Accurate Miniatures had a great run producing kits that stand up even to this day. Academy has the molds currently and has reissued the kit regularly including the 1/48 B-25B which I was lucky enough to review. The kits has wonderful detail but could use some details here and there. To address one area, Quickboost has come out with an excellent set of pilots chairs with molded in seat belts. These are cast in the usual crisp, bubble free gray resin. One really, really nice thing is that both seats are the same EXCEPT the seat belts are different which is a wonderful little detail.
Prep is simple, cut off the casting blocks on the bottom and check the fit into the seat rails. It may require slightly hollowing out the area where the rails attach but it is quick grind. A quick… more
Aires and the Aerobonus line continue their 1/32 scale sets meant for modern airfields and workshops. In this case, the set is a 1/32nd scale mechanics chair. This is similar to a backless office chair. The set comes with eight resin parts including five separate casters, a seat adjustment lever, the seat itself and a magnificent casting in one piece of the chair base.
Construction is straightforward but there are two things to consider when building the seat. First, the casters and seat adjustment lever are very, very small. Care is needed when removing and cleaning the parts. The same can be said of the chair base. It is a truly remarkable once piece casting. To remove it, I removed the side protectors and carefully used a photoetch razor saw and cut along the… more
Aires has come out with three sets under their Aerobonus line which have modelers covered for any situation concerning FOD (foreign object debris). All three 1/32nd scale sets are cast in Aires gray resin and include decals and instructions.
Scale Aircraft Modelling's November 2015 issue comes to us with a cover featuring a nicely framed picture of a Beaufighter and promises scale plans and profiles as well as other articles. Inside, it delivers as promised or even more.
Tony Grand leads off the builds with Magna Models 1/72 Seamew kit. A resin model of an unusual plane and Mr. Grand shows how to polish it up by reinforcing parts, fixing flaws and showing how nice the kit can look with some attention and effort.
A real highlight for me was Francesco Pigoli’s build of Revell’s 1/72 F-22 Raptor. Mr. Pigoli used Eduard’s Raptor interior and a lot of scratchbuilding skills to detail wheel and armament wells, intake FOD guards and more. There are many more fixes and the end result with a great paint scheme is… more
Scale Aircraft Modelling's October 2015 issue comes with a gorgeous picture of a Wolfpacks 1/72 T-2 Buckeye in trainer markings. For me, that sets the tone for a great issue as I love the color scheme.
And that is how this issue starts with Karl Robinsons’ build of the beautiful 1/72 scale T-2 in the US Navy training scheme. He is well impressed with the kit and only notes small issues with fitting the intakes and flaps which are easily corrected.
Roden’s 1/144 kit of Bristol’s Type 175 Britannia is built by Andy McCabe. He builds it in BOAC markings and it looks wonderful for what he considers a “quick build”.
Mike Verier writes an excellent article on Gunships, highlighting the Roden 1/144 AC-47 Spooky. Not only does the article have an excellent build of the kit in… more
Published: Book Author(s): Gary Hatcher, Editor Company: Scale Aircraft Modelling
Scale Aircraft Modelling's September 2015 issue comes packed with great build articles of some unique planes as well as continuing its fine history and modelling articles with everything from new kits, scratchbuilds and older kits.
Ken Duffey builds Trumpeters 1/72 J-15 which also includes a flight deck. Several of Mr. Duffeys pictures are also included showing the wing folding mechanisms. The finished models looks great with the plane poised for launch.
Revell of Germany’s 1/144 Airbus A330-330 gets built two ways- one in Delta Airline markings and a shot of the same plane in Thai Airways markings. While released almost a decade ago, the kit still produces beautiful looking airliners.
Tony O’Toole’s article on the Short Sterling A Mk. IV and its participation… more
The Mk. 84 general purpose bomb is a 2000 Lb. weapon which can be configured with different fins and fuses depending on its mission at the time. In this iteration, Eduard has provided a Mk. 84 with retarded fins, I believe based on the BSU-50/B parts to allow lower release and the plane to escape the blast radius.
Eduard’s set comes with two main bomb bodies, three styles of fuses, a photoetch fret with two pieces, decals, and instructions. Construction is simple- take your time and cut the main body away from the pour stub being careful of the rear fins. Sand smooth and add the photoetch to the rear. After that, all that is needed is to select the fuse type. The fuse can actually be added after the painting.
Color is simple with olive drab being the main choice. The… more
The GBU-10 Paveway II laser guided bomb is a modified version of the Mk. 84 general purpose bomb with added fins and guidance system. Eduard has produced a set of two GBU-10’s in 1/48th scale. Each set has two bomb bodies, separate front fins for 8 parts and two sets of seeker heads for the front; one ready for use and one with a cast in cover. Casting is perfect and in standard Eduard dark gray resin. Also included are the instructions and a decal sheet with all the markings.
Construction is simple. My one piece of advice is to take your time and cut slowly. The parts are small and thinly cast to make them realistic. The main body gets cut loose at the rear of the assembly. I cut each fin loose separately and the trimmed off the pour block and the cut the remainder loose with… more
UMM continues to make and issue tools that their owner John Vojtech has developed and used to make his award winning models. The UMM™ 3D Center Locating Tool Jig is one of those tools. What you get is two pieces of aluminum bolted together so that the bottom forms a v-shaped notch and the top forms a straight edge aligning with the point of the notch. The purpose of the tool is simple, find the exact center of a round or square object. This is extremely handy when you need that center for drilling out holes or attached things exactly on center.
I tried the jig on the bottom of a bust which needed to be attached to a base, and I had to drill and insert a pin to insure its stability. I slid the base square to the notched side and drew a line up the straight edge. I then rotated… more
One thing that has been overlooked by some manufacturers is markings for the weapons they include in their kits. They are sometimes afterthoughts or incomplete and a few are actually not bad, but seeing a beautifully built plane with average weapons kills the mood. AOA Decals has started a trend to fix that with their release 32009 for Mk. 20 Rockeye cluster combs.
Inside the package is a two-sided color sheet detailing the markings with notes for the Mk. 20 and a small decal sheet containing enough markings for four bombs total. One really thoughtful note is that the yellow-stenciled markings are presented with variations compared to each other so that each set is slightly unique, which will give you a nice variation and a more realistic weapon. There are also alternate double… more
