Master X, an eastern European company, has released a high quality resin beaching trolley/trailer for the excellent and affordable Revell 1/32^nd scale Arado Ar 196 float plane. The combination of the two provides a nice solution to the tricky question of how to display Revell’s masterpiece if you don’t want to purchase a $90 resin catapult by HPH, or leave it sitting unrealistically on the tarmac.

Opening the Box

The box contains 17 resin pieces, and a half-sheet of paper with drawings of parts with lines showing where each goes.

The parts include the frame and deck of the trailer, the main wheels and guide wheels, and the “fenders”, presumably for preventing rocks from being kicked up into the underbelly of the aircraft.

Many thanks to Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to try this neat conversion and replacement set for the Minicraft PBM-5A. I am delighted to report on another sweet add-on.

Part 2: The Build

This is the second part of my review of the Zoukie-Mura 1/32 J2M3 ‘Jack”. See Part 1 for images of the sprues and a general overview of what is included with the kit.

Section 1

The engine… and what an engine it is. There are forty-three parts broken over ten steps. Assembly begins by gluing the cylinder banks together. I was too aggressive in removing the sprue attachment points here so I had to fill some seams along the baffle plates. The cylinders were painted in Alclad aluminum and the crankcase hand-painted in gloss black. A dark wash was applied over the aluminum to make the details pop out. A lot of parts build off of the cylinders, so it is critical that everything aligns. Fortunately the instructions provide excellent detail as to where everything fits.