Some pics on new Academy Sheridan taken in Nurnberg were posted on M-L. I'm very disappointed...

Have a look here and read my comments in that thread:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=47209&messageid=1108309821

Of course I will be soon attacked that I criticize a model before it was even released and that I should be happy to have new Sheridan in plastic, but somehow I'm not happy I have really been waiting for this kit and now I'm highly disappointed. I guess Academy should stick to 1/32 jets...

Pawel

no attacks from me Pawel , first impressions last and
if they cant get a knock out impression from the test shots then quite simply it sucks !
i dont know much at all about modern armour but from what i see of the photos you took then its very very wrong
i'm dissapointed too ,hohum ! I guess looking at their armour compared to thier 1/32 hornet , it looks like it was made by a totally different company ?
thanks for the images ! looks like a great show ,...K

Maybe should I think twice before throwing my dust-covered unbuilt Tamiya kit in the trash can ....

Frenchy

I'm no expert on Sheridans but it looks pretty good to me.

whats wrong with this model?

That assumes that this IS a test shot.

A small tale, if I might: In the late '80's or early 90's the US model maker AMT/Ertl issued 1/72 XB-35 and XB-70 kits. Their displays - and even the built-up photos on the kit boxes - showed planes with a low level of detail, and what was there was kind of soft. As it turned out the kits were actually pretty good once you opened the box. It was later discovered was that the planes on the boxes were built from mid-1970's vacuum-formed kits! There have been other companies within the past ten years or so who have shown resin kits at trade shows, simply to have something 3-D to display when the real kit wasn't available. The moral of the story is that we really have no idea if that is what Academy is planning on putting in the box or not. You might question the marketing wisdom of such practices (I passed on the XB-70 several times because the box photo looked so bad), but it doesn't seem to be a good basis on which to judge the quality of the model itself.

I would reserve judgement until real, bonafide test shots are available for comparision to drawings and photos. It's OK to say this spacing looks off or that angle appears too big based on these trade show photos, but to declare the kit a disappointment or that "it sucks!" is probably running a bit far ahead of what the substantiated evidence will support.

KL
(A notorious rivet-counter who is generally intolerant of model company apologists)

That is the best line I have read in quite some time.

well kit item or not it still sucks ! if its not what they intend putting in the box then dont show it !
pure and simple

Please read my posts in Missing-Lynx thread. I posted a couple of photos there which show problems with suspension and the shape of rear hull.

Pawel

Well, my honest opinion, its not that bad, so it has a few mistakes, which as Pawel pointed out, could easily be human error when they assembled the kit.
Personally, i'd buy it, it's better than the Tamiya one, so im just greatful its gonna be on the market.
As i said, its obviously got a few mistakes, but if your not a rivet counter * cough* KL * cough* :-) you wont really give a damn.
So i say this is a decent kit, lets give it a chance guys, i wouldnt go jumping to any conclusions till weve actually built it ourselves.
Cheers

I have to agree with LestWeForget here. Just be glad that someone is putting out a new version. No model will be perfect. So what if some corrections are required. It is still an improvement over the old Tamiya kit. Even that one could be made into something nice, I did it. No to toot my own horn, but mine came out really great.

Why do some of us dump all over the model companies when they put out a new model, especially when it is only seen in photos and/or a test build? Then we complain when they don't put stuff out as well. Some people are never satisfied. Just be glad it is coming out and gives you something to start with. I for one am.

Well put, James and Gino... It's good to see a new M551 and I'm grateful to have one, too.

I commanded a Sheri for four years and have a ton of pics of "Mine" for comparison. After looking at the pics, briefly mind you, yes it has some problems. Lifting eyes are too big. The ones on the rear deck aren't in the right position or oriented correctly. The commanders "Chicken Box" seems to be missing the handles to allow the "escape" flap to drop. Too much space between the Missile Guidance Box over the gun tube, should sit closer to the tube. The fire extinguisher handle is undersized, BUT it is in the correct location. Tracks are too tight (OOB). Bustle rack appears too large. Wouldnt be able to pull the pack (Engine) if it was this large as there is a limited amount of room once the turret is put over on the left side of the hull even with the regular bustle rack removed. They put the tracks on backwards OOOPS!
The shape of the front lower hull is correct, as is the rear. The towing pintle isnt represented correctly. Should sit higher and bolt to the upper sloped part of the rear hull, not the bottom. BUT GUESS WHAT? I'm gonna buy one and build it. All of these "Problems" that I have identified are easy fixes. This is modeling remember? I also have the Jaguar and the Tamiya kits. Anybody up for a comparison build? Huh? Anybody? Anyone? Bueler, We could nit pick every kit that kits the market, could? Hell we do it already. Let just sit back and see what happens before we get too axle wrapped. Oh, and by the way, Jaguar had first hand knowledge of what was wrong with their kit before it hit the streets (I showed them, in person and provided drawingsand told them how to fix it as well) but did they listen? NO! Okay I'll get off of my soap box now. Lets just give them a shot and see what develops. "Q"-OUT!

Same here sir. I'm just glad someone came out with it. I build mostly OOTB so no complaints here.

Guess what, I also built one. It is on my website. Mine was actually even worse than Tamiya, as it was Academy clone. That's the point - the old kit, while very poor, still had some features made correctly, which are now screwed in this thing they have shown in Nurnburg. This bothers me most - they did it right before, why they screw it now???????????



Yeah, and some are so easy to satisfy... Making the kit right is often as difficult and as expensive as doing it wrong, as in this case. So why should I be satisfied that they do it wrong?! If we start to jump in happiness every time some manufacturer releases a new product, regardless of the quality of it, then what motivation said manufacturer will have to improve products in the future?... I see no reason to encourage manufacturers to produce crap.





Matthew,

That's right - all those things you identified are easily correctable. And I don't really see a problem with them. But the suspension is wrong and correcting this can be a real pain. Note how far forward the sprocket wheel is in the Nurnberg model. The overhang of the rear hull behind the sprocket is way too large and looks just odd. The whole suspension seems to be compressed forward. Some serious plastic surgery can probably fix this, but then there may be a problem as vinyl tracks may be too short for corrected suspension. They actualy seem to be too short already... Also if you check my photos in M-L thread you can see that the angle of the rear side armor plate seems to be significantly incorrect.

And by incorrect placement of extingusher handle I mean that it is lifted upwards while it should be in the middle of the heigth of the armor plate. It is also too small indeed. But it is correctable.


I must note - I hope what was shown was not a real kit and that it will be better than that. I realize that it is very likely that the display model was not build from the Academy kit, but e.g. converted from Jaguar kit.
And to make it clear - I will buy the new kit anyway, so they will get my money. If it is correctable I will build it. I will also write a review of it. But don't expect me to be happy if it is as flawed as this stuff shown in Nurnberg... I will pay for it, so I have full right to complain as much as I see fit.

Pawel

Well, starting from this point, I am also looking forward to this release. I would also say, that I don't agree with all of the previous comments (basing it on a display model) is a real minefield. However, I totally agree with Pawel's comments regarding what is acceptable from the 'Majors' with the availability of information and the increasing access to actual vehicles, the major companies have NO DAMNED EXCUSE WHATSOEVER... .

Take the example of Warsaw Pact vehicles. Before the collapse of communism, Mr Tamiya asn't exactly going to be invited into the Soviet Union to take pics or measurements of the T-80. Now, with the newtworks that exist, there is simply no excuse for sloppy research. Gone are the days when a new kit was based on a few grainy pics published in Jane's. Or is this another example of the 'Bean-Counters'' hands at work? ..Jim

Oh boy... I wish the kit itself would be 1000% better than this

And maybe one more piece of info to make my frustration more understandable: I just spent 70 bucks on Hunnicutt's Sheridan book in aticipation of Academy release...

Now it looks like all the knowledge I can get from this book will only make me like the new kit less...

Pawel

This kits that I am waiting for a long time as Academy announced the new release of the M-551 in last 2003, then 2004 and now 2005.
I remembered having to buy the Tamiya 1/48 A-1H Skyraider with the Cutting Edge Skyraider Corrected Prop., then the Hasegawa 1/48 Phantom II "Showtime" with Yellowhammer decal set of F-4J Showtime 100 of VF-96: CORRECT MARKINGS for aircraft in which Cunningham and Driscoll became the US Navy's first aces of the Vietnam War.
This bad news of the Academy M-551 Sheridan will make happy for the aftermarket manufacturers... as "Misfortunes of the ones make happy for the others".

Well.... now I know whom I'm going to annoy the pooh out of when I buy this dreadful kit....... :-) :-) :-) :-) And save myself 70 bucks on a book to boot......

I'm getting confused. Has anyone actually built one of these yet?...Jim

I'd place money on it that the model in the photographs on display at the fair are not photos of the actual model kit we will see in a box. I won't speculate on whether it is a mock up using the old Tamiya, Academy or Jaguar kits though. Many of us who have been a part of the online modeling community for any great length of time have discovered that the companies do this just to have something to display besides an empty box.

With the amount of gate guard Sheridans kicking around (two of my last three duty stations had display Sheridans, the third was an air base) it should be easy access to get the measurements of a Sheridan. It is not like it is a rare WW2 vehicle that only has a couple of intact examples left in existence.

I won't dispair or criticize Academy for producing a sub-par kit until I've either seen the kit myself or read a thorough review from one of the more credible sources.

I think this thread should be renamed the "Chicken Little Alert" .

Alternatively, a reverse version of the 'Emperor's New Clothes'?..Jim

No, because it was not released yet. We only know as much about this kit as was shown in Nurnburg, but that model could not be the actual new Academy tooling. All bad comments only concern this particular thing on the show. We can hope that actual kit will be better, but I have a bad feeling about this...

I've built old Academy M551, which was a copy of even older Tamiya model. It was very simplified and inaccurate kit, but had some details more correct than the item displayed in Nurnburg.

Pawel

Well another way that manfactures can get around this problem of messed up models is just to display a simple tag that says Prototype model. Much Like Dragon does with its upcoming kit box art on its website.

I'm disapointed with what I see so far but I'll wait to see how bad it is when it comes out.

Scott