Got mine yesterday!!!
Just in the nick of time too... PAM lists them as backordered until September!
Construction quality is far above what I had expected... even after reading all the glowing reviews here. All the plywood appears to be 5-ply aircraft birch, all laser-cut. No lite-ply in this bird! Heck, that's better than the Top Flight kits I've built. The covering job is way better than I could have done myself. It needs to be shrunk in a few places (mainly the ailerons). Nothing was damaged in shipping... except my pocketbook.
Only a few minor complaints so far. The cowl is pretty thin and looks more like ABS with fiberglass reinforcement. The dummy-radial is a little cheesy, not very detailed and thin plastic. The red paint job on the wheelpants isn't the best I've seen, but not bad. As everybody knows, the hardware is not very good. The control horns are usable, but no way would I put 2mm (2-56) hardware on a bird this size! None of these are a big deal and I'm very happy with my purchase so far!
If anyone is interested in the weights of each piece, directly out of the box... here's mine (looks like it will finish out around 15 pounds):
Code:
ITEM GRAMS OUNCES POUNDS
Fuse (no tank) 1,377.6 49.20 3.075
Right Wing 616.0 22.00 1.375
Right Aileron 43.0 1.54 0.096
Left Wing 585.2 20.90 1.306
Left Aileron 53.0 1.89 0.118
Wing Tube 83.5 2.98 0.186
Wing Struts 41.0 1.46 0.091
Horizontal Stab 127.5 4.55 0.285
Left Elevator 27.0 0.96 0.060
Right Elevator 30.0 1.07 0.067
Fin 51.0 1.82 0.114
Rudder 32.5 1.16 0.073
Left Wheel Pant 162.0 5.79 0.362
Right Wheel Pant 162.5 5.80 0.363
Wheels (includes bag) 154.0 5.50 0.344
Tailwheel assembly 23.0 0.82 0.051
Gear Wire 249.0 8.89 0.556
Cowl 175.0 6.25 0.391
Dummy Radial 34.5 1.23 0.077
Engine Mount 168.5 6.02 0.376
Misc Hardware 152.5 5.45 0.340
SUBTOTAL: 4,348.3 155.30 9.706
MGA 1/4 Vintage Pilot 159.5 5.70 0.356
Engine ~1,344.0 ~48.00 ~3.000
Radio Gear ~896.0 ~32.00 ~2.000
TOTAL: 6,747.8 240.99 ~15.062
The heavier items (fuse and wings) were weighed on a Royal RC-40 digital scale, proven accurate to 0.2 ounces. The lighter items were weighed on a friend's triple-beams, accurate to 0.1 grams. The other columns are computed. Some of the smaller items, like the hardware and tailwheel, include the little plastic bag they come in. The engine and radio gear weights are close estimates. When I finish the model, I'll post a final all-up weight (I'm going to try and keep it light).
I took a bunch of pictures of it, as delivered, and will have them up on my website in a couple days.