1/72 Meng F102A Completed!!!

[smokeriderdon]

This is a kit of George Ws plane. I thought Meng was supposed to be a high end quality model. Ummmm, nope. Fit issues galore. I have built 70s and 80s models with better fit than this. The panel lines are very nice, and detail is pretty good for a 1/72, but darn.

Wing root gaps, intake gaps and the canopy does not fit right in the closed position. Which is how I wanted to do it, but cant now.

I am really glad I got this in the Christmas gift exchange at the IPMS meeting and didnt spend money on it. And given another member here posted similar issues with his 106 from Meng, I dont see me ever buying one.

 

[smokeriderdon]

Re: 1/72 Meng F102A

OK, done with this one.

And let me state this again. This is a 35$ and up kit. For a 1/72 kit, that is a lot IMO. With this price, and Meng supposedly being a top notch company, I would expect this to be a no issue build. Could not be further from the truth.

As I stated before, I had fit issues with the fuselage to the wings, the intakes and the canopy. In the final phases, there are no positive locating devices for the main landing gear bay doors in the center, the instructions are unclear on placement of a number of parts and other things on the those lines.

The decals were not at all fun. Luckily the blue and red paints I have matched the decal where I needed to touch up because they ripped. And the stars and bars on the intakes took so much micro sol and set to get to conform to the curvature I thought they were going to melt. And I still needed to make minor cuts in them. And several silvered regardless of gloss finish.

The nose pitot and the arresting hook are supposed to be striped. Did they provide decals? Nope. They expect you to paint that. On a 1/72 model. Now, I know there are some of you who could do this with no problem. Or some that have the equipment and ability to make those decals yourself. The other 97% of us, that is beyond our abilities. They really should provide decals for that.

All that having been said, it IS a good looking model once built. I just dont think it should have all these issues with its price tag.

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely sorry for all the trouble this one gave you.
But your results are VERY good

 

[arohk]

For a Meng model it is surprising the amount of issues there were, You did a fantastic job on it though.

 

[urumomo]

Well , you defeated it ;D
Good

I'm very surprised by all the issues the kit has .
Meng is well respected in the armor circles , especially 1/35 subjects .

BTW , just FYI for anyone who cares to know if you don't already , the name is pronounced 'mung'
so there's that ...

 

[smokeriderdon]

I always pronounced it as spelled. Now I know.

And thank you gents for the compliments.

I was surprised as well given all that I had heard. But its not like they are producing kits that are must have for me. All else aside, I would have never purchased this one regardless. Its 1/72 and while I do love the century series planes, its not one that I would buy multiples of like the 104 or 105. I already have the Squadron Encore Models version in 1/48.

 

[urumomo]

I learned from the guys @ HLJ : https://youtu.be/waIOADS5TUI?t=960

 

[billkunert]

I can see one problem with the kit. F 102's did not have flaps they had elevons which were not split. If you try flaps on a delta wing it will try to lift the rear of the wing and compress the nose wheel. (I worked on 102's in Holland for 4 years). I built a 1/48 102 kit which also supposedly had flaps. I believe it was an encore kit. Other than that it came out really nice. I can't build in that small scale.

 

[Mikey_W_1980]

Very nice!!

Turned out really good there!