Model Art Issue 930 is typical of other Model Art magazines in that it is written entirely in Japanese, with occasional English words, usually in article titles or in captions.
This issue covers:
Hauler is an accessory company based in the Czech Republic that produces high quality photo-etched sets for AFVs, airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and resin accessories for dioramas and resin kits.
The product I will be reviewing for you guys is the “Warsaw weapons”. For those of you who don’t know about the Warsaw pact, it was a Defense treaty and Mutual assistance regime created by the Soviet Union and 7 other nations that spanned close to 50 years. So as you would expect this photoetched set contains soviet era weaponry.
Hauler is an accessory company based in the Czech Republic that produces high quality photo-etched sets for AFVs, airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and resin accessories for dioramas and resin kits.
Before we go into the product here is a brief explanation of what “Dragons teeth” are. Dragon's teeth are square-pyramidal fortifications of reinforced concrete first used during the Second World War to impede the movement of tanks and mechanized infantry. The idea was to slow down and channel tanks into killing zones where they could easily be disposed of by anti-tank weapons.
In practice, the use of combat engineers and specialist clearance vehicles enabled them to be disposed of relatively quickly, and they proved far less of an obstacle than many had expected. The obstacles could also simply be buried using bulldozers and dump trucks.
Hauler is a Czech Republic company specializing in producing high quality resin and PE after market accessories including resin kits. In their line of products are the Euro Pallets. Actual Euro Pallets are standardized by the European Pallet Association which must meet the specifications such as size and number of special nails in a designated pattern. The sizes of the Euro Pallet in 1:1 scale are 47.2" (1,200mm) x 31.5"(800mm) x 5.7"(144mm).
5 resin sprues are contained in the package enough to make 2 complete pallets. Upon close inspection one can see the wood grain detail cast into the resin. The only flash seen is located between the wood planks which are easily cleaned up in a matter of minutes by using a Xacto knife and sandpaper. There are no instructions included in the package but, a quick check at Hauler's website shows downloadable pictures of the completed pallets. Each pallet consists of 4 parts.
For several years now, Academy Plastic Model Company has been producing a series of kid-friendly kits based on the designs of Leonardo Da Vinci. I love these little kits. I have the armored car in my office as a conversation piece. These are, perhaps, more toys than traditional model kits but are a perfect kind of kit to introduce kids to modeling. This particular kit is modeled after Leonardo’s air screw. According to da-vinci-inventions.com, Da Vinci sketched out his air screw in the 15th century. The screw was manufactured from linen, wire, and reeds and was to be rotated by a crew of four men. It was never constructed and would have been an impractical flying machine to say the least. Nevertheless, it is testament to Da Vinci’s genius.
Aerobonus has provided another addition to the great Diorama releases with this Model T-Foam Cleaner.
The detail quality is great, there very little flash or other imperfections. The parts, once removed from the mold base, are ready to assemble. The small parts are very delicate and you must take extreme care when removing from the mold base. There is an error with the Photo Etch sheet having different part numbers on it from the instruction sheet.
The Assembly is quick and easy. The final part is painted silver with a red hose and looks great as an addition to any diorama. I highly recommend this kit.
Thanks go to Aires for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them
Eduard has been issuing the world’s best photoetch for a long time now and I have watched many of my modeling friends use all sorts of things to add CA glue to the parts - toothpicks, dental tools, sprue parts and many more. The issue is how to apply the minimum amount of glue needed. Eduard has issued a nifty little tool to help apply the glue.
The parts come on a photoetch fret with 20 droppers. The droppers have a etched lower part and come to a tip with two small forks. Use is simple- cut the dropper free and make sure not to damage the tip. It is designed to fit into a #11 knife handle. Place it into the handle like a knife blade and tighten it up.
Model Art Issue 920 is typical of other Model Art magazines in that it is written entirely in Japanese, with occasional English words, usually in article titles or in captions. This issue deals specifically with the F-86 in Japanese service, painting the Streak Eagle version of the F-15, Orange Hobby’s F-35 kit and a comparison build of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL from Tamiya. Plus, there are lots of advertisements showing what is available and new, always useful for building up that wish list.
One of the lessons that I’ve learned over my years of modeling is that it is wise to use the tool best suited for the job at hand. I have a number of high quality tools and many of them have the label, “Xuron” on the handle.
My latest acquisition is the Xuron Tk 3600 Photo Etch Took Kit. The Xuron webpage featuring the TK 3600 states that this kit was designed for scale model builders working with delicate photo-etch. Is there any other kind of PE? The kit contains three tools for cutting, bending and holding PE parts.
Model 9180ET Professional Photo-Etch Scissor cuts the PE, Model 450 TweezerNose™ Plier holds the PE, and the Model 575 Micro Bending Plier bends it.
Xuron offers an excellent set of hobby tools, cleverly disguised as ‘Field Service Tools’ for electricians and technicians. This set is presented in a fabric pouch, which has three pockets for the tools, and two additional pockets to store a ruler, a set of files, picks, scribers, and other small hand tools.
Xuron’s description of the product: “The tri-fold pouch includes a Model 410T Micro-Shear® Flush Cutter with a refined tip for access into restricted areas, Model 440 Mini-Scissor for slitting cable jacketing, and the Model 450 Tweezer-Nose pliers for tightening pins, forming connectors or holding wires.”
For the hobbyist it might be more beneficial to identify the tools in this fashion: The Model 440 Mini-Scissor can be used to snip PE parts from the carriers, as well as those tiny plastic parts from their carriers without damage to the parts.
