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Rant time
Topic Started: Dec 1 2016, 09:18 AM (90 Views)
DevilFish
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LCDR Paul "Voodoo" Carter
Ok, it's rant time. I don't do it very often, but I'm getting more and more disillusioned with this!

Our hobby is great. Probably never been better. Every day it seems there is a new manufacturer, new kit, new accessories. Our choice is greater than ever before.
You can pick up the latest kit, and within days, get aftermarket bits for it. Not that you need to, because most of the kits coming onto the market are outstanding in their own right.
We can get aircraft from pretty much any era, any country.
You want a Supermarine Swift....easy.
You want A 1/48 Mig 31? Here's a choice of 2!
You want yet another F-16 that's had an new aerial fitted....no problem!
You want to replace all the weapons on that Mig? Simple, there are resin/brass replacements available.
The same for your Tomcat sir!
Or your Japanese Defence Force aircraft.
Or your Israeli Sufa.

In fact, should you want to re-arm any kit, the weapons are out there in some form or other.

Great. I'd like some weaponry for my cold war Harrier GR3, and my Sea Vixen.

Err.......no......

That's where the whole system falls down. If you build British military aircraft that are more than 10 years old, i.e, not a Typhoon, you are very limited.

After a search, I have found...
A set of Matra SNEB pods
Bl.755 Cluster bombs
CBLS practice bombs containers
1000lb LGBs

That's pretty poor. Ok, Flightpath do a few other bits (ALARM missiles, Sea Eagles), but they are VERY expensive and VERY over engineered (50+ parts in each 1/48 LGB!)

So, why is this? Why can I not get Red Tops, Fire Streaks, MARTELs (TV and AR) and the data-link pod (always missing!). Where are the 1000lb iron bombs? Staple of the RAF for 50+ years!!
WE.177? Nope!

It's not much to ask, is it?

I think we have enough AIM-120s, Phoenixes (Phoenii?) and whatever those Russian things are called......

Please please please, can we have some British weaponry???

Rant over.....
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Simon G
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heavy weatherer
Top ranting.

I'd take it one step further .

Want a 1/48 or 1/32 modern tool Harrier GR1/3 to hang your weapons on? . . .
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Nikon User
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"BEAVER"
And, breathe.....
:rant
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DLG Dave
Lt Dave 'Wraith' Carter
DevilFish
Dec 1 2016, 09:18 AM
Ok, it's rant time. I don't do it very often, but I'm getting more and more disillusioned with this!

Our hobby is great. Probably never been better. Every day it seems there is a new manufacturer, new kit, new accessories. Our choice is greater than ever before.
You can pick up the latest kit, and within days, get aftermarket bits for it. Not that you need to, because most of the kits coming onto the market are outstanding in their own right.
We can get aircraft from pretty much any era, any country.
You want a Supermarine Swift....easy.
You want A 1/48 Mig 31? Here's a choice of 2!
You want yet another F-16 that's had an new aerial fitted....no problem!
You want to replace all the weapons on that Mig? Simple, there are resin/brass replacements available.
The same for your Tomcat sir!
Or your Japanese Defence Force aircraft.
Or your Israeli Sufa.

In fact, should you want to re-arm any kit, the weapons are out there in some form or other.

Great. I'd like some weaponry for my cold war Harrier GR3, and my Sea Vixen.

Err.......no......

That's where the whole system falls down. If you build British military aircraft that are more than 10 years old, i.e, not a Typhoon, you are very limited.

After a search, I have found...
A set of Matra SNEB pods
Bl.755 Cluster bombs
CBLS practice bombs containers
1000lb LGBs

That's pretty poor. Ok, Flightpath do a few other bits (ALARM missiles, Sea Eagles), but they are VERY expensive and VERY over engineered (50+ parts in each 1/48 LGB!)

So, why is this? Why can I not get Red Tops, Fire Streaks, MARTELs (TV and AR) and the data-link pod (always missing!). Where are the 1000lb iron bombs? Staple of the RAF for 50+ years!!
WE.177? Nope!

It's not much to ask, is it?

I think we have enough AIM-120s, Phoenixes (Phoenii?) and whatever those Russian things are called......

Please please please, can we have some British weaponry???

Rant over.....
.... plus Lepus flares.

I've talked to some AM concerns over the years about this and their eyes just glaze over. The same manufacturers get all excited about producing a new set of undercarriage for the Eduard Mirage or a Merlin engine for the what-if variant of the Gladiator. Then get all upset that none of that is of any bleedin' use to you and you just want something simple, useable and something which isn't in the box already. I've asked for exactly the same things, just decent UK-pattern Iron bombs of 1000 & 540lb capacity, WE177s etc. You can buy three separate kits in 1:48 of the Do 335 Pfeil but no manufacturer has a standard, commonly available Hawker Tempest - one of the most important fighters of WWII. (I know about the Eduard one - that's only ever been limited issue and as far as I remember is not going to be given another outing). Whilrwind\S.55 Helicopter - available only via a mould which, if it was human, would now be at pension age.

There's possibly a silver lining in that many of the most recently available kits of UK types have some fairly useable underwing ordnance but again, it's hit and miss for bombs. The Trumpeter Wyvern comprises earlier WWII pattern bombs while it more commonly carried the later (eg. Falklands) pattern bombs. A 500lb sea mine was very frequently carried by Sea Furies, Fireflies and Sunderlands during the war in Korea. It is irritating, but most so since the UK after market people themselves refuse to acknowledge the absence.
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DevilFish
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LCDR Paul "Voodoo" Carter
Simon G
Dec 1 2016, 09:29 AM
Top ranting.

I'd take it one step further .

Want a 1/48 or 1/32 modern tool Harrier GR1/3 to hang your weapons on? . . .
I'm glad to say that, at least in 1/48, this is being addressed. Can't remember who (kinetic? ) Are bringing out first gen Harrier T2/4, and eventually GR1/3.

But, on that note, seats......hard to get a mk9 seat too....
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peebeep
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resin fondler
Freightdog do a few bits and pieces of Brit ordnance, but not a great deal. Barracuda are doing Firestreaks and Red Tops in 1/72, but whether or not Roy Sutherland could be persuaded to do more is another matter. Odds and Ordnance specialised in Brit ordnance and had a big selection to choose from, but they disappeared right off the radar. The aforementioned Flightpath is about the only one left that has a significant number of products to choose from.

peebeep
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mac1677
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Lt Mac 'Shocker' McSheffrey
I don't know much about dangly bits, and not sure if they are right for your aircraft but Eduard do quite a bit of aftermarket bombs/missiles.

Eduard 1/48 Missiles

Eduard 1/48 Bombs

Hope they help :grin:
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Olde Farte
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Lt. Derek 'Smurfy' Reeve
As a builder of all things Russian I am indeed well catered for but have never understood why British post WW-2 is so thin on the ground so sympathise with your rant.
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DevilFish
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LCDR Paul "Voodoo" Carter
peebeep
Dec 1 2016, 10:45 AM
Freightdog do a few bits and pieces of Brit ordnance, but not a great deal. Barracuda are doing Firestreaks and Red Tops in 1/72, but whether or not Roy Sutherland could be persuaded to do more is another matter. Odds and Ordnance specialised in Brit ordnance and had a big selection to choose from, but they disappeared right off the radar. The aforementioned Flightpath is about the only one left that has a significant number of products to choose from.

peebeep
Unfortunately, the rare bits that are available are 1/72, which is not my scale.....

Del, I've looked at Eduard. There stuff is mostly American and Russian. The few bits they do that are RAF orientated, are all modern stuff, for Tornado and Typhoon. Nothing for Jags, Harrier (first gen), Phantoms...You know, proper aircraft!

The best I've found, as far as dumb bombs go is Ultracast do WW2 1000lbers, which I could modify to post war ones.
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RJ Tucker
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Patrolling the MMM frontier
With the upcoming Airfix Spey Phantoms, maybe some entrepreneur will see an opportunity for some RAF bombs, rockets, jammers, missiles etc. I don't really know how responsive Airfix is to customer input; maybe, they can be convinced to do a weapons accessory kit like their ground support vehicle kits.

If any companies mentioned in this thread have a customer comment or input option on their websites, just post a link and the list of stuff you want, we can all go over & make a request for the stuff.

Like ma' dear, departed Daddy used to say, "The answer is, always, NO if you don't ask."


Me? I'd like a Skyflash decal sheet with instructions on how to turn the garden variety kit provided Sparrow missile into a Skyflash AAM.

:cool:
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