History

This could be classified as a “paper” airplane, since it only existed as a design. The project was initiated as a search for greater performance and alternative power sources. Germany provided assistance on the project and research progressed quickly and it is assumed that design of the Katsuodori took place in the middle of the war. The Katsuodori had a tailless fuselage with a sharply swept wing. The plane was to use four solid fuel rocket boosters to propel the aircraft to speed, and then switch on the ramjet propulsion system. The plane could use a droppable dolly for a land take-off or it was planned to be carried by a bomber with removable struts. When the Me163 design and production was complete, it killed further research on the Katsuodori, as the Me163 was a proven design, flying in Germany.

Moebius’ latest is the Iron Man Mark VI armor, as seen in the 2012 film "The Avengers", and also in the previous film "Iron Man 2". The kit was made directly from the film's CGI files, so is a 100% movie-accurate kit. Iron Man is dynamically posed and ready to fire his hand energy weapon. The pose is very well done, including the undeniable swagger and stance that Robert Downey Jr. puts into the character on-screen.

47 parts are molded in Red and white on six sprues. The kit is sold as a Skill Level 3 kit, not because of the complexity of the construction, but because a good working understanding of advanced modeling techniques, especially gap and seam-filling, are required. Absolutely no flash or imperfections in the kit were found at all.

The FW-190A-7 was one of the last versions that Eduard had not covered directly, the other being the A-9. You could always build one from their Royal Class kits but never as a standalone kit. Well, Eduard has stepped up to the plate and has hit another home run.

I’ve built the A-5, F-8, A-8, and D-9, so I have some experience with this series of kits. That said, this kit is just as good as those kits and why shouldn’t it be? It contains the same parts.

The kit contains six sprues of RLM 02 plastic with minimal flash. One sprue of clear parts, two frets of photo etch, one of those being pre-painted, and a set of masks rounds out the parts. Of course, there are two decal sheets which contain markings for four aircraft. The instructions are printed on high quality paper stock. I found the instructions to be easy enough to understand.