DougN

Having spent a couple of decades in sales/marketing, the 5% number quoted makes sense to me, especially since Andreas would appear to have gotten it from the Revell product marketing manager. It is that person's job to know that sort of info. They do marketing research all the time, and I am sure Revell, being a major player for a long time does it as well. Consider the number of members of this, or any other forum. On a good day there might be 500 different modelers reading any of the multiple forums out there. Compare that to the number of subscribers to Fine Scale Modeler. Even amongst my local modeling friends, only 1/2 even bother to read a modelling forum, and of those, the many think we (forum posters) are a bunch of nit-picky whiners. When it comes down to a purchase decision, most modelers, unless they are really, really into 109's and want the most accurate kit available, will buy the newest, and least expensive kit. Revell and their distributor network know that, so they sell plenty of them. Finally, I didn't read Andreas' post as Revell knowing the info before molds were made and ignoring it. I read it to mean that having found out about the errors, Revell did an cost/benefit analysis and determined that it was not a good business decision to spend the money to correct or redo the molds to fix the errors. Clearly, many of posters here (and on other forums) will disagree with that decision, it happens all the time and no company out there is going to spend money on a product if the return is not there. Doug

Made a little progress, got the easy part of painting to correct decal deficiencies about done: The top of the spine: The nose: A little mishap on the last photo, I'm going to have to go back and paint the white again where the decal pulled up. Inspired by Matt's new(ish) photo table, I decided to see if I could upgrade my photo tent using the same principles, so I got a sheet of clear plexiglass and some PVC to build a frame/stand and stuck a couple of clip lights under the bottom to try to mimic the effect. $30 later, here are a couple of shots of the P26 - not too bad for my first attempt:

Terrific build Dave, the weathering is just perfect on this one, love it!! Doug

Guess it's time for a small update. Been working on the decals and am yet again disappointed by the Yellow Wing decals. Some issues as follows: Fuselage stripes are too short, as it seems they forgot to take the front ring into account when they measured the kit: Not sure what the heck they were thinking here. These black scallops still extend too far back but the real issue is that they don't even come close to connecting at the top: Another head scratcher - these are just way off so I don't know what they measured when they drew these out as they extend too far down: Going to put some clearcoat on the decals for protection, then will mask and spray the missing sections in the first two pics. Good thing these are black and white, anyone trying to use the other colored set will have lots of fun trying to match the decal colors For the tail, I'm going to see where I need to cut to use the scallops and will likely have to mask and paint the bottom section to get it right. I'm also leaning heavily towards stripping and painting the wheel spats since they are way too large for the earlier version of this scheme with the white tail planes (as opposed to the later version with yellow tailplanes). So, slowly but surely we press on! Thanks for looking! Doug

Looks great so far Jeroen! Doug

The 21C hit has the same small nose problem the Trumpter kit has. It does have a better shaped radiator area, but still too small. The Revell nose is also small, but has a better shape for the most part, in that you could add a few mm on to the back and it would be a good start. Regarding spats, the 21C kit spats are not bad, but they have some cut out slots behind the wheels - which may have been some kind of a field mod for muddy airfields. I would close them up. The Revell spats also have a good shape, and you could probably just cut the bottom off the Revell spats and stick them on the Trump "legs" and it would look ok. Next week I might have some time to do some photo comparison shots to illustrate all this Doug

Actually the entire kit is underscale, more like 1/35 than 1/32. I almost think that some manufacturers, like the 21C and Trumpy kit had the same idea about using the Hasegwawa D/G and putting the Revell nose on, which would explain why the nose on those two kits is undersized Doug

Really looking forward to this! I have this kit and the Zero, and have been thinking about how to approach all those PE structural parts. I was thinking of getting a small solder set up but if if can be done easily with glue that will be even better! Doug

I wonder if Meng acquired the molds (or at least the CAD) from Dragon and is releasing instead of them? Doug

Thanks George! Yes, decals don't really like me, but I hope they will cooperate for the rest of the build. Knowing these were going to likely be an issue, I wanted to do this first to get it out of the way. Got the black paint on, however I'm not 100% satisfied as there is some difference between the spats, which I know will end up bugging me, so we'll see. Even though looking at photos of the real aircraft, they all seem to be different, I think I'll do a little more touch up before I call it done. That's all for now! Doug

Stellar job sir! best looking Ninak I think I've seen, you've really captured the look perfectly Now get busy on that naked I-16! Doug

looking good! Doug

You can't name something "original" in the file name and have it work - if you remove the "orginal" at the end, you should be able to post them so we can see them.

Just click on the IMG link to copy it, and paste it. Really easy

Thanks guys! I'm just trying to get close to your magic Jeroen! Time for an update. Not too much going on, still working away at the spats. After I got the decals on and they dried for a few days, I sprayed them with a heavy coat of Floquil Crystal Cote, as it is really tough and sands well. Once that had dried several days (due to me not getting back to the bench), I used some 0000 steel wool and sanding sticks to smooth out the decaled areas: Looks pretty messy, but hopefully it will all work out in the end I then masked off the white areas, not worrying about covering the black areas since I would be painting them next: I then sprayed Mr. Color white paint over the white areas: Next, I'll un-mask the inner areas and mask for the black. Then it will be another heavy coat of Crystal Cote, steel wool and then touch up any areas that need it. Here is an overall shot of the rest of the airframe, painting completed: I need to get some clear coat on the airframe so I can start decaling it as well. Hopefully the rest of the decals will work without issue Thanks for looking! Comments/questions/critique welcomed! Doug

I've built the Eduard and CyberHobby Emil kits and both had their fit issues in the cowl area. I prefer the surface detail of the Eduard kit, but the overall shape of the CyberHobby kit. I have several more of each in the stash and hope to get to them someday. The Trumpy Emil's noticeably short nose, and fat fuselage/cockpit make it unacceptable as an Emil for me - but I'm sure it would be fine for modelers who are not OCD about their Emils and just want a one for their collection. Doug

Great job as usual Jeroen! Doug

Not trying to "nit-pick", but the surface detail is irregular, with my example having many fine scratches all over the fuselage, panels lines that are deeper or shallower, or just plain uneven. The inspection hatches in particular were wobbly and uneven. The instructions are almost non-existent - with the modeler having to sort out pretty much where everything should go on their own. Here are a couple of photos showing the "round" wheels, engine detail and surface detail irregularities to illustrate some of the things I was disappointed with: Overall the kit seems to me about 20 years behind the current standard of resin kits. This might be fine for some, but when the asking price is comparable to a Fisher/HpH kit, and more than a Silver Wings kit, all of which seem light years ahead of this one, I just can not find value for money here. Doug

Great work on this one Dave, glad to see it made it off the Shelf of Doom! Doug

Looks great Mike! Doug

You're being nice Jeroen I picked up one myself when they were released by Grey Matters, and personally, was extremely disappointed - so much so that I was happy to sell it for a 25% loss... Doug

Also, stealing Dave's photo, get rid of the seam as indicated as it is not there in the real thing - just some rivets. And do a little surgery on the slats: And you'll have an excellent model! Doug

For photobucket, click on the "IMG" link and paste it here to have the photo visible Like that... Doug

Thanks! Made a little more progress, finished up the painting and decided to start on the fun of decals. I jumped in the deep in and applied the decals to the wheel spats (I kept them off the model in case I had problems with the decals). Unfortunately, they were not up to the challenge of the compound curves and did not turn out well. Here they are before application (I trimmed the clear carrier film from the "V" cutouts on the decals): And on the spats, after several round of decal solvent... I'll spray a heavy coat of some Floquil Crystal Cote over these and then sand them out to get rid of the wrinkles, etc. At that point, I'll use them for a masking guide to paint the markings on. For the other side, since I am going to be painting anyway, I cut more of the middle of the decal out to see if that helps it settle better: Thanks for looking! More later... Doug

Actually, the kit might not be off in wingspan, as I've did more checking since it seems to match the plans, and have found varying lengths cited for the wingspan, the most common of which is 29' (other include the aforementioned 26', and 29'6"). At 29 feet, the wingspan scales out to 11.07", which seems to be very close to the kit measurement. Doug