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Franklin Mint (AKA Armour) F-14 vs Yamato Valks


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Posted

I've seen the Forces of Valor pieces here and I kinda like the Blackhawk and Apache, but Graham and David Hingtgen are right, the jets just plain suck.

Prowlus, your're right about that Tornado, that is the most god-awful Tornado I've ever seen.

Posted
I've seen the Forces of Valor pieces here and I kinda like the Blackhawk and Apache, but Graham and David Hingtgen are right, the jets just plain suck.

Prowlus, your're right about that Tornado, that is the most god-awful Tornado I've ever seen.

Your avatar looks like David Hasselhoff playing the evil Michael Knight. :D

Posted
I've seen the Forces of Valor pieces here and I kinda like the Blackhawk and Apache, but Graham and David Hingtgen are right, the jets just plain suck.

Prowlus, your're right about that Tornado, that is the most god-awful Tornado I've ever seen.

Actually, the photo above makes the Forces of Valor Tornado look half decent. You really have to see the Tornado and F-14 in person to fully appreciate how awful they are. :p

But I agree their Apache, Blackhawk and some of their tanks look pretty good.

Graham

Posted
Prowlus, your're right about that Tornado, that is the most god-awful Tornado I've ever seen.

Actually, the photo above makes the Forces of Valor Tornado look half decent. You really have to see the Tornado and F-14 in person to fully appreciate how awful they are. :p

But I agree their Apache, Blackhawk and some of their tanks look pretty good.

Graham

As I've stated before, I never saw their fighters in person. But here is my question to anyone who has: Painting, panel lining and markings asside, how acceptable, or not, is the sculpt on the F-14? Would it make a decent candidate for repainting/customization given a reasonable price, say around $20.00, after all, it features an opening cockpit, working landing gears, movable wings, and removable ordenance? (forget the Tornado, it's execution looks very poor indeed from the picture).

Posted
I've seen the Forces of Valor pieces here and I kinda like the Blackhawk and Apache, but Graham and David Hingtgen are right, the jets just plain suck.

Prowlus, your're right about that Tornado, that is the most god-awful Tornado I've ever seen.

Your avatar looks like David Hasselhoff playing the evil Michael Knight. :D

Actually, I think the avatar is Ares from the old Hercules show. Might want to ask Shawn about that thought.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
Dude, those thing suck ass.

They look good from a distance, and you would think that they would be all hatchy, and stuff, but in fact, the one that I saw blew chunks. The wings didn't even swing, it was fixed in the out position. The airbrake didn't open, the gear doesn't work, they just suck crap. PERIOD. Also, they are solid die cast for the most part, and sport this crappy enamel paint job. The worst thing is that when they were Armour, you could get em for about 25 bucks, but since they're Franklin Mint, they want big bucks for them. NOTE - NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM THE FRANKLIN MINT, my wife used to work there, and their stuff is overrated, thinly plated trash.

I think you need to clarify which Armour F-14 you are talking about. There is a 1/100 scale which has its wings fixed in the extended position. The 1/48 scale Armour F-14 has it wings in the retracted position and features a much higher level of detail and sells for $90.00. The enamel paint you talking about is not applied to all Armour planes, the planes that do have that finish are suppose to. Many camo’s in the Navy during the 70’s had a very high gloss paint job, Armours VF-84 F-14A reflects that peroid of time.

I will be the first to say that I don’t know everything about die-cast planes, however I have seen in person just about every military die-cast plane made I the last six years.

My own collection consists of one or more of each type of die-cast military manufacture.

Armour: six 1/48 jets (F-4, F-14, F-15, F-18), & three 1/48 warbirds (P-51D, Bf-109, F4U)

Dragon: two F-16’s one F-18C

Gain Corp: Su-34

Corgi: two F-4’s

Air Command: F-18C

Model Power: 35 jets & war birds

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Posted
is there a 1/72 corgi F-14 jolly rogers?

Corgi don't make an F-14 in their 1/72 scale Aviation Archive series. Graham

Corgi is going to be releasing a 1-64 scale F-14D from VF-2 Bounty Hunters. The Tomcat will sell for around $23.99 and will be part of Corgi’s new Tactical strike series.

This new series will also include two helicopters a AH-6J “Little Bird”, & a AH-64D Apache Longbow; unfortunately the AH-64 looks really bad. Several ground vehicles will also be included such as two versions of the M1A1 Abrams Tank, a M2A2 Bradley, as well as two version of the hummer.

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Posted

slightly OT.. but for a bunch of people (yes, counting me...) who seem to idolize size and detail... why not snag a Tamiya 1/32 F-14A? I built one way back when, and it's still the most impressive thing sitting in my display... if only my niece hadn't tried to play around with it and broke the landing gear, nose cone, and the nozzels...... maybe I'll snag another one and paint it better this time around :-p

Unless, of course, I'm missing the point TOTALLY and we're talking about 1/48s to go with the Yamato Valks... and pre-assembled to reduce the hassle....

Posted (edited)

i was looking for a 1/18 scale F4u-d corsair. when i found a 1/18 scale Blackhawk at toys r us for 69$ last week. i would have gotten it,if it were half that in price. but it got me thinking how big would a f-14 or f-15 be if it were 1/18 scale.

Edited by buddhafabio
Posted

What about the other Armor 1:48 jets, it seems that we all agree that the F-14 model is bad, but what about the MiG-29? I was thinking of getting the JG-73-1 MiG-29 they made or maybe the A-10, but the picks of the A-10 I've seen are not that impressive. The MiG-29 looks good from the pictures though, any thoughts.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

I final got a Digital camera so I though I would share some comparison pic’s of the Yamato 1/48 VF-1S & a Armour 1/48 F-14A VF-84.

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Edited by rdenham
Posted

That 1/64 Corgi looks to have a nice finish, but it's the infamous "almost but not quite a D", and the overall shape just looks off. Too short/squat.

Anyways---I want a consistent scale if at all possible. Dragon's F-15 is delayed, but it IS coming. (March is current best guess). Ironically, the weapons sets are already out, so you can tell how the missiles will mount, since the AIM-7's are clearly intended for F-15's only. (Makes me wonder what they'll do for the F-14---Phoenix only?)

Tamiya---all F-14's are inherently more difficult and time-consuming than any other plane, which is why I don't build them. Even a Tamiya. Also, the excessively high price is another. (Their 1/350 ships are several times larger, fit better, yet cost a lot less)

I'd like one of the Gaincorp Flankers, but the price is a bit high. Will snag one if they ever go down. The Su-35 looks especially neat.

Posted

It is true that most F-14 models are hideously complex, either in construction or detailing.. or in Hasegawa's case, both :blink: But that doesn't mean that easy to build F-14 kits don't exist. If you want a very easy F-14 kit, get the old Fujimi release from a while ago.. I don't remember exactly when it was released, but it has a blue and white box, with a checkertailed F-14 on the box (can't remember the squadron unfortunately.. the box is back at home :p) That thing has the most incredible parts fit I've ever seen on any model, PERIOD. The cockpit isn't detailed at all, with simple decal instruments, bucket looking seats, and swamp-thing type pilots, but it'll make a great flight display model. I haven't assembled mine all the way yet, but the landing gear doors fit perfectly to cover the wheel wells, and the overall fit of the parts is nearly perfect. The overall detail isn't the best by far, but it's a perfect easy kit to make into a quick display piece. Plus, it's much more accurate than the Motorworks one, and probably cheaper.

Posted (edited)

Yup, the Fujimi has by far the best fit. But it still needs work on the intake undersides, IIRC. And now they're hard to find/expensive.

I currently have the following attitude towards models: if there's a good affordable diecast version, I buy it. Thus, I buy 1/72 and 1/400 planes, and 1/18 cars. There are currently no ships anywhere near the price/quality range I want. Ironically Franklin Mint makes one of the cheapest, the $600 Missouri. Which is painted totally wrong. Everything else is either painted even more incorrectly, or costs several grand. Thus, I slowly build my own ships. Finish/fit aren't as good (I am not that good a modeler---mass-produced stuff made by poor laborers in China can and will do a better job than me), but at least they're painted right, which is VERY important when we're talking about camoflage schemes. Nothing annoys me more than seeing an all-grey US battleship, when NONE were ever painted like that. Even in peace-time, there should be 2 or 3 colors on the decks.

Dragon's planes rock because they are basically pre-painted diecast versions of Hasegawa's kits. At half the price. (And this has me fearful that Dragon's F-15E will have the same errors as Hase's)

Edited by David Hingtgen
Posted

I agree with David if you are not a pro-level modeler go with the die cast option. Although I do like the size of the 1/48 scale jets I have but a halt to buying 1/48’s except for warbirds. The 1/72 jets; are cheaper, take up less space, and most importantly are more accurate than their larger counter parts.

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Posted

I just viewed the pic’s I posted on this page on a friends computer and they are all way to bright my vid card must be going bad, cause they look great on my machine. I guess their is no reason to mention this except for the fact that they just don’t look the way they should and I take pride in my photography.

Posted
I final got a Digital camera so I though I would share some comparison pic’s of the Yamato 1/48 VF-1S & a Armour 1/48 F-14A VF-84.

Thank you. Saves me from buying a 1/48 Armour f-14. :D

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