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Posted by Ralph Wood on January 18, 2021, 17:51:19, in reply to "Thanks Ralph."
Aft sat mount looks okay to me, but you're right about the forward one. It is on a lattice tower, not a pole.
If they'd have provided a plastic lattice tower, the complaint would be that it was too thick. If a PE tower, the complaint would be that it was PE (from those of us not liking PE.) If some sort of thin plastic tower, the complaint would be that it was too fragile (from those who mangled it getting it off the sprue.) And on and on. There will be complaints no matter what they do/did. So, they just put out a model, and they did it on the cheaper side, because otherwise the complaint would be about the cost, and that impacts sales, so that one they pay some attention to. And that then covers why they did not lavishly throw in extra sprues. "The kit's too expensive" is much worse for them than, "it's missing a couple chaff launchers."
I have yet to find a single kit that is 100% correct in every little detail, OOB. They are all works of fiction. And after all the kit detail discrepancies get corrected, the complaint usually ends up that they did not include enough details.
So, you're entirely correct...that is why we have the board...to complain, lol. 
Previous Message
Thanks for the help in finding the Satcom antennas. According to a photo on Navsource their mountings are not right. Don’t agree with the manufacturer given a slide to save money thereby rearranging the actually appearance of the ship. Then it is not a model but a work of fiction but then that is why we have the board. Previous Message
My kit has the satcom antennae...forward parts C55 & D38 in Assembly step 2. Aft, parts C53 & D38, in Assembly step 4.
Yes, only one chaff launcher (parts D50 & D51) per side, where there should be 2, apparently because only 2 launchers are included on each D sprue, and they did not want to provide more than the one copy of the D sprue. I am not sure I would fault them for this, especially if it is only 2 more chaff launchers that are needed. Providing another entire D sprue just to add those--from the kitmaker's perspective--is not practical. And since this is a standard Skywave-inherited weapons equipment sprue, most of us who'be been doing this a while tend to have some spares somewhere.
As far as images, I simply googled the subject and selected the "Images" choice. One particularly nice one which popped up near the top of the results was this, from 1985. You will need to cut/paste the entire URL into your browser:
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Virginia_ (CGN-38)_elevated_starboard_view.jpg
HTH some Previous Message
Is it me or did Dragon forget the 1/700 Satcom antennas and have only 1 chaff launcher P/S where there should be two? Unfortunately few pictures of her in late configuration on NAVSOURCE. Any suggestions for better pictures?
Finding a good OOB these days is getting harder to come by.
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