Dan Brown
Reviews By Author
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F-104 MB. 7 Ejection SeatPublished:
With the recent releases of the special edition F-104 kits from Eduard in 1/48 using Hasegawa plastic, Eduard has released the F-104 MB. 7 ejection seat as a separate kit. The Martin-Baker Mk. Q7(A) ejection seat was a replacement ejection seat for the F-104 in European service. It replaced the original downward firing seats with the newer upward firing design. The reason for this change is that in foreign service the role of the F-104 was expanded and in low altitude flight with heavy wing loads there was a very high rate of failure with the original downward firing seats. This seat set is very simple. It contains the main seat frame, the seat back parts, a small air hose, rails, a small photo etch set and a small decal set. As this is a drop in replacement seat for the kit… more |
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Sd.Kfz.182 KingTiger Henschel Turret w/Zimmerit s.Pz.Abt.505 Russia 1944 (2 in 1)Published:
I am not going to spend a lot of time going into the history of the King Tiger. This vehicle has long been an extremely popular tank in the armor modeling community. It was the one of the most famous vehicles fielded by the German army in the late days of WWII. It weighed in at an impressive 70 tonnes and was armed with the venerable long barreled 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 anti-tank cannon. This particular new boxing from Dragon represents a late model King Tiger with the Henschel Turret and Zimmerit. The first thing that you notice when opening the box is the large number of parts that Dragon provides with Zimmerit molded on. The moldings are definitely very impressive, even if they are a little out of scale and create some issues that I will go over later. The kit has parts for the… more |
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IDF Magach 3 - Smart KitPublished:
Early in the 1960s West Germany and the US agreed to bolster the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank forces by beginning the process of replacing their aging fleet of tanks with more modern M48A1/A2s. In all around 150 M48A1s and 100 M48A2s seem to have been sold to Israel during this time. It is a little unclear from the resources that I have when the upgrades exactly started to these M48A1/2s but the intent was to upgrade them to the M48A3 specs by replacing the gasoline engine with a more reliable diesel power plant, improved communications equipment, and the lowering of the command turret’s profile. They also began swapping out the original 90mm main cannon with the British 105mm L7 from the Centurion. Some of these upgrades seem to have started before the outbreak of hostilities… more |
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MiG-21 MF Limited EditionPublished:
The MiG-21 is one the most iconic and recognizable airplanes ever produced. An astonishing 11,000 aircraft were built in the USSR alone in its 15 year service life in the Soviet Air Force and a number of countries were given licenses to produce it as well. Given the codename “Fishbed” by NATO, the MiG-21 has been in service for more air arms around the world than any other fighter aircraft. With this in mind Eduard has rereleased their fantastic kit of the MiG-21 MF with a staggering number of markings as a new special edition kit. The box contains seven part trees molded in traditional light grey plastic, one clear tree, resin parts for the rocket pods, one color photoetch sheet, one small photoetch sheet, a full masking set and three huge decal sheets. It also includes Eduard… more |
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D9R Doobi w/Armor Slats – Cooling SlatsPublished:
With the recent release of the updated Meng 1/35 D9R Armored Bulldozer to include slat armor, Eduard has released a number of photo-etch detail sets to update the kit and add new details. This is a Meng kit so the detail is fantastic, but there can always be some room for improvement. This set includes replacements for all of the cooling slats and a few other parts. This update set has one large fret and one medium fret of photo-etch parts for the kit. The large fret is almost entirely made up of slats to fit into the frames included on both frets. As usual with Eduard’s photo-etch sets, the detail is extremely fine, much finer than the molded on cooling slats on the kit parts. This update set is also surprisingly easy to build, even though it looks intimidating due to the… more |
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D9R Doobi w/Armor Slats - InteriorPublished:
With the recent release of the updated Meng 1/35 D9R Armored Bulldozer to include slat armor, Eduard has released a number of photo-etch detail sets to update the kit and add new details. This is a Meng kit so the detail is fantastic but there can always be some room for improvement, especially with regards to the interior. This update set has one medium fret of photo-etch parts for the kit. This fret has a large number of color panels to replace all of the kit molded-in panels and placards. As usual with Eduard’s photo-etch sets, the detail for these color panels is a huge upgrade over the kit parts. This is partly due to the finer detail of the new parts when compared to the originals and partly due to their ease of use, just remove the kit detail and drop in the replacements… more |
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88mm FlaK 36 auf Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.HPublished:
Towards the closing days of WW2 Germany was desperate for any type of functioning fighting vehicles they could get. This led to the mounting different weapons on any available chassis that they had. One of the weirder vehicles was created by mounting the infamous 88mm Flak 36 on a Panzer IV chassis. There is very little information available on this vehicle but it does appear to have at least made it to the prototype phase. The chassis was not modified with stabilizers, so there is some speculation that the 88mm’s traverse was limited to just a few degrees off front center, similar to the Ferdinand. Also the Panzer IV was not designed to handle the recoil of the 88mm so the recoil may have shattered the suspension when fired. Dragon recently released this oddity in kit form,… more |
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M901 Launching Station & AN/MPQ-53 Radar set of MIM-104 Patriot SAM System (PAC-2)Published:
The PAC-2 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system, whose primary purpose is to intercept ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of flight. This new offering from Trumpeter is the first injection molded kit of the Patriot Missile system in 1/35 scale. The kit includes the Transporter Erector Launcher Trailer, 4 missile containers, a missile and the AN/MPQ-53 Radar set trailer. There is only one option for displaying both trailers and that is the deployed position with the outriggers down and the missiles raised. The first thing that you notice is the sheer size of the box at 24 by 4 by 14, it is a truly massive box, even for someone who builds 1/35 scale tank transporters for fun. This in part due the huge amount of plastic shipped inside and in part due to the way this kit… more |
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Horten Ho 229Published:
The Horten Ho 229 is one of the most striking aircraft designs to emerge from World War II. It was a German fighter/bomber prototype designed by the Horten brothers in response to Hermann Göring's call for a light bomber that could meet a 3x1000 requirement. Meaning that it could carry 1,000 kilograms of ordinance a distance of 1,000 kilometers at 1,000 kilometers per hour. Because only jet powered airframes could meet the speeds necessary to fulfill the requirement for the cruising speed the design became the first flying wing design to be powered by jet engines. Zoukei-Mura first released a kit of this interesting aircraft in 1/32 and that kit is still an extremely popular masterpiece of design. However, they have recently been redesigning and releasing some of their 1/32… more |
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P-39 Q/N AiracobraPublished:
The Bell P-39 Airacobra is one of the most distinctive looking and interesting aircraft designs to be built in large numbers in the early years of World War II. It was designed by Bell Aircraft Corporation in the late 1930’s as a fighter interceptor with some very innovative features. The large V1710 Alison engine was located behind the cockpit, a 37mm cannon was mounted through the spinner shaft and rather than having a top opening canopy it was designed with car style doors. This highly anticipated new kit from Kitty Hawk is the first kit of this awesome fighter in 1/32 scale that is not a short run kit. This boxing includes parts to build either the Q or N variants which saw extensive service with the Soviet Union and the Pacific Theater. The parts for this kit are… more |