Helen Parsons At the Edge of the Universe Figure

Published: December 28, 2021
Company: Master Box Ltd

Master Box Models is proving time and time again to be at the cutting edge of figure modeling – providing the modeler with figures and figure sets that would normally only be seen in the expensive garage manufacturing field. They’ve created post-apocalyptic sets, fantasy sets and science fiction sets -- all of them innovative and surprising.

This latest figure comes from their science fiction series At the Edge of the Universe, and features a future crew member earning her keep in a futuristic arena of death. Parselen, otherwise know as the “master of two blades” wears mostly traditional gladiatorial garb including a simplified take on a Mirmillon helm. The only modern touch on her that I could discern was the use of very contemporary footwear rather than sandals.

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Tiger 1 "Early Version"

Published: December 30, 2019
Company: Airfix

Airfix doesn’t have much of a history creating 1/35^th scale armored vehicles (in fact, none) so I was a bit surprised to see them leaping into this particular market with a series of famous tanks all in one fell blow. Turns out that Airfix is doing what so many other manufacturers are doing – reboxing other manufacturer’s models under their brand name.

In this case, it’s a reboxing of Academy’s Early Tiger 1 model with interior. I can think of a few reasons why this would be a good idea, although this one leaves me a bit nonplussed. The Academy kit is still quite available on the internet and the prices are comparable, so I can only assume that Academy kits are hard to come by in Great Britain.

On to the kit itself. Having recently completed the incredibly… more

F4U-1A Corsair VF-17 "Jolly Rogers" Part 2

Published: February 4, 2020
Company: HGW Models

HGW Models has been putting out some interesting stuff lately, and this latest set of markings will prove useful to anyone (like me) who has a soft spot for Corsairs. In this second set catering to VF-17, five birds are presented, with all the bells and whistles, including national markings and full stencils.

The decals are clean and crisp with excellent registration, and copious documentation is provided, including all five aircraft in four-view drawings, which seems a bit redundant given then all five aircraft are very similar in appearance. Still, you can’t ding a company for being thorough. Separate drawings are provided for all interior and exterior stenciling, so if you screw this one up you’ve really got no one to blame but yourself.

This set of decals offers a… more

M1919 Browning .30 caliber (7.62mm) Empty Shells (25 pieces)

Published: December 14, 2019
Company: Master Model

Every once in a great while you run into something in the modeling world that really makes you stand up and take notice. I think Master Models has finally hit about the limit of size feasibility in the scale business – 1/35^th scale empty .30 caliber shells that are literally on the edge of visibility for an old coot like me.

This package comes with 25 pieces that are absolutely remarkable for their size and detail. Despite their minuteness, they’re not just little pieces of brass rod, but actual shells with rims and a shell opening on one end. I honestly don’t know how they are even capable of manufacturing something this small – they’re smaller than grains of rice and are closer to the size of (hope this isn’t too disturbing) head lice. As you can see, they’re… more

British Reflector Gunsights WW2

Published: December 14, 2019
Company: Brengun

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t used a lot of Brengun products over the years. This has nothing to do with their quality – more like modeling inertia. Often by the time I see a need for additional detail on an aircraft kit, I’ve reached the point of impatience where I simply want to get the thing done. This has not always worked in my favor.

An area where 1/32^nd scale kits, especially older ones, often let the modeler down is in the area of the gun sight – one of the most visible aspects of any cockpit from the era. Due to the limitations of injection molding, these are often represented by little more than lumps of plastic with only the faintest resemblance to the real article. Brengun has done something to fix this problem.

Brengun’s British… more

Soviet T-55 Main Battle Tank

Published: August 21, 2019
Book Author(s): Andrey Aksenov
Company: Osprey Publishing

The Russian T-54 and T-55 are without doubt the single most ubiquitous tank designs ever produced, having served in literally every theater of war since their initial design work back in the 1950’s. As such, they deserve a special place in any modern armor enthusiast’s collection. This book helps iron out some of the details for the detail conscious.

I must admit I was somewhat surprised as to the scope of the book when I first cracked the cover. Like most modelers, I’ve always used the terms T-54 and T-55 fairly interchangeably, as externally there are so few differences between the makes. I think I expected this book to treat them in the same manner. Instead, this book runs right into the process of creating the T-55 FROM the T-54 and never looks back.

Essentially,… more

Les Artilleries Françaises de la Révolution et du Premier Empire

Published: August 21, 2019
Book Author(s): Jean Marie Mongin
Company: Heimdal

If you’re a serious figure modeler and have a thing for the incredibly colorful and resplendent uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars, this book from the series should get your attention. One of a range of large-format books by this publisher, it’s a virtual cornucopia of detail and information regarding the artillery arm of the French Army from 1786 through 1815, when Napoleon met his own “Waterloo.”

The entire book is in French and offers no subtitles, although this won’t be much of a deterrent to any serious modeler as the book is almost exclusively color plates anyway. These cover literally every aspect of the French Artillery arm including ALL uniforms, equipment and ordnance. If you have access to the excellent Historex range of kits, much of what you find in this book will be… more

Arado Ar 234B-2/S3

Published: January 8, 2022
Company: Fly Models

I’ve built a number of models from this fledgling company, and must state one basic observation: they provide some fascinating subjects. I probably don’t need to go into a lot of historical background regarding the revolutionary Arado Ar234, except to say that it was the world’s first jet bomber and a truly amazing aircraft in many ways. I became fascinated with it during my teens when I built the venerable Lindberg kit, enthralled by the design.

Leave it to Fly to come up with not one, but several different configurations of this pivotal aircraft in my favorite scale, with more to come. I checked up on the Fly internet site and was not at all surprised to see that the two earlier releases are now sold out. Get them while you can!

On to the build. This is very much a… more

F-5E Tiger II Landing Gear (KH)

Published: June 16, 2019
Company: Scale Aircraft Conversions

Scale Aircraft Conversions has been providing replacement gear for a wide range of aircraft models for some time now, and the quality of their products is, by now, unquestioned. This new product for the Kitty Hawk Range of F-5E Tiger II models in 1/32^nd scale is no exception.

Comprised of ten pieces in cleanly-molded white metal, this kit is designed to directly replace most of the major components of all three landing gear, including hydraulic rams and oleo scissors. Examining the pieces next to the kit-provided gear, they appear to be exacting replicas of the originals, although some of the finicky assembly work of the plastic items has already been done for you, as well as the filling in of a few rather awkward pin marks.

I compared what I had with what is… more

RF-5E Tigereye

Published: June 9, 2019
Company: Kitty Hawk

There’s something about this relatively small, compact and sleek fighter that can grip the imagination. I’ve been enamored with it, that when Hasegawa released their 1/32^nd scale version many moons ago, I made no less than five over a single week, just to show it in some of its endless liveries.

With the release of this version of this famous aircraft, Kittyhawk has not only provided us with a variant never before available in this scale but upped the game considerably over the venerable Hasegawa kit in terms of detail.

Interestingly, the real aircraft has had something of a checkered career. Northrup decided to expand the nose section in order to offer a more effective reconnaissance platform than previously retrofitted standard F-5Es. This resulted in a ten… more