For any modeler, but especially ship modelers, it is hard to achieve a realistic effect when gun barrels are out of round, warped or fail to have the right taper and shape; which is often the case with styrene injected or resin barrels. With smaller caliber guns and in smaller scales the barrels are often too fragile to handle. For these reasons turned metal barrels are an attractive alternative. Master Models continues to release well-priced brass barrels for the discriminating ship modeler.

Without a doubt, Dragon’s Smartkit of the Scharnhorst is a real gem with a superb level of detail thanks to its CAD designer. The gun mounts are very detailed and the molded barrels, with the slide mold technology, are quite nice in this scale, including bored muzzles. Dragon has packed the kit with a significant amount of aftermarket detail including injection molded blast bags; a nice touch given how difficult they are to make from scratch.

Description:

2 resin 265-gallon tip tanks and mount fairings. Ex-KMC mold. For the Revell/Monogram kits.

Inspection:

Packaged is in a clear face, white backed, poly bag stapled to a folded card along with a note sheet. It was clear the vintage KMC molds seem to be holding up pretty well despite the years. Upon opening the package I found the resin almost flawless, detecting only a few pinholes and heavy pour stubs. The details include nice gas caps and mounting points on the tanks. The wing tip fairings appear to be a tad small otherwise they look fine. Squadron included a note warning of “possible resin shrinkage” installing these fairings will require minor surgery of the kit, the wing tips will need to be trimmed to the panel line while remembering you must compensate for ‘resin shrinkage’.

A little quick history. As the Germans got deeper into trouble at the end of WWII, the started trying more and more desperate things to try to stem the inevitable. One of these was to "up" gun the Me262 with a 50mm Mauser Mk 214A V3. That is what this kit depicts. Now to what's in the box: life for this kit started out in the Trimaster range many years ago (late 1980's or so) and the molds went to DML/Dragon who got rid of the white metal with plastic and now on to Dragons bargain line, Cyber-hobby. At the time of the initial release, the Trimaster kits were the most detailed Me262's around with, at the time, revolutionary photoetch included and extensive detailing.

History: The Junkers Ju 188 was a German Luftwaffe high-performance medium Tactical bomber/Reconnaissance aircraft built during World War II.

Review:

The quality of the casting is perfect and bubble free. The tips of the exhaust pipes are hollowed out for added realism. Most resin parts are likely to need more work on them than the more normal injection molded plastic parts that you may be used to. Why you ask, well Resin is a much harder material then the standard molded plastic in your kit. This is what gives it the fine details you are looking for. In some cases the greatest challenge can be cutting the part from the casting block without damaging it. I have found that it is better to cut away the bulk of the casting block, leaving just a small amount behind so that it can be trimmed away with a hobby knife.

This incredibly detailed and finely crafted set of replacement aerials for the Funk Gerate 220 SN-2 Liechtenstein radar has to be seen to be believed. My poor modeling skills simply do not do them justice. The first photo shows the package, and inside one finds 14 brass pieces, 5 for the horizontal portion and 9 for the vertical, which assemble into 4 aerials. There is one each extra piece for oopsies. The instructions are clear and simple. To get the best results, these must be assembled by soldering