Background About ResKit

ResKit products are designed and manufactured in Kyiv, Ukraine. Founded in 2015, the company produces high-quality, detailed resin aftermarket parts, engines, wheels, and conversion kits for scale model aircraft, armor, and dioramas. Despite the ongoing war, they continue to produce and ship their products from Ukraine.

Historical Notes

There is a considerable amount of information regarding these two systems, and I feel some place for further research is needed. I would recommend searching Wikipedia for “Pave Tack”, as this provides a wealth of information.

Product Description

With this Ford Aerospace AN/AVQ-26A Pave Tack Pod, you will find a beautifully engineered kit with a four-page color instruction sheet, four 3D printed assembly sections, a separate nose cone and 3D clear section, and a small, detailed decal sheet. While this kit is shown for the pylon for an F-4, I believe you’ll also find photos showing it mounted on other aircraft as well.

I am quite impressed with this kit. The surface detail, which contains a lot of surface rivets, appears to be accurate in appearance and true to scale. I also found the accuracy of the molding requires extra attention, especially that relating to the very tight tolerances. I found the inner areas of the 3D surface could only be mated after I had filed the inner and outer ring surfaces. After this, the connecting pieces fit tightly, including both the connecting pieces of R10, in step 1, into parts R2 & R1, and R11, in step 2, into parts R3 & R4.

Additional Caveats

• Black Cyanoacrylate (Tire Cement):when working with the Black CA, I discovered it is a very permanent black, which I found to be impervious to every thinner I used and almost impossible to remove. I suggest using it with rubber gloves to avoid the resulting black stains left wherever this CA is employed.
• Decals – I want to mention several aspects of the decals provided in this kit. The registration is spot on, with so many details given, they are hard to believe. Regardless of how you remove them, for the most part they are very tiny. An impure thought or motion will cause you to lose them. I experimented with both room temperature and warm water, and in both cases, they floated off with no resistance. My other problem was that they are very thin and easily break when moving them, even with a wet brush.

Painting

I first applied Mr. Surfacer 1200 (B-515 Surface preparation) and followed this with Real Color paints RC 024 (Olive Drab Faded) and RC 025 (Dark Olive Drab No. 31 USAAF) (in application, there is very little discernible difference between these two colors).

No pin wash was used, as these external stores are almost always seen only in their pristine, freshly painted condition. I then applied a sprayed overcoat of Alclad II Lacquer’s Aqua Gloss Clear (ALC 600). This was followed by a final sprayed coat of VMS’s Varnish HD Matt Topcoat (VMS.AX05M), which produces a great matt finish.

Conclusion

As you can tell from my previous comments, I strongly recommend this kit. It looks great, and it will add a significant amount of detail to an F-4 Phantom II.

I want to thank the ResKit folks and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this terrific accessory kit.