Background

This is a kit of the mother ship, Arcadia flown by the space pirate, Captain Harlock from the adventure filled world of Leiji Matsumoto. Originally created in 1977 for a manga TV series, Captain Harlock has appeared in various film and TV shows, most recently a 2013 feature film, “Space Pirate Captain Harlock”. This space battleship is used for his interspace travel. The Arcadia carries a number of Space Wolf fighter planes for protection and offense.

The Arcadia is equipped with heavy firepower. The main armament consists of triple-mount pulsar cannon turrets, two on the upper deck and one on the underside. When Captain Harlock’s friend, Tochiro, designed the Arcadia, he must have been influenced by pirate ships of old, because the rear of the Arcadia resembles the stern of a Spanish Galleon. I am not sure of the significance of this but it looks neat.

Background

The Saab 29, colloquially called Flygande tunnan (English: "The flying barrel"), was a Swedish fighter designed and manufactured by Saab in the 1940s. It was Sweden's second turbojet-powered combat aircraft, the first being the Saab 21R. Despite its rotund appearance, from which its name derives, the J 29 was a fast and agile aircraft for its era. It served effectively in both fighter and fighter-bomber roles into the 1970s.

The Kit

Bronco has recently released a fun little kit of two German WWII rubber rafts, which come in a small, side-opening box with instructions and painting suggestions on the back. Two identical sprues of soft grey plastic make up the contents.

Expecting a run-of-the-mill modeling experience, I was more than pleasantly surprised by the engineering and design of everything – these were made with the modeler in mind. There are enough parts to assemble two rubber rafts. The top and bottom of each raft fit perfectly around a third, curved, inner bottom part to leave a single, very thin seam line around the exterior.

Eduard has produced many different sets of seat belts over the years for many sizes and types of aircraft. Hey also have several different style with the fabric belts and straight photoetch belts. This set is 1/32^nd scale photoetch steel with pre-printed color on one side. The printing is top notch and even includes the required stitching on the belts. There are enough lap and shoulder belts for four separate seats. The detailed instructions show attachment to Bf-190 and FW-190 variants. I had a spare seat for the Trumpeter Me-262 and used that for this demonstration (after painting it).

The shoulder belts are simple in that there are no attachments necessary so you can cut them loose and attach them. I bent them to shape and glued them in place. Please take note that they are “handed” in respect that there is a left and right.

Trumpeter’s 1/32 A-4E/F Skyhawk has been out since 2012 and while some aftermarket companies have addressed the cockpit and intakes, there have been almost no decals issued to a very familiar kit with lots of marking potential. Enter AOA Decals and Part 1 of their multi-part coverage of the Scooter in USN/USMC markings. The decals are printed by Cartograf. Included in the package are two large full color sheets covering the colorful markings and one gigantic sheet covering the black and white markings. Printing is superb as Cartograf is a leading manufacturer of decals. The instructions are full color and have side profiles in color for all 10 schemes as well as detailed information on each scheme. A full set of stencil instructions are also included.

The marking choices are:

The Tomcat has to be one of the most famous aircraft of the Navy. Thanks to movies like ‘Top Gun’ and ‘The Final Countdown’ the shape of the large fighter is ingrained in history. What isn’t as well known is that the cat changed its spots late in its service. No longer the pure fleet fighter, but relegated to the role of fighter bomber. It actually excelled in this role as the F-14D Bombcat. The aircraft was capable of carrying every form of bomb and missile that the Navy had at its disposal. That is where this sheet comes into its own.

The EA-16G has taken over from the EA-6 and as such it has all the colorful markings that the Prowlers had.

One of the things I love about Furball’s decal sheet is the amount of choices you are given on each sheet. This sheet is no different. There are SIXTEEN Growlers included in this release. Not only do you get 15 US Navy Growlers you also get the markings for an Australian one. Some of these Growlers are quite colorful, so the problem may be which one do you choose. Besides the 16 aircraft you also get enough stencils for TWO aircraft.

Items

• Stock - Item - Price
• 35453 - Sheepfoot Roller Single - $24.95
• 35454 - Sheepfoot Roller Double - $44.95

L.Z. Models from Ireland provide high quality resin models and accessories. These kits represent sheepfoot rollers manufactured by R.G. LeTourneau, whose machines represented nearly 70 percent of the earthmoving equipment and engineering vehicles used during World War II. The sheepsfoot roller is a flat head tamping roller, which employs tapered box heads, or ‘feet’ to compact dirt when towed behind a tractor or dozer.

L.Z. has produced both single and double width units as separate kits. These appeared to be simple little kits, until I noticed that there are 100+ resin parts, and over 200 in the double roller kit. Each of the feet are individual pieces that need to be adhered to the large roller drum. All but nine of the hundred plus parts are the individual feet.

Designed for the Aerobonus DMC Logan T-40 USAF Tow Tractor, this latest figure from Aerobonus is a single block of light grey resin that features a complete seated figure. There are no blemishes or bubbles anywhere.

The figure features a driver with a boonie cap, typical of a Vietnam era USAF enlisted personel. The resin is contained in a typical self sealing bag with a card stock backing. There are painting instructions on three pages.

Removal of the figure from the pour blocks will be easy enough. How they molded and cast these parts is simply amazing. There are lots of undercuts and plenty of room behind the driver on the seat. The parts include the seated body of the driver, two arms, and a separate head.

This figure is essential if you have the Tow Tractor and want to have it in a diorama. This would look great when attached to the tractor and then to an F-4 or F-105. Aerobonus offers quite a lot of figures to represent the Vietnam era flightline.

AIM-7E Sparrow’s are semi-active radar guided missiles and there were 25,000 of the “E” series produced and used extensively during the Vietnam era by all branches of the services. Eduard has produced a wonderful replica of the AIM-7E in their Brassin line in 1/32^nd scale. The set includes parts to build four complete missiles which can be painted in three different paint schemes (which changed over the years). There are four main bodies and four sets of the front fins all cast in gray resin. Lastly, there is a small photoetch fret which gives depth to the rear missile motor. There is also a full set of nicely printed decals.

Master Model has been producing some exquisite pitot tubes, gun barrels and static discharge wicks. So it is natural that they continue that success with new barrels and pitot tubes.

The latest offering is for the Su-25 Frogfoot, the Soviet version of the A-10. Eduard, KP and Monogram have the Frogfoot in their inventory. This set is different than some others that I’ve had to deal with from Master.

Contained inside the ziplock baggie are three brass pieces which are beautifully turned brass. Each brass piece is packaged separately. This will ensure the parts are flawless when removed from the package. In another self-sealing baggie is a very fragile resin vane that contains a bunch of separate shapes from the pitot tube. This piece is protected by a foam piece and held in place by some tape which completely protects it. The resin piece is a piece of art in itself. The piece requires no clean up and is perfectly cast.

• QB 32 176 - Fw-190D-9 Mimetall Gun Cover - $5
• QB 32 177 - Fw-190D-9 Early Gun Cover - $5

The late war production machine in Germany required that many smaller manufacturers of parts be decentralized. As such a situation developed different manufacturers modified parts as necessary to ensure they meet production quotas. This is the situation with the FW-190D-9 forward cowlings and gun covers.

Packaged is a familiar self-sealing package, these gun covers are molded in light grey resin with no visible flaws. They are drop in replacement for the kit parts. Simply remove them from the resin pour stub and add to the model.

In model aircraft, especially 1/72^nd scale, the pitot tubes are very fragile. Limitations of plastic also means that they tend to be overscaled. Even being overscaled the pitot tubes are fragile. Then there is the trouble of the mold lines on the part and keeping them round while removing it. If you are like me that means I can’t do it justice, especially in this scale.

Protected by card stock backing, the parts are contained in a ziplock baggie. Inside of that baggie are two separate ones. One contains the turned metal parts and the other a piece of resin. Each brass piece is packaged separately. This means that you can’t get them messed up. The resin piece is a piece of art in itself. The light grey resin is simply gorgeous. The resin is protected by a foam capsule and the parts are held in place with tape that ensures it doesn’t get damaged. It is very tiny so care must be taken when adding the part to the turned metal barrel.