Tom Jett
Reviews By Author
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Shed with Wooden FencePublished:
Kit ReviewThis is the second review I’ve done of a MiniArt Building, and let’s just say they aren’t getting easier. That’s not to say they’re not great kits, but they are perhaps they lend themselves to the more experienced modeler. If you haven’t built or seen one of these, the kits consist of both Vacuform and injection molded parts. The major building pieces are vacuformed with the interior and exterior walls and roof sections molded as separate parts. No base is included/provided as in other MiniArt building/ruin kits. The detail on the kit is quite good, and this kit in particular comes with extra parts that don’t necessarily go on the shed, gutters, downspouts, louvered shutters for example. These can go right into the spares box for another time. Construction… more |
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GT-24 Mini-ExcavatorPublished:
Being primarily an armor modeler, I was interested in this kit after seeing a fellow modeler’s build on the web. After all, it has tracks, doesn’t it? The kit is, in a word, miniscule…really. I was a little surprised that, for a 1/32 kit, it was so small. Don’t let size fool you though, Fujimi has provided a little gem here. The kit features only three small sprues; two molded in bright yellow styrene that make up the excavator itself, and one molded in white styrene containing 13 parts that provide some general construction site supplies – wheelbarrow, cones, etc. No decals or markings of any kind are included in the kit, an unfortunate drawback in my opinion. The mere 60 parts are crisply molded and required little, if any, clean up. A few parts may require a quick… more |
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Mr Paint StationPublished:
When I saw the review list and “Mr Paint Station” and “Gunze” I was thinking this could be cool. In reality it’s not exactly what the name implies. What Mr Paint Station is actually is a holding device for painting. What you get in cellophane bag are four 3” x 5” “boxes” that are built so that the corrugation is facing out. These open corrugations then allow you to place toothpicks or other thin holding clamps you may have, into them to hold parts while they dry or perhaps when you paint them. The cellophane bag shows that Gunze may produce a set of holding sticks that are meant to insert into the corrugation, none are supplied in the Mr Paint Station package. Unfortunately I can’t read Japanese, so I don’t know what their actual product name is or how much they cost.… more |
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The Gift of the Move - Operation MilkmanPublished:
Operation Milk Man is another fine “vignette-in-a-box” from the folks at Master Box, and distributed by Dragon Models. This clever vignette depicts four German soldiers taking a brief respite from the rigors of combat to enjoy a few spoils of war …fresh milk! The four figure set shows two soldiers milking the cow (one doing the pulling and one to hold the cup), a third figure is supervising the milking operations while leaning up to the cow. The last figure is gulping down a cup of the fresh milk from his canteen cup undoubtedly wishing he had a big hunk of Apple Strudel to go with it! All four figures are cast in dark yellow styrene. They are nicely and naturally posed, and generally speaking the detail is good for plastic figures. The weakest a part on all the figures… more |
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L4500 Maultier Heavy Half-TrackPublished:
When this kit arrived in the mail I was pleasantly surprised by the my impressions of the kit. Although I’d never build a Zvezda kit, my understanding about their kits was… well, let’s say not so good. Let me say right here at the start that if this kit is any indication of the quality of kits they now produce, I’ll gladly put down my money to buy one if the subject interests me. This is a great kit of an unusual German heavy truck. The kit is molded in dark tan styrene. The quality of the molding is very good, with minimal flash and clean up required. There were some minor sinks on the suspension bogies that needed to be filled and sanded, but were not difficult to accomplish. The sturdy box contains 10 sprues, 9 in dark tan and one clear sprue and a small decal sheet. No photo etch… more |