Messershmitt Bf-109G-10

Published: February 17, 2017
Company: Hasegawa

History

The Bf-109G-10 aircraft is rather unique by the fact that it was somewhat of a ‘Frankenstein’ aircraft put together with available resources at the time. The airframe consisted of a standard G model and incorporated a DB 605 D-2 engine. The reasoning for this was an attempt to create as little disruption to factory production of the Bf-109K’s.

Other external differences from the standard G model were deeper air cooler intakes, wide blade props, larger rudder, a Morane antenna, larger main wheels, and an extended tailwheel to provide a slightly better forward view.

There was a total of 2600 G-10 built after 1944 and one lone survivor resides in the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

Kit

The kit by Hasegawa… more

Mitsubishi J2M2 Raiden "Jack" Type 21 'Tatsumaki Unit'

Published: October 30, 2016
Company: Hasegawa

History

The J2M2 Raiden (Jack) was designed to achieve a high rate of climb in order to intercept incoming bombers. The aircraft went into full scale production in 1943 and early models included two cowl 7.7mm machine guns and 20mm wing cannons. Later versions omitted the cowl guns and relied on the heavy wing armament instead. It was used extensively late in the war as a bomber interceptor and proved to be one of favorite aircraft of Japanese pilots for this task. There were a total of about 500 aircraft built by the end of World War II and only one surviving example of this aircraft today located at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, CA.

Kit

The kit was first released in 1996 and has not changed very much other than offered with different markings over… more

Ju-88A-5

Published: February 22, 2020
Company: ICM

Sometime back in 2015 it was announced that ICM was going to produce a new 1/48 Ju-88 series kit. I was rather intrigued as the Ju-88 is one of my favorite aircraft of WWII and that the last time I actually built a Ju-88 was an old Hobbycraft kit back in the late 1980’s. Then sometime in the early 1990’s a new model company DML, later Dragon, came onto the market with a whole series of the Ju-88 family. At the time these were top notch kits but some of the engineering in order to produce a wide variety of variants made things slightly complicated for some, myself included. So with this announcement of a new Ju-88 kit coming out I was excited but at the same time very reluctant as my past experience with ICM not being favorable.

Here in Columbus, Ohio there is a local hobby shop… more