da Vinci Flying Pendulum Clock

Published: June 9, 2016
Company: Academy Models

From the MRC website listed above,

Da Vinci was fascinated by how timepieces operate. Based on one of his sketches, it uses the laws of motion and a vertical “flying” pendulum escapement to keep accurate time.
The pendulum’s weights, in a bucket suspended from a crane-style arm, act as the clock’s power source. The weights propel the pendulum from vertical post to vertical post. As it “flies” it turns precision gears, which in turn keep time. To speed up or slow the clock, adjust the weight-balance of the pendulum by adding or removing weights.

Kit

The kit comes packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with 2 bags of parts and the instruction manual.

One of the bags contains the parts molded in brown plastic that resembles… more

P-38 Lightning Egg Plane

Published: January 31, 2016
Company: Hasegawa

From the Hasegawa web page:

Set to strike

During the Pacific War, Charles MacDonald shot down 27 enemy fighters with his P-38, nicknamed "Putt-Putt Maru." These victories and his exceptional abilities as commander of the 475th Fighter Group made him one of the top Allied aces of World War II. P-38 Lightnings were the ideal aircraft for the Pacific; their long range, high speed and heavy armament let U.S. forces successfully engage Japanese planes at every turn.

Kit

This kit is a re-release of an older kit that comes packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with 1 bag of sprues, a single sheet of decals, and an instruction manual.

The sprue bag contains 4 gray sprues (36 parts) and 1 clear (1 part) sprue (in a small bag to… more

BV-141 Self Adhesive PE Set

Published: May 7, 2015
Company: Eduard

Hobby Boss released a 1/48 scale kit of the Blohm & Voss Bv 141 reconnaissance plane last year. Eduard has released this detail set for the kit.

The detail set comprises of 2 frets of metal parts, one with pre-painted instrument panels, consoles and seat belts, the other fret is unpainted brass. The unpainted sheet contains main landing gear doors, ammo racks, walkway area for the wing and other small details.

The interior details replace some of the molded detail and add other missing details that Hobby Boss left out. The control/instrument panels are all self-adhesive, although I ended up using either CA or Gator Grip Glue, depending on the part, because the adhesive seemed to be lacking and didn’t want to stick very well. I don’t know if it was because of the way… more

BV-141 Masks

Published: May 6, 2015
Company: Eduard

Hobby Boss released a 1/48 scale kit of the Blohm & Voss Bv 141 reconnaissance plane last year. The Bv 141 greenhouse canopy is comprised of many separate panels that require a lot of masking in order to paint the frames. Eduard has come to the rescue with a mask set for this kit. This set includes all the masks needed for all the clear parts on the kit as well as masks for the wheels.

This is the first time I have used Eduard masks for masking canopies and I have to say I am very impressed. The pre-cut masks fit all of the openings perfectly and in just over an hour I was finished masking all the clear parts. If I would have done this manually with tape, it would have easily taken me at least 5-6 times that long to do the same thing. For the round, machine gun window on… more

Space Shuttle Orbiter & Boeing 747 Egg Plane

Published: March 11, 2015
Company: Hasegawa

From the kit's Hasegawa web page:

Returning to roost

Moving the space shuttle is one jumbo task, fortunately, the eggheads of Boeing hatched the B747-one of the largest commercial aircraft ever to spread its wings. The bigger birds made dozens of flights yoked together with the shuttles. Had the shuttles scrambled on their own, they would have risked frying their engines or cracking flight surfaces. After the space shuttle program was put on the shelf, the 747s ovoided their due date by serving the shuttles to their final roosting places. Limited edition kit features a shuttle carrier and shuttle with decals for Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour.

Kit

This kit is a modified re-release of 2 previous kits… more

USS New York LPD-21

Published: December 10, 2014
Company: Hobby Boss

USS New York (LPD-21) is the fifth San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship. Her keel was laid on September 10, 2004, at the Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Avondale Operations in New Orleans, Louisiana. USS New York’s bow consists of 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center. She was commissioned on November 7, 2009, in New York City.

Kit

The HobbyBoss 1/700 scale USS New York kit comes packaged in a sturdy cardboard box. Each sprue is wrapped in plastic individually, with the exception of the duplicate sprues, which are wrapped together. There is foam padding covering the delicate parts and between the clear sprues for the aircraft. There are 21 sprues, plus the top and bottom hull pieces, and a stand. The ship parts are molded in light gray… more