But does it have one of these?
Maybe someone here can help me out. As I said, I’ve studied the sprues, and there are noticeable errors. But I’ll be dogged if I can’t find anything that looks like this on the sprues:
Anyone with sharper eyesight?
Don’t know where you found that CAD image, but I don’t see any indication of an interior on the box art. And certainly not on those sprue shots. RFM does like to do seperate upgrade sets though.
Zimi Models has listed an M109A7 with internal details as a future release. If I was a betting man I’d say @18bravo has something to do with it.
But I may be mistaken.
I think you’re not mistaken. I’d double down on that bet.
There was talk of someone just copying the horrid Panda kit. For fun, take a look at their quite incorrect hull underneath, and the sprue shot from RFM.
Big things:
Upper and lower hull still incorrect. Underside still missing a plethora of details. Torsion housings incorrect. Raised lips on wheels - that everyone is still doing that amazes me.
The warped hull does not bode well. I had issues with all of my Panda hulls.
Nitpicky things:
Signal flares look like German Potato Mashers.
.50 ammo boxes have raised rivets where divots should be. Lid missing two prominent bumps on latch end. Minor but annoying - when will someone get these right?
Nice details on turret, but I would still want to replace footman loops in any case.
Things they fixed:
Duke box details.
Rear hull plate.
Idler wheel has faint casting numbers - a nice touch:
And yet none on the track pieces.
I would like to have seen PE for the IFF panel bracket:
I also don’t see lifting eyes for the PanTel housing. They could be on the sprue but I don’t see them. Probably on the PE. There’s a spot on one half of the housing where the part should go, but it’s in the wrong spot.
Time to cook dinner for tonight, Vietnamese pork chops. Ya’ll can decide if you want this version, or prefer to wait.
Still an improved kit.
No interior shown. Maybe a separate interior kit like they did for the Abrams and few other kits.
We will see.
It had to be. The Panda kit was so wrong.
And yet some pretty interesting images have been tossed around.
Maybe two strippers will knock on my door this evening bearing Popeye’s and KFC and ask me to perform a taste test. And then have chicken afterwards. But I doubt it.
For those still hoping for an interior, or maybe an engine to appear, there is good news. Sort of.
To show the engine, transmission, radiator, and air induction system to their fullest, you have to remove this much larger panel from the RFM hull: (doing so would eliminate a big goof as well)
As RFM had modeled it, with just the two small hatches, Those who pray at the altar of “close enough” can probably get by with using just the Meng transmission, or one of these:
That’s all you’d see through the two small hatches.
I’ve checked - the resin piece fits quite nicely and is large enough to cover completely fill the void.
Hmm, that’s cool for those that are into it and more power to them.
~400 to ~800 parts is about as interested as I’d stay in a good M109 kit, otherwise it’s a 25 year old shelf queen in the making
…regardless of manufacturer. I’d like to have one on the shelf because it’s a cool vehicle. Reasonable fidelity is OK, no reference and definitely not going to do any research beyond looking at the one the National Guard had on display.
Before the effort of slinging ~1,000 part set of tracks together plus ~600 to 900 parts for a M109A kit, plus other detail parts, I’ll just dig out an old 1970’s era Monogram Pz IV and have at scratching parts needed.
YMMV
So who’s M109 best suits?
Any of the Italeri M109 series kits are quite serviceable. Low part count, rubber band tracks.
Too many experiences with various Italeri AFV kits = garbage due short shots and tons of sink marks due to Italeri sometimes horrible quality control.
Next canidate?
Tamiya repopped a lot of those kits.
Thank you, I’ll keep an eye open for a Tamiya repop.
I like RFM kits but according to this thread there are some problems with this offering. As I am no expert could someone give a brief rundown of the issues? Thanks.
Never mind I reread the post. Most seem minor to me at least. Not clear on what the major flaw (s) are. Thanks again.