A Brief History

Had someone come to me even 5 years ago and said that in the near future, we modelers would be seeing kits of relatively obscure WW2 Hungarian tanks on the market from main stream injection manufacturers, I would have asked him what happy juice he’d been drinking. I would have demanded to be given a glass! We are, indeed, living in a Gold Age of modeling!

The 38M Toldi light tank was derived from the Swedish Stridsvagn L-60, produced in Hungary by the Hungarian Weiss Company under a licensing agreement from AB Lansverk. Three versions of the 38M Toldi were produced, with total production reaching 202 vehicles from 1939 to 1942. The tanks were first used by the Hungarian Army during fighting against Yugoslavian forces in 1941, and later saw action against Soviet forces during Operation Barbarossa. They were utilized mainly in reconnaissance, as the tank was no match in tank vs. tank battles against the likes of the Soviet T-34.

This product review will begin with a general introduction to GasPatch Models. GasPatch Models is located in Athens, Greece. GasPatch was founded in 2011 and produces plastic model kits and an excellent array of aftermarket parts intended for WWI aircraft subjects. One gets a sense of the professional nature of this enterprise by visiting the GasPatch website. The website is first-rate in appearance, navigation of the site is intuitive, and finding specific items is simple, easy, and quick. In a word…the site is an excellent site and reflects well on GasPatch as a company.

At the time of this writing, GasPatch has three variants of the Salmson 2A2 in the planning stages, all in 1/48^th scale. This review, however, focuses on some GasPatch products that are already available. GasPatch produces a line of turnbuckles and air speed indicators in 1/48^th and 1/32^nd scales. This review focuses on these turnbuckle accessory packs.

Introduction

As a long time fan of the original Star Trek TV series (I watched it during its original run on NBC), I remember anxiously waiting for the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. After seeing how far Hollywood had come with special effects on the Star Wars series, I thought The Motion Picture (TMP, in fan lingo), with its great story lines and history, had the potential to be a great movie. Then, there in the opening sequences, were the three Klingon K'T'inga ships on the big screen with all the additional hull detail, approaching the big, unknown cloud-ship. Shoot first, ask questions later, right? Klingons...

Scale Aircraft Conversions makes various landing gear sets out of lead-free white metal. Some come with the wheels attached if needed, like this set for the Buccaneer, where the kits wheels are molded onto the struts. Others might have the wheel bay included to help with added weight, but most only come with the new landing gear struts. I had the Airfix model so I don’t know how the CMR wheels are molded.

The detail of the metal parts is much crisper and looks flawless. The advantage to these parts is their strength and that they won’t warp under the kit’s weight over time. They will also hold up well while you work with them – no accidentally snapping them apart. To attach the new landing gear, you will need to use CA glue. On their web site they recommend a thicker gap-filling CA glue so that you can position them the way you want and then use an accelerator to bond the parts instantly.

History

The Nakajima Ki-44 “Shoki”, code named “Tojo” by Allied intelligence during World War II, was rather unusual by Japanese standards, since it violated the traditional Japanese design emphasis on maneuverability at the expense of nearly every other performance attribute. Appearing shortly after the Ki-43 “Oscar”, the Ki-44 stressed speed, heavier armament, and rate of climb over other factors, and was intended as a high speed interceptor. The first flight was in 1940, and by 1941 several prototypes had been tested, these eventually being sent to China and later Southeast Asia for combat evaluation. Initial response by Japanese Army pilots was negative, but after they became familiar with the type, they achieved some successes, resulting in further production of the type. Production models were equipped with more powerful engines, and the type entered service as the Type 2 Single Seat Fighter, Model 2, or Ki-44-II Otsu, with four 12.7 mm machine guns.