Jim Pearsall
Reviews By Author
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Detail Set for the 1/72 Academy F/A-18APublished:
The ContentsYou get a heavy duty envelope with 4 plastic sleeves inside. You get:
You also get 2 full pages of instructions, folded so that you have 8 separate half pages of instructions, plus a half page instruction for the masks. The AircraftThe F/A-18 Hornet has been around for a while, and it looks to be almost as big a winner as its predecessor, the F-4 Phantom. One of the stories going around St. Louis in the 90s was that the plant wanted to build 5058 Hornets, one more than the production run for the Phantom. Well, the production line is… more |
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1973 - 2010 The Story of Matchbox KitsPublished:
The AuthorThis book is the English translation from the French by Jennifer Meyniel and the author. I have to say that it is a very good translation, as the text is very readable. I finished this book in one evening, during the commercial breaks in a couple of favorite Tuesday evening TV shows. Mr. Carbonel has taken the time and trouble to track down many of the players in the Matchbox plastic model division, done interviews and has done pretty extensive research on this subject. I had never heard of him, but apparently he is a respected author and aviation authority in France. The BookThere are four sections:
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The Supermarine Spitfire, Part 2: Griffon-PoweredPublished:
This book answered a question that has nagged me for many years, since Frog first came out with their Spitfire 14 kit back in 1968. Why would Supermarine want to go away from the fabulous Merlin engine and try something new? Well, this book answered that question early on. The answer is 1700 hp for the Griffon vs 1030 hp for the Merlin. The contents are:
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F-16 Falcon EggsPublished:
This is the third Hasegawa Egg Plane I’ve built, and Twobobs is certainly right in their decal description. Everyone probably has one of these in their stash, and finally someone has come out with interesting aftermarket markings for the Lawn Dart. They also describe the kit as whimsical (yep) and one to be built just for the fun of it, as no one has a good photo of the original aircraft. I built the RNethAF F-16 for that review because I worked with them in Italy. So the markings I chose for this review were one of Aviano’s Falcons. This was probably not the most interesting choice, as there are so many good sets of markings on the sheet. The instruction sheet is 4 pages long, so here are half of them. The kit is really simple, so after a quick paint job and a coat of… more |
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J-20 PLA Stealth FighterPublished:
The J-20 is a prototype of the Chinese fifth-generation fighter. It is called a stealth fighter, and it has many of the characteristics of a truly stealthy aircraft, including occluded intakes, an internal armament store, and radar-absorbent outer skin. As it is now configured, most experts say it isn’t truly stealthy as the engine exhausts are not low-observable technology for either IR or radar. There is speculation that new engines and exhausts will be added after the airframe has moved further toward production. The prototype flew in January of 2011. Dragon’s kit is now available 6 months later. That’s fast work. The KitAt first look, this is a simple kit, but the box art states that it’s for skilled modelers, age 14 and over. It’s nicely molded in flash-… more |
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Replacement Guns for the Mi-24 HindPublished:
A while back I built the Zvezda 1/72 Mi-24 Hind. I got the opportunity to do this review and grabbed it, as I wouldn’t have to build the entire kit just to add the nose guns The package contains two guns. The kit gives options of two different guns in the nose turret. The one I used is the Yak-B 4 barrel Gatling-type gun, 12.7 mm. The other is a twin-barrel gun the G-Sh-30, a 30 mm weapon. The 12.7mm has been phased out, and the 30 mm is preferred, as it has more punch, particularly on light armored targets. The G-Sh-30 is definitely superior to the kit parts, as the kit gun comes in 2 parts, so you have to deal with a seam. The QB part has slightly finer detail, which is still hard to see in 1/72. The Yak-B looked quite a bit like the kit part, and fit into the… more |
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Hawker Tempest VPublished:
The AircraftThe Tempest was a follow-on for the Hawker Hurricane and Typhoon. Through the Typhoon and Tempest development, Hawkers had problems with several new systems, and the Air Ministers were ready to scrap the new aircraft programs. One of the people who successfully argued for their retention and one of the problem solvers was Roland P. Beamont. The resulting aircraft was very fast, quite maneuverable, and a success against the Luftwaffe. But its biggest use in late World War II was against V-1 flying bombs. The Tempest had the speed and toughness to fly alongside a V-1 and tap the wing tip of the missile. This would cause the gyros in the navigation computer to tumble, and the V-1 would crash well short of its target. Good for London, not so good for those… more |
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Big Ed Set for the F-16I SufaPublished:
The ContentsYou get a heavy duty envelope with 4 plastic sleeves inside. You get:
You also get 2 full pages of instructions, folded so that you have 7 separate half pages of instructions, plus a half page instruction each for the ladder and the masks. The AircraftThe F-16I Sufa (Storm) is basically a Block 52 F-16, but there are additions and changes. Most of the changes are internal, with Israeli-built electronics and systems, but there are those 2 conformal fuel tanks, built by IAI which really change the… more |
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Lockheed C-130HPublished:
The AircraftIf you’ve never seen a C-130, and never had a ride in a Herk, you’ve probably been living under a rock somewhere. There are more than 40 variants, serving in 60 countries. The C-130 has been in service with the US Air Force for over 50 years, albeit with several different models and many improvements along the way. The StoryI served in the Illinois ANG for 30 years, from 1966-96. Just as I was retiring in 1995-96, the 182ndbecame an Airlift Wing, with C-130Es. When I heard that this kit was available for review, I begged and pleaded with John Noack to get this model. I wanted to build one of the Peoria C-130s. When I was informed that I’d get it, I called one of the kids, Tony Johnson, who worked at Peoria when I was… more |
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Douglas DC-7C, JALPublished:
The AircraftThe post World War II airliner market was rather like the competition between bomber aircraft in the war. Better engines, sleeker designs, more load carrying capability, longer range, were all sought after by the various airline companies both in the US and overseas. TWA bought the Lockheed Constellation, which could carry about 100 passengers on transatlantic flights. Pan American, the other US powerhouse airline bought "Connies", but they also had a long standing relationship with Douglas Aircraft. The Douglas DC-7 could fly New York to LA nonstop, but couldn’t do the Atlantic. The DC-7C could fly the Atlantic nonstop. Unfortunately for the Connie and the DC-7, the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, Convair 880, and the VC-10 were coming into service, and the DC… more |