Chad Richmond
Reviews By Author
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U-Boat Type IIB 1943Published:
The Type IIB U-Boat was used throughout World War II as a coastal patrol boat, and only twenty were made. Since it could not operate very far from its home port and carried very little armament, it was used to train new crews and prepare new Kapitans for their commands. Surprisingly, most of the Type IIB losses were from the Kapitan scuttling the boat. The first Type IIB was launched on June 29, 1935. It was interesting doing research on the boats that are referred to on the instruction sheet and finding out that markings and specific details of many of the U-boats are not readily available, and in some cases are best guesses. When I first saw this kit, I got excited because of the 1/144th scale. What a great scale for submarines, especially WWII era. I was still excited when I… more |
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A-4 Skyhawk Ejection Seat with Safety BeltsPublished:
The ejection seat provided in the Trumpeter 1/32nd A-4 kit is very nice, combining both injection plastic and photo etched parts, ten in all. It is certainly passable. It does not compare, however, to the Quickboost seat, which consists of six cast resin parts. The casting is some of the best I have ever seen. The belts are very detailed and the finished seat should paint up nicely. While attaching the separate oxygen hoses, one of them decided to break off and go airborne. The last I saw of it was passing over my left shoulder. The seat fits perfectly in the Trumpeter cockpit. I did not have a Hasegawa kit to compare it with, so I don’t know how it would stand against that kit seat. I can’t wait to get it painted and installed in the Trumpeter cockpit. My thanks to… more |
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F-4B Phantom II VF-84 “Jolly Rogers” DecalsPublished:
Right on the heels of Academy’s release of their long-awaited 1/48th scale F-4B, Super Scale comes out with a great sheet depicting the ever-popular Jolly Rogers markings. Sadly, there is only one set of markings on the sheet and there are no stencils. The aircraft depicted is BuNo 151506, which was the CAG’s aircraft while on the USS Independence in 1965. Though having nothing to do with the decal sheet, this aircraft was later lost on January 10, 1968, due to an aircraft accident while assigned to the USS Ranger. The decals are typical Super Scale Decals that we have been using for so many years. They are extremely thin, have nearly no excess decal film, and they appear to be in perfect register. These decals are printed by Cartograf of Italy, so we know they are of high… more |
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Messerschmitt Bf-110 Stencil DecalsPublished:
Eduard has given us some really great 1/72 Bf-110’s in the last few months, and now they have given us the stencils for them. Get out your Optivisor or your favorite magnifier, because you will need it. They are tiny! At first, I thought there were enough stencils for four aircraft, but that is only partially true. There are only enough for two aircraft in some cases, enough for three in some, enough for four in some. Even though they require magnification to read them, they are readable. Just another case of the quality of Eduard products. And, they are super thin. You can barely see the carrier film. Two placement charts are provided to help you with placement. The decals are designated by a letter on the charts, but not on the decal sheet. They are easily figured out,… more |
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A-6 Intruder Wing Fold SetPublished:
Along with several other photo etch sets made for detailing the Kinetic EA-6B and A-6E kits, Eduard offers this wing fold enhancement. Though the kit detail of the wing fold is adequate, this set definitely fine tunes the whole mechanism and lends a lot of detail. All together, there are 66 pieces of photo etch detail, all of which must be folded at least once, most twice. Removal of four tabs and four hinges on each kit wing gets the process started. These are replaced with three dimensionally-etched hinges and rib detail which, when painted and dirtied up, will give a great depiction of the real thing. Each wing also gets a very delicate manifold and plumbing piece. All of these are etched in the light gauge steel that Eduard sometimes uses, so they are a little more stiff… more |
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MiG-21 Czech Stencil DecalsPublished:
Eduard has given us several MiG-21 offerings, which allows us to build just about any MiG-21 in any country’s service. Right after their release of their MiG-21 in Czechoslovak service, they released this decal sheet that is just stencils in Czech. And there are a bunch of them. I started to count them, but gave up. There are 132 different stencils, and there are anywhere from two to eight of each of them. Markings are included for all of the pylons and external tanks, as well. Even though the markings are tiny, when you put them under magnification, they are readable. And, they are super-thin. You can barely see the carrier film. A 5.7” x 8.2” placement chart is provided and it will cause you to go cross-eyed trying to follow the tiny lines and numbers. These are very… more |
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Messerschmitt Bf-109E-4 DecalsPublished:
Eduard has turned out an excellent 1/48th scale Bf-109E-4 kit for us that has sparked a new interest in one of the most modeled aircraft ever. But, who can ever have enough 109’s? Even though you get markings for five separate aircraft in the Profipack kit, Eduard has produced a decal sheet with another five aircraft for us to choose from. The decals are printed by Eduard in the Czech Republic on a 3.3” by 7.5” sheet and is accompanied by an 8.3” x 11.6”full color foldout depicting the decal placement for each of the aircraft, as well as a general scheme depiction that includes color callouts for Gunze Sanyo paints. Aircraft included are:
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Albatross D.III/IV Decals, Part 1Published:
Dust off all those Eduard Albatross DV and DVa kits that you have, because Lifelike has released two new decal sheets with new markings not previously produced. And, one is very colorful, in typical Bavarian fashion. The title says DIII, but the markings included on the sheets are for three DV’s and one DVa. With each of the aircraft views is a history of the aircraft and its pilot and various color notes and conjectures about any differences from the markings included. Aircraft included are the very colorful Albatross DV of Lt. d. R. Wolf of Jasta 5. There are many segments that make up this set of markings, and they all involve some sort of curvature. Lifelike requested that it be mentioned that the use of strong setting solutions is not recommended. The products they… more |
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Albatros D.V/D.Va At War, Volume 2Published:
I though long ago that I had seen just about every picture of the World War I Albatros D.V and D.Va. Then Windsock comes along and publishes another Datafile that is jam packed with photos that I have not seen before and of aircraft markings that were new to me. This Datafile includes black and white photos taken during and after WWI and pictures of the two flyable aircraft built by The Vintage Aviator Ltd., as well as Albatros artifacts belonging to The Aero Conservancy (https://www.aeroconservancy.com/) here in the US. A narrative description of the process of building the two aircraft is included. Datafile 152 picks up where Datafile 151 left off and continues the story of the Albatros in World War I in December, 1917. Much of… more |
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MiG-21 MF Interior LatePublished:
Whenever you open the box for this set, there are so many parts that you feel like you’re opening a complete resin kit. Altogether, there are 33 resin parts, two photo etch sheets and a clear acetate sheet. It takes six 8” x 6” instruction sheets to show how to put it all together. These instructions appear to be a big improvement over past instruction sheets, because they are less confusing and leave little to be figured out. Only one kit part is utilized, and that is the cockpit floor. And, you only use part of it. There is one other portion of the right fuselage half that gets removed, but that’s it. There’s not a lot of thinning kit parts until they are transparent or major surgery required. I haven’t been able to find any reference that gives a definitive breakdown of what… more |