Armored: Olive Drab: 1939-1956 Paint Set

Published: October 16, 2018
Company: Tru-Color Paint

Tru-Color Paint was formed in 2008 by Rick Galazzo and Scott Cohen, both of whom come from extensive backgrounds in formulating paint on the commercial scale. They set out on their own to develop this paint line of solvent based paint by reformulating the old Accupaint formulation to flow better and give a more glossy appearance after drying. They currently offer over 600 colors offered with more to follow. Sets and single bottles are available and include lines for railroad, automotive, and military aircraft and armament lines.

The specific set I tested was specifically for armored subjects painted olive drab from the years 1939-1956 and include the following colors in 1 oz. bottles:

• TCP-1400: Olive Drab #1, 1944-1945; All Theaters
• TCP-1401: Olive Drab… more

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop"

Published: February 3, 2020
Company: Kinetic Model Kits

Christmas came early this year for me when I received the email that this beastie was available for review. I am incredibly thankful to Kinetic Models for providing this kit for review and to the review corps higher-ups for trusting someone brand new to the group for having faith in me to not only build this thing, but in a timely manner to boot. It is a re-kitting of the Vintage Fighter Series kit released in 2008. I won’t say the ride was completely smooth…but it was a fun ride regardless.

The kit consists of eight sprues with 258 parts in gray plastic, twelve parts in clear plastic, two vinyl tires for the main gear wheels, and a gorgeous decal sheet representing two schemes. I would love to say the instructions are equal to the task, but there are some rough spots. To begin… more

Focke-Wulf TA 183 "Huckebein"

Published: August 22, 2018
Company: Academy Models

Kurt Tank’s design team late in the war was striving to design aircraft to rival rumored Allied jet fighters, like the Gloster Meteor. Unfortunately for the Reich, fuel shortages and the end of the war prevented most of the fighters designed after the Me-262 from ever seeing combat. One of these was the TA 183 “Huckebein”. The Americans captured data and plans for the fighter from the Messerschmitt plants- and these evolved into designs of the swept-wing FJ-2/3/4 Fury and the Air Force version- the F-86 Sabre. The Soviet spoils of design plans led to their MiG-15.

This Academy kit is a reboxing of the AMtech kit #484601 originally released in 2001. This re-release includes photo-etched seat belts, canopy and gear wheel masks, and a set of different hypothetical Luft ’46 decal… more