History

After Nakajima obtained a production license to manufacture Douglas DC-2 airliners in 1935, the Japanese airlines decided to sponsor the development of a smaller airplane to serve routes that they perceived the DC-2 to be too large for. The result was the development of the AT-1, an eight passenger twin engine aircraft which closely resembled a scaled-down DC-2. The prototype first flew in 1936, and was of all metal construction except for the control surfaces, which were plywood. Power was originally provided by Nakajima Kotobuki 2-1 radial engines of 580 hp. with fixed pitch wooden propellers. Production models used the Kotobuki 41, rated at 710 hp, with variable pitch metal props. These were designation AT-2.

Having been building models for quite a while, I have seen things progress a lot. And with my over 400 built kits, photoetch still can baffle me like no other modeling medium. So when the opportunity to review this latest book from AK Interactive came along, I jumped on the opportunity to review it. A quick over view shows this is a fairly comprehensive guide with a section dealing with what photoetch is, how its made and what tools you’ll need to work with it. It then progresses to several simple examples and also using colored photoetch and finished with advanced techniques and soldering. Another nice fact is that the book covers aircraft, armor and ships as well as trains and can be easily transitioned into genres.

A quicker review of the Index looks like this:

Tom Cooper, born in Vienna, Austria, in 1970 is a military aviation historian that has focused on Post-WWII Middle Eastern air forces. Tom traveled extensively though his military service and subsequently in his transportation business. Through his travels, Tom Cooper has established contacts and identified sources that have permitted him to bring a unique look to Asian and African military aviation. Mr. Cooper has written more than 400 articles and has authored (or co-authored) over 25 books, including the excellent six-volume Arab MiGs series published by Harpia and distributed by Casemate. Aiming to deliver a complete picture, Tom is also an accomplished illustrator and color profiles are included in his books and articles. To find out more, check his Linked In page.

This is the first injection-molded 1/48 kit of the M346 Advanced Fighter Trainer, which first flew in 2004. It is currently used by the air forces of Italy, Israel, Poland and Singapore. It was originally a joint venture between Aermacchi and Yakovlev, and you can definitely see the similarity to the Yak-130 Russian trainer.

The kit is molded in a medium gray plastic and contains just over 270 parts. The molding is truly top notch, which is one of the hallmarks of the new Gold range of kits from Kinetic. This was the first kit produced in their new manufacturing facility. There is a small photo etch (PE) fret that contains seatbelts, the HUD frames, rearview mirrors for the inside of the canopy, various vents on the fuselage, and the small winglets. The clear parts are very nicely done with two different options for the canopy: one with the explosive cord molded into it and the other without. And happily the canopies do not have a seam running down the middle! Hooray!

The Gloster Meteor was one of the iconic, pioneering jet fighters to become available during the final year of World War Two.

Master Models is a Polish company that produces some of the finest aftermarket brass accessories to enhance just about any scale model. I have used their offerings before, and love the final look and relative ease of using them.

Airfix has released a couple of Meteor kits over the last few years, and I recently snapped one up from my local hobby shop.

The kit pitot is represented as a straight plastic tube with no relief whereas, I believe, it should taper in towards the end. I clumsily broke the plastic tube when removing it from the sprue and super glued it back together for the pictures here.