Chad Richmond
Reviews By Author
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Albatros D.V and D.Va Decal Sheets: "Wooden Wonders", and "Black Beauties"Published:
For those of us who love nothing better than trying to figure out where all of those flying wires go to and how to attach them, New Zealand’s Wingnut Wings has been a blessing and the best thing that has happened to our hobby in many years. 1/32ndscale is a fantastic scale for WWI aircraft, yet they don’t take up a lot of display room. The quality of the Wingnut Wings’ releases is still hard to digest, especially at their very reasonable price and free shipping, to boot. To complement their fantastic kits, they have now started releasing some equally stunning decals, all of which are printed in Italy by Cartograf. The registry is without fault; they are thin, and Wingnut Wings even recommends that a hair dryer be used to get their decals to conform to the model’s surface,… more |
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5-Color Upper Lozenge Decals and 5-Color Lower LozengePublished:
Editor's note: Sheet no.s 30001 and 30002 - $12.50 each; 30005 - $7.50 For those of us who love nothing better than trying to figure out where all of those flying wires go to and how to attach them, New Zealand’s Wingnut Wings has been a blessing and the best thing that has happened to our hobby in many years. 1/32ndscale is a fantastic scale for WWI aircraft, yet they don’t take up a lot of display room.
The quality of the Wingnut Wings’ releases is still hard to digest, especially at their very reasonable price and free shipping, to boot. To complement their fantastic kits, they have now started releasing some equally stunning decals, all of which are printed in Italy by Cartograf. The registry is without fault; they are thin, and Wingnut… more |
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A-1 Skyraider Gun Barrels and Pitot TubePublished:
In going through all of my references on the Skyraider, I found pictures of at least three types of 20mm cannon barrels. I guess it’s another one of those cases where you have to have pictures of the exact aircraft you are modeling; to be sure you get it right. The castings are very well done, very sleek and very fragile. They are one-to-one replacements for the barrels on the Hasegawa kit. Just glue the wing halves together, snip off the kit barrels and drill a hole in the leading edge, and you’re ready to go. If you are depicting a step-down barrel, this is the way to go, because you just won’t find any thin walled tubing that will give you that nice of a step-down. The pitot tube is very thin and very fragile. And, of course, the quality of the casting of Quickboost detail parts is… more |
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AV-8B Harrier PlusPublished:
This decal sheet initially has you scratching your head about whose sheet it really is. It’s a SuperScale International sheet, with Squadron Products logo on the bottom of it, and it’s printed by Cartograf ion Italy. It doesn’t really matter, because it is a really well done sheet. It features markings for two very colorful Harriers. The VMA-214 bird bears Pappy Boyington’s markings and is in a different than normal two tone grey scheme, FS36118 and FS35237 with a black fin and black wing tanks. The VMA-211 bird is in the same two tone grey scheme with a bright red fin trimmed in yellow. The instruction sheet is in full color, which is a nice touch, and there are enough stencil data to allow you to do both aircraft. You have to really pay attention to all of the marginal notes, because… more |
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A-1 Horizontal StabilizerPublished:
The casting of these elevators and stabilizers is as good as the original plastic parts in the kit. The stabilizers have a pocket trailing edge that accepts the rounded leading edge of the elevators perfectly and the fit is better than I could ever do if I had taken the kit parts and cut them apart. The resin is a cream color, but their web site shows some cast in gray, so I guess it depends upon the batch and what kind of resin they were using that day. I looked through all of my Skyraider references, couldn’t find that many pictures of A-1s with the elevators displaced, except for those taking off or landing. But, if you want your Hasegawa A-1 to have displaced elevators, you really need these. They are a direct replacement for the kit parts. My thanks to Aires for the… more |
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KFIR C1/C2Published:
Whenever Italeri announced they were releasing a 1/48 model of the Israeli C1/C2 Kfir, I really got excited. I thought that my prayers had finally been answered for getting a good 1/48 Kfir kit. But then I started thinking. Italeri has been famous over the last few years of rereleasing the old ESCI and other kits with a beautiful box and a great decal sheet. When I got the box from Dave Morrisette, I was really excited, just because of the box art. There are four beautiful full color profiles of three C-2’s and one C-1, with two of the aircraft being two tone gray and two with the Israeli desert camouflage scheme. But, then I opened the box, and all of my excitement and enthusiasm disappeared. There was the same kit that I had struggled though building in the late 1980’s. There… more |
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Fw 190 DorasPublished:
Editor: Features the Russian captured D-9, "White 16" II./JG 301, "Black 4" W. Nr. 400271 III./JG 2 and "White 15" W. Nr. 600651 Just when you thought you had seen every marking scheme for Fw 190D9’s, Jerry Crandall comes out with a new book on the Dora and decals for newly discovered aircraft. This sheet contains markings for four different aircraft, one of which was a captured aircraft used by the Russians The other three bear non-standard colors and markings, which was not at all unusual during the late stages of the Spring of 1945, right at the end of the war. These decals are in keeping with the usual high quality research of Eagle Editions and are perfectly in register, as printed by Cartograf of Italy. By the way, if you want some good… more |