk, in which I purchased a 1/2500 Akira. It was hard to tell much from the single pic he had posted, but it was pretty obviously not 1/1400.
So, anyhow, it arrived the other day. It's already built, painted and decaled, but the pylons are all warped. I'm thinkin' I might just leave it painted like this, but add some more decals. I had to ask around at The 2500 Page Forums to confirm it and finally got pics loaded today - and then got confirmation this evening from those who already have one.
To whit: it's got the same basic dimensions as the JS Akira, but the detail is different in a bunch of areas. For starters, the saucer isn't quite as thick, tho the pylons connecting to the top of the saucer are like twice that of the JS version. The detail behind the "B-C Deck" area isn't built up like on the JS, either. Nacelles are different, too, and appear to have been a 1/2500 E-D nacelle - or at least the bussard collector piece was.
I knew this kit wasn't accurate, having heard of it's issues for quite some time. However, I still wanted one. Strange as it sounds, it's been one of those "Holy Grail" kits for me and can now be struck off the list.
Anyhow, here you go. Left is the "Spaceboy" Akira (decaled as Thunderchild) and on the right is the unprimered, excellent Jupiter Station Akira:
Is it just me, or do the windows on the Spaceboy kit look to be too big?
Man... I'm still stoked about getting one of my Grail Kits!
I'm going to have to strip and re-work this kit, I see now. I hadn't thought it would look so bad, but the weapons pod on this one is glued in too low. I doubt I can get it out of there w/o major paint problems. I wanted to leave it in this condition, but just can't do that. Prolly still keep the Thunderchild name and registry, tho.