This H8K Emily was certainly an eye opener for me as it to date is the largest model kit I’ve built and in 1/72 scale that is simply amazing. In scale, the wingspan of the Emily is 0.53 meters (20.75 inches). To give you an idea of its true size, the Emily is just a couple of meters smaller in wingspan than a C-130 Hercules. The first boxing of the H8K by Hasegawa in 1/72 dates back to 1967 and was in need of an update. Fast forward to 2017 and thanks to the good folks from Hasegawa we have a simply amazing new tool replacement to their earlier release. As a nice little bonus, Hasegawa includes a poster of a cutaway view of the fuselage with this boxing of the kit. This may only be a limited run bonus, so check the box top for the bonus item markings.
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The Defiant is an interesting aircraft and until recently, a largely overlooked subject compared to the popular “mainstream” aircraft from WWII. It has been offered by various model companies like Classic Airframes and Airfix in 1/48 and 172 scale.
This British aircraft was originally intended as a day fighter, with the rear turret harking back to WWI designs that were quite successful in their day. During the early days of the Battle of Britain, the Defiant proved to be vulnerable to head on attacks after BF 109 pilots figured our it had no forward firing, wing mounted guns. The turret had limits to its travel and could not aim the guns low enough while firing forward. The aircraft was also hampered by the significant weight added by the four gun, powered turret, resulting in a less maneuverable platform. It was soon relegated to night fighting duties, where it excelled against the Luftwaffe attempts to bomb Britain at night.
The Biker is the last figure in Gecco’s second series and follows the three figures in series one in their Tales From the Apocalypse that I believe are sculpted by Shojiro Kasai. This second series creates Scene 2: Day 1, 1:27 pm at the Diner’ and goes with two other figures, a cook who was attempting to save his daughter, Cindy from the infected but who gets bitten and his daughter, Cindy, the diner’s waitress and the sister of the heroine in the first series. The Biker’s Tale From the Apocalypse:
“The Biker was driving on the freeway when the outbreak started and the dead began walking the streets.
Losing control of his bike, he veered into the opposite lane of traffic and crashed into a car, shattering his skull and neck upon impact. His body went reeling across the pavement, rolling end over end, a large truck ran over his legs severing them below the knees as a final goodbye!”
Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) offers an extensive range of replacement landing gear parts for a wide variety of kits. I have some experience using SAC items to replace kit parts and I’ve found that the SAC items add strength to the model without sacrificing any of the detail found on the original parts.
I tend to be a rather heavy-handed modeler and I have a history with WWI models which is self-made and not a reflection on the quality of the original kit. I’ve snapped wing struts, tail skids, and I’m especially rough on the undercarriage support structures. Knowing that I’ve “got a problem”, I have found that SAC gear replacement parts are a positive addition to my modeling effort.
This Side-by-Side review compares the original kit parts found in the WNW Sopwith Pup kit to the SAC #3211 replacement parts for that kit.
This set provides a replacement nose pitot for the MiG-25 PD and PDS “Foxbat E” interceptor. The instructions do not list what kit the set is designed for, but the only MiG-25 PD/PDS kit in 1/72 scale that I am aware of is the ICM kit (recently released by Hasegawa under its label too). Unfortunately, I have the Hasegawa kit on back-order, so I was not able to compare the Master Model parts to a kit part for this review.