Scale Aviation Modeller International Vol.22 Iss. 01

DR SC M AW AL ira IN E ge G III S

THE No.1 MODELLING MAGAZINE

Kinetic’s 1/48th

MIRAGE

IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA

NEW!

In 1/32nd Scale from Italeri

Mirage III 100 FEATURE PACKED PAGES!

SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM Vol 22 Issue 1 January 2016 £4.50 Printed in UK

Amodel’s 1/144th

BERIEV BE-12 01-Cover-0116.indd 1

Heritage Aviation’s 1/48th

MEW GULL

HobbyBoss’ 1/72nd

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CONTENTS

Contents

Scale Aviation Modeller International January 2016 • Volume 22 • Issue 1

IN THIS ISSUE 6 News 8 Czech Out 10 Previews 12 First Looks 14 Creative Times 16 Accessories 24 Decals 30 Show Reports 32 Reviews 94 Books & Media 98 Back Page

58 Mirage IIIC

Italeri’s new 1/32nd scale Mirage by Angelo Picardo

48

58

64

1/72nd Scale Drawings and Colour Artwork by Chris Sandham-Bailey/ Inkworm

Italeri’s new 1/32nd scale Mirage by Angelo Picardo

Kinetic’s 1/48th scale Mirage by Peter Marshall

Modellers Portfolio

Mirage IIIC

Mirage IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA

72

Creating An Accurate Mustang!

Academy’s 1/72nd P-51C Gets Taken to Task by Brian Derbyshire

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EDITORIAL

Editor

A

t the start of the year I tend to look back over the last year and plan the things I want to do over the course year ahead. Now to be honest looking back my modelling last year, I totalled just three models and two of those were Science Fiction, which I occasionally build to relax, and both of these had been partly, started for some time. My plans for the next year are far more advanced and though so far no new kit announcement has really floated my boat I have a number of projects that have lingered on my to do pile for far to long. I also think about the shows I have attended and one that stood out for me was the worthy winner of the SAM publications trophy at Telford for our favourite show was the North Somerset Show at the Helicopter Museum in Weston Super Mare. Now this event was held in an English seaside town during summer so no surprise that we had a deluge that lasted the whole day and led to the unfortunate cancellation of a number of planned events but did the organisers let it get them down? Not a bit of it we had a great show and all the visitors who attended had a really enjoyable day. For the year ahead SAM Publications is planning on attending more events around the UK than ever before (Invites to the editorial address please) and I am certainly hoping our return visit to the coast on the 3rd July might be in better weather. Finally the magazine, this time last year I was just someone who stuck bits of plastic together and then wrote about it and then much to my surprise I was chosen as the new editor, and boy has the last year been a sharp learning curve! I promised from the start that over the year the title would evolve and indeed it has, and from the many positive comments we have received I think most of you have liked the changes that have been made. Now for the next year my main priority is to continue to get the mix of articles, reviews and news in all scales and time periods that make our title so unique. I also hope to introduce some new names that have never written for a magazine before but whose models have really impressed me at shows. So goodbye to 2015 welcome to 2016 and I hope you all enjoy your magazine this year as much as you did last year.

David Francis

Subscribe to Scale Aviation Modeller

Editor [email protected]

see page 56

76

82

Amodel’s 1/144th Beriev Be-12 by Mark Webster

Heritage Aviation Models 1/48th Percival Aviation Mew Gull by Andy Hazell

Soviet Seagull

Gulliver’s Travels

86

92

HobbyBoss’ 1/72nd Corsair in tiger scheme by Dick Clark

Allied Fighters April to June 1940 (Norway and France); a correction, conundrum and a museum piece by Alec Smith

LTV A-7H Corsair II

Models to tell a story...

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in association with www.spruebrothers.com

NEWS

January News

from TELFORD!

News and forthcoming products from around the world.

AK Interactive We think AK had misunderstood the instructions to bring your latest models!

Airfix Well, the big announcement from Airfix at the show was the Handley Page Victor that has been a rumour over the last year. Most interesting was that they have gone with the bomber variant that completes their V-Bomber family in 1/72 scale. The example on display was very nicely detailed and the Blue Steel missile that will be supplied as the load will make a SUBSCRIBERS’ nice model on its own. Also on display at the show was the DECEMBER PRIZE new Ju 87 in 1/48 scale and this shows that Airfix really DRAW WINNERS; are upping the level of detail, as the Jumo engine looks Mr Vale - UK amazing. Finally Mr Skoumal - Czech Republic Mr Evans - UK we had the smallest Entry to the monthly prize of the new kits on draw is FREE to all display, a Grumman subscribers Wildcat complete with a wing fold in 1/72 scale.

Whirlybird Decals

This manufacturer had two new 1/72 scale kits on display, the first was the MH-3E Pave Pig from Operation Desert Storm, and they also had two versions of the predecessor to the English Electric Lightning, the P.1. Both of kits are full multi-media using resin and etched brass with high quality decals.

Gaspatch On display were both versions of Gaspatch’s second kit covering both the Hs 123A-1 and B-1 in 1/48 scale. The detail on these kits looks absolutely jaw dropping and it will be interesting to see what colour schemes the manufacturer picks for these models.

Aviatic It was not a surprise to see a built-up Pfalz Dr.1 Triplane on the stand in 1/32 scale as the Siemens Halske DH.III engine was released on its own earlier in 2015. This looks like it will be a good introduction to 1/32 resin WW1 kits due to the minimal rigging.

Belcher Bits Not quite ready for the show but on display was a conversion to produce the two-seat Firefly T.1/T.2 trainer from the AZ or Grand Phoenix kit in 1/48 scale; no surprise that this kit will come with Canadian Navy markings.

Barracuda Studios Had a new 1/24-scale diorama set featuring two RAF Ground Crew assembling a rocket? This will be perfect for anyone with a Airfix Mosquito or Hawker Typhoon looking for some figures to add a bit of scale.

Revell No major surprise on display from Revell except for the built-up version and final sprues for the 1/72 Revell AEW Shackelton, and from a first look I think they have a winner on their hands with this model. This should be hitting the shelves in the UK just before Xmas 2015.

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D!

JANUARY 2016

Obituary: Gordon Stevens (Rareplanes)

Kinetic

ordon Stevens, was, among many other things, Britain’s gift to the modelling world. At a time when avid model builders were enjoying this new fangled plastic model kit sensation, we looked for kits other than the popular ones. Well, FROG, Airfix and Revell were leery of sales not covering the cost of production. Here is where Gordon came in. Vacuum formed plastic had been around as long plastic itself. It had been used for many things, but no one had turned out a complete model aircraft kit. The IPMS had been formed in England, and Gordon was a member. He thought that he just might find a market for such a kit. The real motivating factor was that it could be done with very little cash investment, all that was needed was a wooden box, (vacuum chamber) a heat source and a vacuum cleaner. .030 thick 8X10 styrene sheets were cheap and readily available. A new model kit company was born: Rareplanes. Everything was by trial and error. The first efforts, done in the Stevens family kitchen, were hand carved wooden forms draped over with a sheet of .030 styrene. It worked, and Gordon was in business. They were crude offerings to be sure, and only the truly devoted modellers bought them.

On display at the Hannants stand was Kinetic future release, the 1/48 scale Sukhoi Su-33 Sea Flanker. Until now this has only been achievable by using an expensive resin set. Now we can all have the Naval Flanker complete with wing folds on the model shelf, due early 2016. Also due next year is an all-new tool version of the Super ﾉtendard in 1/48 scale and a logical follow-up to the recent Sea Harrier.

G

Gordon, a trained artist, knew that he could do better. He developed the female mould: with this method he could detail the wooden form with many details, elevators, flaps, panel lines and even rivets. Later he would add short-run injected propellers and undercarriage parts and decals too. The fact that he did not invent or copyright vacuum formed plastic, meant that he could not stop others from copying his technique, and that bothered him. He would write me and complain that “if I had a shilling for every Rareplanes knock off, I’d be a rich man.” Gordon Stevens and I never met face to face. Gordon lived in the U.K. and I lived in California. We were pen pals. We corresponded by the old international post. Later on, cyberspace was created, but we were hardly impressed and continued to use snail mail. Gordon was my guru and technical advisor. The model photos that I made and sent to him were poor and dismal compared to his. He took me under his wing and gave me an education on model photography. I regret that I failed to convince him to visit me in San Francisco. Our years of wonderful camaraderie allowed me to know the true meaning of common interest. It bonds humanity and gives us hope to finally have peace on earth.

Jim Lund

GRand Models Another Greek company displaying at Telford was GRand Models who not only had their new 1/72 scale T-6 Texan II on display, the first time this type has been kitted in this scale. They also had test shots of their next release, a simple nose replacement for Meng 1/72 F-102 Delta Dart to make the TF-102 trainer. Of course both of these aircraft were/are operated by the Greek air force but the Texan also comes with markings for Mexico, Iraq, USAF and Israel as well.

Iconicair To add to the already released 1/32 Supermarine Spiteful we now have the very aggressive contra-rotating propelled Seafang, probably the ultimate development of the Supermarine Spitfire family, though never destined to enter squadron service. The next kit from Iconicair will be the 1/32 Supermarine Attacker, which should be available in 2016.

SBS Model A previously unannounced boxing of their gorgeous 1/72 D.H.88 kit covering G-ADEF in overall silver dope with an attractive blue trim which is supplied on the decal sheet. It can be portrayed carrying the name The Burberry or The Orphan depending on time period.

Scale Model Warships For sale at Telford in limited numbers was this company’s new rotor fold for the Fly 1/32 Wessex which was also new at the show. Using resin and brass this looks to be the perfect answer for those with a space problem. and this set includes the late model tail brace for the folded rotors. Also on display was a test shot of a onepiece resin exhaust for the Wessex.

Zoukei Mura

Noy Pines A clever idea from Noy Pines is a set of individual square card panels with a realistic concrete effect that that can be assembled in different sequences and rotations to provide a number of bases that may all look the same, but are subtly different and individual.

Hypersonic Models

As well as the long awaited 1/32 Do 335 which is due for release around the time you read this, we had the first sighting of their new 1/48 scale Phantom family in the shape of an F-4J, and very nice it looked to.

The 1/48 scale Trumpeter Douglas Destroyer is a nice kit but let down by the poor shape of the Engine Pods. Now Hypersonic are stepping up to the plate with nicely cast resin replacements suitable for all Destroyer variants. These should be available from Hypersonic Models’ website by the time you read this.

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NEWS

Czech Out

Our Monthly look as News from the Czech Republic by Tim Upson-Smith

RS Models In progress from RS we have a 1/48 scale Caudron CR.714, a type which even though it was a fighter still retained its racing heritage lines. The 1/72 scale DFS-230 gliders are coming on nicely and two boxing’s will be available. RS are just waiting on the resin parts for these kits so hopefully we shall see them very soon. The box art for both is available, I would not fancy being the gunner exposed on the upper side of the fuselage, and this position cannot have done a lot for the aerodynamics of the glider! RS also advise that they have several kits on sale at present so a visit to their webpage may be in order to snap up some bargains. One of the odder kits on sale is the 1/48 scale Fokker D-XXIII, which reminds me of a prop driven DH Vampire. rsmodels.cz

W

ith Scale Model World behind us and Plastic Winter in Bratislavia to look forward to we have been treated to some new releases at Telford and hopefully we will have some more at Plastic Winter, making this year a very good year for the Czech model companies. Due to an early publication deadline for Christmas I am writing this in November! But

that said there seems to be plenty of news with HpH having some typically big subjects on the way to go with the Ta 154 Moskito released at Telford. Next weekend I will find myself enjoying Bratislava, so I hope to bring the news from this show in the next issue. If your company or product is not featured and you would like it to be please contact us at the editorial email address.

AZ Two new announcements from AZ this month and a reissue of a 1/72 scale Bf 109 G-6AS. The new kits announced are both in 1/48 scale, the first is a Polikarpov PO-2 in a limited edition boxing with markings for two Czech versions, a Yugoslav version and a German example. Also new in 1/48 scale is a Pitts Special S-2B also in a limited edition boxing, it has four markings options, one Czech, one German, one British and one American.

Brengun/Hauler I like it when the Hauler/ Brengun supply an update as there is usually something that catches my eye and makes my wallet lighter and this month is no exception! The 1/72 scale Zlin Z 50 released at Eday has now been put on general release. I commented at the time that no paint masks were included, and this month sees them released, along with an etched brass detail set and vac-form canopy. We do not usually mention accessories in this section, but I cannot resist mentioning that Brengun have also released an etched brass detail set for the Special Hobby 1/72 scale Letov S.328 and the 1/48 scale SG.38 also from Special Hobby.

Eduard Due to this month’s early print date, we do not have the latest news from Eduard, but of course the big news is the December release of the Royal Class boxing of the 1/72 Fw190 A-8, this rather special boxing will have as extras a rather fine beer glass, in one of 6 designs, a piece of a real Fw 190 A-8, oh and there is the plastic to make four complete kits in three variants, decals by Cartograph for 12 options, four sets of Brassin wheels, 8 photo-etch sheets and paint masks, that should keep the modeller happy for some time! As I write this the Bunny Fighter Club is celebrating its third birthday, so Happy Birthday to the Bunnies, I know they make me smile! As ever to keep up to date with all of the accessories released by Eduard visit their webpage at www.Eduard.com

Valom Coming soon from Valom is kit 72102, the twin engine Fokker T.5 in 1/72 scale. Still listed as coming soon in 1/144 scale are the Pfalz DIII, Sopwith Camel and Bristol Fighter.

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JANUARY 2016

Special Hobby / CMK / Planet Models Some welcome reissues this month from Special Hobby. For film buffs the excellent 1/72 scale Gnat has been reissued in the markings from the film Hot Shots, something a little different for the club display… Also due to be released in January is the 1/72 scale Fouga Magister in rather exotic markings, ideal for a quiz night as a challenge to identify the nations represented. The other reissues are as follows:

HpH

• SH72331 CAC-CA 3/5 Wirraway “First Blood over Rabaul” 1/72 Even before the outbreak of World War 2, Australia had been looking for an aircraft suitable for advanced training and possible ground attack support. The solution was to build under licence the NA-16 aircraft, the predecessor of the famous Texan, which was modified by Australian designers and massproduced in a newly-built state-owned factory. This aircraft was widely known as the Wirraway and was mainly used for ground attack support, spot bombing missions, patrolling, and even sometimes in a fighter role. But it mainly served as a training aircraft during WW2 and in the post war years as well. In the last months of 1941, some of the first batch machines were employed in combat areas, because of Japanese surprise attack against the USA and its allies. The Wirraways took part in the first fightings over Rabaul, Malaya and elsewhere. The kit comes with two grey sprues accompanied by a clear injected canopy, detailed resin parts and a fret of PE parts. The decal set covers four early production machines one of which was specially modified to a single-seater dive-bomber. The original SH72194 CAC CA-9 Wirraway

model kit is also coming back and will be available in limited quantity

• 72556 A-20G Havoc “Russian Bomber Version” 1/72 - limited quantity re-release The American A-20s attack aircraft were delivered also to the Soviet Union during World War II under the Lend-Lease program. In the Soviet Union, these aircraft were operated by army and naval aviation units alike. Specifically for sea attacks, the A-20G versions were adapted to carry a crew of three, with a bombardier compartment in the nose section. Modifications were non-standard and the converted machines differed from each other. Two of the machines are also offered in our kit. One of them is the well-known machine decorated with “Tallinskij AP” inscription and with decorations and profiles of destroyed ships on its nose. The second machine, “White 2”, has a different type of its glassed nose section - originally taken from an II-4 aircraft. The kit contains resin parts for torpedo racks, torpedoes, and the modified bombardier compartment.

Well HpH like to keep us on our toes, with no mention at all on their webpage prior to Scale Model World at Telford, they have released a brand new 1/32 scale Focke Wulf TA-154, which looks very pretty! Not content with that they have also announced in 1/32 scale Curtiss SB2C Helldiver for release next year, no firm date but they are suggesting it will be available by Eday 2016. If this wasn’t already enough they had parts on display for a 1/32 scale Dakota and for the really brave modeller with tons of room, plans for a 1/32 scale Me 323 Gigant… Now that will be big!

Kovozavody Prostejov (KP) This month KP have news of a special release for Plastic Winter in the form of a 1/72 NA P-51B in the markings of the 4th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group, flown by Capt. Tyler in September 1944, when it crash landed on ‘Tri Duby’ (Three Oaks) Airfield, Slovakia. This kit will only be available to those attending or entering the competition at Plastic Winter. If you pay the voluntary 5 Euro entry fee you get the model and if you enter the competition and pay the voluntary 1Euro fee you also get the model. If you are a junior entering the competition you get the model free. KP have also announced two new forthcoming models, a 1/72 scale Spitfire Mk IIb and 1/72 scale Spitfire Mk Vb early.

• SH48093 Heinkel He 178 V-2 1/48 The Heinkel He 178 with E. Warsitz at the controls hopped shortly above the runway for the first time on 24 August, 1939 and the real first flight took place only three days later. These were the very first flights of a jet aircraft in the world. On 1 November, while the test flights were being still in progress, the aircraft was displayed to RLM officials. Later on, the aircraft received more powerful HeS 6 engine, wing with longer span and retractable undercarriage. This version is by some sources designated as the He 178V-2. The He 178 with retractable undercarriage and longer wing is a subject of our kit. It contains two sprues with plastic parts, injected canopy, resin and photo-etched parts and decal set for the prototype.

Fly With the Wessex now on the model shop shelves, Fly have been treating us to some images of their new 1/32 hawker Hurricane, and what we have seen so far of the plastic it is looking very nice, even Dunlop has been spelt correctly on the tyres! The wheels look like they will be resin cast from 3D printed masters. No release date as yet, but if it is anything like the Wessex I am sure it will be worth the wait.

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PREVIEWS

Previews MIG-29A FULCRUM

INFO

Brand new from Trumpeter is a delightful new-tool MiG-29 ‘Fulcrum’ kit, the first new kit in 1/72 of the ‘Fulcrum’ in about 20 years. The level of detail is excellent, with fine surface details and good cockpit and wheel well representations. A decent set of weapons and underwing fuel tanks options are supplied, along with a dedicated tow bar as often seen attached to parked aircraft. There are 2 decal options covering a single option from both the Russian Air Force and the Hungarian Air Force, the latter with the current American

MANUFACTURER Trumpeter SCALE 1/72 KIT NO. 01674 PRICE £17-18 DECAL OPTIONS 2 parts in grey PARTS 140 and clear

style ‘HuAF’ tail markings. This is reportedly the first in a whole series on the MiG-29 family to be tooled by Trumpeter, and it bodes very well with a lot of plastic in a fairly small box.

ENAER Mirage 50 DCM The latest release in High Planes Models’ series of modern toolings of the Dassault Mirage 3/5/50 family tree covers the highly improved and updated Chilean Mirage 50 2-seaters. This kit uses all of the very fine, longrun injection moulded parts from the standard 2-seater kit, but adds all of the upgrades in resin etch and white metal, along with a template to reshape the canards. Most likely not a quick build, partly due to ensuring the fit of the resin update parts, and ensuring that you use the correct options from the plastic sprues which include parts for just about all versions of the 3/5/50! The decals are printed for High Planes by FCM Decals of Brazil, and offer a choice of 2 airframes from the same unit in the same blue and grey camouflage. Hopefully the success of this and the other kits in the series will bring forth other marks of Mirages, Kfirs and Cheetahs as well!

ENAER MIRAGE 50 DCM

INFO

Trumpeter MiG-29A Fulcrum (Izdeliye 9.12)

MANUFACTURER High Planes SCALE 1/72 KIT NO. HPK072110 PRICE £28 DECAL OPTIONS 2 129 parts in grey clear, PARTS and 16 resin, + etch, and white metal Freightdog UK IMPORTER Models

Armstong Whitworth Argosy ARMSTONG WHITWORTH ARGOSY

INFO

Following the pattern they have set over the years of releasing models of interesting subjects that are not appealing to more mainstream manufacturers, Mach 2 offer an injection moulded kit of the A.W.Argosy in 1/72 scale. The kit is released in 4 different boxings each with a single decal option: 2 military covering the RAF usage in either the 1960s or 1970s, or 2 civil versions which have different cargo door sections to the military, with decals for Elan or BEA. These are short-run models and will need to be treated as such with extra care and time during the build,

MANUFACTURER Mach 2 SCALE 1/72 BOXINGS 4 PRICE £45 DECAL OPTIONS 1 192 parts in PARTS cream and clear plastic

they will appeal to many who wish to build this often overlooked important British transport aircraft and that have no interest in vacforms!

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FIRST LOOK!

Fly Models Wessex HC.2 in 1/32 Scale

I

f I were to guess which manufacturer would produce an all-new tooling of the Westland Wessex I would never have picked Fly Models from the Czech Republic. But over the last few months we have been teased with photographs of the resin parts as they have been developed. So would the rest of the kit live up to the parts we have already seen? Well, with one small exception I will say it actually surpasses them. On opening the box the first thing that is obvious is that this is a big model as it is crammed with over 60 grey plastic parts including two massive fuselage halves 30cm long by 10 cm

high. Like all the plastic parts these are covered by fine recessed detail; now in truth these should have just raised rivets but the recessed version will take a wash perfectly to lift them out and probably give a more scale appearance. The clear parts are commendable thin and crystal clear and bagged separately to ensure that they do not get scratched. Now we knew the resin was going to be good based on the photographs and previous Fly kits, and indeed it is with over 80 beautifully cast pieces that supply a lot of the cockpit detail as well as the extensive detail on the undersides and rotor head. Even the Dunlop brand name of the tyres is present and the resin upper fuselage piece is an amazing bit of casting. Sadly my one quibble with this kit out of the box is the fact that the only option for the prominent nose intake above the nose is to use the resin fabric cover. You cannot even just leave it off as you are missing the prominent grille and there is no detail inside the intake as supplied.

Now do not get me wrong, Fly have gone with an easy and correct option for this area, it is just I wish we had a choice, though I am sure at least one manufacturer is already working on an upgrade for this area. Now we move to the two large sheets of etched brass, which supply over 100 parts including a number of the prominent grilles around the fuselage. Now something I have not seen before: paper parts that not only supply the seatbelts but also the royal blue canvas seats that are a very obvious feature in the troop compartment. Finally we have the decals and again these are on two sheets and are absolutely stunning. As an example, over 60 individual instrument dials are included among the 250 images that are all perfectly printed. Markings are supplied for four options: • 1. Westland Wessex HC.2, XR 503, Royal Aircraft Establishment in a Raspberry Ripple scheme • 2. Westland Wessex HC.2, XV728, 72 Squadron, RAF, 1997 and as displayed 2015 at Newark Air Museum. (The colours on the Fly instructions do not match the aircraft’s current appearance)

• 3. Westland Wessex HC.2, XT680, 84 Squadron, RAF Akrotiri, 2003. Overall grey with UN Blue fuselage band • 4. Westland Wessex HC.2, G-BYRC, Red fuselage with black undersides

CONCLUSION This is a really amazing kit and I am sure will form the basis of many attractive models over the next year. At the time of writing Fly have already released an HU.5 and the way the tooling has been carried out I am sure an HAS Mk 3 will follow at some point. Already the aftermarket market are looking at what they can add to the kit, and Scale Model Warships had a very nice late rotor fold set for sale at the UK Nationals that will solve many of the space issues caused by helicopters. This kit will feature in a full build in a future issue and I cannot wait to see if it builds as good as it looks. Our thanks to Fly Models for supplying us with the review sample.

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Mastered-Adverts-AV-0116_AV-0606 05/12/2015 15:04 Page 13

One-stop shopping for modellers Order online at www.hannants.co.uk

Kits of the Month

No.1 for Mail Order

A NEW SERIES FROM MENG-MODELS A Caricature Series from Meng-Models under the Meng Kids banner. These kits have simple, pre-coloured and snap together parts and are ideal for introducing youngsters to the hobby.

MMMP-001 Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress Bomber. .........................................................................£10.99 MMMP-002 Avro Lancaster Bomber ................................................................................................£10.99 MMMP-003S Heinkel He 177 Bomber (Special Edition - White) ........................................................£10.99 MMMP-004 Tupolev TU-2 Bomber ..................................................................................................£10.99

We stock the largest ranges of plastic, resin and vacform kits, accessories and conversions, photo-etch sets, paints, airbrushes, tools ands books. Everything under one roof from Academy to Zvezda. We specialise in decals and stock ALL available sheets from just about every manufacturer in existence. We carry over 50,000 items from all over the world.

UK Distributors for MPM, Eduard, IBG, Bronco, Kittyhawk, Kinetic and many more. If it’s advertised or reviewed in this magazine try us first. We probably have it in stock now. Mail Order: (all major credit cards accepted)

Harbour Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 3LZ England UK local rate number: 0845 130 72 48 Tel: 01502 517444 (8 lines), Fax: 01502 500521

Hannants London: Unit 2, Hurricane Industrial Estate, Grahame Park Way, Colindale, London NW9 5NQ Next to the RAF Museum, Hendon Tel: 020 8205 6697 Email: [email protected] www.hannants.co.uk

Revolutionary adjustable focus reading glasses Eyejusters are a single pair of glasses to replace all your reading glasses. Turn the dial to change the lens power from +0.00 to +3.00 D. The latest in vision technology is the perfect aid for scale modellers: adjust to bring your work into perfect focus.

Choose your style at www.eyejusters.com Free care kit worth £7: use code EJM0116 ([FOXVLYHRƪHUYDOLGXQWLO

Sposored by Creative Models www.creativemodels.co.uk

PREVIEWS

Creative Times A Selection of new releases now available from Creative Models

Heinkel He-177

B-17G Flying Fortress

PRICE £10.99

SCALE Egg Scale KIT NO. MVGMP-001 PRICE £10.99

DECAL OPTIONS 1

DECAL OPTIONS 1

STATUS New Tool

STATUS New Tool

AS-565 Panther

Avro Lancaster

GLADIATOR (LIMITED 3000 PIECES WORLDWIDE)

G17S STAGGERWING

MANUFACTURER Eduard

INFO

KIT NO. MVGMP-003

MANUFACTURER Meng

INFO

SCALE Egg Scale

G17S Staggerwing

B-17G FLYING FORTRESS

INFO

INFO

HEINKEL HE-177 MANUFACTURER Meng

Gladiator

(Limited 3000 Pieces Worldwide)

SCALE 1/48 KIT NO. 1145 PRICE £26.99

MANUFACTURER AMT SCALE 1/48 KIT NO. A-AMT886 PRICE £25.99

DECAL OPTIONS 8

DECAL OPTIONS 1

Ex-Roden STATUS Re-issue with additions

STATUS Re Issue

Croydon Airport

l

SCALE Egg Scale KIT NO. MVGMP-002

AS-565 PANTHER

INFO

INFO

AVRO LANCASTER MANUFACTURER Meng

PRICE £10.99

SCALE 1/35 KIT NO. TRU05108 PRICE £62.99

DECAL OPTIONS 1

DECAL OPTIONS 1

STATUS New Tool

Avia B-534 IV serie (Profipack)

MANUFACTURER Trumpeter

STATUS Modified tool

De Havilland DH 2 (Profipack)

& Mode n o i t a i v A , y r a t Mili

Collectors 6 1 0 2 r i a F

Sunday 3rd January 2016

• • • •

Aviation & Military Collectables Book and Model Collectors Plastic kits Diecast Models & Toys

Croydon Airport Control Tower open for visits Doors open at 10:30. £3.50 Entry. Children under 10 free. Free car parking

MANUFACTURER Eduard SCALE 1/72 KIT NO. 7248 PRICE £12.99 DECAL OPTIONS 6 STATUS New Tool

DE HAVILLAND DH 2 (PROFIPACK)

INFO

INFO

AVIA B-534 IV SERIE (PROFIPACK)

MANUFACTURER Eduard SCALE 1/48 KIT NO. 8094 PRICE £21.99 DECAL OPTIONS 4 STATUS New Markings

Traders contact Aviation Antiques on 07973 885754 Stalls plots to be pre-booked Contact Dave Sutton 27 A The Grove, Biggin Hill Kent TN16 3TA

Event held at the former Aerodrome Hotel, (next door to Airport House) Now the Hallmark Hotel, Purley Way, Croydon Surrey CR9 4LT (J.7 M.25) For directions please visit http://www.hallmarkhotels.co.uk/our_hotels/croy don/location/

Email [email protected] 07973 885754

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ACCESSORIES

Accessories Belcher Bits The latest resin rocket from Belcher Bits is the SS-25 Sickle and will be perfect displayed next to Zvezda’s recently issued Topol launcher vehicle. In 1/72 scale this is a large model and gives you some idea of how large the original was with its three stages and its large warhead carrying 3 MIRV warheads. You will spend as much time removing the parts from the casting blocks, as you will assembling the model. A small decal sheet will be included in production samples though it was missing from our review sample.

1/72 SCALE

SS-25 (Sickle) ICBM •  Kit No BL14 •  Scale 1/72 •  Type resin •  Parts 10

CONCLUSION This is another edition to Belcher Bits’ 1/72 missile range which now includes the SS-4 Sandal, Thor and Bomarc as well as this addition to the range. I really hope they may consider adding a Poseidon or Trident to this collection at some point. Our thanks to Belcher Bits for the review sample, which can be purchased from their website at www.belcherbits.com

MH Models At Telford we met up with up with MH Models on the CMK stand and they supplied us with their latest product which will be of particular interest to UK modellers. Unlike their previous products, which have been decal or mask sets, their latest supplies two pairs of vacform teardrop side windows designed to replace the kit parts in the Airfix kit.

1/72 SCALE

K72001 Blenheim Mk IV Teardrop Side Windows

CONCLUSION A nice update for the Airfix kit which is very simple to use and obvious when compare to a stock out-of-the-box model. This range can be purchased from a number of Czech model shops as well as from the CMK stand at major model shows. They also have their own website at www.mhmodels. cz a s well as a shop at MH Models, Vinicná 1308/III 293 01 Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. We thank them for supplying the review sample.

Alclad II Mil-Spec Airbrush-Ready Enamel Paint This is a new venture from Alclad II. Most of us are probably aware of the superb Alclad II range of metallic lacquers, so how does this new range perform? To start with this is an enamel paint that is ready thinned for airbrush use, which is good, as thinning paint for my airbrush is something I struggle with. The best way to review a paint is of course to try it, so taking the bottle of British Interior Green, I firstly gave it a good shake, ball bearings are in the glass bottle to really mix the paint well, I then poured some straight from the bottle into the cup of my Aztek airbrush and sprayed the interior of an Airfix Tiger Moth I have in my stash. The paint does spray straight from the bottle and went on nice and evenly apart from where I got a bit carried away… I have a cold at the moment, but that said the paint does not seem to smell too bad, although of course a spray booth, extractor and mask are always recommended. The thing that amazed me most was that by the time I had gone back into my house to get my camera to photograph the paint bottles, the interior of my Tiger Moth was touch dry. Having grown up hand brushing Humbrol paint from the tin and having to wait seemingly ages to touch my painted model this surprised me, although I will wait a little longer before overspraying it just to be on the safe side.

The paints we received were US Camouflage Tan (FS595B-10400), US Camouflage Earth (FS595B-10118), RAF Sky Type S (BSC381-210), RAF Ocean Grey (BSC381-633), RAF Dark Green (BSC381-241), British Interior Green (BSC381-283), Matt White and Matt Black. So it is looking as though Alclad II will be releasing a range of Second World War British and US paints to begin with.

Q.M.T Models Last month we featured a number of new products from Q.M.T Models and unsurprisingly this month we have a few variations on themes with a set of canopy masks suitable for all Fujimi F-4 Phantoms and a nice set of resin FOD covers for USAF operated F-15 Eagles.

1/72 SCALE

QMT 72003 Canopy Masks for Fujimi Phantoms •  Designed for: Fujimi

1/48 SCALE

QMT R 48-003 F.O.D F-15 Eagle USAF

CONCLUSION As I said last month it is nice to see Q.M.T spreading their wings to different subjects and I am hoping that at Plastic Winter in Bratislava we may see some of the interesting resin conversions that Q.M.T have been working on over that last few months. We still have no news of a UK stockist though the range is available from a number of Czech online model shops.

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RB Productions At Telford we had a long overdue catch-up with RB Productions, and this Irish manufacturer provided us with samples of their latest etched brass sets. To start we have a really nice upgrade set that supplies no less than 100 parts to upgrade the cockpit of the 1/32 Zoukei Mura Ta 152H-0 and H-01. The second set is a complete upgrade for the radiators of the Tamiya 1/32 scale Mosquito, and as a small bonus you get a set of etched screens for the carburettor intakes, which definitely need replacing on the kit.

1/32 SCALE

Draycote Technology At Telford I had my Tamiya Light and Sound Zero on display and it was certainly a crowd puller, but many modellers said I wonder why they never did… Now I have always dreamed of producing a Mosquito, Hurricane or Spitfire using the same idea as in my view there is just something about the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin that sends a shiver down my spine. Now that dream may become a reality as this UK electronics company has launched a base that supplies most of hardware ready to run for you to add your favourite model. At Telford they had a Hurricane and Lancaster running and the sound and effects as four Merlins coming up to speed in turn definitely had that spine tingling effect. What you actually get in this is a large base measuring 400mm by 400mm which contains a pair of stereo speakers and a motherboard that Draycote call the Smart-FX is wired with 6 LED outputs which can be programmed to Flash, Pulse, strobe or just be on. There are two variable speed outputs for the motor system so you can program how the engines will perform. All of this is powered by either 8 AA Batteries or a 12V Lamp PSU. On the edge of the base you have an on-off switch, start button and a volume control plus a micro SD card, and it is the latter that is crucial to the operation of the base as the SD card will contain all the information that controls the operation of the model. Also included with the sets are a selection of pre-wired LEDs and a motor lead, all complete with plugs that attach direct to the Smart-FX unit with no soldering or technical skill needed. A similar lead is also supplied for the motor system and I will be using the one produced by Magic Scale Modelling as reviewed elsewhere in this issue. Now the hardest part of this system is that you do have to program the Micro SD card with all the information including the sound effects you require, either downloading this from a website like Sound FX or from YouTube. I will say having or knowing someone with some basic computer programming knowledge will be a big help, though Draycote have tried

to make this as easy as possible by supplying an instruction manual on their website www. draycotetechnology.com/smartfx/smart-fx-usermanual/ I have also raised this with Draycote and they have said that to get around this they will be creating a program bank, where modellers can download their required program, with the sounds, lights, and motor programs, for a selection of aircraft types, and modellers who have made their own programs can upload their own programs for others to use as well. I am very impressed with what has been achieved with this set and certainly think this is a big leap forward in making it possible for a reasonably skilled modeller to make a real eye- and ear-stopping model. I currently have one of these on the bench and will report back in due course on how I get on with producing my dream of a light and sound Merlin engined aircraft. If you are interested in this base visit www.draycotetechnology.com for further information, and we would like to thank Steve Roberts of Draycote Technology for allowing us to review this range, and he can be contacted by emailing steve@ draycotetechnology.com with any queries about using this new product

RB-P32040 Mosquito Radiators RB-P32019 Ta 152 Cockpit

CONCLUSION These are very high quality products and the Mosquito set is almost a compulsory purchase if you are only going to upgrade one area of this amazing model. All of these products can be purchased direct from the manufacturer’s website at www.radubstore.com. Our thanks to Radu Brinzan for supplying the review samples.

Katran Models This new manufacturer from the Ukraine has supplied us with their first product designed to upgrade the exhausts of the Hasegawa F-14A Tomcat. This set combines 10 resin parts with four etched brass sheets to completely replace the jet pipes and will be an immediate improvement on the kit parts due to the finesse of the flame holders and scale thickness of the jet nozzle feathers.

1/48 SCALE

K4801 F-14A Tomcat Jet Nozzles (Open) •  Designed for: Hasegawa

CONCLUSION A very impressive start and I am sure we will see a closed nozzle set at some point, and I hope they would consider a one open / one closed set as well. At the moment the only source I can find for this set is on a well-known auction site though I am sure if this range expands we will see them from a more mainstream model shop in due course. Our thanks to Katran for supplying us with the review sample.

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ACCESSORIES

Magic Scale Modelling Displaying at Telford, Belgium company Magic Scale Modelling had a whole range of LED lighting effects from a lighted 1/32 scale cigarette to aircraft with not only all the warning strobes illuminated but also the inside of the jet engines! But it is not lights we have received for review here, but two sets of electric engines to turn either rotors or propellers. Now we have seen these products before but never anything quite as small, as the M45 engine was being used to power the propeller of a 1/72 scale Wildcat.

M70 Engine •  Diameter 7mm Length 17mm Shaft 5mm •  Requires 1 X AA Battery

M45 Engine •  Diameter 4.2MM Length 8mm shaft 4mm •  Requires 1 X AAA Battery

1/72 SCALE

Brengun This month’s releases from Brengun provide a resin and etched brass drop tank, both in 1/72 scale and 1/48, which will grace the centre line of a Spitfire. For 1/72 scale glider fans there are detail sets for the AZ Granau Baby and the KP or Special Hobby SG 38. The hand trucks will be a welcome addition to a more modern diorama. In 1/48 scale we have a set of wooden barrels, three small and two larger ones, these were quite a common sight on airfields as a look at contemporary images will show. The valve hand wheels again will be a useful diorama accessory.

CONCLUSION A visit to www. MagicScaleModeling. com will show you the full range including a number of photographs of the lighting and motor sets in action. Our thanks to Magic Scale Modelling for supplying us with the review samples.

Mig Productions This manufacturer’s range of washes has become one of the best selling ranges in the SAM store, and also on my workbench as I have become increasingly enamoured with the subtle finish when used over my normal acrylic paints. The latest edition to the range is a set which supplies three panel line washes for aircraft finished in desert schemes from World War Two to the present day.

Mig Productions Desert Airplane Weathering Set This set includes •  A.MIG1620 Dust. Panel line wash for green colours •  A.MIG1821 Desert Brown. Panel line wash for dark desert colours •  A.MIG1622 Ochre. Panel line wash for light desert colours

CONCLUSION A nice one-touch shop for anyone building anything from an F-18 Aggressor to a desert scheme Spitfire or Bf 109. If you have not tried these washes give yourself a treat and visit www.subpublications.com and the SAM shop to see if there is a set that will go with your latest project.

•  BRL72092, 50gal Drop tank, British, resin and etched brass. •  BRL72097, Hand trucks (6 pieces). •  BRL72094, Grunau Baby IIb (AZ Model). •  BRL72095, SG_38 Schulgeiter (AZ/MPM model).

1/48 SCALE •  BRL48066, Valve hand wheels. •  BRL48067, Wooden barrels. •  BRL48068, 50gal Drop tank, British, double pack, resin and etched brass. A varied selection from Brengun this month and it is nice to see that gliders are getting the aftermarket treatment. A look at the Brengun/Hauler webpage is always a delight as there is a whole world of small stuff available. My thanks to Jan Sobotka for supplying the review samples. www.brengun.cz

Part Models After receiving the latest etched brass set from Part Models, I think the Oxford English Dictionary needs a new definition for the word comprehensive. I have tried to count all the individual parts on this etched brass set and lost count at 200 individual parts over two frets. The lucky kit to receive this amazing set is the KP/Eduard Su-22M-4, a kit that is to say the least not over detailed, but with nearly every area of the model receiving some brass including the armament I am sure many will be dusting down this vintage kit.

1/48 SCALE S48-165 Su-22M-4 Etched Brass Upgrade •  Designed for KP and Eduard

CONCLUSION The fact that the instructions sheets only just fit in the normal clear plastic envelope gives the impression this was a labour of love from Part. I would like to thank who stocks the whole Part range, for supplying us with the review sample.

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Master Models

BarrucudaCast

At Telford, Master Models supplied us with samples of their latest sets in all three major scales. In 1/32 scale we have some really nice sets to provide all the gun barrels and pitot tubes for the Tamiya Mosquito, and these have also been scaled down for the Tamiya 1/72 and 1/48 scale kits. Also aimed at a Tamiya kit, this time the Spitfire, are two sets providing both early and late gun barrels for the Spitfire IX/XVI. The Spitfire also features in 1/48 scale but this time it is the Airfix Mk Vb which receives new 20mm cannon barrels and includes a resin leading edge attachment point. In 1/72 scale we have a lovely set of Neptun radar aerials suitable for many Luftwaffe types including the Me 262 and Ar 234. The massive 37mm Flak 18 cannon barrel is supplied to fit the Ju 87G, Bf 110, Me 410 and Ju 88. A new addition to the Master range are static discharge wicks found on the trailing edges of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, which are available in all three scales though in 1/72 scale they are very tiny.

Master modeller Roy Sutherland has released a number of updates for the Revell B-1 in 1/48 scale, and such was these sets’ popularity it is only now 3 months after the US Nationals that we have been able to obtain samples. The first set fixes one of the most obvious errors on the Monogram kit, which has an engine inlet based on the B-1A rather than the B-1B. This set completely replaces the front of the intake with a correctly profiled item that also shows the side doors partially open, as they should be. To get around the lack of intake baffles Barracuda have supplied a set of FOD covers, which have a nice fabric effect that looks just like the real thing. The only downside to this is that if the bags are in the intakes you would normally have covers over the exhausts. And that would be a real shame as we have two sets of exhausts, the early set with the feathered intake and the later set which had these removed to reveal all the actuating arms. Moving on we have a set that supplies all the lumps and bumps that have been added to the B-1 including two towed decoys and both the early and late DAS fairing and antenna. Finally we have the wheels and these probably use more resin than any of the other sets and are a lot more detailed than the very basically detailed kit parts.

1/35 SCALE GM-32-081 Spitfire Mk IXe/XVIe Conical Cannon Fairings (Early)

1/48 SCALE B-1B Engine Intake Set •  Part No. BR48235 •  Designed for: Revell

GM-32-084 Static Discharge Wicks for F-16 Fighting Falcon •  Designed for: Any

1/48 SCALE

•  Designed for: Tamiya

GM-32-081 Mosquito Mk II/ VI Pitot Tube and Barrels •  Designed for: Tamiya

GM72-090 Flak 18 (37mm) Cannon Barrels

•  Part No. BR48236 •  Designed for: Revell

•  Designed for: Ju 87G, Bf 110, Me 410, Ju 88

B-1B Late Exhaust Set Without Turkey Feathers

•  Designed for: Airfix (New tool)

GM-72-091 Mosquito Mk II/ VI Pitot Tube and Barrels

GM-48-111 Mosquito Mk II/ VI Pitot Tube and Barrels

•  Designed for: Tamiya

•  Part No. BR482367 •  Designed for: Revell

•  Designed for: Tamiya

GM-72-092 Static Discharge Wicks for F-16 Fighting Falcon

GM-48-110 Spitfire Mk Vb Cannon Fairings

•  Designed for: Tamiya

GM-32-081 Spitfire Mk IXe/ XVIe Round Cannon Fairings (Late)

B-1B Early Exhaust Set With Turkey Feathers

GM-48-112 Static discharges for F-16 Fighting Falcon

•  Designed for: Any

•  Designed for: Any

1/72 SCALE GM72-089 FUG-218 Neptun Aerials •  Designed for: Me 262, Arado 234, Ju 88

CONCLUSION These barrels are a definite upgrade over those supplied in the kits, especially in the smaller scales, as few of us have the skills to drill out barrels that small. I also like the static discharge wicks though the smaller scale items will need some strong magnification even with perfect eyesight. The full Master range can be viewed on their website at www.mastermodel.pl and in the UK the range will be stocked by Hannants Our thanks to Piotr Czerkasow for supplying us with the review samples.

B-1B Main and Nose Wheel Set •  Part No. BR48238 •  Designed for: Revell

B-1B External Upgrade Set •  Part No. BR48239 •  Designed for: Revell

CONCLUSION If you have a B-1 on the shelf and have the room to display it, you need to invest in these sets as well as the forthcoming brass sets from Eduard to really bring it up to date. These are sets produced to the high standards that I have come to associate with any product released under the Barracuda brand. To see the full range visit www.barracudacals.com where you can see the full range of resin masks and decals. Our thanks to Roy Sutherland for supplying the review samples.

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ACCESSORIES

Wings Cockpit Figures www.wingscockpitfigures.com david.allen@wingscockpitfigures. com

Scale Aircraft Conversions SAC have produced five new sets it should have been six but the 1/32 legs for the new Italeri Mirage III will be available next month.

1/48 SCALE SAAB J-21 Landing Gear •  Product No: 48294 •  Designed for: Pilot Replica •  Price: $15.95

1/72 SCALE Junkers Ju-88 Landing Gear

•  Product No: 72118 •  Designed for: Zvezda •  Price: $15.95

Short Stirling Landing Gear •  Product No: 72119 •  Designed for: Italeri •  Price: $20.95

Dornier Do-17 Landing Gear •  Product No: 72120 •  Designed for: Airfix •  Price: $15.95

We have received no less than eight new 1/32 scale figures from Wings Cockpit Figures, all bar one are Second World War Luftwaffe figures, the eighth is a Second World War USAAF pin up… The figures are all sculptured by Nino Pizzichemi and are stunning; the detail on the zips especially has to be seen to be believed. Clean-up of these resin figures will be a breeze as there are minimal casting blocks and only the faintest of flash present on these review samples. •  LUFT 03A, Luftwaffe Hauptmann 1939-45, 6 pieces, 2 heads with LKp W101 and LKp N 101 helmets, torso with legs 2 arms and map case. •  LUFT 03 B, Luftwaffe Groundcrew man 1939-45, 2 pieces, head and torso with legs and folded arms. •  LUFT 03 C, Luftwaffe Pilot late 194045, 3 pieces, head, torso with legs and arms with hands joined behind back in a stand easy pose. •  LUFT 03 D, Luftwaffe Pilot in onepiece summer flying suit 1937-45, 3 pieces, head, torso with legs and right arm and separate left arm. •  LUFT 03 E, Decorated Luftwaffe Pilot in service dress modelled on Helmut Wick 1939-45, 4 pieces, head, torso with legs and 2 arms. •  LUFT 04 A Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot 139-40, climbing into cockpit of Me 109, 7 pieces, 2 heads (with and without flying helmet), torso with legs, 2 arms, left boot and seat parachute. •  LUFT 04 B, Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot 1939-45 stepping up to wing for Me 109, 6 pieces, 2 heads (with different helmet and goggle styles), torso with legs, 2 arms and seat parachute. •  USAAF 05, USAAF pin-up 1941-45, 3 pieces, head with upper torso and right arm, left arm separate and legs and bottom. This figure is posed wearing an oversize flying

jacket, clearly lent by a pilot, a side cap, bra, knickers suspender belt, stockings and high heels, and is stood leaning against something, a shiny P-51 would look good! The sculpting and casting of these figures is superb and I am sure that they will complement any Luftwaffe diorama or vignette, or indeed USAAF with the pin-up figure. My thanks to Dave Allen of Wings Cockpit Figures for supplying these figures for review.

Douglas F4D Skyray Landing Gear •  Product No: 72121 •  Designed for: Tamiya •  Price: $13.95

CONCLUSION It is nice to see so many new sets for 1/72 scale and the white metal nose wheel bay for the Tamiuya kit will make sure you do not have a tail sitter. These samples were provided by Scale Aircraft Conversions and will be available to purchase in the UK from Hannants and www.oxonianplasticfantastic.co.uk the manufacturers also have their own website at www.scaleaircraftconversions.com. Our thanks to Ross McMillan for supplying the review samples.

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Yahu Models We have featured Yahu for a few months now, and I’m still amazed at the quality of these relatively inexpensive instrument panels. On the front of each pack is a printed illustration of the panel inside and I must say that when I first saw these I thought that was the actual panel, and though in 1/32 scale it is not far off in 1/72 scale the actual panel is nearly a third smaller. And as I have said before it is only under magnification that the detail on the 1/72 sets really popped out for me and I could appreciate just how amazing these instrument panels are.

ůďŝŽŶůůŽLJƐWƌĞĐŝƐŝŽŶDĞƚĂůƐĨŽƌDŽĚĞůDĂŬĞƌƐ WƌĞĐŝƐŝŽŶƐůŝĚĞĨŝƚŵŝĐƌŽƚƵďĞƐ͕ƌŽĚ͕ƐƚƌŝƉ͕ƐŚĞĞƚĂŶĚĂŶŐůĞĂŶĚĐŚĂŶŶĞů͘

ŽŶŶĞĐƚŽʹĂŶĂŵĂnjŝŶŐƉƌŽĚƵĐƚ LJŽƵĐĂŶŶŽǁĐƌĞĂƚĞϯƐŚĂƉĞƐĨƌŽŵůďŝŽŶůůŽLJƐŵŝĐƌŽ ƚƵďĞƐ͘tŽƌŬƐǁŝƚŚŽƵƌďƌĂƐƐ͕ĂůƵŵŝŶŝƵŵĂŶĚŶŝĐŬĞůƐŝůǀĞƌ ƚƵďĞʹĨƌŽŵϬ͘ϰŵŵŽ͘Ě͘ƚŽϭ͘ϰŵŵƚƵďĞƐŝnjĞƐ

1/72 SCALE

1/32 SCALE

•  YMA 7252 P-51D Mustang Early •  YMA 7253 Fiat G.50 Freccia •  YMA 7255 Mitsubushi A6M2 Zero •  YMA 7257 Mitsubushi A6M5 Type 52 Zero •  YMA 7258 Letov S.238 •  YMA 7280 RWD-8

•  YMA3205 Dewoitine D.520 •  YMA 3207 Spitfire Mk Vb Late

1/48 SCALE •  YMA 4818 P-51B/C Mustang III •  YMA 4825 Mitsubushi A6M2 Zero

CONCLUSION I am still very impressed with these sets and priced between £1.65 to £5.99 they certainly offer good value for money. Our thanks to Yahu models for supplying the review samples; the full range can be seen on their website at www.yahumodels. siemianowice.com

&ůĞdž/&ŝůĞĂŶĚůďŝŽŶůůŽLJƐĂďƌĂƐŝǀĞƐʹ WƌŽďĂďůLJƚŚĞŵŽƐƚĐŽŵƉƌĞŚĞŶƐŝǀĞƌĂŶŐĞŽĨĂďƌĂƐŝǀĞƐ͕ŐůƵĞ ĂƉƉůŝĐĂƚŽƌƐĂŶĚĨŝŶŝƐŚŝŶŐƉƌŽĚƵĐƚƐĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞͲŝŶĐůƵĚŝŶŐ ƐŽŵĞŽĨƚŚĞŵŽƐƚƉŽƉƵůĂƌŵŽĚĞůůŝŶŐƚŽŽůƐĞǀĞƌƉƌŽĚƵĐĞĚ͘

Dƌ,ŽďďLJ;'ƵŶnjĞ^ĂŶŐLJŽʹ'^/ƌĞŽƐͿ ŶŝŶĐƌĞĚŝďůĞĂƌƌĂLJŽĨƉĂŝŶƚƐ͕ƚŚŝŶŶĞƌƐĂŶĚƉƌŝŵĞƌƐʹǁŝĚĞůLJƐĞĞŶĂƐƚŚĞďĞƐƚ ƋƵĂůŝƚLJƉĂŝŶƚĐƵƌƌĞŶƚůLJŽŶƚŚĞŵĂƌŬĞƚ͘ƚŚŽƌŽƵŐŚůLJƉƌŽĨĞƐƐŝŽŶĂůƉƌŽĚƵĐƚĂŶĚ ĂĐŽƌƌĞƐƉŽŶĚŝŶŐůLJǁŝĚĞƌĂŶŐĞŽĨĐŽůŽƵƌƐ͕ƉƌŝŵĞƌƐĂŶĚĂƐƐŽĐŝĂƚĞĚƚŽŽůƐʹLJŽƵ͛ůů ǁĂŶƚƚŚĞǁŚŽůĞƌĂŶŐĞŝŶLJŽƵƌŝŶǀĞŶƚŽƌLJ͘

SBS Models At Telford we received the three new resin sets released at the show by SBS, two wheel sets in 1/72 scale for the Folland Gnat and Messerschmitt Bf 109E. The latter also receives a replacement set of exhausts. All of these are crisply moulded in grey resin and are simple drop-fit replacements so no instructions are needed.

1/72 SCALE Folland Gnat Wheels •  Part No 72035 •  Designed for Airfix

Messerschmitt Bf 109E Wheels •  Part No 72037 •  Designed for Airfix

Messerschmitt Bf 109E Exhausts •  Part No 72038 •  Designed for Airfix

hƐĐŚŝǀĂŶĚĞƌZŽƐƚĞŶ ŶŝŶƐƉŝƌĞĚĂŶĚŝŶƐƉŝƌŝŶŐƌĂŶŐĞŽĨŵŽĚĞůůŝŶŐĂŝĚƐ͕ĚĞĐĂůƐĂŶĚĚŝŽƌĂŵĂ ĂĐĐĞƐƐŽƌŝĞƐ͘tŚĂƚƐƚĂƌƚĞĚŽĨĨĂƐĂƐŵĂůůƐĞůĞĐƚŝŽŶŽĨǁŽŽĚŐƌĂŝŶĚĞĐĂůƐŚĂƐ ŐƌŽǁŶŝŶƚŽĂůŝƐƚŽĨŵƵƐƚŚĂǀĞŝƚĞŵƐĨŽƌƚŚĞŬĞĞŶŵŽĚĞůůĞƌ͘ZŝŐŐŝŶŐƚŚƌĞĂĚƐ͕ ŽŝůƉĂŝŶƚĚƌLJŝŶŐĂĐĐĞůĞƌĂƚŽƌ͕ƐĐĞŶŝĐĚŝƉůĂLJƐĂŶĚŵƵĐŚŵŽƌĞ͘

CONCLUSION Sets like these are still the core of the range though their aircraft kit range continues to expand. and long may it continue. Take a look at their website www.sbsmodel.com to see the full range, and in the UK the SBS range is now being stocked by Hannants. Our thanks to SBS Models for the samples.

For details of your nearest dealer/stockist/distributor please contact: email: [email protected] website: www.albionhobbies.com tel: 01202 511232 Dealer enquiries welcome WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2016 21

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ACCESSORIES SHESTO – exclusive suppliers to Europe

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Aztek AZ3206 Airbrush System By Peter Russell

O

ne of my club’s most awarded competition modellers for many years swore he would never try a double action airbrush. For many years he swept the board at shows with his beautifully airbrushed models; all of these were painted with a single action airbrush. The major advantage to this type of brush is that they are simple and normally less expensive than the more complicated dual action. I was totally unaware that Aztek had a single action brush in their range until we received a sample of the AZ3206; I was immediately impressed. I have used a double action Aztek for a number of years so the design of brush was instantly familiar to me and this, of course, means it has this manufacturer’s unique quick-change nozzle system. Now, the main difference between a single and double action brush is the trigger. On a dual action brush you press the trigger down to control airflow and push back and forward to

allow the paint to release. On a single action the trigger is just controlling the airflow; the more you press the more air comes out. This does not mean that you have no control over the paint flow, as a long blue wheel located in the tail of the brush controls the amount of paint being released. Producing wavy lines or mottled Luftwaffe camouflage or Italian Smoke Rings is simple. Like all Aztek brushes the AZ3206 uses the interchangeable head system. In the plastic case we received there was the General Purpose nozzle (Grey) and the high flow nozzle (White). Of course you can always purchase other nozzles from the extensive range. I would suggest that by adding the Fine (Tan) and Acrylic (Black) nozzle to the two in the box you will be able to deal with 99% of all scale modelling tasks. I love the Aztek system because cleaning is so simple and it is easy to change between tasks rapidly by changing the nozzles. As with all Aztek brushes you also receive the red multi purpose tool, which includes three reaming heads, these enable you to rapidly clean the body of the brush. Also, in common with its bigger brothers, this brush has mounting points on both sides of the brush so you can attach the paint cups to the side that is most comfortable for you. This is also helped by the extreme light weight of

the brush, which just sits perfectly in the hand. As supplied there are two paint containers, the smallest is the 12cc side cup, which is large enough to fulfil most modelling needs, and is also incredibly easy to clean. Slightly heavier is the glass siphon jet and my preference is to use this for applying the final varnish coats to my model. The AZ3206 comes in a tough plastic storage case that also includes a 6-foot vinyl hose this comes with two end attachments that include two alternative attachments making sure that you can secure this brush to most air compressors out of the box. To complete the package there is a full set of paper instructions and a DVD that gives you a good tutorial on using the brush; I really recommend viewing this before you start to use the brush. The manufacturer refers to this as an Intermediate brush but I would not let that fool you, the results that can be achieved with this brush are amazing. It it is a perfect starter brush for those on a budget but the most experienced and skilled modeller would find this to be a good addition to the work bench.

My thanks to Shesto tools for supplying the review sample. For more details on the full range please visit www.shesto.com or contact us by telephoning 020 8451 6188 or Email at [email protected].

For more information on this and other products go to the Shesto website

www.shesto.com

or contact them directly via email at [email protected] or telephone

0208 451 6188

22 JANUARY 2016 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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Mastered-Adverts-AV-0116_AV-0606 04/12/2015 19:31 Page 23

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HPK072103

DECALS

Decals RB Productions

BOA Decals Airliner Schemes BOA14485, 14485, 14487 & 14490

At Telford we received the second sheet covering the Messerschmitt Bf 109G in Romanian service. As normal the instructions are extremely comprehensive and include thumbnail black and white reference photographs. The five schemes include an interesting selection of markings and all of them have traces of previous service that has been overpainted. Both the early Romanian cross and later roundel are covered, and I particularly like the first option where the cross has been painted inside the original German national insignia.

By David Matthews-Smith, IPMS UK Airliners S.I.G. At Telford we received samples of some of Boa Decals’ latest releases: •  BOA 14485 Rusline Airbus A319 •  BOA 14487 Tarom ATR42-500 •  BOA 14489 EuroLOT ATR42-500 •  BOA 14490 CSA Czech Airlines ATR42-500 All the decal sheets are traditional silkscreen printed to a very high standard, with crisp, vivid colours all in register. Each sheet also comes with comprehensive instructions, comprising a full colour sheet showing both sides, plus upper and lower surface plan views – how many other decal sheets provide this?! The Rusline Airbus A319 scheme comprises a bright scarlet fuselage with a sweeping golden line along the fuselage, plus gold and black brush strokes on the fin creating a bird emblem. The style is reminiscent of the 300-year-old scarlet, black and gold lacquer ‘Golden Khokhloma’ folk art used to decorate wooden table utensils in the mid-Volga region. A second sheet included in this set provides silver strips for wing and horizontal stabiliser leading edges, together with wing walkway lines and other small stencil details. The other three sheets are all aimed at the recently released Italeri ATR42 kit, (but may also fit the F-RSIN kit) providing some colourful and popular alternative schemes. The red, white and blue CSA Czech airlines scheme is a sharp as ever, while the predominantly blue Tarom of Romania scheme includes both current and older style ‘Tarom’ titles. The EuroLOT scheme comprises a simple but striking, modern scheme of red on a white background. All sheets include windscreens, cabin windows, door outlines, black de-icing strips and comprehensive stencilling details, in addition to a full range of alternative registrations. With crisp, rich colour, silk screen printing and comprehensive four-view drawings to aid placement of the decals, BOA Decals are right up there at the top of airliner decal sheets in terms of quality, with the added benefit of being modestly priced for such outstanding quality. Review samples kindly provided by Joy Decals, who stock a comprehensive range of BOA and other manufacturers’ airliner decal sheets. My thanks to Boa Decals for providing me with the opportunity to review these new releases, which in the UK will be available from Hannants

1/32 SCALE

RBP320120 Romanian Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 Part 2 •  Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, Black Chevron, Grupul 6, Vanatoare, Summer 1944, Tecuci. •  Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, Red 26a, Grupul 6,Vanatoare, Summer 1944, Tecuci. •  Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, Yellow 22, Grupul 6,Vanatoare, Summer 1944, Tecuci. •  Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, White 6, Grupul 6,Vanatoare, Spring 1945, Miskolic. •  Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6, Grupul 6,Vanatoare, Spring 1945, Miskolic. This sheet is also available in 1/48 Scale and 1/72 Scale

CONCLUSION A real high quality sheet of a popular aircraft in colour schemes that will certainly stand out thanks to the colourful unit and national markings. Both this sheet and Part 1 can be purchased direct from the manufacturer’s website at www.radubstore.com. Our thanks to Radu Brinzan for supplying the review samples.

Blackbird Models The latest sheets from Blackbird models. Each one includes full colour instructions, and the Vietnam sheet includes some thumbnail photographs.

1/72 SCALE BMD72029 RAF 1945-50 Pt 1 •  Lincoln B.II of 57 Sqn 1946. •  P-51D Mustang IV of 93 Sqn in Italy 1946. •  Spitfire PR.XIX, PM574 operated by 681 Sqn on detachment in Burma 1946.

BMD72030 Operation Torch Pt 3 •  Hurricane IIc. This aircraft was operated by 43 Sqn RAF based at Maison Bianche in Algeria in November 1942. •  Seafire 1b. This aircraft was operated by 801 NAS on board HMS Furious in November 1942. •  Martlet IV. This aircraft was operated by 882 NAS based on HMS Victorious in November 1942.

CONCLUSION We thank Blackbird Models for the samples, their website at www.blackbirdmodels.co.uk includes ordering details for both the decals and their range of accessories and full kits.

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JANUARY 2016

Worldwide Aviation Decals A new name has launched with a superb pedigree, being an offshoot from the well-respected Flevo range of decals. The Flevo range covers mostly Dutch subjects while this new range will cover other nations. We have had a whole selection of their new releases, which covers 1/144, 1/72, and 1/48 scale as well as Egg scale for the popular Egg scale range from Hasegawa. Each sheet is well printed and comes with full colour instructions that include colour matches to Model Master, Xtracolor, Humbrol, and Mr Color acrylic as well as DFS Numbers. I really appreciate this fact as it means that most nations around the world can get one of these brands, or often can find a match using the FS number.

CONCLUSION 1/48 SCALE EGG SCALE EGG001 Intruder Eggs! Part 1 •  1. Grumman A-6 Intruder Eggplane VA-85, 806 NH. •  2. Grumman A-6 Intruder Eggplane VA-34, 504 AB.

48001 Scooters of the Fleet Part 1 •  1. Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk, 142134, VA-22, Det. R, USS Kearsage 1963. •  2. Douglas A-4C Skyhawk, 147721, VA-112, USS Kitty Hawk 1968. •  3. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151084, VA-94, USS Bon Homme Richard 1970.

1/144 SCALE

S48001 Special Limited Edition Chance Vought F7U-3/F7U-3M Cutlass

144001 Scooters of the Fleet Part 1

•  1. Chance Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, 129658, VA-126, 305 D, NAS Lemoore, 1956. •  2. Chance Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, 129676 VA-212, 201 G, USS Bon Homme Richard 1956. •  3. Chance Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, 129599 VF-124, 410 D, USS Hancock 1956. •  4. Chance Vought F7U-3N Cutlass, 129723, VX-4, 24 XF, NAS Miramar 1956. •  5. Chance Vought F7U-3N Cutlass, 128466, US Marines, MCAS Miami 1955.

•  1. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151084, VA-94, USS Bon Homme Richard 1970. •  2. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151102, VA-212, USS Bon Homme Richard 1967. •  3. Douglas A-4F Skyhawk, 151191, VA-144, USS Bon Homme Richard 1970.

1/72 SCALE

An interesting selection of US Navy types is just the start of this company’s coverage of aircraft from around the world and time periods from WW2 onwards. And I like the Limited Edition set which will supply markings for out of production kits or types that have not had coverage from other companies. This range is already available from Hannants in the UK as well as their own site http://www. wadecals.net at prices ranging from 5.00Eu for the Eggplane sheet to 11.50 Eu for the 1/48 scale sheets. Our thanks to Niels Dol from Worldwide Aviation Decals for supplying the review samples.

72001 Scooters of the Fleet Part 1 •  1. Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk, 142134, VA-22 Det. R, USS Kearsage 1963. •  2. Douglas A-4C Skyhawk, 147721, VA-112, USS Kitty Hawk 1968. •  3. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151084, VA-94, USS Bon Homme Richard 1970.

72002 Scooters of the Fleet Part 2 •  1. Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk, 149336, VA-23, USS Midway 1962. •  2. Douglas A-4C Skyhawk, 149551, VA-146, USS Constellation 1964. •  3. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151102, VA-212, USS Bon Homme Richard 1967.

1/32 SCALE 32001 Scooters of the Fleet Part 1 •  1. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151084, VA-94, USS Bon Homme Richard 1970. •  2. Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, 151102m VA-212, USS Bon Homme Richard 1967.

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DECALS

Print Scale Decals

Chris Busbridge Decals

Just received from Print Scale, a manufacturer based in the Ukraine All of the decals are nicely printed with strong colours, and full colour instructions show where all the markings go.

•  3. CR.32bis, 4177, 362 Sqn, Ciampino, 1939, Three Colour stripe camouflage

1/48 SCALE PS 48-088 MiG17 MiG 19 MiG 21 Part 1 •  Shenyang J-5 (MiG-17F ‘Fresco-C’) 2011 of Ngo Duc Mai, 923rd ‘Yen The’, 12 May 1967. •  Shenyang J-5 (MiG-17F ‘Fresco’C’) 2050 of Pham Ngoc Lan, 921st ‘Sao Do’, 6 November 1965. •  MiG-17F ‘Fresco-C’ 2077 of the 923rd ‘Yen The’, 1968. •  Shenyang J-6 (MiG-19S) ‘Farmer-C’ 6066, 925th Fighter Regiment 1972. •  MiG-21PF ‘Fishbed-D’ 4324 of Nguyen Dang Kinh, 921st ‘Sao Do’, 19 November 1967. •  MiG-21MF ‘Fishbed-J’ 5121 of Pham Tuan, 921st ‘Sao Do’, 27 December 1972. •  MiG-21PFM ‘Fishbed-F’ 5020 of Nguyen Tien Sam, 927th ‘Lam Son’, 5 July 1972. •  MiG-21PFM ‘Fishbed-F’ 5015 of the 921st ‘Sao Do’ 1972. •  MiG-21PFM ‘Fishbed-F’ 6122 of the 927th ‘Lam Son’ 1972. •  MiG-21PF ‘Fishbed-D’ 4326 of Nguyen Van Cock, 921st ‘Sao Do’, 7 May 1968. •  MiG-21PF ‘Fishbed-D’ 4128 of 921st ‘Sao Do’, April 1966.

At Telford SAMi reviewer Chris Busbridge passed me a sample of his sheet for the Fiat CR.32 and I was very impressed with the high quality of this sheet. The instructions do full justice to the six schemes covered and illustrate examples in three colour schemes applied between 1935 and 1941, when the type was withdrawn from service.

CB48001 Fiat CR.32 in Regia Aeronautic Service •  1. CR.32bis, 2991, 73 Sqn, 73-1, Col. Pezze, Ferrara, 1938, Aluminium Dope •  2. CR.32, 80 Sqn, 1 Stormo, 80-7, Campoformido, 1935/3, Aluminium Dope.

The next four options all feature a Verde and Marrone mottling over a Giallo base •  4. CR.32bis, 3187, 4 Stormo, Col. Grandinetti •  5. CR.32, 410 Sqn, ‘Romantica Squadriglia’, 410-8, Africa Orienale, 1941 •  6. CR.32, 4227, 163 Sqn, 163-6, Egeo, 1940 •  7. CR.32bis, 4666, 160 Sqn, 50 Stormo, 16010, Africa settentrionale, 1940/41

CONCLUSION A very nice sheet thanks to the stunning Italian squadron markings that are displayed on one of the most attractive biplane fighters. These Fiat Cr.32 decals are available from Chris Busbridge at his website superaereo.com Our thanks to Chris for supplying me with this sheet and it can be purchased

PS 48-085 De Havilland Mosquito Part 1 •  Mosquito FB.IV, NS838/UP-J “Wag’s War Wagon” of No.605 ‘County of Warwick’ Squadron (RAF) flown by F/Lt A.D. Warner and F/O E.T. Orringe, March 1944. •  Mosquito FB.IV, HJ808/UP-O of No.605 ‘County of Warwick’ Squadron (RAF) flown by S/Ldr D.H. Blomeley DFC and F/O R. Birrell DFC, November 1943. •  Mosquito NF.XXX NT325/HU-N of No. 406 ‘Lynx’ Squadron (RCAF), flown by S/Ldr Donald MacFadyen, DSO & DFC, November 1944. •  Mosquito NF.II, DZ230/YP-A piloted by Wing Commander P.G. Wykeham-Barnes, Commanding Officer of No.23 Squadron (RAF), December 1942. •  Mosquito FB.VI, NT115/TH-J of No.418 ‘City of Edmonton’ Squadron (RCAF), crewed by F/O S. Seid DFC and F/O D.N. McIntosh DFC, October 1944. •  Mosquito NF.XXX NT242/RS-F “Fairynuff” of No.157 Squadron (RAF), possibly flown by W/G J.G. Benson DSO & DFC and L. Brandon DSO & DFC, January 1945.

CONCLUSION Our thanks to Print Scale for the review samples. The full range and worldwide dealers can be seen at printscale. com.ua.

Caracal Models 1/48 Caracal Models Air National Guard F-106 Part 2 Decal Review (CD48061) The decal set includes six marking options. But while there are enough serials for all six aircraft and enough small stencils for a couple, it only has one set of insignias, one set of large USAF stencils, and one set of each of the unique unit markings. You get markings for the 3 ANG units that cover both the F-106A and F-106B versions that served in each. The markings cover: •  F-106A 58-0772, 171st FIS, Michigan ANG, 1976 •  F-106B 59-0150, 171st FIS, Michigan ANG, 1976 •  F-106A 59-0027, 119th FIS, New Jersey ANG, 1983 •  F-106B 57-2514, 119th FIS, New Jersey ANG, 1984 •  F-106A 58-0782, 194th FIS, California ANG, 1980 •  F-106B 57-2535, 194th FIS, California ANG, 1982 All of these colorful options are well researched, matching the reference materials I had in my stash. Placement guides are very well illustrated and colorfully printed with 2 large profile views showing all of the stencil placement, and then 5 smaller side views covering the placement of unit specific markings. Finally, there’s a small top and bottom view showing insignia and USAF stencil placement. The decal printing is done by Cartograf and is to their usual high standard. The reds and yellows appear to be spot on and all of the decals are in register. Caracal gave us a nice touch by adding the small stencil sheet as these are very well done. Carrier film is minimal and is very glossy which should help make it disappear when the decals are applied over a gloss coat. The decals look to be the right thickness and the colors look like they will be nice and opaque. I’ve got Trumpeter’s F-106A in work now so we’ll see how they perform with various setting solutions and how they settle down to the model surface. Caracal has produced a very nice set of decals covering three colorful ANG units. While I’m still partial to active service squadron markings, this set is a welcome addition and is a marked improvement over the kit-supplied decals. I’m looking forward to adding some big bear markings to the sides of my “Six” in the near future.

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JANUARY 2016

Authentic Decals Both sheets come with full colour instructions with number keys printed on the decals and the instructions to ensure everything goes in the right place.

1/72 SCALE AD72-70 Soviet Lavochkin La-7 •  La-7 of Guards Major A.V. Alelyukhin, 9 Guards Fighter Regiment 1945. •  La-7 of Guards Major Amet Khan Sultan, 9 Guards Fighter Regiment, East Prussia 1945. •  La-7 of Major V.I. Kovalev, 482 Fighter Regiment, Poland, late1944-early 1945. •  La-7 “Railroad workers of Gerogievsk”, 2 Guards fighter regiment, West Ukraine, late 1944. •  La-7 of Sr Lt M.M. Zelyonkin, 156 Fighter Regiment, Spring 1956. •  La-7 “Shilka river gold miner”, 2 Guards Fighter Regiment, West Ukraine, late 1944. •  La-7 probably of 813 Fighter Regiment, Winter 1944-45. •  La-7 of Guards Colonel V.I. Stalin, CO of 3 Guards Fighter Division, Germany, 1945. •  La-7 of Guards Capt P.M. Boykov, 113 Guards Fighter Regiment, Czechoslovakia, Spring 1945. •  La-7 Three-cannon of Major A.K. Sannikov, 790 Fighter Regiment, Belarus late 1945.

AD72-71 Su-24MR Fencer E Ukranian Shark Scouts •  Su-24MR, Ukranian AF, Starokonstantinov AB, 2013. •  Su-24MR (Fencer E) Ukraine Air Force, Bouyalkyk AB, 2001. •  Su-24MR, Ukranian AF, Starokonstantinov AB, 2013. •  Su-24MR, Ukranian AF, Starokonstantinov AB, 2013. •  Su-24MR (Fencer E) Ukraine Air Force, Starokonstantinov AB, 2004.

CONCLUSION Our thanks to Authentic Decals for the review sample which in the UK can be purchased from both branches of Hannants, and the full range and worldwide stockists can be found on their site www. olimpmodelsgroup.com.

Lima November This month from Lima November we have two new sheets launched at Telford. To start in 1/144 we have a sheet that supplies the markings for three of the 5 Airbus A320s used by Danish Air Transport. Two of these are quite Plain Janes, predominantly white with a red nose, with the only other colours coming from the green, yellow, blue and red company badge on the tail and jet pods. But the third option makes up for this as the company colours cover the fin engine pods and inner wing.

Moving up to 1/72 scale we have markings for two Canadair CRJ’s from Cimbir of Denmark, one in the company’s house scheme and the second for an example in the more familiar to many Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) markings.

1/144 SCALE

JBR Models The latest sheets from JBR start by returning to familiar ground with a sheet for Czech MiG-21s which complements their masterwork reviewed last month for the MiG-21MFN. This time we cover the Czech aerobatic Team “Delta F” with its attractive red, white and blue markings. Three examples are supplied, the first is a regular team aircraft and has the markings applied over the standard brown and green camouflage, while the second team aircraft is finished in overall grey. The third MiG-21 was a back-up and training machine in the Grey scheme and was upgraded to MFN NATO standard before being retired to the Czech Air Force Museum still carrying its team markings. Moving down to 1/144 scale we have an amazing set for no less than nine F-18 Legacy Hornets from VMFA (AW)-242, all finished in camouflage greys with most carrying colourful trim. Enough national markings and basic markings are supplied so you can produce every aircraft on the decal sheet.

1/72 SCALE JBR72-002 MiG-21Delta Fishbeds •  MiG-21MF, 2205, Early 1990s •  MiG-21 MF, 2410, Early 1990s •  MiG-21MF, 7709, 1992

LN144-571 Danish Air Transport Airbus A320’s

1/144 SCALE

•  1. Airbus A320, OY-JRX •  2. Airbus A320, OY-LHD •  3. Airbus A320, OY-RUP

JBR22-026 F/A-18s of the Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 Bats

1/72 SCALE LN72-526 Cimber & SAD Canadair CRJ’s •  Canadair CRJ, OY-MBJ, SAS Markings •  Canadair CRJ, OY-RJA, Cimber Lima November decals are stocked by Hannants, Aviation Megastore and Airliner World in Europe and AHS for those living in North America. They are also available direct from the manufacturer Lima November Decals C/O Ruben Husberg, SNØDEVEGEN 4A, 4056 Tananger, Norway E-Mail ruben.husberg@ online.no Payment can be made by PayPal, cash or bank transfer.

•  F/A-18D Bu No 164651 (Lot 14) DT-00, May 2010 •  F/A-18D Bu No 164652 (Lot 14) DT-101, 2004 •  F/A-18D Bu No 164688 (Lot 14) DT-14, 2004 •  F/A-18D Bu No 164945 (Lot 17) DT-07, September 2012 •  F/A-18D Bu No 165410 (Lot 20) DT-01, 2003 •  F/A-18D Bu No 165686 (Lot 21) DT-01, 2011-2012 •  F/A-18D ATARS Bu No 165531 (Lot-21) DT-03, 2011 •  F/A-18C Bu No 164906 (Lot 16) DT-13, 2012 •  F/A-18D Bu No 164906 (Lot 16) WA-13 2013

CONCLUSION Though I liked the MiG sheet, the F-18 sheet is truly outstanding and offers very good value for money. Our thanks Jiri Brozek for supplying the review samples, and the full JBR decal range can be seen at www.jbrdecals.com with selected items available from Hannants, and they can also be followed on Facebook.

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DECALS

Arctic Decals

Condor Decal

At Telford Arctic Decals supplied us with their two latest sheets for two 1/72 scale Finnish airliners. We start with the Douglas DC-3 of Finnish Air Lines between 1947 and 1955. Most of these carried a standard natural metal scheme with blue trim but one example carried its former USAAF camouflage with a blue and white rudder and NMF cowlings to add some interest. Moving on to the 1980s we have the markings for the three Fokker F-27s operated by Finnair with a white fuselage and grey undersides, with blue trim and blue and white propeller blades, designed for the Airfix kit. A nice touch is that both sheets come with a set of masks for the windows, and on the Dakota sheet the remains of the US national insignia.

The latest sheet from Condor covers the Argentine Deltas, the Mirage III, Dagger, Finger and Mirage 5, in a selection of camouflage schemes with low viz black markings, and enough stencils are supplied for three aircraft. The instructions use black and white grey-scale to illustrate the colour schemes which does mean you have to pay attention as they are a bit harder to follow than the more normal full colour instructions.

Brigada Aerea – Rio Gallegos 1988. •  Mirage 5PA Mara C-630 Escuadron X – X Brigada Aerea – Rio Gallegos 1988.

1/72 SCALE

1/48 SCALE

COD-72049 Argentine Deltas in Low Viz

COD-48049 Argentine Deltas in Low Viz

•  Mirage IIIDA 1-002 Pegasus exercise 2006. •  Dagger T C-439 II Brigada - Resistencia September 2010. •  Finger IIIB C-412 Escuadron I – V1 Brigada Aerea – Tandil 2009. •  Finger IIIB C-415 Escuadron I – VI Brigada Aerea – Tandil 2009. •  Mirage 5PA Mara C-603 Escuadron I – VI Brigada Aerea – Tandil 2005. •  Mirage 5PA Mara C-630 Escaudron X – X

Same as listed above

1/72 SCALE

ARC-72- 012B Douglas DC-3 used by Aero Oy, Finnair 194755 •  1. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCA, Sotka •  2. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCB, Kuikka •  3. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCC, Tiira •  4. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCD, Lokki •  5. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCE, Haahka •  6. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCF, Kyytipoika •  7. Douglas DC-3, OH-LCG Perhonen

ARC-72-72-056 Finnair Fokker F-27 Friendship •  Fokker F-27-200, OH-LKA, 1980-1988 •  Fokker F-27-200, OH-LKB, 1980-1986 •  Fokker F-27-200, OH-LKC, 1982-1988

CONCLUSION A nice selection of markings for two aircraft that would look good posed together, though it will be far easier to do good job with a state-of-the-art DC-3 kit than the vintage Airfix F-27, though these high quality decals will help. Our thanks to Arctic Decals for supplying the review samples.

CONCLUSION A very nice set of sheets which will make an interesting scheme on these now classic aircraft. Have a look at the company’s website to see the full range at www. condordecal.com.ar

Furball Aero Design Decal Our friends at Furball have the latest batch of new items available. Included is a reprint of the sold out “Lo-Vis Devil Dog Scooters” that included A-4M and OA-4M Skyhawks of the USMC. For those who have enjoyed the appearance of the Revell B-1 bomber, there are several new sets for the “Bone.” 1/72 modellers will also be pleased to discover a second Crusader sheet, covering some USN F-8 “MiG Killers” from Furball’s 1/48 sheet. Of note is the start of a new series of decals for cockpit details. This is not your old fashioned “instrument decals” from kits of old, but perfectly matched and printed to conform over current kit raised detail to give some beautiful results! All decals are printed by Cartograph, and are available through your favourite retailer or direct from Furball Aero Design’s website. Be sure to check their Facebook page as well for the latest news and updates! •  48-010 1/48 Lo-Viz Devil Dog Scooters (Reprint) •  48-043 1/48 B-1B Canopy Seals •  48-044 1/48 F-8 Crusader Stencils & Data

•  48-045 1/48 Air Wing All-Stars: Phantoms Part 3 •  48-046 1/48 F-4 USN Walkways •  48-047 1/48 F-4B/N J/S Cockpit Detail Set •  72-002 1/72 MiG Masters: F-8 Crusaders of the Vietnam War •  FMS-019 1/48 B-1B Vinyl mask Set for the Revell Kit •  FMS-020 1/48 A-4E/F Vinyl mask Set for the Hasegawa Kit •  FMS-021 1/48 A-7D/E Vinyl mask Set for the Hasegawa Kit http://www.furballaero-design. com/

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580 MODELLERS

580 Modellers

ScaleModelWorld, Telford International Centre, 7th and 8th November 2015

BIGGER AND BETTER

M

ore displays, more traders and more everything than in previous years. ScaleModelWorld was undoubtedly the best ever and it must be said that IPMS-UK made some great changes to what went where this year and could be said to be now settling nicely into the recently expanded venue. As the ‘Alternative Top Ten’ was so well received last year, and it makes a nice change from yet another set of images of the class and show winners, worthy as they are, here it is again with some categories continuing from last year and some new, just to keep you on your toes!

THE BARGAIN: Won easily by your erstwhile

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SHORTEST JOURNEY: The flip of last year! Prize for shortest journey must go to IPMS Telford who are not even ‘up the road’ as ScaleModelWorld is in their home town; it must be great to have the biggest model show in the world on your doorstep every year. As they are also tied to the Shropshire Model Club and have a strong affiliation with the World Helicopter SIG they were all sited together and occupied a vestibule of tables. There was much to admire, mostly displayed to the theme of ‘High Viz’, with this Antarctic Hercules really taking your attention and thoughtfully provided with a backdrop to facilitate a ‘total’ photo.

columnist and unwittingly too! So how much did I pay for this little lot? Based on retail prices the total value comes to around £28. Towards the end of the show I finally managed some serious browsing time and caught site of this Revell 1/72 Gannet AS1/4 on a traders stall. Having always fancied one I couldn’t resist for the bargain price of £5. It was only when I got back to the table and opened the box up at the behest of the crew did I realise what else was inside! Now admittedly buying a ‘previously owned’ kit does have its perils but quite often too it can have its upsides too, as in this case.

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BEST TRADER: A difficult one again this, as to be honest competition is pretty fierce amongst the traders throughout the weekend. Consequently, once again it was the subject of much debate behind the 580 stand for most of Saturday and some of Sunday. But in the end we all knew it had to be ‘Antics Andy’ again because as last year this is the trader we purchased most from (nearly £1,000 worth by our reckoning!) as he always has the newest releases at the lowest prices – he even had some new releases that other traders haven’t even got yet and even the importer at the show was advertising as ‘due for release’. Consequently we bought a ‘job lot’ of the new Italeri 1/32 Mirage early on the Saturday and went back for more on Sunday. ( I think the SAM Stand was robbed! Ed)

BEST NEW RELEASE: The

SUPERMODELS: Not something you actually see and a most unusual site but a delight never-theless. Having painted her nails, Rebecca Harris, responsible for advertising sales for SAMi and its stable mates group of magazines, paints a rather ancient Airfix Sopwith Camel to match (!). Meanwhile the delightful Ruby, who is certainly not publicity shy, and I am sure will be famous one day, ‘lights up’ for the camera and prepares to take charge of the Camel for its first flight.

irrepressible Mel Bromley of S&M Models (did he really choose that name knowingly!?!) has expanded again. Having started out producing decals, and more recently resin kits of esoteric British subjects, he released his first proper (the Viscount doesn’t count!) injection moulded kit at ScaleModelWorld in the form of a 1/72 scale Hunting (piston) Provost in no less than three different boxings. And absolutely beautiful it is too with all the parts needed (including bombs and rockets) for any version, with the foreign service release having a lovely decal sheet full of unusual markings. Follow-ups in the same and larger scale are promised.

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MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT: Surprisingly this was just as easy this year as it was last year. RP Toolz are a Hungarian company making many quality tools for the modeller but most recently they have released a series of punch and die sets with a difference. These sets are not designed to punch holes in plastic but to produce domed rivets, hexagonal nuts, etc, of all shapes and sizes from plastic, or brass, sheet, which has required some very clever and beautiful engineering. They appear to be particularly invaluable to the military modeller in particular and this was evidently so as some of the sets had sold out by Sunday.

7 BEST DISPLAY: Now this is a bit of the ordinary and truly worthy of recognition.

It is the Battlestar Galactica ‘Rag Tag’ fleet, scratch built by a single modeller, Phil Cocking. He didn’t have any plans or diagrams to work from and so had to construct all the models from scratch by looking at pictures and scenes from the 1978 film. Even more incredible is that most of them have some form of lighting and they are all poised on tripods to give the appearance of the fleet in transit and facilitate filming . This was an absolutely remarkable display; efforts like this deserve more recognition.

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BEST MOMENT: Yes, it’s the two minute silence again. In quite a short time this has become a firm and established part of the tradition of ScaleModelWorld and it gripped the whole of the 580 Crew once again; we had several new members with us this year and they were totally onboard with what we do, which is to assemble behind the stand in the ten minutes or so before 1100 hrs and subsequently show solidarity for all those who have lost their lives preserving our freedom by standing united. This year the 580 tribute was in recognition of ‘the few’ who fought in the Battle of Britain, this year being the 75th Anniversary.

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FAVOURITE MODEL NOT IN THE COMPETITION: It’s always so difficult to chose as there are over (has anyone actually ever counted how many models are on display at a ScaleModelWorld!), well so very many to choose from. However, and probably because a good one really tends to stand out, it was actually a diorama again this year, which this year was on the IPMS Luftwaffe SIG display and depicts a variety of World War II aircraft under maintenance in a hangar. The lighting and the clutter in the front of the hangar ‘in the sunlight’ made for a very atmospheric scene. WATCH THE BIRDIE:

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Isn’t it surprising what’s on your doorstep? Once again we chaperoned Greg Drawbaugh of DRAWDecal around the UK. Recently Greg has been diversifying his interests and started photographing birds (don’t go there!) and prior to his trip over he did some research on the web and discovered there was a world renowned bird reserve but ten minutes drive from the Cooper-Smith residence. I must say it was a most enjoyable afternoon and Greg was very impressed by how close up to the birds we could get courtesy of the hides, Which is something Greg had never seen before. And I know what you are thinking but yes this is a real live Bullfinch photographed in the wild.

To cap it all the 580 also had its best ever year at the ‘Nationals’ with the most ever displaying on the stand at 18 and the most success we have ever had in the competition (and with a 100% strike rate too) with three silvers, including in the ‘Branch Champion’ category. The column next month will be given over to IPMS North Somerset, who not only took the Jesse Wright Trophy for best club display (yes again) but were the worthy winners of the second inaugural “SAMI Show Award”, which was presented at the Branches

and SIGs meeting on the Sunday afternoon. Once again, courtesy of our host publication, the winners acquired an extremely large box of books, which appeared to contain virtually every SAM Publications tome. This is certainly something worth winning so I strongly suggest you get your applications in for next year! Oh, and for those who want to know, the VC-10 K2 has now been installed at Cosford and we spent a rather wet Friday afternoon photographing it ‘up close’!

MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS... MODEL SHOW NEWS...

SHOW REPORT

Model Show News Compiled by Geoff Cooper-Smith of 580 Modellers

JANUARY 17th (Sunday) BOLTON IPMS ANNUAL MODEL SHOW

The first of the year as usual, at St Joseph’s RC High School, Chorley New Road, Horwich, BL6 6HW. Admission is £4 per adult, £3 per OAP, £2 child (under 16), £10 family (2 adults plus 2 children). Includes model making demonstrations, refreshments, disabled access and free parking. There is no formal model competition as all models on display are judged including the dedicated ‘themed’ table, which is ‘Not Quite Right’. For more details go to: www.ipmsbolton.co.uk/the-bolton-model-show

15th to 17th (Friday to Sunday) THE LONDON MODEL ENGINEERING EXHIBITION

Held in the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way, Wood Green, London, N22 7AY. Doors open at 10am and the show closes at 5pm (4.30pm Sunday). Admission is £9.50 per adult (advance) or £11 on the day, £8.50 per senior citizen/student (advance) or £10 on the day, £3 per child (5 to 14 years, advance), £4 on the day. The show is readily accessible by car, bus underground and rail with shuttle buses on a constant loop from Wood Green and Alexandra Park stations. Although it is principally showcasing Engineering in Miniature there is model marking of all sorts to attract and interest. For more details go to: www.londonmodelengineering.co.uk

FEBRUARY 06th (Saturday) NORTH SURREY MILITARY MODELLING GROUP ANNUAL CLUB OPEN DAY AND OPEN COMPETITION

At Carshalton Beeches Baptist Church, Banstead Road, Carshalton, SM5 3NL. The doors open at 10am and the show closes at 4pm. For more details go to: www.nsmmg.org.uk

07th (Sunday) MODEL MARKET 3

At Hanslope Village Hall, Newport Road, Hanslope, Buckinghamshire, MK19 7NZ. Doors open at 10am, and the show closes at 4pm. Plenty of free parking, disabled access and refreshments available throughout the day from the ‘K-9 Cafe’. This is primarily a traders show, so you can buy the things you didn’t get for Christmas, but local clubs will be putting on a display. For more details go to: www.hamex.co.uk

19th to 21st (Friday to Sunday) BRIGHTON MODELWORLD

At the Brighton Centre, Kings Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2GR. Doors open at 10am and the show closes at 5pm each day. Admission is £10.60 adult, £6.15 child, £8.35 senior and are available in advance from various on-line ticket agencies. There is plenty of nearby parking and the main railway station is ten minutes walk away. For more details go to: www.brightonmodelworld.com

21st (Sunday) HUDDERSFIELD SCALE MODEL SHOW

Hosted by IPMS Wakefield and District at the Huddersfield Leisure Centre, Spring Grove Street, Huddersfield, HD1 4BP (*note the new venue). Doors open at 10am, and the show closes at 4pm. Admission is £4, or £2 for concessions. Parking, open competition and refreshments. For more details go to: www.huddersfieldmodelshow.co.uk

SAMI ATTENDING

27th (Saturday) ON TRACK

At Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 2DZ. Doors open at 10am, and the show closes at 5pm. Admission is £5 with accompanied children under 16 free. Plenty of nearby car parking, Folkestone Central railway station is a five-minute walk away. Competitions, refreshments, ‘make and take’, demonstrations and wargaming. For more details go to: www.ontrackshow.co.uk

28th (Sunday) UNIVERSAL MODEL SHOW

Hosted by South Cheshire Military Modelling Club at the Crewe Heritage Centre, Vernon Way, Crewe, CW1 2DB (*note the new venue). Doors open at 10am, and the show closes at 5pm. Admission is £3.50, £1.50 for children up to 16 and senior citizens, free for children under 5. There will be hot breakfasts and lunches available from the canteen, disabled access, military vehicles on display, war gaming, a miniature railway and roaming Star Wars characters as well as an open competition. For more details go to: www.scmmc.co.uk/#!militaire/cxpe

28th (Sunday) HOBBY AND MODEL SHOW

Hosted by North Devon Model Society at Fremington Parish Hall, Barnstaple, Devon, EX31 3BG. Doors open at 10am, and the show closes at 4pm. ‘Make and Take’, airbrushing demonstrations, radio controlled trucks and good food and drink. For more details go to: www.northdevonmodelsociety.co.uk/extras/club-show-2016

If you would like your event listed then please contact Geoff Cooper-Smith on 07841 417680 or at [email protected] Full details of all coming shows and photo reports on those attended can be obtained by visiting www.580Modellers.co.uk WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2016 31

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REVIEWS

Reviews STRIKE EAGLE Revell’s 1/144th McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle (with bombs) by Huw Morgan

THE KIT Revell’s 1/144 scale F-15E Strike Eagle has been around for a number of years now, previously issued as an aircraft from the 2005 Tiger Meet of the Americas, coming without much of the war materials you’d expect on an operational ship. This first re-issue brings the original closer to reality with an additional weapons sprue holding two GBU-10 Laser Guided Bombs, two GBU-15 TV/IR glide bombs and the LANTIRN navigation and targeting pods, although even with the two 600-gal tanks and Sparrows and Sidewinders carried over from the original kit, it’s still a rather meagre load. As with all of Revell’s new-mould 1/144 models, the plastic is very nice indeed, with fine detail and outstanding fit. Revell have captured the look of the aircraft particularly well and the treatment of the wing tip camber is

especially good. This is a very easy kit to build straight out of the box, and shows just what can be done in the scale. There are 73 plastic parts, including the two-piece canopy, and colour call-outs are the usual Revell references so some digging around will be needed. The instructions are Revell’s typical exploded views, although there are a few small errors, which we’ll see later. Regrettably, Revell have again indulged their tendency to offer one-off schemes, with only one marking option included in the box: - for a 335 Fighter Squadron aircraft (89-0487) celebrating “10,000 (flying ?) hours” at Bagram, Afghanistan, in January 2013. As with most F-15Es this is overall FS.36118 grey and carries CAG markings. In fairness to Revell, F-15E schemes are limited in their range, but a bog-standard option would have been nice. I actually had some doubts about the kit decals, which although bright and

The kit parts for the cockpit compared to those from the Retrokit resin set. Note the finesse of the Retrokit seats

F-15E STRIKE EAGLE

KIT INFO

T

he F-15E was a development of the 2-seater B/D variants, driven primarily by McDonnell Douglas’s desire to expand the aircraft’s appeal in the ground-attack role in direct competition with the F-16XL. Significant restressing and strengthening of the airframe, and lighter construction techniques for the engine bays meant that load factor could be increased to +/- 9g (compared to +/- 7g) and gross take-off weight was increased from 68,000lb (30.8Te) to 81,000lb (36.74Te), of which 24,500 lb (11.1Te) could be disposable ordnance. Externally, the biggest difference came from the fitting of Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFT) to the sides of the intakes and all-weather strike accuracy was ensured by the LANTIRN laser illumination/ targeting system.

MANUFACTURER Revell SCALE 1/144 PRODUCT CODE 03972 PANEL LINES Recessed 73 plastic parts, NO OF PARTS including 2-piece canopy. TYPE Injectionmoulded Plastic Reissue with STATUS additional weapons DECAL OPTIONS 1

Both intakes fitted. You can see here the very fine engraved detail on the fuselage and wing upper surface.

The additional sprue for the weapons and the LANTIRN pods

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JANUARY 2016 sharp, looked to have been printed out of register with the decal backing patches; more of this later. I wanted to pose the model with the canopy opened for a change, so decided to add Retrokit’s replacement resin cockpit and seats which are easy to use and exceptional value.

It’s a bit busy underneath with two sets of missiles, tanks and the four bombs. Not sure about this for a real load though, weapon separation might be an issue!

The result of my other excursion into scratch building, - the nozzle actuator rods added using toothbrush bristles

CONSTRUCTION Construction holds no particular pitfalls, starting with the cockpit tub and seats. The kit versions are pretty good, and would respond well to careful painting and the use of the kit decals for the panels and consoles, perhaps with fine harnesses from tape.... and for a closed-canopy build this would be more than adequate. Retrokit’s resin replacements add another level of detail however, with the seats being particularly nice. Fitting couldn’t be simpler since the Retrokit parts are straightforward drop-in replacements for the originals, only minor carving out of the forward cockpit coaming being needed for clearance, although care is needed to make sure the rather thick canopy still fits. The one-piece upper and lower wing/fuselage parts are next, and here’s the first instructional hiccup; - there’s no mention that the flashedover holes in the lower intake trunking and centre fuselage (part #9) need to be opened up for the LANTIRN pods and centreline rack. Needless to say, I know this because I didn’t! With the forward fuselage

complete, and the bulk of the rear fuselage glued up, it’s time to attach the intakes, before fitting the conformal tanks and the associated bomb racks. All F-15s have a feature which allows the mouth of the intakes to droop downwards during climb, or during flight at high angle-of-attack, and parked aircraft are frequently seen in this mode. As always, wanting something different, I decided to droop my intakes (!!!) by the simple expedient of adding a triangle of plastic card to the rear of the kit parts, representing the sliding covers in the real aircraft. Fitting the individual tangential and long weapon racks is relatively straightforward although with such small parts, clean-up needs to be undertaken with care. Part numbers for the long racks are reversed in the instructions, but it’s obvious when you come to fit them. I built the underwing pylons with the launcher rails for the Sidewinder (inboard) and Sparrow

(outboard) although you could use four of the very nice Sidewinders. I fitted the pylons to the wings without weapons, although with hindsight, it would have been better to build the pylon/missile/ fuel tank assemblies and fit them later. I left the undercarriage and doors off until after painting. The F-15’s engine nozzles were each originally fitted with 17 Titanium “turkey feather” covers over the nozzle petal actuators, but in practice these were soon discarded to ease maintenance (and they cost over $1,000 each!) with no discernible performance penalty. The kit’s nozzles represent the uncovered petals but are lacking the very characteristic actuator rods. In a fit of bonkers enthusiasm I decided to make my own, - from toothbrush bristles. Sprayed gunmetal and Alclad Jet Exhaust, they don’t look too bad.

“ I really enjoyed this - it was quick and painless to build, and looks every inch an Eagle ”

PAINTING AND DECALS F-15Es don’t really set the world on fire in terms of variety, so unless you’re going for the Israeli Ra’am then overall FS.36118 grey is all there is. Having fitted the canopy temporarily and masked it, and primed with Halfords grey, I sprayed the engine sections Alclad Pale Burnt Metal and the rest of the airframe GSI-Creos H305. Despite my concerns over the decals, I decided to give them a go, and generally they performed reasonably well, staying in one piece where I thought they’d disintegrate. They were rather thick, however, with a very matt backing film, the effect of which was exacerbated by the out-of-register printing. My only solution was to trim the decals as close to the print as possible, and to cut the larger pieces into sections to minimise the film infill. Fortunately, a finish coat of Microscale matt blended the whole lot together, and although with very close inspection the decals are obvious, the overall effect is acceptable. Final moves were to fit the undercarriage and pose the canopy open with a little white glue, and balanced on a red-painted maintenance brace.

CONCLUSION

OK, it might only be a re-release with a new sprue to tart it up, but I really enjoyed this - it was quick and painless to build, and looks every inch an Eagle. The limited operational schemes don’t give much scope for variety but it would be more helpful if Revell included only a few extra decals to represent a standard machine. With some tinkering, it ought to be possible to leave off the CFT and backdate to a B/D. Thanks to Revell GmbH for the review model.

REFERENCES • F-15 Walkaround, Squadron/Signal #28

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REVIEWS

HEINKEL HE 51B-1 HISTORY

T

his aircraft came about as a result of work by the brothers Walter and Siegfried Gunter who worked for the German aircraft manufacturer Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1932. In 1933 they designed a singleseat biplane fighter, the He 51A, which had structural strength but with an elegant outline. It was tested against the new Arado Ar 65 and proved to have much better performance. As a result

nine production aircraft were delivered to the Luftwaffe in 1934 and despite some accidents further aircraft were delivered. By the end of 1935 the He 51B appeared which had improved performance and was capable of carrying a drop tank or bomb on a central carrier. On the 6th August 1936 six He 51B1s were delivered to Spain for use by the Spanish Nationalist Air Force in the Spanish Civil War. Initial operations were successful, with the Heinkels meeting and defeating a number of older biplanes

of the Spanish Republican Air Force. Deliveries continued as the hostilities increased, with two Nationalist squadrons equipped by November, and the Legion Condor forming three squadrons of 12 aircraft each manned by German "volunteers”. The He 51 proved unable to protect the Legion Condors bombers, forcing it to switch to night operations, while also unable to intercept the much faster Tupolev SB bomber. The He 51B-1 was therefore withdrawn from fighter duty and relegated to the ground-attack role, which is the subject of this kit.

KIT INFO

By Don Robson

MANUFACTURER Roden SCALE 1/48 PRODUCT CODE 452 PANEL LINES Recessed 86, PARTS Plastic Clear 2 TYPE Injection moulded STATUS New Tool DECAL OPTIONS 2

THE KIT The kit came in a top opening box and contained five sprues of grey slightly brittle plastic and one of clear parts all wrapped in plastic bags. The wings and fuselage parts were particularly finely engraved with good surface detail. Instructions were in the form of two sheets of folded A4, which included two painting diagrams in monochrome. The instructions would have you assemble various items first to construct the cockpit area. This includes the two cockpit side frames, the pilot’s seat and floor assembly. This is sandwiched inside the two fuselage sides which were first painted and then given a dirty grey wash. The exact position of the cockpit assembly is not apparent but using the back of the seat as a reference point I managed to get it looking correct. The exhausts are separate items

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JANUARY 2016

“ If you are a fan of biplanes and the Spanish Civil War this one is for you ” which fit into cut-outs in the fuselage and the instructions are not exactly clear how they fit into these so a bit of trial and error was needed. The rudder and stabilizers were the next things to be fitted, together with the inner part of the undercarriage legs. The lower parts of the undercarriage are separate items comprising the spats which enclose the wheels in quite a neat arrangement. That just left the upper engine cover, front cowl and cockpit door to be fitted to finish the fuselage.

PAINTING AND DECALING After attaching the lower wing it was time to decide which of the two Legion Condor versions I would complete. The first one was all-over light grey, white rudder and wing tips, in the markings of Oblt. Herwig Knuppel, Commander of 4.J/88 Legion Condor, December 1936. The second one, which I chose, was in light grey and green camouflage on the upper surfaces and light blue lower, and again with white rudder and wing tips. The markings are those used by Lt. Kurt Strumpell, 3. J/88 Legion Condor, February 1938. I now painted the fuselage and wings and gave all surfaces a coating of Klear ready for applying decals. The decals seemed quite thin and flexible during application but once they dried they became rather brittle. It was now time to join the upper wing to the fuselage and lower wing. I made a jig to take the fuselage and wing to hold it all steady.

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Before doing this I drilled holes to take the rigging wires. I attached both cabane struts to the fuselage using the holes in the upper wing as a guide to location. Once these were set overnight I placed the upper wing on them. I then carefully attached the outer struts making sure the wing was straight and at the correct angle. The jig held everything in place whilst the joint cured. There may well be an easier way to do this but at the time it seemed the easiest to me. I prefer to rig my models using EZ Line, which is elastic thread and has a give about it if touched. Unfortunately there is no rigging diagram supplied so it was a case of doing some online research. However, the location points for the rigging are shown as tiny dimples. Because I drilled the rigging holes all the way through the wings I needed to tidy the surface up on completion. Having completed the rigging it just remained to fit the propeller and drop tank and the model was complete.

CONCLUSION

Apart from my concerns over the exhausts and the position of the cockpit assembly I found the kit easy to assemble and I would recommend it for most modellers. If you are a fan of biplanes and the Spanish Civil War this one is for you. I will end by thanking Roden for the opportunity to build this kit.

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REVIEWS

CUBAN MIG-23MF HISTORY

W

ay back in 1961 Dr.Fidel Castro declared Cuba a Marxist state, aligning himself firmly with the Soviet Bloc. Many changes have taken place since but in spite of the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the repudiation of Communism by its former European allies which have deprived Cuba of military protection and having economic subsidies that it formerly enjoyed,

it remained a heavily militarised communist state, with an Air Force which is well equipped and capable of mounting more than just token operations despite a severe lack of funds and training. The Cuban Revolutionary Air Force formed after the triumph of the revolution in 1959 divides the country into three territorial commands known as Air Zones, each containing an Air Brigade, which is made up of a number of Air Regiments and independent squadrons. Among its inventory of

scores of fighter-bombers, transport aircraft, helicopters and trainers, are included 90 MiG-23s. The Western Air Brigade designated “Bay of Pigs” Guard Brigade is believed to include a Tactical Support Regiment with MiG-23RMs based at Guines as well as the interceptor squadrons at San Antonio and Baracoa with MiG-21s and MiG-29s at San Julian. The Central Air Brigade is also believed to contain a Tactical Support Regiment with MiG-23s based at Santa Clara besides other types of interceptor

KIT INFO

By Carmel J Attard MANUFACTURER KP Models SCALE 1/72 PRODUCT CODE KPM 005 PANEL LINES Recessed TYPE New Tool DECAL OPTIONS 3

aircraft such as MiG-21s.The Eastern Air Brigade also has MiG-23s in its contingent based at Holguin. So each of the three zones contains MiG-23s. The new scale model issued by Kovozavody Prostejov (KP) is that of a MiG-23MF of the Western Air Zone 2nd Brigade of Guards “Bay of Pigs” 223rd fighter squadron circa 1990 based at Guines. Developed from the MiG-23S (Flogger A) the MiG-23M (Flogger B) first flew in June 1972 and was the first truly mass produced version of the MiG-23. About 4,300 aircraft of the single-seat version were built in the Moscow plant at Znamya Truda (meaning Banner of Labour), and more than 750 aircraft of the two-seat trainer version were built at Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association Joint Stock Company.

THE KIT This is another welcome model from KP in the form of MiG-23FM Flogger B which can be made up as a MiG-23M of the USSR Air Force 1988, a MiG-23MF of the Indian Air Force 1989, or a MiG23MF of the Air Force of Cuba 1990. All three MiGs have attractive camouflage

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JANUARY 2016

schemes. The Russian one is in 3-tone camouflage of dark green, medium green and tan with grey underside; The Indian MiG is in grey overall with an orange rear fuselage and tail unit. The third option is a Cuban MiG having dark green and blue grey disruptive camouflage on all upper surfaces and grey undersurfaces. The model is broken down in no fewer than 100 parts moulded in medium grey plastic. These come in two runners sealed in polythene bags and a runner of seven clear parts in a separate bag. There are 25 parts and one clear part that are not required for the MF version and from the look of the tail fin configuration these will suit a MiG-23ML Flogger K and G version of the Soviet Air Force or East German Air Force, possibly future issues by KP. One downside is that there are only two underwing pylons supplied and no stores or armament is provided. All the kit parts have beautifully engraved panel lines of a fine nature, not seen on earlier MiG-23 issues. The components are well moulded and free from flash. The wing and tail trailing edges are suitably thin and so are the undercarriage doors which contain detail on the inside. There is one problem with the wing assembly, as each wing has to be assembled separately, with no provision for the swing-wing gadget to put the wings at the correct identical angle. However it is not a big deal using a template made from a piece of cardboard to set both wings at an equal desired angle of sweep. The first 6 stages of the instructions deal with the cockpit assembly and painting of the cockpit office and rear engine parts. The instructions also contain an interesting feature displaying the different cockpit and instrument colours between a choice

“ The completed Cuban MiG-23 MF made into a pleasing model ” of light grey or turquoise. I made my research and found that the grey one suits the Indian version while the turquoise will be for the Russian and Cuban MiGs. There is engraved and raised detail on the ejection seat, rear bulkhead, instrument panel and side console which makes them easy to paint, and the instructions also show areas of the cockpit interior in colour which simplifies matters, particularly in stages 5 and 6 when it comes to painting the interior. The forward fuselage sections are split vertically while the rear ones are split horizontally. Fitting the main parts together can be tricky as there are no guide pins. To simplify matters I added side tabs on the inside faces at the joining edge, made from scrap plastic. This helped to self-locate and ensure the correct mating of parts, most particularly with the top and bottom

rear fuselage sections, which are parts 1 and 42, see scrap view. Accordingly very little filler was needed at the joint area, which is in a staggered form. The jet pipe assembly needed some care, as the parts are very thin, limiting the area for placing glue. This was allowed to set firmly once it was assembled and was then inserted inside the rear of fuselage. There are 4 air brakes on the rear fuselage. These can be assembled closed or deployed and there is inside detail that remains visible if assembled deployed. The assembly itself continued to be smooth, particularly around the air intakes and when adding other detail parts around the fuselage gun pack. The main undercarriage parts are well produced making a strong gear with all its detail provided. Here a slight correction needs to be made. There is a rectangular piece, one on each gear which is part 31, which should fit to the lower part of the gear leg and not above as indicated in the instructions. The attached sketch will show the correct place to fit it. Finally it is recommended to leave the two-underwing pylons for the final stage to add to the wings, as they are very prone to dislodge during handling of the kit throughout assembly. One should also note that the part of the gear door that fits to the wheel should be set and fitted at an inclined angle to the ground, and it is best to refer to a photo of a MiG-23 looking from the side since there is no indication of this detail on the side

views on the instructions. A little filler was also required around the leading edge and wing root area where a wedge shaped part fits on each side. One other item is to add two antennas/aerials that are located around the nose of all MiG-23s. These are shown on the inside 4-view drawings but are left out in the box art that shows the Cuban MiG in flight. I made the antennas by fitting a short pin to a small scrap piece of plastic and glued one onto the upper and another to the lower nose area, off the centre line.

COLOUR AND MARKINGS The model was airbrushed in the blue-grey and green upper camouflage using PRU blue and Swedish green Compucolor range. Lower surfaces were grey from the Model Master range. The decals were of top quality complete with all stencil items making the model look very realistic. The model was finally given a coat of Alclad 2 lacquer, Klear Kote Light Sheen.

CONCLUSION

With a good degree of detail, good quality of decals and interesting camouflage the completed Cuban MiG-23 MF made into a pleasing model. My thanks to KP Models for supplying the review kit.

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REVIEWS

KIT INFO

SIEBEL SI 204D “TALL FINS” & SNCAN NC.701 “MARTINET” MANUFACTURER Kovozavody Prostejov Models SCALE 1/72 0053 PRODUCT CODE KPM KPM 0054 PANEL LINES Recessed

SIEBEL SI 204D & SNCAN NC.701 By Andy Brook

I

gnore the completely different manufacturers; this is a model of an aircraft with an interesting history. The initial design was conceived in Germany by Siebel as a response to a requirement for a small civil transport, and its maiden flight was in 1940. It entered Luftwaffe service in 1942 as a liaison and blind flying trainer. But Siebel’s plant in Germany did not have the capacity, so production was transferred to occupied France and Czechoslovakia, where about 1,200 aircraft were built for the

German war effort. Production continued in both countries after the war. Aero and CKD produced 179 aircraft as the C-3A and C-3B. In France, SNCAN turned out 240 NC.701 transports and NC.702

passenger versions, as the “Martinet”. These aircraft saw service with the Czech, Polish and French armed forces, and achieved wide civilian sales, including to Sweden, where it was operated until 1970.

“ KP has embraced the Si 204

range and reissued RV Aircraft’s mouldings with new decals and clear parts ”

Plastic, NO OF PARTS 95 16 Clear TYPE Injectionmoulded Plastic STATUS Reissue

THE KIT KP has embraced the Si 204 range and reissued RV Aircraft’s mouldings with new decals and clear parts. I received two versions of the same basic kit for review. Other than the decals, there’s no difference. The kit comes in an end-opening box, with a colour depiction of the aircraft on the top and full colour side, lower and upper profiles of the options provided on the back. Instructions are an eight-page A5 booklet, again in full colour with decent exploded diagrams, and a profile of another option on the back page. Paint call-outs are for Humbrol and Agama. Decals are by Aviprint. The parts are neatly moulded in soft grey plastic, with recessed panel lines. And parts are provided for a wider number of variants than the two in my boxes. I had not realised, before I opened the box, that this is a reissue. My initial impression, as I seem to have reviewed a lot of KP kits recently, was that, in comparison, the parts didn’t look as crisp and the joining lugs to the sprues were a little heavy. In particular, KP seemed to have omitted their usual detailed cockpit. So, I was not surprised when research showed that this was not home grown in the KP design office. Mind you, the NC.701 kit claims to be a “new tool model”.

CONSTRUCTION Construction starts with the cockpit and cabin interior. Parts are crude and a vague approximation. Decals are

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JANUARY 2016 KPM0053 • Si 204D, TJ+XJ, Luftwaffe, spring 1945 – RLM 70/71/78 • Si 204D, black 20, Czech Mixed Air Division, summer 1945 – all over cream, with Soviet stars • C-3A, AZ-7, Czech Air Force, 1946, “Khaki” (RLM 02?) over RLM 78 • Si 204D, ex-TJ+XJ, May 1945, with German markings overpainted with RLM 82, Czech roundels and Red Cross insignia

KPM0054 • NC.701, black 6, Polish Air Force – natural metal overall • NC.701, SE-KAM, Swedish state mapping agency – natural metal overall, with black and “orange” high visibility markings • NC.701, No. 147, French Air Force, natural metal overall

“ Overall, 10/10 for interest, initiative, colour schemes and decals ” provided for the two instrument panels and seatbelts are moulded on, but other than that, there is no detail. Parts are provided for the floor in the main cabin. The key point at this point is that the cockpit sub-assembly is too large for the fuselage, so considerable dry fitting and sanding down are needed to ensure that all will join up neatly. Before joining the fuselage halves, the modeller needs to make a decision about what to do with the fuselage glazing. There are four clear plastic parts provided for each side. The instructions show to fit them before joining the fuselage, and from the outside. They don’t fit! I’ll freely admit that I made a complete mess of this aspect of both aircraft. On one, I had to perform keyhole surgery with clear plastic strip through the cockpit. On the other, I had a go at fitting them from the inside first. That was better, but only slightly, as these window parts are too big for the holes. A better bet would be to ignore the provided parts and use whatever glazing method works for you. The fuselage halves “fit where they touch”. There are no joining lugs and there are slight differences in size, so it was case of making the better fit on the top and taking sandpaper to the bottom. Construction then moved on to undercarriage and wings. The undercarriage isn’t too bad and fits as a whole sub-assembly within the lower wing part. Unfortunately, there is no proper guide as to where this should be located. I also think that the angle of the legs does not take into account the wing’s dihedral: they should be vertical, which is not how they end up in the kit. The upper and lower wing halves

are not a great fit either, although it’s good that separate ailerons are provided. As with the tail assemblies, the main wings butt-join to the fuselage. Some sanding is needed to get a good fit, and I recommend using cyanoacrylate for firm joins. Parts are provided for the “tall fin” versions of the Si 204D/C-3, which forms one boxing, and the smaller fins of the SNCAN NC.701. That said, I’m not convinced by that neat distinction, as there are photos of small-finned Czech-built aircraft, so I suggest you check references. If I had thought that the build had been challenging up to this point, worse was to come. The engine fronts and pods share the imprecise sizing of other elements of the kit. Detail is lacking on the engine front, with a pretty basic representation of some cylinders. The pods themselves are in two halves and need some sanding to make them fit. The main problem, though, is the exhausts, four for each engine pod. Once again, the parts are too big for the holes, but that’s not really the main issue. Don’t assume that you should end up with an engine exhaust as you would on, say, a P-51D, proud of the engine casing. The actual exhaust on the Si 204 series’ engines is inside the casing. What you see, and what the kit’s parts are supposed to represent, are slats, which must funnel the exhaust gases out of the pod. They are supposed to be flush with the outside of the pod, and are painted, therefore, the same colour as the airframe, not in some form of exhaust colour. I didn’t get this nuance until I came to make the second model. There’s a choice of propeller blades and spinner for the Czech-built versions

and the SNECMA-engined NC.701. However, the modeller will need to drill out the spinners to accept the blades. Final parts are on top of the fuselage and the large front canopy glazing. KP would have you fit the same two “humps” on top, however it is clear that there was considerable variation between aircraft. I built my C-3A straight from the box, but, as I had decided to build my “Martinet” as an aircraft operated by the Swedish state-mapping agency, I ignored the instructions and went slightly off piste, courtesy of the spares box (also adding a bit underneath for the camera housing). The two main parts for the cockpit glazing fit well and are very clear. Again, in real life there are variations between aircraft. I used thin strips of masking tape to replicate the slightly different glazing on the nose of the Swedish aircraft.

DECALS As indicated above, decal options are many and various, and probably best listed:

There aren’t that many decals, but they are very well printed. And they went on beautifully without any need for anything other than water and a soft cloth.

CONCLUSION

It may not sound like it, but I enjoyed making these two kits. They are not for the novice, and need some perseverance to turn them into reasonable replicas. But if you want this aircraft in your collection, there’s no choice. I doubt that I would make another, but I could have been tempted to open up the rear door and do some scratch building inside the main cabin. The keen modeller could fabricate a photographic suite, blind flying equipment, some cargo or just some seating. Overall, 10/10 for interest, initiative, colour schemes and decals, but only 3/10 for ease of build. And they’re half the price of the RV Aircraft equivalent from Hannants! Thanks to KP for supplying us with the review samples of these kits.

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REVIEWS

BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER TF.X By Martin Rosa

IN THE BOX The kit comes in the now familiar, sturdy red Airfix box, with exciting CGI artwork of a Coastal Command TF.X coming right at you, having delivered its torpedo on an unlucky merchantman. Within, there are 4 bagged sprues of softish grey plastic and a single, separately bagged, clear sprue, with a total between them of 130 pieces.

The instructions are of the recent Airfix ‘house’ style, with very clear 3-D illustrations and colour to show the final positioning of parts. There are also colour 4-views of each decal option, with call-outs for Humbrol paints together with naming of particular shades. It’s nice to see that Terry Higgins, of Aviaeology fame, gets a thank you, together with the USAFM and The Fighter Collection, of Duxford. It appears that Airfix has been doing its homework. . . . The decal sheet, which was perfectly in register and of good colour density, features two options: a torpedo armed Coastal Command TF.X, NE289, PL-J, of 144 Squadron in late 1944, and a rocket armed TF.X, RD367, H, of 27 Squadron in Burma in mid-1944. It is also liberally festooned with stencilling. Alternative pieces are provided, with some not being required for either of the given options. Your spares box will, therefore, be considerably enriched. Included are: • Eight 60lb rockets, plus rails and

underwing racks and 1 torpedo with ‘air tail’ • Alternative ‘blown’ and framed observer’s blisters, with gun for the latter • Tailplanes of the correct canted type for the TF.X, but with a choice of either early or late elevator designs • Windscreen rain clearance venturi box • Upper fuselage DF loops and clear cover for same • Short and long engine air intakes • ‘Normal’ landing light cover and alternative for rocket armament • Trailing edge navigation light covers • Options for extended and retracted undercarriage are provided, together with crew members With all the above provided with this boxing, it appears that most wartime TF.Xs can be modelled without recourse to the aftermarket or scratch building. Conversion to an earlier Mk VI with the canted tailplane should also be very straightforward. However, the ‘thimble’ nose radome, propeller

BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER TF.X

KIT INFO

S

ince Hornby took over Airfix, I had been hoping that a replacement for the careworn 1958 Beaufighter moulding would appear. I was a very happy camper when I saw that one was, indeed, to be released in 2015, and given the quality of recent Airfix releases I had very high expectations. Would it be able to meet them? Well, now that I have the box (well, multiple boxes) in my grasp, I hope it won’t put you off reading the rest of the review if I say it did indeed.

MANUFACTURER Airfix SCALE 1/72 PRODUCT CODE A04019 PANEL LINES Recessed Plastic NO OF PARTS 118 12 clear TYPE New Tool DECAL OPTIONS 2

spinners and extended fin strake of very late wartime TF.Xs are not included. However, a post-war TF.X boxing has now been announced on the Airfix website, which includes these and other options.

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JANUARY 2016 THE BUILD Assembly was, in general, straightforward. However, some rules need following to ensure a tidy result. Dry fitting is much recommended and, as most parts had light mould seams on them, these needed careful removal if the parts were to fit as intended. However, a couple of swipes with a sanding stick, or maybe a run over with a scalpel blade was all that was required. Once any fettling was complete (seconds, rather than minutes), the fit was, in general, exemplary. I used no filler at all on my model; only Tippex was used in a couple of areas. I like a build I can get stuck straight into without endless interior detail painting beforehand and this kit fits the bill nicely. Wing halves can be joined pretty much straight away, remembering of course to first open the holes for the rocket plates if you’re using them. The same goes for the appropriate tailplane and fin subassembly, and the cabin floor and wing spars. As most of the interior details attach to the cabin floor, which can be installed from below, you only need to add the instrument panel (plus decal), cockpit side consoles and tail wheel (with appropriate painting) prior to joining the fuselage halves. The cabin floor with integral spars can then be attached. The interior, although modest in terms of parts count, looked good under the clear transparencies once painted. As my one concession to AMS, however, I did add seat belts for the pilot made from Modelcraft masking tape, and these do show up nicely. However, superdetailers can have a field day here, should they so wish. The pre-assembled

wings can then be added, followed by the fuselage underside. So, main airframe assembly can take place at a good pace, which is always good for maintaining build momentum. The two areas of the build that were slightly more problematic were the cowlings & engine sub-assemblies and the undercarriage support structure: the instructions recommend that the 3-piece cowling walls are built up round the engine pieces. I found that the fit was not the best if you assemble it this way (cue the aforementioned Tippex). In future, I’m going to try fitting the cowling pieces together then, when dry, fit the engine pieces inside them. For the undercarriage support structure, there are two V-shaped support brackets for the main gear legs that fit inside the wheel bays. Only the front leg of the V has a definite placement, and paint had precluded accurate fitment. So, go slowly in this area, check your dry fitting and ensure that paint is removed from the placement positions to get a good fit! Having said all the above, these were not major problems and I thoroughly enjoyed a little exercising of basic modelling skills. Another neat piece of engineering was the propeller sub-assemblies, which include the front of the engine gearbox reduction casing. Although a light touch with the glue is required if the propellers are to spin, these sub-assemblies slot tightly into the engine front without glue and remain removable for safety if the model is to be transported.

PAINTING AND DECALLING As I decided to build the 27 Sqn machine, I gave the completed airframe a thin coat of automotive white primer, and then a couple of brush coats of Revell Aqua white were applied in the vicinity of the theatre ID bands. Once dry, the bands were masked off and the colour scheme was brush painted with the appropriate Xtracrylix shades. Two coats of my diminishing supply of Klear later and I was onto decalling. No problems were found with the decals. They went on well, were strong when repositioned, the colour density was good and they settled down well over the recessed detail using Micro Set and Sol; in short, just about perfect. Use with confidence! I confess I didn’t use all of the stencilling, but if that’s your bag, you’ll be used to manoeuvring tiny pieces of text on airframes and you should have no problems.

After the decals and a further couple of coats of Klear were dry, a watercolour wash was applied, and this was the limit of weathering. The kit was then misted with satin varnish. After this had dried, the main undercarriage, underwing armament, canopy and smaller pieces were attached. Tolerances were tight, so again paint that had accumulated round various recesses had to be removed. Apart from that, I had no issues.

ACCURACY I have compared the major pieces of the airframe to the scale plans included with SAM Publication’s Bristol Beaufighter Modellers Datafile, by Richard Franks, and the kit appears to be a close match. The major dimensions and shapes of the kit look good, although the presence of built-in dihedral on the kit wing makes exact statements impossible about the wing platform and aileron chord. There is also a suspicion in my mind that the nose section is slightly too pointed compared to the plans, but again, parallax makes this difficult to confirm. I noticed a couple of issues with the 4-view colour profile for the 27 Sqn machine in the Airfix instructions. Firstly, the side views show the armed observer’s blister, whereas according to a picture of this actual machine, the ‘blown’ blister was fitted. Secondly, there is some confusion around the colour demarcation on the rear fuselage in front of the fin. On the top and right hand side view this area is solid Dark Green, while on the left hand side view there is an area of Dark Earth here. From pictures of the actual machine, the latter is correct, so I carried this area over appropriately to the rest of the rear fuselage.

CONCLUSION

This is an impressive and bang upto-date replacement for the 1950s era Airfix Beaufighter, exhibiting good detail, excellent fit, and requiring no more than basic modelling skills to complete. Highly recommended to all. WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2016 41

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REVIEWS

ZVEZDA IL-62 By Andy Hazell

This is new territory for me, a state-ofthe-art modern kit is a real departure from my normal “classic plastic” safety zone, where basic mouldings and lack of detail generally don’t challenge my limited abilities too much. This time I am really going to have to “push the envelope” as the standard of this kit just defies imagination. You know things are off to a good start when the kit arrives in a sleeved cardboard carton that offers enough protection to enable this item to be posted to the ends of the earth without fear of damage. The parts are provided on 5 sprues, one of which is clear, and the main fuselage and wing halves come as separate individual parts. The large decal sheet is very clearly printed and offers 5 livery options and a comprehensive set of stencils, in fact I counted 122 separate items in total. Also included is a very substantial two-piece stand if an “in-flight” option is desired by the builder. Now I can say with all honesty that this kit is the finest I have ever seen. The quality of the highly detailed parts is unbelievable, there is no flash present at all and the moulding gates are especially thin.

CONSTRUCTION For once I chose to follow the kit instructions to the letter, it just seemed the most sensible thing to do. A full cockpit interior is included and an option to model the main door open means that some of this can actually be seen if desired. I chose to fix the door in the closed position but I carefully painted up the interior as it will be

seen as there is no decal option for the windscreen. The parts all fit together perfectly as the kit is so well engineered that the tube of filler was obviously going to be redundant on this project. I chose to omit the clear plastic for the cabin windows as I was going to opt for applying these at the end of the build with PVA glue. I chose to add some nose weight, although the kit instructions did not suggest it was in fact required, probably as the aircraft has a tail wheel in addition to the standard tricycle undercarriage. With the fuselage together the wings were quickly added. There were some hairline gaps at the wing roots which were quickly filled with PVA glue. A damp cloth delivered an instant and perfect finish while the PVA was still wet. The engine nacelles included a set of very realistic engine fans which responded well to a black wash to lift the detail. To make things easier I intended to paint the engines, rudder, tailplane, ailerons and flaps separately.

PAINT AND DECALS At this point I chose to paint and decal the main airframe before going any further. I do this so that if the project fails at this critical stage, no time has been wasted on the ancillaries. This approach is no reflection on the quality of whatever kit I happen to be working on, just a recognition of my own continued incompetence! I now carefully masked off the windscreen with a hand-cut tape masks followed by two light coats of Halford’s White Plastic Primer. Once dry, Halford’s Appliance White was applied to the nose, upper fuselage and tailplane and allowed to

dry for 48 hours. Once masked I used Halford’s Aluminium on the leading edges of the wings, again allowing 48 hours to dry before masking. I always use this Halford paint straight from the aerosol, I don’t bother to decant it and then use it in an airbrush as life is just too short! Johnson’s Klear floor polish was now airbrushed over the Aluminium prior to masking, as I have found in the past that if you don’t add this protective layer the Aluminium paint can be lifted as you remove the masks. With the masking complete, Lifecolor Light Gull Grey was airbrushed as the main colour. With the masking removed 2 light coats of Johnson’s Klear were sprayed on as a base for the decals. The decals are some of the best I have seen, sharp and in perfect register. Straight in at the deep end and on with the main cheat-lines. They went on a treat, only things did not look quite right, yep, my comedy build moment! I had assumed that the gap between the blue lines on the decals was solid white and I had masked the demarcation between the white and grey on the main scheme accordingly. But in fact the white on the decal was just the backing paper and I ended up with additional grey between the blue lines instead of white. Too late to do anything about it now, but it did not in fact look too bad at all. The rest of the decals went on with no trouble and no “silvering”. The stencils provided are very comprehensive, too many in fact for my taste or lifespan, so I just used the principal items and omitted some of the smaller ones. I did use Micro Sol setting solution, but I do believe the decals would have worked perfectly well without it.

IL-62

KIT INFO

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

MANUFACTURER Zvezda SCALE 1/144 PRODUCT CODE 7013 PANEL LINES Recessed NO OF PARTS 139 TYPE Injectionmoulded Plastic STATUS New Tool

FINISHING TOUCHES Flaps and wheels, that is. Well not quite, there are multiple options to choose here. There are separate items for flaps up or down, and now wait for it, weighted or unweighted undercarriage struts! Yes, there are optional parts to model the aircraft stationary on the ground or on the stand in take-off or landing mode with flaps up or down and with the correct uncompressed undercarriage to represent this. Now that is a well-designed kit!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Well, let me put it like this, this is without doubt the best engineered kit I have ever worked with, and just leave it at that. In conclusion, many thanks to Zvezda and their UK importer the Hobby Company for supplying the review item, thank you for an amazing product and apologies that it took me so long to complete. It took so long to finish simply because I enjoyed the build so much and I wanted to do this superb subject full justice. In the right hands, in other words not mine, this kit is a show winner.

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REVIEWS

REVIEW special!

THE LAVOCHKIN LA-9 By Tony Gloster

A

s part of the Soviet philosophy of trying to get the most out of any given design, a number of pulsejets and ramjets were fitted onto their piston engined aircraft to try and improve the performance. Normally this was done on obsolete aircraft, but in the case of the La-126 and La-130 this was not so; as the jet age was dawning it was hoped (against all experience) that the fitting of jet boosters would extend the life of these aeroplanes. But as with other pulse- and ramjets, when not in use they made too much drag, slowing the

aircraft down! And when in use though they gave the aircraft the extra speed this was at the cost of very high fuel consumption. The whole idea was dropped with the arrival of the first Soviet jets. The La-126 was a redesigned La-7, fitted with new laminar-flow wings, a new all-metal stressed-skin fuselage, new canopy, better armament and many other changes, its first flight being in 1945. In 1946 an La-126 was fitted with 2x RD-13 pulse-jets under the wings (The RD-13 was a Soviet copy of the Argus As 014) to become the La-126 PVRD. The La-130 was a follow-on development of the La-126, designed in 1944/45 by the OKB at Tbilisi and

The good, the bad and the ugly

LAVOCHKIN LA-9

INFO

HISTORY

A good set of decals were supplied with the kit.

having its first flight on the 16/6/1946. It was the basis for the La-9 of 1946 as well as its replacement the La-11 of 1948. An La-130 fitted with 2x VRD-430 engines (The VRD-430 engine was a subsonic ramjet of a 400 mm diameter designed by M.M. Bondaryuk) under the wing became the La-138, the aircraft was tested in March/April 1947, with a boost in top speed of 112 km/h being obtained, however at the expense of high fuel consumption and severe drag when the engines were not in use The La-9RD was a serious attempt to put a modern fighter powered with ramjet boosters into production. At least nine aircraft were converted, first flying in mid 1947 and took part in the Tushino air display of 1948. The two RD-13 pulse-jets were fitted to the same hard points as the La-138,

MANUFACTURER Siga Model SCALE 1/72 KIT NUMBER SG72301

but the pylons extended ahead of the leading edge of the wing. The engines gave a boost of 128 km/h, but also produced severe vibration which led to the idea being abandoned.

THE KIT Be prepared for a shock if you can get hold of this kit; at first look it’s one of the worst I’ve ever come across, even allowing for the fact this is a limited-run kit. However, what do you get for your bucks? Two runners of a soft mid-grey plastic with thirty-five parts. When Siga boxed this kit, the moulds were on their last legs and this is reflected in the quality of the plastic, there is an ample supply of flash, though once past that, you come across fine shallow recessed panel lining, with basic raised detailing on the sparse

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JANUARY 2016 plastic card. Two ideal candidates for the side consoles came from a redundant Amodel Yak-15, which were “dry fitted” to ensure that they would fit into the cockpit space, then affixed, along with a replacement control stick and rudder pedals, both of which came The kit’s instrument panel was usable, from the spares box. coming up well with painting. Now the kit’s parts could be added, the seat (etched seat belts from, once again, the spares box) along with the rear armoured panel, were fitted to the floor. The instrument panel is acceptable in this scale once painted, and was fitted to the left fuselage half, as was the radio The complete Believe it or not the is a good La9 under all that shelf with the painted cockpit in place. mess. cockpit floor added and the fuselage halves cockpit parts and undercarriage; the of the wheel bay was removed, and I closed together. three transparent parts don’t appear gave the two top wings (#3R & 3L) a Once the fuselage was dry the too promising, being thick and far from good thinning down, treating them as engine cowling was fitted - here you clear, the canopy especially was in I would vac-form items. Once glued have a choice of two as both the La-9 need of replacement. A small, but well together, the wing tips, which are part and La-11 cowlings are supplied, the printed decal sheet is included, covering of the top parts along with the ailerons, difference being an inlet for an oil three versions. Last of all we come to were blended into the lower wing and cooler at the bottom of the cowling the instructions, printed on two sides put to one side. on the La-11. Before this goes ahead, of paper, the first side covering a small So on to the cockpit, which along some test fitting is advisable with the history and the decal and painting guide, with the rest of the La-9 was all new, prop and spinner. The kit’s prop is with the reverse side having seven easyand a much improved design over beyond hope, so a replacement was to-follow steps for the build. previous models. The kit does not needed First I looked to the spares box, provide you with a great deal of help in finding a usable replacement, which this department, what you do get is a could be mated to the kit’s spinner, and CONSTRUCTION seat, instrument panel, radio shelf and this was built up and painted, then in a A big clean-up is needed before rear armoured panel, all of which are flash of blinding light I whipped a prop/ anything else can be done. Underneath usable, but the control stick and a small spinner off a finished HobbyBoss La-7, all the flash, lumps and bumps and part that represented the flooring were Ah! perfect. So back to the cowlings, general muck, you find an La-9; the dumped. both of which have the engine cooling first thing I saw to was the three-part So to work, first of all, with the aid shutters moulded closed, anyhow a test wing, the lower one-piece part (#2) has of some stretched sprue, the ribbing fit of the spinner revealed that oddly the cross hatch marking where you need on the sides of the inner fuselage was best fit came from the La-11 cowling, to remove plastic to get a thin trailing added, and this done a new, full size with the oil cooler aperture filled in. It edge. At the same time the shallow roof floor was measured up and cut from was fitted to the fuselage with the aid

of a large amount of filler to blend it to the fuselage. Before the wing could be added to the fuselage, the large void where the wheel well should be was filled in with a ceiling, fashioned from plastic card. Now the wings could be mated to the fuselage, the fit was not that bad, but some work was required along the upper joint to the fuselage as well as the front and rear underside joints to achieve a good finish. The wheel wells were boxed in with a combination of plastic card and filler, then painted light grey. Finally came the oil cooler, which was fitted centrally underneath the fuselage just behind the wing, and is supplied in two parts, both of which had seen better days, requiring a large amount of cleaning up on the exterior and shaping on the inside, before fitting. Now on to the undercarriage, which is one of the better aspects of the moulding, though this view is relative compared to the rest of the kit. The bay doors are a good shape, but lack any detail, which was added from cut strips of plastic card. The undercarriage legs had to be replaced as I managed to snap one in half! As luck would have it, a modified pair of legs from the 1/72nd Heller Hawker Hurricane made an ideal replacement; the wheels used were from the kit. The canopy proved to be somewhat more troublesome. The clear plastic item supplied is vaguely similar to the La-9, but it is remarkably thick and none too clear. The transparency issue was resolved by dipping it in “Klear” but a replacement vac-form canopy was what was needed, which took some time and effort to track down. Eventuality Falcon came to my aid, in the form of “1/72nd scale Canopy Set No 24 USSR Part 1, World War Two” where there was one canopy for the MPM kit, the part was dry fitted, and low and behold it fitted

“ With a lot of love and work, it is possible to make a very acceptable La-9 ”

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REVIEWS

All built up and ready for a coat or two of paint.

perfectly, which made me reappraise my attitude towards the accuracy of the mouldings. Just before the canopy was fitted to the fuselage the DF loop was added to the radio shelf, behind the seat. That was the La-9 finished, now to the business part of the build, making and fitting the two RD-13 pulse-jet engines. The RD-13 was in effect a copy of the German Argus 014, making obtaining a pair of engines a simple job. In this case they came from the Huma 1/72nd Heinkel He 280, which comes with four pairs of the said engine; the only addition I made to the engines was fitting two pieces of mesh to represent the pulse-jet’s valving system, with the front mounting point being removed, before painting. The two underwing pylons took a bit more work, and after studying a lot of photos of the La-9RD and some thinking I came up with a plan: first of all, the part of the pylon which protrudes ahead of the wing’s leading edge was made from a core of one half of the tail end from Huma’s Me

P.1101, then a strip of plastic card was added from the leading edge to 3mm from the trailing edge, filler was added, sculpted, rubbed down, this process continuing until the correct shape was achieved. After the La-9 was painted, the two RD-13 engines were added.

COLOUR OPTIONS Siga supply three choices with the kit, two Soviet and one North Korean, all of which are in an all-over Light Grey, the decals themselves consist of the relevant national marking and aircraft numbers. The colour for the La-9RD is Green upper side and Light Blue under side. The paint used was Humbrol 114 Russian Green (sadly no longer available) and 65 Light Blue The kit was then given a coat of Polly Gloss before the decals were applied, which were pick ‘n’ mix from the spares box, with the Lavochkin factory emblem coming from the kit’s sheet. The only photos I have seen show white 09, which was the first development airframe, though

nine to ten La-9s were converted to the La-9RD specifications.

CONCLUSION I have wanted to build an La-9RD for some time now and I’m glad I got round to it at last. But getting hold of a La-9 in any scale in plastic is an endeavour in itself - the kit I used in this build (once boxed by Interavia) has being kicking around on my work bench for some years, so I opted to use that instead of the better Gran kit (#7203). You could of course just buy the resin Omega Models La-9RD, which is a real beauty, but that comes at a very high price. Until very recently, it’s been hard going if, I like me you like to build these older Soviet aircraft, as we’ve had to make do with old and/or some what dubious mouldings from, in the main, the former Eastern Block countries. Now at last there would seem to be some movement, in the shape of

ICM’s LaGG-3, and I can only hope that some manufacturer, like the MPM consortium (who moulded the La-9/11 in 1/72nd scale many years ago) or say, Eduard, who, to their credit do a nice line in La-7s, will give us a modern kit of the La-9/11. Anyway, back to reality as it is today. With a lot of love and work, it is possible to make a very acceptable La-9, and I must say I did have a very enjoyable time making the La-9RD, just like it used to be in the old days. The build would not have been possible without two books, both of which you will need if you are thinking of undertaking one of these Soviet experiment aircraft. First is Bill Gunstston’s Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft (Osprey) and the other is one of Yefim Gordon’s outstanding books for the Red Star series, in this case # 11 Lavochkin’s Piston-Engined Fighters (Midland). PS: if anyone knows the origin and history of the mouldings I used, I for one would be very interested.

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

MIRAGE IIIA 01

• The original Mirage III which was used for testing and development of the type. Depicted here is a high visibility scheme that was worn during 1974 over NMF.

MIRAGE IIIC 2-FB EC 2/2 CÔTE D’OR

• Retaining the SPA94 badge on the tail Mirage III 2-FB of EC 2/2 remained in NMF until it was retired in May 1979.

MIRAGE IIIC 2-ED EC 01-002 CIGOGNES

• Made popular by the television series Les Chevaliers Du Ciel, known in the UK as the Aeronauts, 2-ED was one of several squadron aircraft which appeared in aerial footage. Markings applied over NMF.

MIRAGE IIIC 10-LB EC 3/10 VEXIN

• Painted in Sand and Stone with Light Grey undersides 10-LB was based in Djibouti during March 1984. It appears that the radome has been replaced as it is much cleaner and the camouflage does not line up.

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

MIRAGE III 10-RO EC 2/10 SEINE

• During a particularly lively party in 1979 the personnel of 1/10 decided to repaint one of 2/10’s Mirages in pink. The following January the two squadrons were on live firing exercises and as hijinks escalated 1/10 decided to repeat their prank. So twice the squadron commander’s aircraft was painted Candy Pink with a moustache just behind the radome.

MIRAGE III 3-XT EC 3/03 ARDENNES

• Finished in painted aluminium as a tribute to the NMF scheme early Mirage IIIs wore, 3-XT wore a special scheme to commemorate 50 years of the Ardennes in 1993. Black nose and forward fuselage and a large unit badge on tail.

MIRAGE IIIE 4-BB EC 2.4 LA FAYETTE

• A typical camouflage scheme worn by the French Mirage III, replacing the early NMF scheme. Light Grey underside, Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green upper surfaces with badge on the tail. This aircraft appeared at Greenham Common in 1979.

MIRAGE IIIO A3-46 76 SQUADRON, RAAF

• A3-46 crashed into the sea on 3rd April 1967 near Darwin as the result of engine failure. The pilot Flg. Off. J. L. Ellis successfully ejected. Finished in all over aluminium.

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

1/72nd Scale Plans MIRAGE III

• Scale Drawings by Chris Sandham-Bailey/Inkworm www.inkworm.co.uk

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

MIRAGE IIIO A3-42 77 SQUADRON, RAAF

• A3-42 wears the standard camouflage scheme of Olive Drab, Extra Dark Sea Grey with Light Gull Grey undersides, it was introduced in 1972 and was retained until the early 1980s when the all over Grey scheme was introduced.

MIRAGE IIIO A3-6 75 SQUADRON, RAAF

• The RAAF experimented with a wide range of grey schemes including this simple variation with Medium Blue Grey upper surface and Light Grey underside. This scheme was applied during the summer of 1987 shortly before the Mirage III was retired.

MIRAGE IIIO A3-15 77 SQUADRON, RAAF

• Chosen as one of three to wear a special Diamond Jubilee scheme in 1981 the aircraft were painted in all over High Gloss White. Whilst on official duties the radome was replaced with a dummy that was painted red. However the three aircraft returned to squadron duties and had the original black refitted. At this time they became heavily stained before returning to the original scheme.

MIRAGE IIIEA I-015 VIII BRIGADA, FUERZA AÉREA ARGENTINA

• During the Falklands War the Argentine Mirage wore a combination of Dark Green, Olive Drab and Tan with a Grey underside. I-015 was shot down on May 1st 1982 by Flt. Lt. P. Garton in Sea Harrier FRS.1 XZ423, 1st Lt Perona successfully ejected.

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

MIRAGE IIIEBR 4922, BRAZILIAN AIR FORCE

• A special scheme painted in all over gloss to commemorate 30 years of Mirage III operations by Força Aérea Brasileira in 2002. The last Mirage was retired in 2005.

MIRAGE IIICJ 158/458 101 SQUADRON, ISRAELI AIR FORCE

• Israel acquired IIICJ in the early 60s and they were heavily involved in action during the Six Day War, they were delivered and retained the NMF scheme during this period, only receiving all over camouflage at a later date.

MIRAGE IIIEL L504, LEBANESE AIR FORCE

• Lebanon purchased the Mirage III in 1968 and operated them during the 70s. They were however grounded due to expenses and placed in storage until sold to Pakistan in 2000. Painted in Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey with Light Grey undersides.

MIRAGE IIIEL 116 5 SQUADRON “FALCONS”, PAKISTANI AIR FORCE

• Having acquired a large number of Mirage III both directly from Dassault as well as second hand from other air forces. Some being ex-RAAF retained the same upper camouflage scheme but had the underside painted in Light Blue.

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MODELLERS PORTFOLIO

MIRAGE IIIEL 533 7 SQUADRON “BANDITS”, PAKISTANI AIR FORCE

• Continuing to operate the aging Mirage III with a range of upgrades the current scheme worn by Pakistani aircraft is all over Light Grey with a Dark Grey band across the upper surface and a Grey radome.

MIRAGE IIIEZ 804 2 SQUADRON, SOUTH AFRICAN AIR FORCE

• Painted in Olive Drab and Deep Buff with Light Admiralty Grey undersides, this scheme was the standard camouflage scheme during the 70s and 80s. Some Mirage III were upgraded to Cheetah standard, some still being used by Ecuador.

MIRAGE III C11-17, SPANISH AIR FORCE

• Spain acquired a total of 30 Mirage III which were operated during the 70s and 80s, eventually being retired in 1992 when the surplus were sold to Pakistan. For much of the time they worse the standard Green and Grey camouflage but towards the end were repainted in a variant of Dark Grey and Grey with light Grey undersides. Towards the end the aircraft became heavily weathered.

MIRAGE IIIS J-2326, SWISS AIR FORCE

• First entering service in the 1960s many Swiss Mirages continued to operate in the NMF scheme for a long time including J-2326 which was still in NMF as late as 1989. During the upgrade programme they were painted in a Grey scheme. The type was eventually retired in 2003.

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1/32 MIRAGE IIIC

Mirage IIIC Italeri’s 1/32nd scale Mirage by Angelo Picardo

T

here has been, and still is, a lot of excitement amongst modellers about this release. Up until now the only 32nd scale Mirage has been courtesy of Revell’s very old and basic kit. So when Italeri announced that they were releasing an all-new kit the fans of this Gallic delta were extremely excited. Flown by numerous air forces in numerous colour schemes and variants, the Mirage is as popular among the military as it is amongst modellers. In a large top opening box with some impressive artwork you find five large sprues bearing 244 parts, eleven clear parts, and seventeen etched pieces. The parts are moulded in light grey and feature engraved panel lines. Some of the panel lines are a bit soft in places, especially for inspection panels. There is some flash and heavy mould separation lines, especially around some of the smaller, finer parts which is a surprise on a new kit. Also on a few pieces there is a rather grainy texture to the plastic which will need polishing before assembly, especially if you are going to produce a Mirage with a natural metal scheme. The breakdown of the parts suggests that other version of the Mirage may be planned at a later stage and certainly some parts are on the runners for an E variant. Also included are two beautifully printed decal sheets for six schemes, and an instruction

booklet comprising forty-four pages covering thirty-seven assembly stages using 3D CAD drawings. The colour call-outs are all for Italeri’s own range of acrylic paints which is a shame as these are not available, though they are cross referenced to FS codes.

CONSTRUCTION

Stage one of the assembly is for the ejector seat which is made up nine parts and builds into a reasonable looking seat which includes etched brass harness, soft enough that it drapes realistically without any annealing. Two types of overhead firing handle are included in the kit, a single- and double-loop version, but only the single loop is used on the C variant. I painted the seat as per kit instructions and applied some data placards using decals from the Airscale range, which is a simple way to add detail to the basic seat. Stages 3, 4 & 5 cover the rest of the cockpit. Again this is fairly well detailed with raised features on the side consoles and instrument panel, which can be lifted out with careful dry brushing. The Instrument panel has flat, featureless panels for the actual instrument dials, and no decals are included with the kit so I turned to the Airscale range again to provide decals for these dials.

While discussing the instrument panel, this is apparently the wrong type for the IIIC and more like the panel found on the later IIIE. No doubt there will be aftermarket replacements out soon to resolve this issue and to provide a more detailed cockpit, though most modellers will be happy with what is in the box. The nose wheel compartment assembles onto the underside of the cockpit, and there is some very nice moulded detail here, which can be lifted out with a wash or by dry brushing. Once you have this assembly completed it is then mounted on

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FEATURE Cockpit tub assembled and painted with Airscale decals applied.

Fuselage belly plate with completed wings added

Topside of the wing/ belly plate assembly Port side of the cockpit tub

Assembled fuselage halves with intake ducting in place

Starboard side of the cockpit

Top of fuselage. Seam needs to be as smooth as possible for the Alclad finish

to the separate belly pan of the lower fuselage. A couple of flashed-over holes need opening up in this part, so you will need to decide on which scheme and weapon loadout you are going to do early on in construction. The main undercarriage bays are also attached to the belly pan, with a couple of data placard decals to be added too. It’s a shame that Italeri have included decals for undercarriage data placards, but no dials or placards for the cockpit which would be more obvious to a viewer. The intake ducts are provided in their entirety, from the intakes to the fan face, and they mount onto a bulkhead that fits into

“ The cockpit is fairly well detailed with

raised features on the side consoles and instrument panel, which can be lifted out with careful dry brushing ”

the fuselage. A nice reproduction of the Snecma Atar 9 is also provided and this can be mounted either inside the fuselage or on the supplied maintenance trolley. If you decided not to fit the powerplant to the fuselage, however, there is no interior detail on the inside surfaces of the fuselage so I cannot see many using this feature. When fitting the intake ducts a bulkhead is supplied to support the structure until the fuselage sections are finally brought together.

Italeri have designed the tail fin as a fivecomponent piece with a separate rudder, which is another pointer that other variants of the Mirage are planned, as does a subtle feature on the fuselage.

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1/32 MIRAGE IIIC Kit includes a full length jet engine

Kit’s ejector seat

Joint at rear of intake needed filling. Tape is there to protect detail during sanding

Joint sanded, and panel lines reinstated

Poor fit of the nose probe to the radome

There is a fine moulding flaw which indicates that there is a part in the actual mould that can be changed for a different piece to alter the layout of the fuselage for later versions which have a 12 inch longer fuselage. This is very obvious if you look at the position of the intake lips compared to the canopy on photographs of the C and E variants. However this means that there is a rather noticeable seam along the fuselage that will need to be cleaned up without destroying the surrounding detail. It is at this point that the two sides of the fuselage come together enclosing all the parts assembled so far. The instructions have the wings being built next and again you have more flashed-over holes, which need opening up depending on your scheme and weapons choice. Italeri have also made the airbrakes separate so they can be posed opened or closed, but there is no interior detail if you decide to model them in the open position.

They have also provided all the control surfaces as separate pieces so they can be positioned as you choose which is a nice way to add some animation to your model. The undercarriage legs are designed to be fitted now, but if you trim off the smaller of the two mounting pins, they can be left off until the end of construction and still securely fitted. The detail moulded on the undercarriage legs is a bit soft and they will need mould separation lines removing carefully so not to lose other details. Finally at stage sixteen you can bring the wings, fuselage and belly pan together. My method for doing this was to attach the wings to the belly piece first and then attach the completed upper fuselage. Using this method I was able to achieve a virtually invisible join in most areas. However no matter how hard I tried,

Close-up of the join

I could not eliminate the gap at the wing root and I had to resort to using some filler. More fit problems were discovered when I attached the intakes, particularly along the rear seam and more filler and a little re-engraving was required. Italeri have provided the nose cone with the split not being at the traditional place, i.e. between the radome and fuselage, but at a point further along the fuselage, again this suggests alternative versions are planned. The problem with this is that the cross section of the nose cone is circular whereas

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FEATURE Poor fit of the fuselage/ nose cone join

Turned metal probe fitted with kit’s part below for comparison

“ I chose to depict a natural-metal Armee

de l’Air aircraft from the 17th Fighter Squadron based in France during 1967 ”

that of the fuselage is not! So a little more filling and sanding was needed to try to achieve a flush fit. The plans also indicate that nose weight is needed in the nose cone but not how much, so a little experimentation is needed. The tail end of the fuselage is next. I started by adding the exhaust cone with the fuselage fairing over the top. The bullet fairing is provided as a clear part, but looking at photos online, it doesn’t appear to be a clear piece on the real machine! The next five stages, 20 to 24, are for the assembly and attachment of the undercarriage and the various doors. It is possible to leave all these parts till the end, which is what I did as I have a long history of knocking such pieces off when finishing assembly and during painting, especially as the undercarriage doors have to have a number of etched hinges fitted to them. Stage 25 covers the fitting of various scoops and sensors along with some etched plates to the fuselage and around the intakes and we are on to stage 26, now it’s time to decide what stores are going to be added. The kit includes a nice selection of underwing stores in the form of two types of fuel tank, three types of missile, Matra R350, Matra R550 Magic and AIM-9B Sidewinders, and to round it off some air-to-surface rocket pods. The weapons load is dependent on which of the six schemes you decide to model and the plans have a nice, clear schematic to show what goes on what. I had decided on the bare-metal French

version which was only fitted with a pair of Matra Magic AIMs. A quick check online showed that a pair of 500 litre tanks could also be carried by this variant so I added them to my model. The windshield and canopy come next, the clear parts are nice and thin, and very clear, but there is a fair bit of flash surrounding them and while cleaning up the main canopy, my scalpel slipped and I scratched the part. Once I stopped swearing, I got my Albion Alloys polishing cloths out and restored the canopy to clarity. The windshield fits onto the fuselage neatly and a couple of etched parts are provided to represent instruments fitted to the frame; the etched parts also provide the mirrors for the main hood which may be shown opened or closed. One of the final parts added is 19A, the nose probe, and I had another small problem here! The fit leaves a 1mm mismatch all the way around between the base of the probe and the radome. My solution was to cut the actual probe off, and use filler to achieve a smooth transition between the base part and nose cone. I now purchased a turned aluminium probe from Master Models which was fitted into a pre-drilled hole once the filling and sanding was done. The final assembly stages are for the building of the engine maintenance trolley, and the pilot’s entry ladder. If you wish to fit the ladder two holes need to be opened up in the port side fuselage wall to allow it to be attached. With the stores and undercarriage assembled and put to one side I could turn to the paint scheme; as already mentioned there are six alternative schemes provided.

PAINTING AND DECALING

Three French aircraft, two camouflaged one in bare metal, a camouflaged South African machine, a bare-metal Swiss and another baremetal Israeli aircraft. I chose to do the bare-metal French fighter from the 17th Fighter Squadron based in France in 1967. Now doing bare-metal finish is a bit of a scary prospect for me. I’ve tried just about everything including self-adhesive foil and Rub’n’Buff and I have had a love-hate relationship with Alclad, never quite being able to achieve the desired finish with this stuff. The Editor very kindly supplied me with a selection of Alclad ( the firm has gone into partnership with MIG Productions) so I decided to give it another go. I did my best to achieve as smooth a finish to the plastic as possible with Albion Alloys polishing cloths before I applied Alclad’s own gloss black primer. Pictures of bare-metal Mirages show a multitone finish which is precisely what I wanted to achieve. I first applied the Duralumin which came out a lot darker than I expected. I then masked off a number of panels using Tamiya tape and applied aluminium which again was darker than expected so misted chrome over the top to lighten the shade and I achieved the tone I wanted. Despite following the instructions for the application of the Alclad to the letter, I still did not get the finish I was hoping for. In a couple of places the finish appears grainy, either due to poor surface preparation, or because the primer WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2016 61

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1/32 MIRAGE IIIC was not quite thick enough to protect the plastic from the paint’s thinners. On the underside are two painted panels. One is in chromate yellow, and another in chromate green. I masked these panels and used Tamiya acrylics for these so as not to disturb the Alclad. To add further variation I used matt varnish and Tamiya Smoke to pick out inspection panels and smaller panels. The decals are next. They are very well printed and very shiny! They are in perfect register, and the colour density prevents any bleed-through of the underlying colours. One minor thing is that the blue part of the French roundels and tail flash seems to be too dark, something I am sure the aftermarket will correct. There is a large amount of stencil data include for the airframe, stores and pylons and Italeri have included separate instructions on the placement of these for the stores and pylons, but not for the airframe. Most of the airframe stencils are clearly seen on the colour profiles, but it is still a bit confusing and frustrating. Italeri have included the three dielectric panels on the tail fin as decals. They, like all the decals, fit very well and fold around the fin with no problems, settling down nicely over the engraved detail. All the decals went on with no fuss and to avoid upsetting the Alclad finish I used Gunze Mr Decal Softener to ensure they settled down over the detail. To highlight the panel lines I used acrylic raw umber paint but it also stained the matt varnish used to change the tone of the metal panels. I then applied some weathering pigments on the gun ports and the various exhaust ports on the fuselage and left it at that. The various lenses were coloured with Tamiya clear paints and I replaced the landing lights on the nose gear (not sure these are correct for a C, ED) with some reflective selfadhesive bling parts to give them a brighter look

than offered by the kit’s parts. Finally all that was left to do was attach the undercarriage, the doors, underwing stores and few other bits left off until the end.

CONCLUSION

So there is a new Mirage available in 32nd scale. It’s a fairly pricey kit and to be 100% honest, I was disappointed with it in places. Poor fit, which I can whole heartedly say was not my fault, a lot of flash and prominent mould separation lines and some soft details, which in a new tool kit of this price and from this company should be better.

On the plus side It does have some nice details and features, and it does build into a lovely looking model of an exciting aircraft, but I do think Italeri could have done a better job. I am still looking forward to future variations of the Mirage airframe, and maybe even a Kfir at some point? My thank to the Hobby Company, Italeri’s UK Importer for supplying the Italeri Mirage IIIC for review.

“ Italeri’s kit builds into a lovely looking model of an exciting aircraft ”

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1/48 MIRAGE IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA

MIRAGE IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA Kinetic’s 1/48th scale Mirage by Peter Marshall

I

have to say, opening this (very full) box and having a first look gave me a warm glow. Typically of Kinetic there’s enough weapons sprues to kit out three or four aircraft, you should have a few spares left over here. The inclusion of multiple variant specific parts (four instrument panels, four undernose sections, two different panels for the area behind the cockpit etc) gives the impression that someone has done some serious research and that we can expect some more versions from these moulds. The decal sheet looks really good, it’s very encouraging to see a manufacturer like Kinetic having decals done for them by someone like Sylvain Hautier of Syhart (who I have a lot of time for) and printed by Cartograf, they look a little shiny but registration looks spot on and I have high hopes for them. They also include airframe stencilling and weapons markings, which Kinetic seem to be keen on and I’m grateful for. However, there appears to be some

confusion about the marking options. The box description references six Mirage types, E/O/R/ RD/EE/EA in the headline, the painting guide gives you options to do five, two IIIEs, a IIIO, a IIIR and a IIIEE and the box lists the available schemes as Mirage IIIE/O/R/RD/EE. I’ve seen a post on a popular modelling website that was apparently from Kinetic stating that: “Hi fellows, sorry that we have some mistake in manual editing on the painting guide where we added the ALCLAD painting guide and miss out the MIRAGE IIIRD decal/painting guide. We have corrected the digital copies of the manual and we will use the update version in next production run. Sorry the mistake happened!”

Which seems a little careless but I’m really not complaining (and I especially liked the paint guide for the IIIEs doing the callout for the different panels in shades of Alclad, never seen that before) and at this point I was thinking give me another 4 of these kits and I’ll do all the schemes provided and then start looking for aftermarket decals for the next five. So, at this point, very impressed. Shall we see where that goes? There are, depending how you count them, 11 or 15 sprues (N, O and Q are joined together

“ Spending time trawling the internet for Mirage

pictures has made me appreciate just how much variation there is and how difficult it is to address it ”

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FEATURE and there are two of them) of fairly soft grey plastic and a clear sprue, though this isn’t shown on the instructions sprue layout diagram and is actually labelled J and K, I’m guessing you won’t get K unless it’s in a recon boxing. There’s a little flash to be found in places which seems a little odd on a new mould from a major modern manufacturer but it’s nothing too serious and I do like the way the clear sprue has built-in canopy protectors, a nice touch. Sprue gates are restrained and nearly all on the edges of parts rather than the mating surfaces (I’ve decided I do prefer that after my last kit) and the surface detailing is generally subtle and rather well done. Ooooh, while looking through the sprues for a part I came across some canards, I’m actually quite excited to see what versions Kinetic come out with next. So let’s start sticking the bits together!

CONSTRUCTION

INFO

The instructions start with the ejector seats and cockpit and here again Kinetic look to have done some research. There’s a choice of a Martin Baker Mk 4 (with a further choice of face curtain ejector handle, one with one loop and one with two, with the minor

MANUFACTURER Kinetic SCALE 1/48 KIT NUMBER K48050

gripe that just saying “optional” doesn’t tell you which one you should be using when (MORE research is the key here I guess)) and a Mk 10. I understand that the Australians changed to a Mk 6 at some point so if you’re going to do the IIIO you’ll need to check time frames (1983 was when they changed). The seats are actually rather nice representations, six parts for the Mk 4 and five for the Mk 10, they could do with some belts but they are better than most kit seats I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a few!). The cockpit tub has reasonable raised detail, you only get to pick from two of the four supplied panels so I think it’s fair to say there more boxings coming, but the detail is very nice and I don’t actually see a resin cockpit being high on my list of things to add to this kit (unusually). There’s another of the “optional” choices of boxes behind the seat with no indications as to which bits go with which aircraft but I have to say I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time trying to find out so I just went with one of them.

Instrument panel wise I didn’t have to think too hard; after night fighters, two-seaters and aggressors I have a fondness for Recon birds so I went with the panel for the R/RD. Stages 2-4 cover the intakes; nose wheel bay and the engine exhaust area. There are alternative parts for the nose wheel bay (not used on any of the options here, again another version I assume, and again indicating some serious research) and the intake trunking is extensive and goes all the way to where the

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1/48 MIRAGE IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA

engine would be, very nice. The two-part exhaust has good depth and nice detail, the petal/actuator detail isn’t possibly the finest part of this kit, and I might think about adding a resin set to this area next time. Now with a variety of sub-assemblies finished it’s time to see how the fuselage halves go together. The fuselage halves sandwich the engine front, cockpit and exhaust and went together very well. The rudder is worthy of note; the two halves join at as thin an edge as I think I’ve ever seen on a kit, very impressive. The resulting assembly looks quite skeletal and strange, especially at the front, and the next sections, where the intake and the wing are attached, will require some pretty impressively fitting parts, especially where the lower wing section includes part of the intakes. Let’s try them and see. But before we do we get to stage 6 and I think we need to have a bit of a sit down, step back (can you do that sitting down?) and look at this in more detail. While I’m really impressed by all the variants Kinetic have crammed in here and the options that are obviously coming, you have to feel that it comes at a cost. Partly that cost is having to pay attention to the instructions more closely than I usually do and partly it’s

the introduction of possible errors/problems. Stage 6 is the first place (that I noticed anyway) that I think this has reared its head. There are two choices to make here, the panel behind the cockpit has the option of one style for the E/O/R/ RD and one for the EA and there are two styles of pitot tube, one for the R/RD and another for the E/O/EA. As I have gone with the R panel I’m going to use the part listed for the E/O/R/ RD (part number E12). The instructions show this being fitted with an antenna, part C40 but, flicking through lots of Mirage pictures (but by no means an exhaustive selection, obviously) I only saw that antenna fitted to RD models, and not to all of them. As I had decided to do the R, the decals for which represent a record holding aircraft with commemorative markings, I did a search on that particular one and found a few pictures (more on that later) which clearly show the antenna wasn’t fitted to this particular airframe. The plus side is that Kinetic have left the hole for this antenna (and another one) flashed over so at least you don’t have a hole to fill to correct this, just don’t open it up. Another small error is the pitots; on the example I had decided to build the instructions would have you attach two of the squarer shaped parts for the R and RD in front of the windscreen. But the pictures I found clearly show that 33-TC had just one on the right side and it was much more like the swept examples specified here for the E/O/EA while some of the RDs I saw had two of the swept ones. And

the pitot situation on the underside of the nose also looks to have issues, I need to do more research but it would seem likely that there are a variety of different pitot fits for the different models (and they may change over time for all I know). I will just get one of my usual gripes off my chest here: who in their right mind would fit fragile little bits like the pitot probes at this point, before the airframe is even half finished? You seriously expect them to survive the handling we still have to do? Partly the reason for this little rant is that I blithely followed the instructions in stage one and fitted the canopy actuating rod, something I wouldn’t normally do, it’s already been knocked off once and I doubt it’ll be the last time before this model is finished. Anyway, on with the show, that panel and the intakes. The panel behind the cockpit fits OK, nothing special but with a little fettling it goes on, the same is mostly true of the intakes. The fit to the rest of the fuselage is also pretty good, the positioning to the splitter plates slightly less so, and the fact that the bottom section of the intake is going to be supplied by the lower wing section doesn’t fill me with joy. I have to say it seems a strange way to manage the intake, so my next step was to fit it and find out how (whether) it works. And the answer is “sort of”. I wasn’t confident that it would be as easy with the upper wing parts fitted to the lower wing part as the instructions would have you do it so I fitted the lower wing section first. The fit wasn’t bad, but it really helped to do one area at a time, using “Plastic Weld” on a small area at a time,

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FEATURE

“ The fuselage halves, which

sandwich the engine front, the cockpit an the exhaust went together very well ”

making sure that was firm before moving onto the next bit. And the intakes were (are) a bit of an issue. The upper section is very nice, very sharp, the lower part less so, and where they join the fuselage there is a noticeable join/line/ step. If you really want to get rid of it you will be required to a session of filling and filing both outside and inside the intake, a job made tricky by the shock cone, there’s not a lot of space in there and I personally found it required a LOT of effort to get the two parts to join together and to the top and bottom of the splitter plates. I don’t know what aspect of the kit breakdown required this approach but I do think a more “traditional” one-piece intake would have been a lot easier from a construction point of view.

I should probably raise a question here about the cannons as they’re part of the lower wing section, would they be fitted to the R? According to Wikipedia the R retained the cannons but I understand it’s a pack and could be removed, the pictures I’ve shown don’t really show the large flash suppressors represented in the kit and basically it’s just something else to consider/ worry about. I decided I would leave them alone, call me lazy if you like. So having more or less forced the intakes into submission I moved onto the other parts that go under the fuselage plus the front vertical tail fillet and the upper wing halves. I’m glad I tried the wing upper halves first; I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t fit them to the lower wing first (I doubt that would make much difference) but the fit, at least the way it went together for me, was poor (and I’m being kind here

because I’ve been enjoying this up till now) in several ways. Neither side gets even close to the fuselage, they’re both a bit low in relation to where they should meet the fuselage side and there’s a bit of a step on the underside as well. Hopefully the pictures show all this, and these were taken with a piece of sprue forced in just behind the engine front to act as a spreader bar! On my next model I won’t attach the engine front so comprehensively to each side as I think it’ll give a little more play, and it is the same with the exhaust area. Fixing this is a bit tricky as you don’t want to be bending the wings up to meet the fuselage as this will affect the anhedral so I also fixed some sprue in further back to spread the fuselage, quite tricky but it got the fuselage

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1/48 MIRAGE IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA

closer to the wing halves at least at the rear, the front was a lot harder to move as you’ve got very little access at this time, unlike the back (at least if you left the lower rear section off). In the end I forced a slightly larger length of sprue behind the engine, it almost sorted the middle out but I still had to do a bit of filling. The tail fillet was a real battle too, lots of fettling to get it in place, I think the trick is to thin the very front part of it so it fits into the recess better. It’s a little annoying as the alternative fillet for the EA (which you can’t do out of the box due to lack of markings) fitted straight in with no problem. I also fitted the two panels at the rear underside, again it’s all very well saying “Optional” but without knowing which ones you should use it’s a bit of a lottery; I went for the one without chaff/flare dispenser. Anyway, moving on. I ignored the invitation to fit the nose undercarriage at this stage (I figured I would force it in later rather than knock it off and have to repair it) and moved onto fitting the under cockpit section and nose. Some filler was required here as well, the fit of the panel I used could have been better but the nose was pretty good (without the camera section at this stage). Having sanded and filled and sanded and filled and sanded the wing joins I thought I would fit the wing trailing edges, just to feel like I was making some progress. The sharp edge of these parts is as good as any I’ve seen, hold them up to the light and you can almost see through them, a stunning bit of moulding. The instructions give you the choice of dropping the flaps or not, but this could lead to another issue. Each side of the wing’s trailing edge is in three parts, the inner one doesn’t have any actuators, the outer two do, in every photograph I found where it looks like they’re dropped the inner, small, section is down slightly while the two outer sections are both drooped more and at the same angle. With the actuators provided you can only droop the outermost ones if you use a pylon, if you’re not using a pylon then the middle section has the choice of C1 (not drooped) or C7 (labelled “Flaps down”), the outer one just has C8 (not drooped). I appreciate that most people WILL be fitting pylons and it won’t be a problem for them but I do think it’s a bit of an oversight. I decided to cut C8 into two parts and filed a bit off so I could show this part deployed at the

correct angle. The fit of these parts into the rear of the wing is really excellent (if only all control surfaces came like this!) the only issues being the holes that the pins on the actuators fit into are a little large (or the pins are a little small) so it’s not as precise a fit as you might like, and the inner flap (?) section could do with being a little wider (I packed it out with a strip of plastic card). Whether these surfaces SHOULD be drooped in the way I did it is another matter, better answered by someone more familiar with Mirage III operation At this point I thought I should make a move towards painting so I looked at what other parts I needed to fit to the main airframe to allow this. There are a couple of intakes that go on the top of the fuselage (nicely done with good depth and definition) and the speed brakes which I posed slightly open as per a couple of pictures I had, just to add interest. I also looked at which undercarriage doors I needed to use, so I could get them painted while spraying the main bits. Kinetic supply two nose bay doors, only one of which is used for all the options provided, and two types of main gear outer doors. Unfortunately the instructions only tell you that one type is for the IIIE and the other for the IIIO, leaving you to guess for the other

variants. Having looked at a lot of pictures of IIIRs I would suggest that you want to use the doors referenced for the IIIO, D24 and 25, that’s what I went with anyway. And let’s pause for a few more reflections here. While searching for pictures of Jacqueline Auriol in her IIIR I found a picture clearly showing that the intake lip (on at least one IIIR she flew) is a different colour to the camo and checking the decals there’s a red strip to go there. However, the picture shows that the red was also on the inside of the intake, a feature I’ve seen on other IIIs (though by no means all). Again, we’re in very specific aircraft at specific times territory here, research is a good thing and also a crippling brake on progress as you

desperately search for the final reference that will let you finish some tiny little detail. But those sort of detail paint issues are for a little way in the future, and on the plus side, having looked at quite a few pictures, on all the IIIRs where I could actually make it out the ejector seat had the single face curtain ejector handle, so that solved that problem. Unfortunately, while I was looking at the pictures again when I got to stage 19 (which would have you install

a large blade aerial each side of the top of the tail) I found more things you could consider errors. I noticed that 33-TC didn’t have these blade aerials (at least not at the point in time that it was the record setting aircraft, though I have seen them on other IIIRs) or the bullet fairing on the tail leading edge, interestingly the instructions tell you to remove this for the IIIEA and the IIIO but not the IIIR. At the rear of the tail the instructions also tell you to fit part E7 for all the variants while showing different ones on the diagrams. I went with part E9 to match my references and put that into place (a little loose frankly and I again resorted to a little sheet styrene, as this is a difficult area to fill and sand), and while I was staring at the pictures it came to me that the drop tanks as supplied don’t seem appropriate either. Apparently the large kit tanks are 450 gallon units which are

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FEATURE

“ Each side of the wing’s trailing edge is in

three parts, the inner one doesn’t have any actuators, the outer two do ”

used by some Mirage III operators, including the French air force according to pictures I’ve seen (but I don’t know a timeframe, unfortunately), but the more common (to me) subsonic Mirage III tanks are smaller, have end plates on the fins and are normally carried on a much larger pylon which has them stand off the wing surface quite a bit more. Again, I have a picture of 33-TC that shows it fitted with this style of tank and I can’t, on that basis, justify using the larger tanks on this model and it’s a shame because the box art shows the more usual (to me) tanks but they’re not included in the box. I wondered at this point if I should use the supersonic tanks but decided that as we’re doing it as the record aircraft it probably did that clean so I will model

it that way as I have a picture showing this. This will need some holes in the wings filling to go with leaving off the aerials (easy) and removing the fairing (less easy but pretty trivial). Finally (for now) I’ll have a pop at the camera nose, it appears to have the wrong camera arrangement for the IIIR that the marking are supposed to represent and all the other Rs I found pictures for. Maybe the two supplied options are accurate for some of the other reccon versions that exist (RD, RJ, RP, RS or RZ) but they are not, as far as I can see, suitable for an R. So having decided that neither of the camera bay parts was right I either had the option of using a wrong one or attempting to modify one so it looked closer. I didn’t really fancy either of

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1/48 MIRAGE IIIE/O/R/RD/EE/EA PAINTING AND DECALING

those options so I decided I would fit the one that looked the closest but without using a lot of glue so I could (if I really really felt like it) change it in the future; say if Kinetic release a kit with a more accurate version or an aftermarket producer steps up. So with all the bits fitted that I was going to at this stage, the cockpit transparencies were masked and the front one glued in place and the canopy Blu Tacked in situ, and it was time for painting. I should just say that while I like the way the windscreen is done, with quite a chunk of the fuselage included, I wish I had noticed this before I fitted it as there’ll be some tricky painting to do inside the cockpit and I should have filled and sanded it in better.

As is my wont I painted all the panel lines in black to act as pre-shading and then painted the underside in silver. The instructions call for Humbrol Metal Cote 27001, a paint I find a little tricky to spray so I went with my current favourite metal paint, Mr Metal Color 218 - Alinume. This isn’t without its issues as I will reveal later, but it sprays really nicely, and with the underside done I masked the edges and moved to the camo. The colours of choice from the instructions are Humbrol 30 (Dark Green/ Vert Foncé 1) and 87 (Steel Grey), I did some searching to see if I had anything suitable and decided on Xtracolor X391 which is Vert Foncé and a choice between X207 (RLM75) or X4 (RAF Dark Sea Grey). I chose to use the RLM75 as it was a new tin and did the grey first, at which point I had the first of quite a few painting problems. I thinned it as usual using white spirit and it just didn’t spray, the occasional random mist but nothing usable. So I ditched that and tried again with cellulose thinners, with the same effect. I assumed it was either me or

the airbrush but just tried the RAF DSG with the cellulose thinners and it sprayed just fine. Very strange. Once that had dried I applied a hard-edged mask using Blu Tack before painting the green and here’ came problem two and something I just don’t understand why I keep doing. As I was masking I repeatedly found that I hadn’t painted the grey far enough so I had to undo some masking to do some more grey. I never seem to learn, over paint not under paint, it’s not that difficult. Maybe I should just do the whole airframe in the first colour, that would address it (It would, ED). Anyway, more painting, masking and the green went on too and then another problem surfaced; taking the masks off took up some of the paint on top of the silver, leaving some large shiny patches. If I want that kind of weathered effect I can never achieve it but when I do not want it I manage it perfectly, typically. After some careful, gentle masking I did the necessary touch-ups and so on to the decals, always one of my favourite parts, I feel this is where the model starts to show some personality. And the Kinetic decals are really nice, register is excellent, the colours look good, they behave well, the placement instructions are mostly OK (just a couple of obvious numbers

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FEATURE missing from their indicating lines) and they went down well. I especially like the decals for the aerial panels on the tail, these make a much neater job than I could ever do by painting, and the fact there are three different decals for the one on the leading edge, in slightly different colours, again makes you appreciate someone has done their research. I also used some sheet silver decals to tidy up the demarcation in the intakes and added some red decal stripe to the inside lip, as per my photographs. One error I did spot on the decals is that for 307 the tail markings say Mirage III E, that should be III R (I checked that with Sylvain as I couldn’t find conclusive pictures and he confirmed it should be an R, apparently the error was pointed out before printing but it slipped through) and

“ I especially like the decals for the aerial

panels on the tail, these make a much neater job than I could ever do by painting ”

it’s easy enough to fix, just steal the R from MIRAGE on the other, similar, decal. Now with all decals applied, a coat of semi-gloss over the whole thing (paint problem number four, while manoeuvring the airbrush round the kit I managed to tip it up and pour varnish all over the upper fuselage, canopy and nose, if you look carefully you can see “tidemarks”!) and the masks removed it’s onto the undercarriage and the like.

FINAL CONSTRUCTION

The nose and main gear are multi-part assemblies that look very nice and fit pretty well, the inside door detail looks good compared to pictures and I managed to get the nose gear in place without too much trouble. There could be more detail in the main wells and the main wheel hubs are a bit of a disappointment; there’s fairly prominent bolt detail on the real thing that isn’t present on the kit parts and I’m never sure that the separate hub/two-part tyre thing is really useful, just give me well defined edges or a paint mask (or I’ll make my own). I did paint the hubs and tyre sides first but you have a fair bit of handling to do to remove seams etc and I don’t really think it helps that much. The wheels now look quite good (except for the lack of some detail) but I think Eduard masks would be a better idea next time. Now with the model

standing on its own three feet we’re onto the final bits and pieces. I installed the aerial on the spine, which I painted a pale yellow, as was the RWR at the back. I now fitted the transparent parts for the wingtip and tail lights (why do more people not supply these parts? It makes a real difference and shouldn’t be that hard) and then the issue of the pitot tubes had to be addressed. As I said earlier, I’m really not convinced by the ones called out by the instructions and the colour picture Sylvain sent me just confused the issue as there was no upper pitot visible on the three a/c in the shot (though it did make me realise that there was a dark grey/black section at the tip of the nose that wasn’t on the instructions and I hadn’t picked up from the b/w photos). The underside pitot looks to be a different design again to the two supplied, with the base part apparently slanted backwards rather then forwards like the upper one. I installed one of the slanted pitots in the upper position and modified the other by cutting the tube section off and mounting it backward on its base for the lower item. It’s not perfect (the base part looks much broader on the real thing) but it looks closer than the instructions would get you. Interestingly the paint guide for the R shows the correct style of pitot for both top and bottom, in contrast to the construction instructions, but shows one each side underneath which is something I haven’t seen on any pictures. The amount of time I’ve spent worrying about pitots on this kit! Now the camera bay was tacked in position using as little glue as I felt I could get away with, it’s really not that good a fit and I really hope someone does a correct and better fitting camera bay for the IIIR so I can replace it as it’s going to bug me every time I look at the model on my shelf. If you’re willing to accept the inaccurate camera arrangement I suggest you glue it in tight and fill and sand till it fits properly, my approach leads to compromise… One last

thing that’s been bugging me for a lot of this build; the right intake (part A1) has a recessed panel, quite significantly so, and nothing in the instructions that I can see references it. And I’ve been through them a lot and again just now to confirm that nothing is shown filling it (that I could see anyway). And then there’s a clear part, J9, that’s exactly the right shape and size to fit the space but no pictures I’ve seen of the real thing show either a recess or a clear panel. I would suggest this is going to be an option for one of the next boxings but for this build should have been fitted early on and painted over. I’ve cracked right at the last minute and fitted it and just hope it isn’t too noticeable but I may have to break out the paint again if it annoys me too much. Before I do though I would really appreciate any info on this panel that anyone may have. And now at long last I can attach the canopy in place and my Mirage is finished!

CONCLUSION

If you hadn’t guessed already, I really liked this kit. Yes, it has issues but then I’ve never built a kit that didn’t and most of the problems here come from (IMHO) Kinetic being a bit over ambitious with the parts breakdown, but even then with application of some modelling skills they can be overcome. Spending time trawling the internet for Mirage pictures has made me appreciate just how much variation there is (opportunities if you like :-) and how difficult it is to address it. I would say Kinetic have done a pretty good job but could do better, let’s call it 7 1/2 out of 10 and hope the next release is worth a bit more. My thanks to Lucky Models for supplying the sample used in this build.

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1/72 P-51C MUSTANG

Academy’s P-51C Gets Taken to Task by Brian Derbyshire

Creating An Accurate 1/72

Mustang! A

D

B

E

C

F

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FEATURE

G

H

A

cademy’s 1/72 P-51-1/ Mustang IA is excellent, and both the Tamiya and Airfix P-51Ds are magnificent, so it’s a shame that there is still no really accurate kit of the P-51B or C in the same scale. Yes, I know there are some wellreviewed offerings from Hasegawa, Revell and Academy out there, but they all seem to be a perfect fit to inaccurate drawings! Many years of research and countless hours spent comparing and reviewing has convinced me that the most accurate Mustang drawings available are those provided by Arthur Bentley, so using these as a benchmark the Hasegawa kit is not only expensive, but is too short in the rear fuselage, too shallow at the wheel wells, and has the leading-edge kink of the prototype D. Revell’s offering is short on span,

is too tall. There are other minor points, which conspire to spoil the look, and I have to ask myself, why bother? Well, the Revell and Hasegawa kits need fixes too, and so does Monogram’s old stager, but I really wanted an accurate P-51C, so armed with two kits I took the plunge!

FUSELAGE LENGTH

I thought it quite a good idea to have a separate tail section especially for the fillet, howeve here Academy has lost nearly 2mm off the length, though evenly spaced at about the transport joint. The forward fuselage run is good and the profile error is all on the top deck of the tail section. So for my first attempt on one of my kits I just added a plug and faired it all off, with, it must be said some difficulty. (Photo A) I

“ The kit is indeed superbly designed, and the well-detailed parts just click together ” and the cockpit is too far aft. Both have other minor, snags, that are fixable, however, the one I chose to build was the Academy offering, because it had been so favourably reviewed, but alas, on closer inspection this also failed to live up to expectations. The kit is indeed superbly designed, and the well-detailed parts just click together. The exceptions here are tailplane tabs, which need packing, and the top corners of the interior, which need trimming so the fuselage halves will close up neatly, and also the fit of the canopy could be better. Accuracy, however, is not so good as the rear fuselage is too short, the chin intake is much too wide and deep, and gives you a Mustang with a silly grin. Also the wings have too much root chord and taper, the LERX (Leading Edge Root eXtension) is OK in plan, but has no head-on ‘droop’, so the wheel doors are too curved, and the Malcolm canopy

made the approach work in the end; however, the following is an improved solution, tested, which I tested again before committing to my second kit.

1

Remove the lower half of the bottom locating lips around the tail joints and clean up the inside faces. Tape the tail section to the forward fuselage but take care to get exact alignment in all axes. Then shape some parallel card tabs to fit neatly into the lower fuselage flanks. These should run from the rear end of the larger interior part, B3, to the tail wheel locations. Shave or build up each tab as appropriate to fit both the fuselage and tail end exactly as it’s the fit at the bottom corner that’s essential. Then add a snug-fitting top slab to hold it down, and glue at the front end only. When you slide the tail aft along the tab, it should follow the line of the fuselage bottom, without tilting. (Photo B)

I

Academy

Hasegawa

J

K

2

Make some card strips 1.9mm/0.075” wide, a bit deeper than the fuselage thickness. (Photo C) Glue these to the tab surfaces and also to the forward fuselage aft faces on the lower sides as well as to the rear end of the radiator duct roof. (Photo D)

3

Now saw into the tail section on the top deck, near the top of the upper original tab, and at about a 450 angle, facing horizontally back to above the tailplane. (Photo E) Now bend the deck down a bit from the lowest point of the run. If you have a fin fillet, this will need cutting into, down from the top corner, and refilling afterwards. Do not fix this yet.

4

Then assemble the two sections to give complete left-and right-hand fuselage halves. (Photo F)

5

Now is the time to insert all that nice internal detail. Add a radiator blank with the detailed aft face, and ease the fuel tank into position and plug the two outboard holes in the cockpit floor.

6

Revell

You can now join the fuselage halves. The original run along the bottom of the fuselage and

the skin line of the flank should be smooth and even once the packing strips have been cleaned up. There ought to be a small step in the vertical joint face now, but this will disappear. Next fill the gap at the top of the fuselage joint with a slab of card, which should be sized to fit the rearmost part, and bend this downwards and cement into place. (Photo G)

7

Time now to file, fill, fettle and polish, and then rescribe the panel lines and fill the redundant one. The rear fuselage transport joint should now be right in the middle of the packing. (Photo H)

CHIN INTAKE

Either fill the ends of the slot or file the lower flanks to give a ‘pointier’ chin, or fit somebody else’s intake section, packing and trimming to suit. Revell’s works well here, as does Hasegawa’s old D nose section, but the Hasegawa B chin is easiest. Match this to the spinner base and blank off the see-through duct. Then file and fill the lower fuselage nose shape to match the intake, and ensure that you don’t damage or fill-in the perforated breather plates as these are lovely. (Photos I, J & K)

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1/72 P-51C MUSTANG

L

M

N

O

P

Q

ROOT CHORD AND TAPER

The root trailing edge is correctly placed on the fuselage, however there is too much root chord, all in the wing flap. The wingtip is fine so:

8

Carefully remove the flaps and ailerons, as single units along their moulded hinge lines. Drill tiny holes at the corners of flap and aileron, and scribe inside and out with a new blade. Crack off, and clean up all the cut edges.

9

Swing the flap/aileron unit forward from the aft aileron tip so the root ends up 0.075” further forward (1.9mm.) Mark the new aileron hinge line on the wing, to match the aileron and the new flap hinge line on the flap, to match the wing. Trim and reassemble. 75 thou’ doesn’t sound like much, but it doesn’t half make it look better. (Photos L, M & N) Of course, this is the time to arrange for flap and door droop as if the hydraulic pressure has bled off enough.

10

Make a template of the trailing-edge radiator cutout, and re-cut this 0.075” forward. Apply 0.075” packing to the leading edge of the fuselage cut-out. This pushes the entire wing back to where it should be and addresses the ‘slightly short nose’ mentioned in the SAMI review of this kit. Scoop out the top front of this packing, so the wing will clip into the fuselage without straining.

R

LERX

The strange shape of this area (best shown by those RAF Mustangs with full-span yellow leading edges) was the same from the prototype to the last C model. I know of no 1/72 kit that has got this correct, although bigger scales have managed it. Look for photos taken from slightly above, and compare the LERX in headon and tail-on views. The SAM Publications P-51 Mustang Part 1 Datafile has several good ones, and Photo O shows the reason why the P-51D LERX was extended.

11

On some kits (such as Monogram’s) you can score and ‘unwrap’ the underside LERX, but with hefty moulded-in wheel wells it’s simpler to build up and carve. On this kit the LERX is accurate in plan view, but the area ahead of the wheel wells needs building up, so that the whole undercarriage door area - leg and wheel doors, as a unit - forms pretty nearly a flat plate from the centreline to the kink point. So here I cemented on layers of plastic card. Then, preserving the plan view, the top face was cut down so that in head-on view the LERXs ran in a straight line from the kinks to just above the fuselage lower tangent line. I cut dummy doors as guides for reshaping the leading edges. (Photo P)

12

Mark the upper surface LERX kink point inside. Score a few grooves, starting from the LERX kink point and radiating to the inboard edge. Then ‘wrap’ the upper LERX root down to match the lower wing. And here it is necessary to shave down the wheel well roof. (Photo Q)

13

If you haven’t already cut out the case ejection slots - two per wing, staggered, do it now.

14

Check the dihedral, usually too flat on Mustang kits. The fix, for those with mouldedin wheel wells, is a fore-and-aft sawcut on the centreline, right across the chord of the lower wing, down into but not through the plastic. Bend up to match a card template matching the upper surface, and secure by suitable pieces of card cemented between and behind the wheel wells. Prop up to set as shown (Photo R) with the upper surfaces taped on, not cemented. When set, trim the upper wing roots to suit the fuselage: much easier while they’re separate. (Photos S & T.)

15

When satisfied, assemble the wings. The L/Es will need a little filler and a lot of sanding. If you’re feeling strong, relocate the outer gun ports by about 1mm inwards and the inners about 0.5mm upwards.

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FEATURE

S

T

U

“ I found a nice big image of ‘Lucky Leaky 2’ in a Squadron/Signal book and liked it ”

16

Laminate card behind the forward end of the fuselage wing-root fairings. Shave and fill to match the wings when you assemble them to the fuselage. Sawing above the front end of the fuselage fillets, and bending them down, makes this a bit easier: (Photo U.)

17

Bend the inner doors flat, or at least flat enough to fit the recontoured wells. If scoring inside is necessary, then you can’t have droopy doors. (Incidentally, I have found said doors on P-51A, B, C and D, but not on Mustangs I, IA and A-36.) Plenty of Mustangs can be seen with them neatly ‘up’ in any case.

CANOPY

On all my kits most of the bigger transparencies had broken off the runners, leaving scars. So I recommend that you use a micro saw to carefully detach this part from the runner, and then trim by shaving with a very sharp knife. You get three options – birdcage canopy (open or closed) and Malcolm hood. The plastic here is too thick for a convincing ‘open’ cockpit, and neither closed option will fit neatly unless you trim the corners of the seat/backrest and headrest. The ‘forehead’ of the

windscreen also needs rounding off and repolishing. The Malcolm hood has to be exactly right or it looks daft, and both Academy and Revell have overdone the dome. If you haven’t a Falcon vac-form replacement handy, or prefer proper plastic, you’ll naturally rob an old Monogram kit ... and then you’ll find it’s too wide. Fear not! Technology to the rescue! Take a piece of hefty styrene sheet, and cement to it two parallel strips of 0.030” card, with a gap equal to the outside width of the kit’s cockpit. Spring your Monogram canopy into this gap and blast it with a hair-dryer. Allow to cool and test-fit. Repeat, on progressively higher settings but without melting the thing, until it just overlaps the sills and (after a polish and a coat of Johnson’s Klear) it looks absolutely spot on. This was the only non-standard part of building this kit, which gave me no problems whatsoever! Now add sprue rails for it, and an aft-mounted whip aerial. There are other minor points such as thin exhausts, spurious hinge lines across the elevator mass balances, dodgy wheel inner faces, excessively sharp radii to forward tips of wing and fin, but as ever check your original for radio masts and mirrors etc.

COLOUR SCHEME

I found a nice big image of ‘Lucky Leaky 2’ in a Squadron/Signal book and liked it. Then I found Superscale transfer sheet 72-418 even better - or so I thought! When the P-51B was introduced to the 8th AF it had snags, like unreliable guns and a restrictive view. North American tried to cure these with the updated, ‘improved,’ P-51D, but in the meantime the B was being refined both in the field and on the line. By the time the D arrived at the coalface, the guns had been tweaked and no longer seized. Many Bs had the RAF-standard Malcolm hood, which gave nearly as good a view as the D’s bubble. With a D you got two more guns, but less firing time, and (initially at least) you got undercarriage uplock problems which could be fatal. Therefore many pilots stuck with their Bs and Cs as long as they could, fitting the upgrades as they arrived. Many, for instance, received fin fillets, intended for Ds, but probably surplus because 9th AF weren’t using the rear fuselage tank and didn’t need them, and even tail-warning radar, as in ‘Leaky’s’ case. Those that survived into Spring 1945 got the full Group colour, plus the fact that she came to grief on my first birthday, made ‘Leaky’ an ideal subject. I started with an undercoat of Halford’s Nissan Silver, an old standby, because I find fingerprint powder a bit transparent. Oh dear! It’s opaque all right, but it brings out the moulding swirls a treat! Never mind, on with some clear gloss varnish, and brush on the powdered

aluminium, which looked awfully patchy, much worse than usual. Time for more action and as I began to rub my model with some I pan scrubbed it and somehow resolved the issue, bringing the finish into a nice uniform appearance. I printed my own versions of the scruffy hand-painted serial digits on the rudder, and found a starboard view (of the rear end at least) on the Internet, which enabled accurate placing of the codes etc, although I wasn’t happy with Superscale’s insignia, and actually used Monogram’s original. I don’t know where Superscale found that rapeseed-flower yellow, but I couldn’t match it when I painted the spinner. I then photocopied the chequers for a test fit, and knew where to cut them up to get a decent wrap round the nose. What I hadn’t spotted was where they ended, relative to the exhausts. There was just no way to make them fit! I compromised (I was half-way through by then) by losing the aft line of checks. It only shows if you really know your stuff, I suppose, but it’s most provoking.

CONCLUSION

It took a lot of work and some would say, why bother?, well I know have an early Mustang that is as accurate as I can make it, though no doubt by the time you read this someone will be planning a really accurate B/C out of the box.

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1/144 SOVIET SEAGULL

KIT INFO

xxx

MANUFACTURER Amodel SCALE 1/144 PANEL LINES Recessed 112 plastic, PARTS 12 clear, 33 photo-etched TYPE Injection Moulded STATUS New Tool Russian and DECAL OPTIONS 3 2 Ukrainian

Xxxx

Soviet Seagull Amodel’s 1/144th Beriev Be-12 by Mark Webster

I

received my copy of “Modern Miltary Aircraft” in the mid-80s, and I was intrigued by the grainy photos and vague drawings of Soviet aircraft - many of which we knew very little about in the West and seemed very mysterious to me at the time. One of these aircraft was the Beriev Be-12 Chayka (Seagull) - an amphibious flying boat with a gull wing with engines on top, a bizarre fuselage shape and a strange blue colour. I understand the Be-12 was originally an Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft - hence the extended MAD boom and nose radar. It now serves as a Search and Rescue aircraft. Fast forward to the 21st century and models are available of most of the Soviet-era aircraft from my book. Ukrainan manufacturer Amodel is one of the main suppliers of these Soviet types in 1/144 scale, including the Be-12.

THE MODEL

The kit features very nice, restrained surface details, though the sprues do have a lot of flash,

which needs to be carefully trimmed. The plastic landing gear. Decals look fairly basic but are printed is quite soft. I used Tamiya extra thin cement on clearly with no registration issues. To me, the this model, which melted the soft plastic parts blue of the Russian flag for the floats is too together nicely where the fit was not perfect. light, but it is difficult to really tell for sure from The surface of the parts was a bit scratched up photos. Markings are supplied for two Ukrainian or marred in some places (particularly the wing versions, and 3 Russian examples. centre sections) and this required some sanding The instructions are vague in some places to smooth over. regarding parts location. There are no part The kit supplies a full runner of ordnance to fit under the wings, and this includes both depth charges and bombs. The clear parts are nice and clear but are made from fairly brittle plastic so you need to be careful when preparing them. There is also a photo-etch fret covering the strakes Installing fuselage windows required for the waterline, some trimming. You can also see the various antennae and landing gear boxes installed here some actuators for the

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FEATURE

The tail wheel came in 3 parts…

numbers on the sprues, so you need to constantly refer to the instructions which contain a parts map. Painting guide is a bit rough and it’s difficult to see the panel lines in the guide for decal placement. Humbrol colours are used in the painting guide.

ASSEMBLY – FUSELAGE

The first order of business is to install the four clear doors and windows in the fuselage sides. A lot of trimming is required to get a good fit and to make sure the windows are flush with the sides. The windows are very small in these parts, and it would have simplified construction a fair bit to mould the fuselage solid and allow the builder to paint the windows black, especially as there are a lot of really small windows which aren’t supplied as clear parts and should be painted anyway. There are three windows to be installed in the hull bottom after closing the fuselage halves. These windows seem to be painted over in the plane I was modeling so I glued some plastic strip inside the fuselage to stop them from falling into the fuselage when being installed. The undercarriage bays are assembled and installed in the fuselage prior to the halves being joined. There’s no positive location for these, but the most important thing is to glue them solidly in more or less the same position left and right as the undercarriage attaches to them. The tail wheel is in three parts and needs to be installed prior to closing fuselage halves as well. I used a length of plastic rod for the middle part of the tail wheel leg as otherwise this would have been a butt join which looked very weak. The main fuselage parts were now glued together and you will find some areas where

Big gaps in the wing centre sections

Still not 100% perfect, but a lot better

I used plastic rod to strengthen the tail wheel

there the joining surfaces are sunken and will require some filler to make a smooth joint. I A fuselage spreader also noticed that the was used to improve wing-to-fuselage joint wing-to-fuselage fit was going to be a bit troublesome, so I ended up installing spacers to make the fuselage slightly wider and minimize the gaps between fuselage and wing.

ASSEMBLY - WINGS AND TAILPLANE

When assembling the wing centre sections, it was difficult to tell what was flash and what was supposed to be there. I did my best and ended up with some fairly major gaps which needed bringing out the filler again. The rest of the wing joint is fairly nice, though I did wish I’d sanded down the trailing edges of the wings a bit. The fit of the tailplane is not great and did require a lot of filling on top. The joint at the bottom is fairly rough but is thankfully fairly difficult to see on the finished product. Care needs to be taken to ensure the tailplanes and wing are aligned. The tailfins have to be perfectly vertical and so also need careful alignment.

“ The Beriev Be-12

Chayka (Seagull) - an amphibious flying boat with a gull wing with engines on top ”

A fair bit of work was required to ensure a good fit between the wing and fuselage

Once I had achieved all of this I installed the MAD tail boom, ensuring that this also had the correct alignment compared to my references.

ENGINES

The engine nacelles are assembled in an interesting manner. Two identical sprues are provided for the engines. The main bodies of the engines are identical, and left and right handed frames are added to the engine bodies so that they install onto the top of their respective wing. These are far from a perfect fit and need some sanding to make the curves smooth. I used copious amounts of Tamiya extra thin cement when installing to the top of the wing, as the glue melts the plastic which with a little sanding makes for a nice joint. The main engine intakes were provided as round tubs to be installed in the front of the WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2016 77

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1/144 SOVIET SEAGULL

There was a lot of flash on the parts - the example here is the control column before and after clean-up.

The unusual method of assembling the engine pods

After melting them into the wings, the fit of the engine nacelles was actually quite good Fit of the nose transparency Putty applied to top surfaces

Engine exhausts needed some blending in

Improving the fit of the tailplane

engine bodies and this worked really well. The main exhausts were also separate parts but the fit of these was not so good. It’s difficult to determine the exact location for the engine exhausts, but I eventually decided that the bottom of these should fit flush with the lower surface of the wing, and made sure the engine bodies aligned to the back of the wing.

TRANSPARENCIES

The nose glasshouse is made from left and right halves and installed to the front of the fuselage. I spent a fair amount of time trying to make the join between left and right halves smooth - a delicate task with transparent parts. The clear parts seemed to be wider than the nose section they were to fit into so a fair bit of trimming was required for a good join. The cockpit canopy design is good - the clear part also includes the area surrounding the canopy making it easy to fair it into the fuselage. With careful trimming the fit is really quite good. A cockpit interior is provided - including control panel, seats and control columns - and this is glued

Masking transparencies with Tamiya tape

Wing-to-fuselage joint after a fair bit of work

“ The cockpit canopy design is good and the

clear part also includes the area surrounding the canopy, making it easy to fair it into the fuselage ” to the canopy before being installed. I didn’t spend much time on the interior as the windows are small and barely anything can be seen.

FINISHING MAIN CONSTRUCTION The lower hull windows were installed and needed a fair bit of sanding to produce a good fit. Tamiya putty was now applied liberally to the wing/fuselage joints, the joint between fuselage halves, MAD boom, engine nacelle halves, tailplane and lower hull windows. Once satisfied with the overall smoothness of the main parts, I now installed the various intakes around the engines. It was at this stage I tried installing the brass lower hull strakes, but I could not for the life of me make these stick with superglue! Instead, I used the brass parts

as guides to cut strakes out of thin plastic sheet. This worked fairly well in my view and are much less likely to be dislodged from the model. The transparencies were now masked with Modelcraft tape, and the model was sprayed overall with Tamiya surface primer. Any final glitches were now fixed and we were ready for the paint shop. I was fearing the installation of the main undercarriage as these parts looked like they would be a flimsy and tricky construction but this stage went surprisingly smoothly. The landing gear doors were glued on first, followed by the main gear legs. These are only a butt join in the middle of the main legs, but ended up quite strong thanks to the soft plastic once again melting together using liquid cement. I now added the photo-etch actuators but the position

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FEATURE

of these was quite vague, but I think I got them more or less right and these parts do look good when installed. Overall assembly completed care was required to ensure the main parts were in alignment

PAINTING

White was the first colour - the propellers, MAD boom, nose radar, lower windows and waterline was sprayed white. I decided to mask the waterline stripes rather than use decals as masking tape makes for a straighter line and looks much better in my view. Masking of the propellers was quite complex (the middle white section was masked leaving the tip for yellow and leading edge black). My method was to use thin strips of tape to define the edges then Maskol to fill in the middle. Yellow was then painted on the spinner tips, propeller tips, main wheels and the square waterline stencil. I noticed from photos that there were yellow and red stripes on the main wheels and wanted to recreate these. Accordingly I masked small yellow patches on the wheels and ended up adding the red stripe from decal strip. I used small punches to create circular tape masks for the wheel centre sections, before painting the wheel centre sections with bright green. I also used circular tape made into cones to mask the yellow centre of the spinners. Nato black was now sprayed on the propeller leading edges, tyres and for the small hull

Primer applied - nose

windows, while red was used for the trim tabs on the flying surfaces. Now I needed to decide on The bottom hull what colour windows need a bit to use for the more work to blend in main fuselage and wing; my childhood memories were of a blue plane, but the recommendation in the instructions was Humbrol 141 light sea gray. I toyed with the idea of using Mr Color H337 (blue grey), but decided this would be too dark. In the end, I used H307 with a dash of middle blue and this looked about right to me. I now removed most of the masking, apart from the transparencies and white areas on the nose and tail. This is always a moment of truth

Primer applied - top

and I was pleased to see there was no paint bleed to speak of. I brushed on some Pledge gloss coat in preparation for the decals and this sealed the paintwork nicely.

DECALS

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1/144 SOVIET SEAGULL

Masking of the propellers I used cones made out of tape to mask the spinners

“ I don’t usually weather models in this scale, but looking at photos of the Be-12 it was clear that it is a dirty bird! ”

Completed propeller

Photo-etch applied to the landing gear covers

Landing gear covers attached to the hull

Using the brass as a master to make strakes out of plastic card

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FEATURE

Masking removed - white cheat line and yellow stencil

Main colour applied

Masking removed red trim tabs

Masking completed

difficult, The decals needed to settle into some recessed areas and they didn’t respond much to setting agents. I used scrap bits of decal to make white markings on the tailfins. Unfortunately these seemed to disintegrate so maybe in hindsight I should have masked these! I don’t usually weather models in this scale, but looking at photos of the Be-12 it was clear that it is a dirty bird! I used Tamiya Weather Master pastels to blacken up the tailfins and under the wings. I then used a sharpened 2B pencil to define the panel lines on the engine bodies and the control surfaces. The model now received an overall coat of Vallejo Matt Acrylic varnish.

FINAL PARTS INSTALLATION

I had installed a couple of the small photo-etch antennae. However, these seemed to fall off all too easily so once again I decided to make all

Yellow and green areas were masked ahead of tyres being painted black

the antennae out of thin plastic sheet. This took a while but I was far happier with the result. I had downloaded some plans for the Be-12 from the internet and these showed a slightly different set of antennae to the ones indicated by Amodel, perhaps a later fit? The plans accorded more closely to my reference photos so I went with the antennae as per the plans, I now added plastic rod for the wing pitot tubes.

Finished wheels with red decals applied

APU drilled out and masked There were not many decals to be applied

I noticed from photos that there were a lot of red tie-downs and handles on the airframe. I decided to add these as they add interest to what is otherwise a fairly monochrome finish. I used a tiny drill bit to make holes in thin plastic sheet, I then trimmed these to produce the tiny handles. I glued some of these directly onto the airframe, and others onto a small square base of plastic, as per photos.

CONCLUSION

The Amodel kit is a fine basis for a model with great surface detail. Someone more experienced with photo-etch could probably have used these to great effect without making the strakes and antennae out of plastic card as I did. The model is a bit rough in parts, but with patience this can easily be overcome. All in all this kit was a very satisfying build and is definitely recommended. WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • JANUARY 2016 81

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1/48 MEW GULL

Gulliver’s Travels

(With apologies to Jonathan Swift)

Heritage Aviation Models 1/48th Percival Aviation Mew Gull by Andy Hazell

E

very now and then we all need a change and this time I decided to go rather radical by my usual standards, civil aviation, 1/48th scale and most unusually a resin kit. Which brings us nicely to Heritage Aviation Models’ Percival Mew Gull.

THE HISTORY BIT

Air racing was a glamour sport in the period prior to WW2 and attracted vast crowds and media coverage, the Schneider Trophy being one of the premier events on which national pride was staked annually in the international arena, with R.J. Mitchell’s Supermarine S.6B taking the ultimate glory and permanent retention of the award. While the King’s Cup Air Race was a smaller domestic competition, restricted to British and Commonwealth aviators, it was still considered a “Blue Ribbon” event. The race is still run to this day and continues to generate a large following. However, in the pre-war “Golden Age” of aviation, crowds were larger and one of the star competitors was the Percival

Mew Gull. The Mew Gull was a small single-engine monoplane of most pleasing streamlined proportions, incorporating a fully enclosed cockpit and faired fixed undercarriage. Power was usually supplied by a de Havilland Gypsy Six motor. It is generally accepted that only six were built in total, but crashes, write-offs and subsequent rebuilds always confuse the picture somewhat. The subject of this build is Mew Gull G-AEXF as flown by Alex Henshaw to his 1938 win in the previously mentioned King’s Cup Air Race.

THE KIT

The kit consists of just 7 resin parts for the mainframe and cockpit with another 4 white metal parts for the propeller and undercarriage, in addition to the vac-form canopy (a second spare thoughtfully included for the inevitable mistakes, more on this later) and a stunning set of decals for A-GEXF in 1938 King’s Cup configuration.

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FEATURE

THE BUILD

Dry fitting of the resin parts indicated an excellent fit with the exception of the tail, which came attached to a moulding block the size of a small mountain. I was concerned that removal would result in inevitable destruction, however with careful and

protracted use of a razor saw the tail was delicately removed intact. Any moulding gates or lines were removed using a sanding stick and water to aid as a lubricant and more importantly to eliminate the creation of any resin dust. The white metal parts were cleaned using small metal working files and polished with emery cloth.

ASSEMBLY

Now with just 12 parts to contend with, things were always going to go together pretty rapidly. Superglue gel was use to glue the main resin airframe and undercarriage into position, the

“ Now with just 12 parts to contend with, things were always going to go together pretty rapidly ”

beauty of this adhesive is that there is a couple of minutes “wriggle” room to align everything up correctly before the glue sets solid. Within an hour the airframe was complete. A little Squadron Signal White Filler was used around the tailplane and some PVA glue to fill in some hairline gaps around the wing roots.

PAINTING

I decided to paint the project first and fit the cockpit at the end, using the “ship in a bottle” approach, simply as the fuselage was moulded as a single piece with just a hollowed-out aperture for the “office” workspace. A couple of coats of Halfords White Plastic Primer was used as a base. I just used the rattle can as provided, the

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1/48 MEW GULL

thought of decanting for use in an airbrush and all the cleaning down afterwards is more effort than I can be bothered with, yes I am just plain lazy! Next the nose was sprayed with Halfords Aluminium, followed with a couple of coats of Johnson’s Klear to prevent lifting after it was masked with Tamiya tape. Next came two coats of Halfords Appliance White applied as the overall colour. I now left the model for a week, to ensure the finish was thoroughly dry. The wing tips were masked off and airbrushed Satin Black using Lifecolor acrylic, followed by two coats of Johnson’s Klear to seal the finish and provide a smooth foundation for decaling.

COCKPIT DECALS

The decals were superb. They behaved perfectly and settled down evenly with the use of Micro Sol. I am not sure who supplied Heritage with the decal sheet, but they are some of best I have used. A final coat of Johnson’s Klear sealed everything into place and Lifecolor Matt Black was applied with a brush to contrast the exhaust ports and air intake grill. Very dark grey was used for the tyres and the propeller was finished with Halford’s Aluminium straight from the rattle can.

Fortunately there are some excellent references for the Mew Gull on the web and a couple of pictures of the cockpit were soon located. The interior was brush painted Lifecolor Interior Green and the seat dark brown with some tape belts added. The kit dash was used, painted dark grey with black dials and dots of Johnson’s Klear for the glass. Rather than use the kit floor, I scratch built some of the interior with reference to the photographs. As I was building the project with the canopy closed, I limited additional detail to rudder bar, pedals and control column.

THE VAC-FORM CANOPY

Nothing scares me more than vacuum formed canopies. Well, with the possible exception of Spielberg’s “Jaws” back in 1975, which had me so frightened I watched half the film hiding behind the seat in front. After all I was only 10 at the time and had sneaked in underage to watch it! The first canopy was soon wrecked when I stupidly cut it too short. I was much more careful with the second, cut oversize and carefully filed with a sanding stick to fit and 3 coats of Johnson’s Klear to enhance clarity. I spotted the canopy into place with superglue gel and filled the gaps with PVA glue. Framing was achieved with white decal strips and a final coat of Klear fixed them into position.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What an absolute pleasure the Mew Gull was to build. Granted I took my time, probably 4 months in total to complete it. I try to set aside something that I can work on just when I need that “special fix” that comes from working on a project that is just going perfectly. The enjoyment and satisfaction just lifts the spirits after “a bad day at the office”? The finished model is very small. Even in 1/48th it looks more like 1/72nd which illustrates how diminutive the aircraft actually was. While at the RAF Museum at Hendon a couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to see their excellent replica of G-AEXF and Heritage has captured the Gull’s likeness exactly. Unfortunately the Mew Gull is currently out of production from Heritage Aviation, but maybe if enough people ask they could be persuaded to tool up for another run? 84 JANUARY 2016 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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1/72 LTV A-7H CORSAIR II

LTV A-7H CORSAIR II HobbyBoss’ 1/72nd Corsair in tiger scheme by Dick Clark THE KIT

This kit is one of HobbyBoss’s excellent highly detailed offerings, albeit with a few odd inaccuracies and omissions which seem to typify this range – but more of that later. Inside the top-opening box are five crisply-moulded sprues of grey plastic, one small clear sprue, a clear fold-out instruction leaflet with a separate colour sheet for painting and decaling … and one amazing set of decals! Eduard set SS377 was added; this is one of their excellent, self-adhesive, pre-painted cockpit sets, intended for the A-7E. That should be fine for the A-7H, which is basically the Greek export version of the same aircraft.

CONSTRUCTION

For once, construction does not have to begin with the cockpit. Stage one of the build consists of several sub-assemblies that need to be built

before fixing into the right fuselage half. These include a section of intake trunking which curves upwards and which has the roof of the nose-wheel well as part of the moulding. The sides and ends of the well are added to this (it is not clear from the instructions that these come as two parts, since they are only shown as if joined together – so don’t spend ages searching for it as one part!). This trunking features (or rather, doesn’t) the first rather disappointing omission, since it ends in a blank that is clearly visible looking down the trunking of the finished model. The instructions suggest adding the nose-wheel assembly at this stage but, while one can assemble it now, it is much better left out until after painting and decaling. The main undercarriage bays are another four-piece sub-assembly, the

Intake trunking and nose-wheel well sub-assembly.

KIT INFO

Inside the right fuselage half nose section. The sidewall detail is the only part of the instrument panels to have any moulded-on detail at all. Don’t worry about all those ejector-pin marks; none will show.

MANUFACTURER HobbyBoss SCALE 1/72 MODEL NUMBER 87206

Main wheel well sub-assembly.

Intake trunking and wheel well sub-assemblies fixed in the right fuselage half.

The cockpit tub dressed up with the Eduard detailing set.

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FEATURE

“ This kit was a pleasure to build as most parts fitted easily and precisely ”

View of the completed model with ferry-tanks fitted as seen on several photographs of the real aircraft.

The fuselage closes up well although needing several clamps and bits of tape to hold it together while the glue sets.

Inside the right fuselage half with all subassemblies and lead weight installed. The outside of the left fuselage half is shown above, with Sidewinder rail and trunking fixed.

tail-pipe another two-piece section and, yes, one does have to build the cockpit up as well. Here we find the greatest omission of detail, the instrument panel and side consoles being totally devoid of moulded detail. There are decals to give representations of these panels, which are good but which can only ever be two-dimensional. The Eduard set makes a huge difference to this area. The instructions also suggest assembling the wings at this stage, although these can just as well be left until the fuselage halves are setting. But, whenever you

The only area needing significant filling is between the nose and main wheel wells. There is more, finer work still to be done, including cleaning out and re-scribing panel lines.

build them, be sure to drill out Close-up of the nose section with the holes for the cockpit and intake sub-assemblies, pylons first. It is and lead weight, fixed in position. also recommended that one assemble the main undercarriage legs at this stage but this really does not seem sensible, as it will not be possible to ensure that everything is correctly aligned without actually attaching them to the airframe. Before attaching these subassemblies to the right fuselage half View of the completed cockpit assembly it is necessary to drill out location with the Eduard detailing set. The main holes for the trunking which fixes instrument panel needs to be twisted gently along the sides of both fuselage into place but snaps in quite precisely.

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“ The decals are top quality, settling into the fine surface detail really well, with minimal need for setting solutions ”

The fuselage and wings assembled, with the canopy also fixed and masked ready for painting.

White primer applied and the model masked in preparation for spraying the black. Left upper wing and tail fin decals applied. This is a nice, easy start just to get you warmed up for the fight to come! Black paint applied, masking removed and a gloss coat applied in preparation for decalling.

Underside view of the model masked in preparation for spraying the black. The wings are not exposed; they are covered with plain printer paper.

halves, for the refuelling probe and for a blister behind the main wheel-wells; these are clearly marked on the instructions. But Beware! You also need to drill out holes for the Sidewinder missile rails just behind the cockpit. These are included in the kit but not in the instructions; photo references (and the box-top illustration) show that they ought to be present. Likewise a blister behind the nose-wheel bay, and a hole for part D25 should you wish to add it. The refuelling probe, fuselage trunking and Sidewinder rails are best fitted before closing up the fuselage halves, as liquid glue can be applied through the location holes from the inside, allowing capillary action to draw the glue along for a perfect join. However, doing so will cause problems with the decaling later on; this will be discussed in greater depth at the

decaling stage of this feature. You have to make a choice here; I will try to help make that an informed choice. The locations for all these sub-assemblies are excellent; precise and positive. Once all is fixed in place it only remains to superglue a small amount of weight behind the office and above the intake trunking (here using lead strip intended for weighing down aquarium plants). Now the fuselage halves can be joined together. Whilst these do fit together quite well, a little fettling may be required around the main wheelwells and quite a bit of clamping and taping is required to persuade the two halves to stay together while the glue sets. The only significant area needing filling is along the seam between nose and main undercarriage bays, although on another variant of this kit I needed almost no filler anywhere, so perhaps this was an unlucky

one! Note that there is a protuberance on the left-hand side below the cockpit canopy which photo references show is not present on the real aircraft; remove this with a knife and file (there is an aperture for this on the side decal which will have to be touched in). The wings are added next; a small degree of sanding may be required along the underside of the wing root in order to get the upper side to fit flush with the fuselage, and a smear of filler may still be required once the glue has set to perfect this join. And that is as far as one wants to go with construction before tackling the simple painting and complicated decaling this kit requires.

PAINTING AND DECALING

Painting is relatively simple. The whole model is given a coat of matt white primer. When dry any final imperfections can be corrected and a final coat of white applied if necessary. The lower surfaces are then masked off and black applied to the upper surfaces. The decals are

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FEATURE

Right lower wing decal applied. These tiger stripes demand great care if they are not to fold under themselves.

The right-hand fuselage decal was applied in one piece, aligned with the edge of the tail-pipe and the horizontal tail mounting. Decal softening solution is needed to get it to conform to the shape of the fuselage, but the decal begins to break up quite easily.

The decal should align with the lower edge of the cockpit canopy, but by the time the rest of it had been worked into the side detail it settled lower down. This error required touching in by brush to correct. It is also very difficult to get the decal to conform to the intake lip.

perfectly opaque, so there need be no worries that the demarcation between black and white will show through. However, it is advisable to carry the black around the leading edges as the decals do not wrap around, which can leave a difficult-to-touch-in demarcation. The various undercarriage doors, access panels and pylons are best painted and decaled on the sprue; it is probably better to give the pylons a coat of black. The electronics bays are given a couple of coats of Tamiya XF-4 Yellow-Green and the various compartments carefully picked out in matt black by brush. A very light dry-brushing of silver simulates a bit of wear and tear, and a few knobs and switches can be picked out in red for

Moving further along, the decal breaks up further as it is worked around the side detail.

The left-hand side decal was cut into sections in an attempt to alleviate the alignment and break-up problems. This first section has only broken where it has to fit around the rearmost point of the trunking.

The second section was cut at the front corner of the main wheel well. It has still broken up during the attempt to get it to conform to the trunking.

a touch of interest as required. Finish by giving the model a coat of gloss varnish or Klear in preparation for decals. Now the real fun starts. The decals are top quality, settling into the fine surface detail really well, with minimal need for setting solutions except around particularly pronounced details – but there are plenty of those, so be warned. However, the decals are very thin and have a nasty tendency to fold under themselves. This can be particularly problematical on some of the thin tendrils of the black tiger-stripes. Apply the wing, tailplane and fin decals first. Apply the top of one wing and the bottom of the other, allow to set, then reverse the process. Do be careful with the under-wing tiger stripes as

The section between the main wheel well and the access panel was applied as one piece; this broke around the rear of the Sidewinder rail. The next section was cut through the centre of the yellow section immediately below the leading edge wing root and broke between the missile rail and the trunking. Note also the misalignment under the wing.

they can fold under themselves very easily, and are a devil to unfold! Let these set and seal them with a coat of varnish to protect them. Now for the tricky part... The decals for the fuselage sides are very long and consequently very awkward to apply. The ends of the tiger stripes, which have the same tendency to fold under themselves, exacerbate these difficulties. They will be much easier to apply if one chooses not to attach the Sidewinder rails and fuselage trunking until after decalling, but then one is faced with the problem of having to paint these parts separately, having to match the yellow (regrettably, no colour-reference is given for this yellow). If this path is chosen, assuming the modeller has been able to match the yellow,

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1/72 LTV A-7H CORSAIR II

The front section of the decal fits over the mysterious lug below the canopy, which does help to align it correctly. However, this lug is not present on the real aircraft and should be removed before this stage of proceedings! This section of the decal ought to line up correctly without this guide anyway.

Pylons, undercarriage doors, access panels and tailplanes (apart from the one that fell off!) all painted and decalled on the sprue.

paint the parts yellow, attach to the model once the rest of the decaling is completed, then touch in the black where it is required. This may also be a lot easier if you attach the wings after the fuselage is decaled and touched in. In order to render these decals easier to apply, assuming one has opted to fix the trunking and missile rails prior to this stage (as was done here), it is better to cut the decal into sections and apply one after another. If one has chosen to model the access-panel doors closed it will be better to apply the decals to these

Retouching under way.

doors first and align the main decal sections with these, otherwise mismatches are highly likely! On the other hand, if they are modelled open mismatches will only be a problem on the upper undercarriage doors, where mismatches are likely to be a problem anyway. Whichever method you choose, a decision has to be made as to where you align the decals up to. The decal does not precisely cover the area actually covered by the design on the real aircraft; this is especially apparent around the roots of the horizontal tailplanes. But the rearmost edge of the decal has to align with the edge of the tailpipe, so this is your most logical datum point. If you are attempting to apply the decal in one piece, you have to align the other end with the sill of the cockpit canopy. Setting solution will be necessary to wrap the decal around the intake lip and even so folds will be difficult to eradicate; it might be better to cut extra snips into the front edge of the decal in this area, before starting to apply it, to help it settle here. If you have opted to affix the missile rails and trunking prior to painting and decaling, setting solution will be required to help work the decal around these parts. Even so, breaking-up of the decal is all but inevitable. I would suggest that you try to cut the decal along the lower edges

“ Very little weathering is required on this model – one of the joys of special schemes! ”

This lug should be removed before any painting is even begun!

of the rails and trunking, working it in along the upper edges as the undersides will be easier to touch in by brush later. This is definitely easier if you cut the decal into shorter sections. In this case, the right-side decal was applied as one piece, while the left side was applied in several sections. Cuts were made at strategic points such as at the corners of access panels (and mismatches between fuselage and access panels and undercarriage doors still occurred, whichever method was used). These side decals would have been much better if they had been designed and printed in sections in the first place. This is my biggest criticism of this kit. But I also feel I have to criticise the rendition of the tiger-stripe decals generally; they are by no means precise copies of the originals, as study of reference photos clearly shows. It is logical to refer to photographs of the real aircraft to aid in placement of the decals, but then one realises that the decals are not accurate representations. Having realised that, one can accept that a precise replica is not achievable and one need not be too precise in your retouching. This comes as quite a relief! Once these decals are settled as well as they are ever going to settle, with the aid of much setting solution, all need to be sealed with Klear before an extensive retouching session. Several yellows were tried here but sadly none quite matched the kit’s colours. In the end a tub of yellow as supplied with an Airfix ASR Sea King set, lightened with a drop of white, was my best attempt.

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FEATURE

Left main undercarriage door. This close-up shows the misalignment of the decals, despite the fuselage decal having been cut to align exactly with the corner of the wheel bay.

Right main undercarriage door. The misalignment here is not so bad, the side decal having been applied in one piece, but still the two decals do not line up properly.

Below the left wing after much retouching. The stripes between the fuselage and main wheel door have been made to line up by infilling with black paint.

The underside of the completed model. One of the inaccuracies noted is that the tail-planes have one too many tiger-stripes!

The remainder of the decals are blissfully easy to apply. Those tigers on the tailfin are really something! There is almost no stencilling on this aircraft as it was all covered up by the custom paint-job. There are some tiny red lights to apply to the fuselage. As previously stated, all access doors and pylons are decaled on the sprue (setting solution will be needed to help the decals settle around the attachment stubs on the pylons – you’ll see what I mean if you try it!). Everything is sealed with another coat of Klear, after which the undercarriage and access doors etc are fixed in place. This is where the mismatches show up, so yet more retouching is necessary.

access hatch on the left side; one reference photo showed a stay of some kind, although the representation here, made from 10 x 20 thou plastic strip, is something of a guess! Very little weathering is required on this model – one of the joys of special schemes! Gaps along control surfaces were picked out using a 2B pencil giving a fine, not-too-heavy line, and a water-based dark grey wash was applied inside wheel wells, doors and access panels. The final finish is unclear from reference photos – sometimes it looks very shiny and other times quite dull, so perhaps a satin finish would be most appropriate. Once this has been applied the canopy masking can be removed. There is a decal for the tiger-striping across the front of the canopy which is best applied at this stage; it can be sealed in with a little brush-applied varnish. The instructions do not call for the yellow window surround decals to be added, but reference photos suggest they should be on the windscreen panes at least. They are very fiddly, so add them if you feel up to it! Navigation lights can be picked out in red and green paint, not forgetting the large light atop the fuselage

“ With a degree of

skill and a large dose of patience, a really spectacular result can be achieved ”

DETAILING AND FINISHING

There are some prominent aerials and pitots missing from the kit altogether – another odd omission for such an otherwise accurate kit. These can be scratch-built using plastic strip and rod or piano-wire – any moulded-on aerials broken off during painting can also be replaced at this stage! A stay can be made for the forward

and the smaller one on the blister behind the nose-wheel. When dry, these and the four red fuselage lights applied as decals can be given a touch of gloss varnish. Some photographs show the aircraft with large ferry tanks slung from the inboard pylons. These are included in the kit, so they can be added if desired. They do help hide any imperfections in the retouching along the sides and on the main wheel doors!

CONCLUSIONS

This kit is a pleasure to build, most parts fitting easily and precisely. The cockpit can benefit greatly from the help of the Eduard set but otherwise detail is generally very good indeed. However, the complexity of application of those side decals mean the model can really only be recommended to intermediate modellers with some experience of working with such large decals, and with the patience for much retouching afterwards (or, with the skill to mix paint to match the yellow to enable the trunking and missile rails to be added after decalling – and the retouching caveat still applies!). But given a degree of skill and a large dose of patience a really spectacular result can be attained. Just don’t expect it to be a precise replica of the real thing.

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In association with

MODELS TO TELL A STORY

Models

to tell a story... Allied Fighters April to June 1940 (Norway and France); a correction, conundrum and a museum piece by Alec Smith

D

ue to space and time restrictions, this month will be a much smaller ‘story’ that will cover a correction, a conundrum and a museum piece. All of the subjects fit into a couple of the preceding articles but in slightly different ways. Firstly starting with a model featured in the first instalment, I have a correction or possibly just an update for one of the fighters in the article, that of the 263 Squadron Gloster Gladiator N5579 from the April 1940 expedition to Norway. No sooner had the article been submitted than I go and find a picture of the real aircraft on the back of a lorry being transported away from Lake Lesjaskog through a Norwegian town or village. The initial pictures I used were of it abandoned on the edge of the lake. These initial pictures appeared to show there to be no code letters on the fuselage. HOWEVER! On being able to digitally enlarge the images the fuselage side panel can just be made out lying on the lower wing. “Why is this important?” I hear you ask. The picture showing N5579 on the lorry show it with said panel back in place, and the squadron codes can now be clearly seen!! There is also a different picture from the same time in the new

book by Alex Crawford and MMP Books ‘263 Squadron, Gladiators Over The Fjords’. Following seeing these pictures I have now coded N5579 correctly HE-D, all other details have remained the same. The next subject is the conundrum; it is a model of another 263 Squadron Gloster Gladiator and once again from their first and rather ill fated Norway deployment. The model is based on a single picture that has appeared in print several times, along with several discussions with

“ The decals came from two sources – Frog and Print Scale ” other modellers and historians with understanding of the time and subject. The Gladiator in question is coded HE-K. The available picture seems to show the fuselage in a light colour, as well as showing shadow shaded camouflage on both wings, and that the undersides are in the standard black and white. For many years there has been an almost constant belief that the Gladiators sent over to Norway were painted with a Fleet Air Arm style light grey on the fuselage sides and possibly the tail. However, very little confirming evidence has appeared to back this up. However, there is this picture, reportedly of HE-K, and apparently a larger version of the picture exists that shows more of the fuselage

including the individual letter and possible the serial, however I have yet to see this version. I have built HE-K using the new Airfix kit, and painted it up to match the scheme in the picture with the conclusion reached after all of the discussions were over and other options excluded. Therefore it is in standard RAF pattern shadow shaded Dark Earth, Dark Green, Light Earth and Light Green on the relevant wing upper surfaces, with Dark Earth and Green fuselage uppers. The undersides are in Night and White. However for the areas on the fuselage sides and the vertical tail where the Light Earth and Green should be I have used FAA Sky Grey. The decals used came from 2 sources, an old

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FEATURE Frog Gladiator sheet for the wing roundels and the applicable items from the Print Scale Gladiator sheet for the fuselage codes and roundels. (Print Scale would have you paint the camouflage colours as the later wartime greys and Dark Green). Personally I am happy with the outcome of HE-K. I think the scheme matches the picture well enough. I also feel that the story that floated around for many years that the real aircraft had Sky Grey fuselage sides in Norway in April 1940 needed a source, and therefore I personally believe that this could well be that source. There could be many reasons for the repainting; the most likely conclusion reached in discussion was the following: It was a late replacement from another unit, and the existing codes were overpainted en route to Norway aboard HMS Glorious by the ship’s aircraft maintenance personnel. They would have used paint available to them, and in a way that would both work on the aircraft and in a way they were used to. In reality we shall probably never know the truth, but it does create a different model and a talking point! The final model of the set is one that could have been included in part 3; for it is an aircraft used by 607 Squadron RAF in the Battle of France. However it also has another important significance, it not only survived the Battle of France, and then the Battle of Britain, its historical importance was recognised during WW2 and it was allocated ‘For Museum Purposes’ whilst with 76MU in 1944. The subject in question is Hawker Hurricane P2617, coded AF-F and now proudly displayed at the RAF Museum Hendon, and is reportedly the only surviving Battle of France combatant extant. There is a well detailed history

of P2617 available online from the RAF Museum and it does make for an interesting read. It confirms that it saw combat in France until evacuation on around May 20th 1940 after being sent over as new equipment replacing the Squadrons Gladiators in April 1940. If I am being picky, (and in a way I am!) it is worth pointing out that P2617 which was an early Gloster-

built metal wing Hurricane Mk I is displayed slightly inaccurately. As would be expected for an airframe that survived for so long during wartime there have been some updates. The two most obvious are the later knuckled style tail wheel and later Mk II style long spinner and Rotol propeller. There

is also a debate on the underside paint scheme, as instead of being just Night/White on the underside the fuselage and tailplanes are in Aluminium, which was a much earlier and rather short lived style more applicable to L-serial fabric wing Mk Is. As per the other metal wing Hurricane M Is I used the Hasegawa kit, but with the propeller and spinner from one of their Mk II kits. If anyone can shed any more light on HE-K via a copy of a larger image, or other images and confirmed information, I would love to see it. Please pass it on via the editorial address. The story will continue next month with quite possibly the most chaotic and confused chapter, that of the Arme de l’Air fighters in May 1940.

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BOOKS AND MEDIA

Books & Media Panels

INFO

This is a new venture from Ammo of Mig, following on from their Weathering Magazine; this new title will focus just on aircraft. It is proposed that it will cover aircraft of all eras including some space craft and sci-fi, hence the inclusion of an X-Wing in this first issue. Also in this first issue are a MiG-29 Fulcrum, a Hellcat, a T-2 Buckeye, an Fw 190A-5 and F-15J. Al of ISSUE 1 the models are by well-known names in PUBLISHER Ammo of Mig the modelling world ISSN 2340-289X and are quality builds www.theweatheringaircraft.com with step-by-step photos, and as you would expect a lot of the products used are Mig products, but not exclusively so. One aspect I did find a little misleading is the cover which features a MiG-15 and as I have one on my bench I was hoping for some tips… There is a 4 page section on panel lines over metal finishes, using a wing as a test piece, but I personally would have liked more. But I know you cannot please everybody all of the time! One thing I would have liked is a bit more information on the kits used, as apart from one the scale or manufacturer is not given, so you are left to work out the scale from the paint pots in the pictures. As has been customary with the Weathering Magazine, this offshoot also features a scantily clad young lady in a selection of tasteful pin-up poses throughout the magazine. I appreciate this may not be to everybody’s taste but it certainly does not detract from the overall content of the magazine. Recommended as an inspirational read, I look forward to seeing what the future issues will contain; the next issue will feature chipping techniques. My thanks to Ammo of Mig for the review copy.

Worldwide Military No.5

INFO

This new CD from Aero Research has 156 diverse images of worldwide military aircraft of the last 40 years or so. Countries represented are as diverse as Cameroon, Thailand, Morocco, Venezuela as well as the more mainstream UK, Canada, and Germany to name SERIES Military Series but a few. The types represented are just CAT. NO. 1066 as diverse, with jets, PUBLISHER Aero Research Co. props and helicopters www.AeroResearchCDs.com all represented. The [email protected] photos of the RAF Victors caught my eye, especially with the new Airfix announcement in mind! As usual from this source you get a CD packed with diverse images of diverse types, some in special schemes, most in standard schemes, and plenty of inspiration. My thanks to Aero Research for supplying the review copy.

Colour and Markings Volume 1

US Navy F-14 Tomcat Part 1 Atlantic Fleet Squadrons My first ever Detail and Scale book purchase was the original Colour and Markings volume of this title and it is still on my shelf, along with about 40 other titles from this publisher, so I have always been a bit of a fan. Now the first digital version of the Colour and Markings series covers the same ground as my original Tomcat book. And wow, is it different from the original that contained about 300 photos mostly in black and white while the new title has well over 700 in full colour. And this is before we include the artwork, which includes profiles and squadron badges. The original had a mere 64 pages while the new digital book has 500, and amazingly this new title sells for the same price I paid for over 30 years ago. Now I have really come to appreciate the digital format even more so that my daughter has taught me how to take a screen shot on my iPad so I can print out the original image for use on my work bench. (PRESS Home and Power button together, thanks Emma) I also like that you get an index at the bottom of the screen so you can easily jump to the correct chapter for the 20 plus squadrons and test units covered in this title. If you have never tried an electronic reference book before for your Kindle or iPad, this is a great place to start as who does not love the Tomcat with its combination of good looks and attractive squadron heraldry even during the lowviz greys period, where you also get the chance to weather a model to death using the clear high quality reference photographs contained in this volume. Our thanks to Rock Roszak for giving me the opportunity for reviewing this title which can be ordered from iTunes or Amazon’s Kindle store, and I really hope we do not have to wait too long for the second part covering the Pacific coast squadrons, including my two favourite F-14 Units, VF-1 Wolfpack and VF-111 Sundowners.

Cross and Cockade International The First World War Aviation Historical Society The Cross and Cockade calendar has become a bit of an institution for me, with one gracing the wall of my workshop now for the last 8 years. The calendar is superbly printed featuring 12 colour reproductions of work by well-known First World War aviation artists. The 2016 Calendar features work by Roger Middlebrook, Roy Cross, James Field, Terry Jones, Ron Cole, Barry Barnes, Russell Smith, Andrew Dillon, Ivan Berryman, Mark Postlethwaite, Simon Smith and Keith Woodcock. YEAR 2016 One of my favourites from the 2016 calendar is August, which features Sopwith Dolphins, by Andrew Dillon. PUBLISHER Cross and Cockade Profits from the calendar go to funding The British Air FORMAT Calendar Services Memorial at St-Omer. If you are interested in www.crossandcockade.com First World War aircraft then this calendar is a must for your workshop wall and can be ordered from www. crossandcockade.com. My thanks to Cross and Cockade for supplying the review copy.

INFO

The Weathering Aircraft

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JANUARY 2016 Images of War

V-Weapons Bomber Command

American Eagles US Fighter Pilots in the RAF 1939-1945 Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

INFO

This book takes a look at, what for me, is a lesser known aspect of the Second World War, the Bomber Command raids on the German V-weapons sites. More specifically the book stands as a written memorial to the bomber crews who undertook Steve Bond, Steve these missions and did not return. The book makes Darlow, Sean Feast, use of family archives as well as official archives and AUTHOR Marc Hall, Robert presents a very moving personal account of the crews Owen and Howard Sandall lost. The book is illustrated throughout with images YEAR 2015 of the crews, the targets, the aircraft they flew and in some cases the graves as were and as are now. One PUBLISHER Fighting High Ltd image from the book stood out for me, that of a quite ISBN 978-0-9926207-9-0 pond surrounded by grass and bushes, a reminder of FORMAT 127pp Hard back how nature can heal a landscape, as that pond is the water-filled crater from a tallboy bomb dropped during the war. The book ends with a very stark reminder of the cost of war, giving the numbers of Allied aircraft and aircrew lost in the raids, 2,924 airmen. With a book like this I find it hard to say I enjoyed it, not because it is not well written, but because enjoy is not the right word, it is a very moving account and relates to operations which should be more widely known. My thanks to Fighting High Ltd for the review copy.

The Avro Manchester The Legend Behind the Lancaster

INFO

This is the second and revised edition of this definitive work on the Avro Manchester, the lesser known precursor to the more famous Avro Lancaster. The book was first published in 1995 and this second edition benefits from 20 years of further research on the subject. The book is illustrated with almost 200 images, many of which are new to this edition. The book looks at the full history of the AUTHOR Robert Kirby Manchester, from its development, entry into service, operations, and its removal from service due to Edition, YEAR Second revised 2015 engine problems. It continues with the type’s return to service, its subsequent raids and its retirement PUBLISHER Fonthill Media Limited to second line service. The book has five new ISBN 978-1-78155-285-8 appendices, including aircraft losses by unit and FORMAT 509pp Hard back individual aircraft histories. I fail to see how this book can be bettered and it must stand as the definitive history of the type. Highly recommended, my thanks to Fonthill Media Ltd for supplying the review copy.

Legends of Aviation in 3D 1

SMI Library 11

P-51/F-6 Mustangs with the USAAF-European Theatre of Operations The text of this book and the photo captions are bilingual English/Polish. The book opens with a description of the type’s deployment in Europe, followed by 55 pages of black and white photos of Mustangs showing them on the ground, with and without ground crew and equipment as well as air-to-air views. There are 10 pages of AUTHOR Tomasz Szlagor contemporary colour photos and to YEAR 2015 round the book off PUBLISHER Kagero there are 5 pages of ISBN 978-83-64596-68-1 colour profiles, two FORMAT 88pp Soft back to a page, with a further two profiles on the back cover. Photographic reference books like this are so valuable if you are making a model as there is no substitute for looking at the real thing to get those little details and weathering right. As a bonus the book has a set of paint masks for stars and bars in 1/32 scale. There have been many books on the Mustang over the years, but from a modelling point of view as this book is mainly photographic it will be a valuable addition to your references if you are building the type. My thanks to Kagero for supplying the review copy.

INFO

Fokker Dr.I

As the title images of war would suggest, this book is a predominantly photographic look at American pilots who served with the RAF during the Second World War. Each image which has been sourced from archives around the world both official and private has a comprehensive caption accompanying it. AUTHOR Tony Holmes The images show mostly Spitfires and YEAR 2015 Hurricanes and the and Sword PUBLISHER Pen personnel who flew Aviation and serviced them, ISBN 978-1-47383-566-5 as well as some FORMAT 140pp Soft back views of German aircraft shot down by American pilots. The final section on night fighters has images of Mosquitos and Beaufighters, amongst others. The informative captions make this a very approachable book which you can dip in and out of and which has many images to inspire potential dioramas, as many of the images show ground crew and the associated ground equipment. If the subject appeals this will be a welcome addition to your bookshelf. My thanks to Pen and Sword for supplying the review copy.

INFO

Failed to Return

The aces’ aircraft

INFO

The first 36 pages of this book deal with the historical background of the type, looking at its development and the various prototypes, followed by the type in combat and then a section on its construction. The rest of the book, however, is devoted to colour profiles, threequarter views and CAD renderings of the internal J. Kowalski structure, engines, guns etc… The last few pages have AUTHOR Tomasz and Marek Ryś 3D anaglyphs; to which end a pair of 3d glasses is YEAR Second Edition 2015 provided. I must confess that I did not find these images any better than the rendered CAD images which are PUBLISHER Kagero superb, some of the best I have ever seen. ISBN 978-83-64596-29-2 If you have a model of the Fokker Triplane on FORMAT 140pp Hard back your bench or in your stash then this book will be very useful as the internal detail images are fantastic, even more useful if you have the Eduard skeleton kit of the type. Highly recommended. My thanks to Kagero for the review copy

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JANUARY 2016

Back Page Riki Wolfe’s Work Bench UK

JANUARY 2016

I

Volume 22 • Issue 1

was allowed to convert our garage in to my own little empire!!!!. All the display units were being thrown away and a big bonus is that they all have built in lights and rotate. So I now have plenty of room for more models and my collection of Royal Air Force memorabilia including signs from many RAF stations that have now closed!

PRODUCED BY MEDIA HOUSE 21 Kingsway, Bedford MK42 9BJ Telephone: +44 (0)1234 211245 Fax: +44 (0)1234 325927 Email: [email protected] Use the above address for back issue orders, subscriptions, enquiries or book orders. Note that we cannot undertake research into specific or general aviation queries and that there may be some delays in responses from the contributors, as they are not based at the editorial address. PUBLISHER SAM Publications GROUP EDITOR • Andy Evans [email protected] EDITOR • David Francis [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR • Tim Upson-Smith The editorial emails are ONLY to be used for editorial submissions. They are NOT for subscription payments or queries, back issues or Modellers Datafile orders. Please send all of these to the Media House address detailed at the top of this column. STUDIO MANAGER • Jonathan Phillips PAGE DESIGN & LAYOUT • Andy Folds PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION • Media House PRINT PRODUCTION • Headley Brothers Ltd, UK AVIATION ILLUSTRATIONS • Vincenzo Auletta • Chris Sandham-Bailey SCALE PLANS • Chris Sandham-Bailey SAMI TEAM • Paul Bradley • Geoff Cooper-Smith • Andy Evans • Andy McCabe • Chris Sandham-Bailey • Tim Upson Smith • Alec Smith • Tony Clark CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH • Kevin Shaw • Carmel Attard • Chris Busbridge • Wojciech Butrycz • Adam Rehorn • Steve Corvi • Huw Morgan • Mike Williams ADVERTISING SALES • Rebecca Harris [email protected] DISTRIBUTION • COMAG Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE Tel: 01895 433777 NORTH AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION • Disticor 695 Westney Rd South, Suite 14, Ajax, Ontario, Canada L1S 6M9 Tel: + 1 (905) 619 6565

If you would like your den to feature on the back page send some photos and words to david@ sampublcations.com especially if you are outside the UK or model somewhere unusual.

Modelling Glossary Hair Fairy – An annoying little creature,

responsible for placing tiny, fine hairs in your otherwise superb paint job. When feeling particularly mischievious, it will place a hair in your sealed up cockpit. Hard dry – Where a paint film is dry (fully cured) and cannot be scratched with usual handling. Hairy Stick – A brush. Header – A term used to describe the cardboard attached to a bagged kit, (see Baggies), sealing the bag. The header also had the artwork,

Scale Aviation Modeller International

depicting the kit, and the instructions on the reverse. Headers are, seemingly, collectable. Health Hazards – Modelling is, by and large, a safe hobby. However, apart from the obvious risks of sharp tools and supergluing components to the body, many of the chemicals used in modelling are dangerous, and some are carcinogenic. You will not go far wrong if you: A) Ensure you work in a well-ventilated area B) Wear a good filter mask when you are spraying paints or sanding resin C) Wash your hands throughly after working and immediately if you get white spirit, turps,

Our look at words found in modelling (H) liquid cement or any similar chemical on them. Essentially, if you can smell it, it’s probably not doing you any good, and the stronger it smells (especially if it makes you cough!), the worse it is. Keep a small first aid kit to hand, and if the worst comes to the worst, remember that the reason that superglue is so good at sticking parts to your fingers is that it was invented for rapid emergency wound repair! D) Try to keep your beverage container well away from your brush cleaning jar. Hilarious consequences may result, otherwise.

Copyright Warning

Due to the growing misuse and breach of copyright apparent on the web Media House gives notice that no-one is permitted to reproduce in any way (in original form or ‘modified’) anything published in this, or previous editions of this magazine. All design, layout and studio photography is the copyright of Media House. All profiles, scale plans and supporting photographs are the copyright of the individual authors. None of these may be used without prior written agreement from both the author/artist and Media House. Infringement is a breach of international law, so if you see items posted on the web from this magazine other than on the official Media House website (sampublications.com) please advise the publisher immediately.

© Media House 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted (including posting to a website) in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Scale Aviation Modeller International is published monthly by Media House and is distributed to the news trade on the second last Saturday of each month.

Next on sale 21st January 2016

Media House is a member of The paper used in this magazine is made from timber sourced from sustainable managed forests; the pulp is ECF (elemental chlorine free); the manufacturing mill is accredited with ISO14001 and EMAS for their environmental controls.

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AMERICAN SUBSCRIPTIONS Wise Owl is no longer selling subscriptions on behalf of Media House. Current Wise Owl customers can renew their subscriptions at the current rates directly with Media House: Subscription hotline +44 (0)1234 211245 – we are happy to call you back to take your order! Email ordering and customer support: [email protected] Website secure online ordering: www.sampublications.com American shops and trade may obtain copies from Kalmbach Publishing Toll Free 1 800 558 1544 Canadian shops and trade may obtain copies from Disticor Tel: + 1 (905) 619 6565 Scale Aviation Modeller International, Volume 22 Issue 1, January 2016 (ISSN 1356-0530) published monthly by: Media House, 2221 Niagara Falls Blvd, Niagara Falls, NY, 14304-5709. Periodicals postage pending: Niagara Falls, NY. US Postmaster: Send address corrections to: Scale Aviation Modeller International, PO Box 265, Williamsville, NY 14231

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