Kitty Hawk Attempt.

Augie
Sir is a connoisseur . it is indeed a Foxbat.., I'll do a project for this at some point, at the moment just playing with it.. Kitty hawk.... my first kitty hawk kit.. the fit is...interesting I think is best way of saying.. without resorting to foul language.

Augie
So some more pics.. a weekends worth of work.. just to get that far... 22 parts for 3 sub-assemblies.. Who ever designed that part breakdown needs their heads read. The front fuselage sides alone is 6 parts..

Augie
yeah.. probably.. someone should of "encouraged" them to maybe reduce the breakdown..
Shapes, ok (ish) but fit is a monster.. not to mention warpage where you would not expect it. But.. I have a fueslage.. wings etc next and then dreaded paint.

Augie
Other than the fact they have a better jag than heller/airfix.. I would avoid now.. sadly I have a pair of Mirage F-1's and a Two seat jag from these clowns..

James C
I have this kit as well... so will be following😉👍

Augie
Hi James.. welcome 🙂 I can give you lots of advice on how to build this now.. its fun

Augie
also.. Mig-25.. lot bigger than I thought.. Its bigger than an F-14

James C
That's taken shape nicely!

Augie
Well.. lots of clamps, bands etc needed to get it to hold a shape to then glue lol

Jos Jansen
Interesting...I've plans to purchase one on the near future.

Augie
Might be worth looking at the ICM one.. Not that I have built one but have one.. might have a look.

Slavo Hazucha
Ah, I´ll better take a seat, this will surely be worthwhile! Nice start, it´s growing big pretty quickly 🙂

Augie
Welcome Slavo 🙂 I'm sure there's free seats.

Augie
And so our next part of genius engineering.. wingtips that have butt joints that follow no known panel line and are frankly such poor fit.. to make it good, I'm going to obliterate any surface detail around it. Ohh.. and the tips are thicker than the wing. by about 1mm FML

Augie
Kinda given up on the kitty hawk wing.. So introducing a ICM and Kitty hawk hybrid. So will be looking for a spare pair of ICM ones to replace the ones I just stole from an ICM kit.

Maciej Bellos
Wow, that s@cks to put it mildly... Paying top dough for crappy fit,darn you Kittyhawk!

Augie
Hi Maciej, its a unique engineering decision they made.. but with the difference in thickness's etc.. fixing it would be a utter nightmare so decided to take the easier option and just replace the wings

Augie
Couple of updates with progress.. captions on pics explain

Patryk S.
Taking a seat, looking forward to see how your brave endeavour into kittyhawk fitland ends (unfortunately have some in my stash also).

Augie
Welcome Patryk, hopefully, I can do it justice with ICM wings.. seems to of worked so far 🙂 Now to get the paint right.

Augie
Little too much on the dirtying up the backend, but once some black goes on and some dry brushing I think its saveable

Slavo Hazucha
Pic 19 & 20 are a spot on treatment - the green on 21 cool too, some matt black and dark brown grime streaked or drybrushed in direction of flight could take it even further😉 very nice work all of it 👍

Augie
Thanks Slavo 🙂 work in progress for sure.

Augie
Had a change of heart so cleaned up a little and this is where I am at now.

Augie
Quick update as am back at bench post surgery.

Augie
Hi Roland, everything is going fine and I'm healing nicely..

Pic 31.. yea thats the right part totally not the right shape.. I'm actually almost at the point of binning this pile of shit as I am just so fed up with parts that just dont fit.. I can get a ICM one cheap enough and then can claim the wings back from this back to the donor kit..

Augie
Ok I called it.. this one is going in file 13.. and I've ordered ICM's as a replacement.
Not total waste, learned to avoid kitty hawk kits.

Jens
Hello Augie, found late and yet to see the usual disaster of Kitty Hawk, my sympathy, I've already tried / made several kits from them 🙁 it was never fun / I still have MiG 25, but from ICM and there I will stay, only the UM version, that will also be Kitty Hawk and an orgy of spatulas and parts construction, thanks for the report and the pictures 👍

Augie
Hi Jens,

Thanks, it was a worth while attempt. I am glad I had got the kit cheap else at £79 I would have been very annoyed. Hope the pics will help others too

James C
That's disappointing, but sometimes it's just best to walk away, rather than to continue trying to push shit up-hill.

David Taylor
Seems to be a theme with Kittyhawk kits,ill fitting.Always fancied the twin Jag but have been put off.

Daniel
MiG-25 PT/SD Foxbat😉

Augie
Thanks guys. I think if it had'nt been for such shit wing design and then poor fit on top.. far to expensive for what it is when you can get ICM one for half the price

Brian Casteel
Started working on this kit when it came out, I've only had the patience to work on it in small doses here and there. I had issues with everything you pointed out. The biggest one for me was how badly the fit between the fuselage and air intake is. I had to add about 1mm if styrene on each side of the fuselage to get it to all meet up! This is what I call a closet monster because it put it away for a while then it haunts me until I bring it back out to work on it some more then get frustrated by something else and put it away again and so on and so on... but I will beat it some day!

David Taylor
Got a F35B on the go,nearly binned it twice.On the back shelf some where,good luck Augie don't think I will be purchasing any more Kittyhawk kits.

Augie
Thanks David, however this one is long gone in file 13 never to be seen again, unless I need scrap plastic to test something on.

David Taylor
totally agree.