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Academy troubles
steeldog51
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Member Since: September 04, 2004
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Posted: Monday, March 21, 2005 - 06:05 AM UTC
Hey all well i've had a pretty exhuasting day so far , I recently had bought for me an Academy FA-18 Hornet in 1/32 scale
its was bought for me by my good freind in scotland
and he posted it to me , its been sat on my shelf for a few months and I decided to build it wish I hadnt
on opening the box I discovered to my horror ! its not all there! the model incidentally was brand new , i'm missing the wings! and the canopy interior parts ! and a set of landing gear ,I'v been intouch with Academy.DE
which is where Academy Korea sent me because thier sight is closed !
they said " cant help "
get in touch with korea so I tried again automated response no service at present . so i tried again , Germany again they said they still cant help , so do any of you chaps know who imports them in the U.K. ? or where i can source the missing sprues , I agree this isnt like Academy . its certianly the only mainstream injection kit I've ever had with missing sprues .
I need to grab these bits , other wise I have a useless Hornet and thatd be a shame .
needles to sy i'm not impresse at thier unwilingness to help . its happening all too often these days . thanks chaps! K
Stormbringer
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Posted: Monday, March 21, 2005 - 11:24 AM UTC
Kenaz
The UK importer for Academy is Toyway at Letchworth. Try giving them a shout, I've always found them very helpful. If you can't get a number for them drop me a pm and I'll see what I can do.

Pete
straightedge
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Member Since: January 18, 2004
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Posted: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 01:04 AM UTC
That's like the AMT model I got, course mine wasn't new, it has been opened, and pieces were missing, and I contacted AMT, but sense it is OOP they said nothing they can do, they just mentioned take it back to the shop that I bought from for a refund, if possible.

Now I know this don't happen to often, but I wonder how many kits some of you have setting that will be setting for years, and by the time you do open them, and find anything missing, you will be SOL if that kit went OOP.

Have any of you ever thought about that, that was like my M110A1 that somebody took the sprue for the barrel and traded it for the M107 sprue, so instead of having a M110A1, I got two M107's now, cause the only difference was the one sprue with the barrels and shells on them between the M107 and the M110A1 Italeri can't do anything cause the M110A1 went OOP, they still make the A2, but not the A1 barrels.

Now I don't know about the M110A2, but I think it is all the same except the barrel too, so Italeri saved a lot of money by using the same kits, just changed the barrel and shells on one sprue, to come up with 3 different kits.

Kerry
steeldog51
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Posted: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 02:30 AM UTC
Kerry thats a scary thought! :-) It makes me want to go through all of my stash and do a parts count.
think i'll do it now :-)
Sabot
Member Since: December 18, 2001
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Posted: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 02:45 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Now I know this don't happen to often, but I wonder how many kits some of you have setting that will be setting for years, and by the time you do open them, and find anything missing, you will be SOL if that kit went OOP.

This actually happened to me. I bought the Italeri M3 White Scout Car in mid-1996 (it was the 50th anniversary of the end of WW2 box). Inside the clear windshield parts were missing (no real big deal) but one of the fenders was short shot (incompletely molded).

The kit was issued in 1995 and I didn't open it until late 1996 or early 1997. When I used Testor/Italeri's missing parts service, I was told the kit was OOP and parts unavailable. I would re-try every so often to see if I could get the kits.

The last time they reissued the kit about a year or two ago, I submitted my request and got the replacement parts in weeks.
steeldog51
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England - East Anglia, United Kingdom
Member Since: September 04, 2004
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Posted: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 11:31 AM UTC
thanks to Peter Dennis Toyway hve informed me that my missing FA/18 sprues should be with me in next weeks post! Kudos to Toyway, pitty Academy europe didnt want to know ,.
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