Airfix Consolidated B-24H Liberator 1/72

Started by Felix · 8 · 2 hours ago
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    Felix said 7 hours, 5 minutes ago:

    I have wanted to do a build thread for a long time and i could not wait to get my hands on this sweet kit. It's big, it's got four engines and lots of olive drab. What more would you want from my favourite manufacturer? So i will build the Airfix Liberator B-24H. Not sure yet which scheme to choose from.

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

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    Felix said 6 hours, 59 minutes ago:

    Lots of lovely detail upon opening the box. I hope the kit is as well designed as the new Tempest or Mosquito. Those kits have fantastic fit and are just great in general. I also got myself a nice masking set from CT scale models. I used their Gloster Meteor F8 and Hawker Hurricane set and both were very precise. A nice alternative to expensive Eduard sets (which admittedly are of great quality).

    Unfortunately, i was in for a nasty surprise. A sprue was entirely shot - and i mean shot like hit directly from a german 8,8 flak. Look at the last image. The wing and the props are completely missing. I have never experienced anything remotely similar to this!

    3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    George R Blair Jr said 6 hours, 5 minutes ago:

    Looking forward to your build, Felix (@fxrob). I have a couple of these, but haven't built them yet. I really want Airfix to release a B-24D, which I like better than the later versions.

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    Christopher C Tew said 5 hours, 27 minutes ago:

    Felix, injection molding factories do shut down from time to time, and what you received is likely a frame that was run on a cold machine as part of the restart process, then got packed out by mistake. It's a fact of manufacturing life that the machine operators are not often specialists in aircraft, or armored or soft-skin vehicles, and so don't immediately recognize what to us are obviously missing portions. It's also a fact of life that some production managers are more concerned with count than quality. I write this having worked a while in the industry in QC. I hope that by now you've emailed Airfix with a copy of this photo and received an apology and offer to replace the frame as quickly as possible. I'm looking forward to your build thread!

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    Eric Berg said 5 hours, 24 minutes ago:

    Felix: I recently had an issue with an Airfix missing clear sprue. Contacted Airfix USA and, low and behold, was sent a brand new updated entire kit within days at no charge. All it took was a phone call. Now that’s incredible customer service!

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 hours, 38 minutes ago:

    Excellent entry, my friend @fxrob! Pity about the short shot sprue, a not so uncommon occurrence in recent Airfix kits. Hopefully Airfix will replace it.

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    Felix said 2 hours, 58 minutes ago:

    Dear Christopher @brummbaer, thanks for all the information! Your explanation makes a lot of sense. Of course it also took away all the drama from my flak story.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 hours, 57 minutes ago:

    A pity this kit turned out to be a disappointment, Felix @fxrob
    Pretty sure if you contact Airfix that they will have a solution for this issue.