James Corley
Reviews By Author
|
F-14A Wheels EarlyPublished:
The amazing Tamiya Tomcat has yet another aftermarket item to dress it up: Early wheels fro Eduard. The Eduard Brassin set for the F-14A Tomcat includes 8 resin parts and a sheet of paint masks. The instructions are simple enough, as this is a fairly easy set to build (and illustrate). The 4 tires are molded onto pour plugs which make painting the wheels easy. The first step is to paint the nose gear and main hubs white. After a bit, one can mask off the nose gear hubs with the masks provided. The mask sheet gives you 8 masks for the wheels, but only the 4 for the nose gear are to be used. If you save them, you can reuse them on the kit gear and have masks for the main gear. Once the masks are in place, then use your favorite tire color to paint the tires blacks… more |
|
F-14A Ejection SeatsPublished:
The Eduard Brassin set for the F-14A Tomcat ejection seats (GRU-7A seats) is a very comprehensive set. The set includes 3 resin pieces for each seat, plus a fret of painted brass with 15 distinct items, usually 4 of each. The instructions are very thorough, but the brass includes extras of some items: there are 4 of #PE12 in Step 1 yet one is only intended to install two of these, one on each sheet. Ok, back to references to see if they left something out. Nope - they just give us extras. The same is true for #PE10 & #PE11. Some of the brass, specifically #PE4, are so small they became hard to work with, and aren't even shown in the images from Eduard but are on the seats. Other than three confusing extra parts, the build is straightforward and fairly simple. These went… more |
|
F-14A Tomcat Instrument PanelsPublished:
Having awaited the Tamiya Tomcat since they were at the museum - measuring the real things (and having to keep quiet about it until they announced it) I was very satisified with the excellent kit they produced. FANTASTIC!! I was even luckier when I found that the Eduard instrument set was available for review. This set is designed for the Tamiya Tomcat and it fits the kit parts wonderfully. The instructions call for minimal scraping of the raised details Tamiya provides. The only part I had to actually remove was the RIO radar sunshield, but I used a brand new #11 blade and was able to use it instead of the etch piece Eduard provided. The only part that didn't look quite right, when compared to photos, was #8. The triple fold worked fine, but the part seemed to be… more |
|
MiG-21MF 'Soviet Air Force and Export'Published:
The MiG-21 was the first Soviet production aircraft designed to operate above Mach 2. The MiG-21 featured a modified deltawing platform with the addition of traditional elevators. The first MiG-21 to enter production was MiG-21F Fishbed C and was shortly followed with the MiG-21F-13 Fishbed E. The MiG-21F-13 was the first example to be examined by the West, following the defection of an Iraqi pilot to Israel in 1966. This individual plane proved vital to the Israeli victory in 1967 and subsequent American aerial superiority in Vietnam. This kit includes the MiG-21SM/MF Fishbed J with an intercept radar in the nose shock cone, an internal GSh-23 23mm gun, and four underwing pylons. The J model was powered by the R-13-300 engine. The MiG-21MF has seen combat in the Middle East,… more |
|
USN Vought OS2U-1/3 Kingfisher USS Arizona, USS WashingtonPublished:
The Kingfisher was the result of a competition in the late 1930s to replace the SOC Seagull, a biplane battleship & cruiser scout plane. The new airplane was a radical improvement over the SOC in performance and maintainability. The aircraft proved so popular with both the aircrews and shipboard crews that its immediate replacement, the SO3C Seamew, was often left behind due to "maintenance issues", and the OS2U & SOC served far longer than the Bureau of Aeronautics wanted, with most of the aviation-capable ships still using them at the end of the war. The decals provided give the builder the option to build one of several Kingfishers: OS2U-1 Bureau Number 1695, VO-1, USS Arizona, 1940-41 "1-O-1"This aircraft is presented in the prewar overall… more |
|
Academy USN F/A-18 F "VFA-103 Jolly Rogers"Published:
One of the latest offerings from Academy is their new tooling of a Super Hornet in 1/72 scale. Academy is known for well-designed and sharp tooling, and this kit is no exception. The kit comes molded in 3 colors: gray, white and black. The gray parts include most of the airframe and other parts. The black parts include the vertical stabilizer, burner cans, tires, seat and instrument panels. Don't fret over the black verticals, however, as they are included in gray as well. The white sprue includes intakes, main gear wheel hubs and landing gear struts. This kit is not marketed as a snap together kit, but in the process of test fitting parts, it became very obvious to me that the kit is a very high quality snap together kit. This feature of the molding, plus the inclusion… more |
|
Saab J-29 Tunnan Landing GearPublished:
Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white-metal replacement parts, now including the 1/48 Hobby Boss Saab J-29 Tunnan. The set includes 10 parts with the following breakdown:
These parts are little more than drop-in replacements; the white metal parts actually are the equivalent to several plastic parts, and are interchangeable as they fit the plastic parts almost perfectly. The main gear retraction struts are molded to their runners with a rather thick base at the pinion point. It took quite a bit of careful sawing to free the part. This resulted in deformed pins with not much "pin" left over… more |
|
Lockheed U-2CPublished:
HistoryThe Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is operated by the United States Air Force (USAF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Navy, The Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet; 21,000 m), all-weather intelligence gathering. The U-2 has also been used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration, and communications purposes, has been modified into the TR-1 (since redesignated U-2S) and ER-1 (NASA). The type was successfully adapted for operations on aircraft carriers (U-2G) , but the type was never officially operated from carriers. In 1960, the U-2 came into the public spotlight when Gary Powers was… more |
|
Meteor F.8 Landing GearPublished:
Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white-metal replacement parts, now including the 1/48 Airfix Meteor F.8. The set includes 10 parts with the following breakdown:
These parts are drop-in replacements; the white metal parts actually are the equivalent to several plastic parts, and interchangeable as they fit the plastic parts almost perfectly. In the case of the Airfix Meteor, there is a recommendation of adding a 15g nose weight, and the metal gear weigh about 12g (kit parts weigh 2g),… more |