Chad Richmond
Reviews By Author
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F-4JPublished:
There have been many kits of the F-4 Phantom in 1/72nd scale over the years. Some were bad, some were good, some were great. Along comes Fine Molds of Japan in 2021 and they knock the ball out of the park with their series of the F-4 in 1/72nd scale. Many of the pitfalls that have plagued Phantom kits over the years have been corrected and conquered by Fine Molds and a lot of attention has been paid to some of those troublesome areas, like intakes, burner cans, long nose and short nose forward fuselage, etc. It also appears that a lot of attention has been paid to many of the more recent issues of the aircraft in 1/48th and incorporated the solutions into 1/72nd. One of the “special” additions to the kit boxing is the inclusion of two… more |
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Pfalz D.XII Landing GearPublished:
The landing gear assemblies on WWI aircraft are notoriously fragile and spindly, and the Pfalz D.XII is no exception. SAC has provided us with four white metal parts that should solve that problem. Being white metal, they will require some careful polishing of the surface to get them smooth, and gap filling CA glue must be used for assembly. The parts come in the typical SAC clear plastic bubble card. The SAC parts represent kit parts A9, A11, A25 and B8. The only drawback, if you can call it that, was that both of the struts were somewhat bent. Sometimes straightening thin white metal parts can be a little tedious, but it can be done. Having white metal at the attachment points is definitely an advantage provided by this set. My thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions and… more |
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AH-64D Apache Landing GearPublished:
There’s a lot of parts, fourteen to be exact, to this landing gear replacement, and they are done very well. Parts represented are D20,21,30 and 31; G28,35 and 45, and J12, 13, 16, 17, 32, 38 and 39. Of course they are all in white metal, which requires some polishing and some smoothing of the surface on a couple of the parts, and assembly using gap filling CA glue. The parts come in the typical SAC clear plastic bubble card. The AH-64 is a heavy aircraft, so he white metal assembly will definitely give it some stability. SAC has always prided themselves in correcting things that are wrong with kit parts, but they missed one in this set. The tail wheel strut, which is made up of two parts to represent kit parts J38 and J39, still has the ejector pin holes on the inside, plus… more |
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Aircraft PaintsPublished:
This review covers the following MCW Military Paints:
The paints are available at $7.50 per bottle. What modeler can’t use some more paint? It’s just like kits. You can’t have too many. I have always been ready to try a new brand of paint just to see if it is easier to spray than whatever happens to be my chosen paint at the time. Since I have yet to find a flat coat that I like, I was especially anxious to review the flat coat and I had a couple of Luftwaffe subjects close at hand, so the RLM 74/75/76 combination was a real no-brainer. Here’s the catch, though. These are high-gloss lacquer paints! If you are an… more |
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Combat Scooters (2) USN/USMC A-4E/ A 4F Skyhawks in the Vietnam War and Skyhawk Airframe Stencils, A-4E, A-4F, & A-4MPublished:
NOTE: 32-012 MSRP is $11.00 When I received these decals, I had the greatest of intentions to do a review of the decals actually applied to my finished Trumpeter A-4E. Best laid plans are often exactly that, and I have to apologize for this not being that type of review. My poor A-4E is still sitting on the side of my work area crying to be finished. Life and time often get in the way of our modeling dreams and goals. These decals, printed by Cartograf, are some of the finest I have ever seen and you actually get a bonus in having AOA decals 32-012, Skyhawk Airframe stencils, included with the purchase. The airframe decals consists of two sheets. One includes all of the unit markings and fin flashes and rudder markings, and the second sheet contains all of the… more |
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USN F-14A VF-2 "Bounty Hunters"Published:
When I first saw the box, I was hoping for a brand new 1/72nd scale F-14A. But alas, the only thing new was a splendid Cartograf decal sheet. This is the same kit that has been receiving new decals since 2011 in an attempt to revitalize it. I believe the basic kit dates back to 2008, or earlier, and basically is a factory issued aircraft, with no modifications or upgrades. There are three light gray sprues and a clear sprue. You are given all of the weapons you could ever want: 4 AIM-7 Sparrows, 4 AIM-9L Sidewinders, 4 AIM-54 Phoenix, and one TARPS pod. You also get two external fuel tanks. Both types of wing glove pylons are included in the kit, so you can mount either AIM-54/AIM-9L or AIM-9L/AIM-7 configurations. I opted for the latter so I could mount all four… more |
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Fw 190A-5Published:
Right on the heels of Eduard’s release of the 1/72nd scale Fw 190A-8 was their Fw 190A-5. When you open the box, you wonder just what kit the parts are for. You see three trees of light gray parts, one clear tree with four canopies on it a great decal sheet, a photo etch sheet and a mask. Of course, many of the parts are for the A-8 and for future variants of the A-8. And, with all of these extra parts, you have to read the instruction sheet for the correct parts number to ensure you don’t go wrong and start building something other than an A-5. Of course you have to decide which of the markings you are going to build, because there are some differences between them. There are markings for five aircraft, some old and some new. Selection A is Hermann Graf’s colorful… more |
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AH-1Z Vipers DenPublished:
The Kitty Hawk AH-1Z was ready for decals. So, on to WW Decals 48-08. One word of caution; decide which aircraft you want to model BEFORE you paint! Floyd gives you eight different choices of aircraft, and there is something different about the color demarcation lines or non-skid paint or patches of other color paint on each aircraft. I didn’t have that forethought, so the end result was there was one aircraft that I could depict, and that was NO. 41 of HMM-268 (REIN). The sheet also contains two sets of common markings. I had used Mr. Color 308 FS36375 for the lower gray and Model Master 1721 FS35237 for the upper gray. Floyd had said that he thought he had printed the dark gray of his decal sheet a little bit light and I should lighten the 36375 a little. I opted not… more |
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AH-1Z ViperPublished:
Having flown the AH-1G, Q, Mod S, Prod S and Prod S (ECAS) while on active duty with the U.S. Army, I am always drawn to any version of the AH-1. It is truly an exciting aircraft to fly and it just looks plain wicked! The aircraft has been around since 1966 and the AH-1Z is the latest incarnation of that airframe, and tends to make you think it’s going to be around much longer, still. And Kitty Hawk has done a great job of presenting us with a detailed model of the Marines’ newest helicopter. And, our very own Floyd Werner was involved in the design and production of this kit from the very beginning. Thanks go to Floyd for all of his time and efforts to produce this kit. Now, if he can just convince them to do a G Model or F model in 1/48 or 1/35, we’ll be on a roll. When you… more |
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F-4B Ejection Seats (Late)Published:
As with most injection molded kits, the Academy F-4B ejection seats have no lap belts or shoulder harnesses, and are also very basic. The shape of the cushions is also very questionable. Eduard comes to the rescue with their Brassin line of products and gives us some very detailed ejection seats. There are five pieces of resin and a very busy photo etch seat for each of the two seats provided. The seats without any belts or harnesses are impressive. When you add all of the belts, handles, levers and wires to the seats, they are really quite nice. The resin pieces are exquisitely cast with very little in the way of pour blocks that need to be removed, and the resin is not brittle as we find in many resin products. The photo etch is of the painted variety, but take care when… more |