Rudy1988

As a testament to just how bored that I am, I bought a Revell Stearman kit and paint from Hobby Lobby, and then slapped the model together. After doing so, I took HM's diecast clone of the old Lindberg kit out and looked at the two. Not a pretty comparo, I'm afraid:









In particular, the engine on the HM model is perfectly dreadful. And I don't think that it's an exaggeration to claim that this is the company's worst outing, the entire lot of its Stearman replicas. It may just have been a matter of timing, but they'd have done the old bird far greater justice had they instead licensed and cloned the Revell 1/48 kit.

FortunateSon

The bad news: the engine is dreadful.
The better news: the engine is removable.
The not great news: I've looked very hard, and there is basically no replacement engine available, either from white metal or 3d printed producers (at least, as of 6 months ago when I last lookedd).
The better news: but it's hard to imagine that this will be an issue forever.

As bad as the engine is, there are some real positives for the HM Stearman as well. I strongly suggest that you get the Yahu panels 1/48 stearman / kaydet panels. This, and a bit of quite simple cockpit trim and interior painting (and maybe a set of belts) really improve the model. Moreover, the HM rigging is not bad and looks much better than the well implemented but fundamentally too dark and too thick EZ-Line on your plastic model. Also, if i'm being perfectly honest, while the kit engine piece is certainly better than the HM one, the finish on your plastic model is very basic.

the stearman is far from HM's best, but it's not its worst, either. That's probably the hawker fury. also, the 109s are not great but that's largely a mottling issue. hell, hm even managed to sell us overpriced 1/72 sbd after sbd without a tail gun... and, of course... F-35.

DashSeven

I still think the F-35 is their worst mold. It looks like it’s diseased.

Adour

Prop, I agree it’s the Stearman, quite comfortably. Then fighting it out below we have the Spits, 109 and Fury.

Jet, mmm. The F-106 is badly mis-shapen. The F-100 intake is badly mis-shaped, but it’s not obvious except from directly head on. The T-38 shape is pretty bad in the canopy and nose area. Then the much hated F-35. The shape isn’t too bad apart from the under-sized nozzle, but that surface, hideous. Take your pick.

They’ve got away with quite a few turkeys.

11Sqnldr

I've never seen their Stearman in the metal so to me their stand-out turd is their F-35. A ribbed disaster, what a stupid move putting raised panel lines on a stealth jet.

Even more comical now that Lockheed are now churning them out without any accentuation of the panel lines...

William had a chance to sort this when the F-35C was tooled but no, he deliberately chose to do it all again. Meh

Rudy1988

I've never read/heard collectors speculate about the origins of the F-35 mold, in other words what kit the model was cloned from. That's invariably the source of the problem with a failed outing by HM, that and so much of the company's abysmal rendering of Luftwaffe camouflage.

CdnAir

Yup, it's garbage. Trying to put the bombs and bomb bay doors in open mode, things snap so easily. I have wrecked at least 4 of them and just raised the white flag with that mold.

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