Kinetic AMX Single Seat Fighter 1:48 - Page 7 of 7

To sum up

In conclusion I’m quite happy with how the finished model turned out. The few small issues that I’m left with were more of my own making, rather than any problems with the kit. The AMX is not a subject choice that you see very often, so it’s definitely a welcome addition to the collection. In fact I think the only other 1:48 scale kit available is from HobbyBoss, which I believe was released earlier this year. Unfortunately I haven’t seen or built the HobbyBoss kit so I can’t do a side by side comparison of the two kits.

As far as the Kinetic kit goes though. The moulding is generally very good, although I did find the details were a little soft in some places. I found the engineering on the kit to be quite good, and for the majority of the build the parts fitted perfectly. On other occasions though, it was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, literally! Nothing a little basic modelling skills couldn’t take care of, but a definite reminder to dry fit everything before committing anything to glue. This in general is good advice regardless of the kit manufacturer, but with Kinetic, it’s a definite must!

My biggest complaint about this release isn’t one that is specific to this kit, but one that is generic for all of their releases (certainly any of the ones I’ve built or heard of). The Kinetic instructions are just not up to scratch. Not only do I find them a little confusing at times, especially when I’m trying to identify which parts to use for the particular variant I’m trying to build, as there are several differences between them. The colour call-outs aren’t that great. There were a few parts that were labeled wrong, or the picture of the part wasn’t on the instructions at all. Decal placements are not mentioned for any of the weapons or drop tanks, and again some of the decals had the numbers identified wrongly. On their own, none of these issues are deal breakers as I was able to figure them out pretty quickly, but together they make up for a poorly put together instruction booklet.

I would definitely recommend this kit to anyone that had a few builds under their belt, but in my opinion anyone new to the hobby could potentially struggle with this release or in fact any of Kinetics releases.

Chris McD.