| 4-20-01 EA-3B Skywarrior: One word - WOW! I received mine (#43) yesterday. Boys, this is the real deal. It has no relation whatsoever to the old Collect-Aire Skywarrior of the past. It is huge for one thing. It is hollow cast (very much like an injection kit). The fuselage is in two pieces (left right) and the pieces are dead-straight. For this length of a model there is something to be said about Missing Links and their casting abilities. There is a very nice interior for both the cockpit and the elint stations. If you guys have the Ginter book on the Skywarrior you will notice that it was used a lot as a reference for the interior detail. There are all the necessary seats (4) for the electronics officers, as well as their respective stations. The cockpit is nicely done and beautiful photoetch details for the instrumentation and levers are provided. I like that most of the seats are different just like the real thing. The metal castings are beautiful too. I love the way they represented the main landing gear and wells. Very accurate and beautiful looking. Better than Hasegawa's. I sent to the maker about 30 photographs of that area alone. He got it down great. With some wiring added it should look great. Speaking of Hasegawa's Skywarrior. Collect-Aire got the front fuselage/cockpit canopy area right. Hasegawa did not. I never thought I would see the day such a thing would happen! The jet engines are very nice but most of all the wheels are what got me. Many times many makers choose to use some injected model's wheels if the look is close enough. Not this time. The main wheels are just right and no casting bubbles either. Everything is great on this kit, the beautifully printed decals, the air-brakes, the hatches the jet-intakes the flaps and slats, the wing folding mechanism, don't know where to start! I wonder how much effort went into this production. Even the yellow manual is nice with a lot of detail (the photocopies are even readable!). Problems to some might be the size or/and the price. If I had the space I would get a second one. I just might do that anyway. One to build one to keep. I just can't think of any other resin model of such size AND quality. Regards, Fotios |
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