Jump to content

Mike

Root Admin
  • Posts

    1,017,872
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    38

Everything posted by Mike

  1. I took my life in my hands last night, and spent an hour or two scribbling on my model. It took some doing, and after I'd finished I felt like it was a bit.... poo. I think I'd been staring at it for too long, as today I'm not massively unhappy with the results. I do however think that I need to do a bit of touching-up, as there are a few fuzzy areas. I suspect my needle and nozzle are finally wearing out. I've had them both chucked in now for at least 3 years, without so much as an issue, so it's about time. The amount of metal in these tiny parts is infinitesimal, so I guess they wear out eventually. Here's a quick pic: The pic really shows up the imperfections, doesn't it?
  2. Lovely model - especially the engine bell colouring
  3. What a load of pratts! More loverly work. Don't know how you do it.
  4. ’Battle of the Bulge’ Ardennes 1944 (35373) 1:35 Miniart via Creative Models Ltd The Battle of the Bulge was the nickname given to the last-ditch attempt by Hitler, sometimes referred to as the Allies’ best General, to stop the Allied advance toward Germany by driving a wedge through the front and separating the four armies, removing Antwerp from Allied hands, and forcing them to sue for peace. This was clearly what is now known as a ‘hail Mary’ play, and relied heavily on capturing Allied fuel supplies, because the Germans were woefully short of their own stores, and would soon run out if they didn’t capture substantial new supplies. It also relied on bad weather keeping the Allied air elements grounded for the crucial period of the operation, as the Luftwaffe was a spent force by this time of the war, and any daylight activity quickly attracted US and British fighters equipped with cannons and bombs, largely unopposed by the Luftwaffe. The operation began on the 16th December 1944 when the weather was bitterly cold, heavy snow and overcast conditions, and Nazi progress was initially good, capturing many Allied units off-guard, resulting in substantial casualties and a large quantity prisoners. Apart from one hideous incident at Malmedy where Kampfgruppe Peiper massacred dozens of US prisoners, the majority captured were thankfully treated humanely by their captors. After the initial advances, the German’s progress stagnated, and they began to run out of fuel, which in concert with the improvement in the weather, permitted the Allied aircraft to take on the vulnerable German armoured columns and support lines, with the Allies back to their original positions by February of 1945, and the Germans in disarray. The Figures This set contains five figures, two German soldiers walking alongside three US prisoners, who are unsurprisingly not looking happy about their plight. The kit arrives in a figure-sized box, and inside are five sprues of grey styrene, plus a small glossy piece of paper with a sprue diagram for the figure sprues. All the figures are in a walking pose, one German nursing a set of binoculars against his chest, while the other holds his rifle across his smocked chest, relaxed but alert. The three Americans are wearing various battle-dress combinations, two wearing blouson jackets with their hands up, while the man in the greatcoat has his hands mid-chest, probably too cold to wave his hands in the air. The American with his hands clasped behind his head isn’t wearing a helmet, and his hair is clearly non-regulation, so he had probably been on the front for a while. The parts for each figure are found in separate areas of the sprues that are separated by country for ease of identification, and parts breakdown is sensibly placed along clothing seams or natural breaks to minimise clean-up of the figures once they are built up. The sculpting is typically excellent, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt’s artists and tool-makers, with natural poses, drape of clothing and textures appropriate to the parts of the model. The three accessory sprues include helmets, some of the US M1s either covered with netting or cloth cover, and two of the German helmets also have cloth covers. The rest of the equipment includes the usual personal pouches, bags and small arms, although the Americans won’t be using any of those and their webbing will have been confiscated at time of capture, however the Germans will have a full complement appropriate to their unit and task. The rear of the box has the artwork separated with blue colour arrows, while the kit parts are in black text, with the officer having a choice of cap or helmet. A small photo insert shows the equipment on the back of the smock wearing soldier, as those items can’t be seen in the painting. A small swatch of the smock’s camouflage is given on the back of the box, with the colour chart in the bottom right corner, giving paint codes for Vallejo, Mr.Color, AK Real Color, Mission Models, AMMO, Tamiya, as well as small colour swatches and names to assist you with choosing your paints. Conclusion A great figure set that would look good in a diorama, their chaperones pushing the prisoners back through the front lines while the panzers and other forces are heading forward to press the attack. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  5. One of the issues I don't like about the forum is that if you view just ONE of your notifications, it sets the others as read too. Could that be the scenario? I often use my iPad and iPhone to view the forum, but I use Firefox, so it's not a like-for-like comparison. If what I described doesn't explain it, it might be worth keeping an eye on it to see if you can spot a pattern. You're the first person to mention it, and we have a lot of Mac users on here, so it could be just you Anyway - that's enough let's get back to the modelling
  6. That's a very unusual one. I don't suppose you have any weird add-ins on your browser do you? If you do, try disabling them and see if your notifications are more reliable. Some add-ins can get in the way of the forum's operation, especially security add-ins. One of our members once had two add-ins running together, and it was causing him all sorts of problems with viewing the forum. It was several years ago though, but I'm sure this sort of thing can still happen.
  7. Those kit decals are abysmal compared to yours Good work BTW - if you're still not getting notifications, your email provider might be blocking us, so have a word with 'em. It happens more regularly than I'd like
  8. Sadly, I'm midway through covering my P.1101 in little mangled stars and other weird shapes. Might have a job to fit that in with the rest of the site business, and sleeping a lot
  9. Got chance to squirt a coat of Aqua Gloss on the airframe this avo, which will help separate the base layer of paint from the camo, just in case I stuff it up All things are possible, and I'm not sure I've ever done this type of camo before, or if I have, I've totally forgotten doing it The joys of a memory. A quick snap: I've got the RLM76 in my PS770 already, so just have to muster up the courage to start applying it See you in a few years
  10. Hi all, I've just split the Sci-Fi & RealSpace review section into Kits & Aftermarket, so it's easier to find everything you might want to have a read of. The Aftermarket section also includes decals, reference material and all the rest of it, so you know where to go You can find the Sci-Fi review section by following the link below, if you fancy a mooch about: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/323-sci-fi-real-space-reviews/
  11. I managed to get a bit of time at the bench today, and did some modulation, which I deliberately made quite visible, as the top-sides are going to be covered with light grey squiggles/spiders, so anything still visible will need to be pretty obvious. The underside isn't quite as pronounced, but I may knock that back with a mist coat of the tyre black later. I'll see how I feel. The pic is a little exaggerated by the camera, so imagine it with a little less contrast, and more variation in tone. Here's how she looks: The ancillaries have also been given a coat of this effect, as most of the airframe and its appendages are black for night-fighting. The riveting is still showing through, but not too strongly, which is nice
  12. Fairey Rotodyne (A04002V) 1:72 Airfix Vintage Classics The Fairey Rotodyne was an ambitious project in the post WWII heyday of British aviation, when the aviation world could re-concentrate their efforts on more radical designs, which included the development of rotary-winged flight types that had been of interest during the 30s, but was put on the back-burner during WWII to concentrate on more pressing matters. Fairey were interested in creating a combined rotorcraft that merged autogyro with helicopter, using both type’s strengths to provide a cheaper, faster method of transport that could take-off and land vertically without the high expense associated with helicopter flight then and now. Fairey envisaged blade-tip engines powering the rotors, thereby obviating the need for a stabilising tail rotor, while the rotor would transition to autogyro mode once horizontal flight was achieved, powering down the engines and utilising the passive lift generated from the blades along with the short wings carrying a pair of turbo-prop engines that would supply forward momentum, but could also be used to counter any torque encountered during flight. The engines also supplied high-pressure air to the blade-tip engines, mixing it with fuel and burning it to provide energy to the blades to rotate. Fairey already had experience with this type of flight with their Gyrodyne, which had been demonstrated to be effective, although its size and fuel capacity limited its range substantially. It acted as a development precursor that gave Fairey confidence in its design, although the form factor and layout changed from several times during development before they settled for the twin-engined design. Which brand and type of engine became a problem however, as Fairey had their preferences, and many leading engine manufacturers considered themselves already over-stretched with various projects. Politics reared its ugly and divisive head, as the British Government had been bankrolling the project on the basis that it could be useful for military applications, and in the hope that airline BEA would make an order for at least 20 airframes to act as financial backstop for the project, which they blew hot and cold on as time went by. During the greater periods of interest, there were plans to build an enlarged variant of the Rotodyne that could carry up to 70 passengers, which would have resulted in an even more cost-effective return than the already reduced cost of the original design. The choice and power output of the engines was an ongoing issue that helped to kill the project, along with concerns over the noise caused by the rapidly spinning blade-tip engines, which were said to be painful and potentially damaging to hearing close-up, and still a nuisance even at greater distances, making conversations within range a difficult prospect. There were attempts to reduce this to a more acceptable level, and progress was beginning to be made as funding was withdrawn in the early 60s, leading to the project’s cancellation when Fairey’s new owners, Westland were likely to have to foot the bill for the completion of development. There was a good chance that the noise could have been brought down to similar or lower levels than other vehicles that were in use at the time, but it was never to happen, as the curtain was brought down on a promising project. The Kit This is a reboxing of Airfix’s vintage tooling, which was first released in 1959 while the Rotodyne was still in development, so as you’d imagine it’s a product of its time, and expectations should be measured accordingly. It is however eminently possible to create a realistic and well-detailed model from the kit, as our membership have proved in the past if you’d care to search the forum’s sub-sections. The kit arrives in a modestly sized top-opening box, and inside are eight borderless sprues in a dark grey styrene, a clear sprue, a sheet of decals, and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour on matt paper, with profiles for painting and decaling on the rear inner cover. As already mentioned, this is an old kit and should be viewed through rose-tinted glasses, as it’s even older than most of us on the forum. Considering its age, time has been kind to the moulds, with surprisingly little flash, and virtually no mould damage other than some scratches evident on the upper rotor-head and one of the tail parts at first glance. It was tooled during Airfix’s heavy riveting period, covering the skin of the kit in thousands of fine raised rivets that can be obliterated during seam filling. Construction begins with the cockpit, which is a simple floor with a moulded-in centre console with decal, and two turrets that the seats plug into, with a crew member for each seat, although they have their hands by their sides so won’t be doing much controlling of their charge unless you plan on undertaking some surgery. The cockpit is enhanced with a pair of thick control columns, and in front of the crew is an instrument panel for which a new decal has been provided, with realistic-looking dials on a grey background that look rather nice. The bulkhead behind the crew has a door moulded-in, and the nose gear leg with twin wheels is fixed to the bottom of this, putting the assembly aside while you prepare the two fuselage halves with ten oval portholes on each side, even though there is no interior present in the passenger cabin. This was the norm back in the day though, so you can either paint the interior a black shade, or build yourself a simple floor and add some seats. To close the fuselage, you will need to create the rotor-head, which consists of top and bottom halves, with a dome added to the top, and a shaft/pin inserted into the hole underneath. This and the cockpit are trapped between the two fuselage halves, taking care not to allow the glue to seep into the socket for the rotor if you wish it to remain mobile later. Seam-filling will doubtless remove some of the raised rivets on the surface, so you may wish to toy with the idea of either removing them all, converting the model to recessed rivets, or picking up some suitably pitched printed 3D rivet decals to replace those lost in the seam-filling process. The same will be true for the other external surfaces, so take it as read that this will occur for those parts of the model. The Rotodyne’s wings are simple top and bottom halves, painting a small portion of the underside interior silver because it will show through a hole in the upper wing. These are put to one side while the tail is made, creating the horizontal section from two parts plus a single flying surface that can be left mobile by not gluing them in, then adding the upper portion of the fin in two halves, and the lower portion that has a separate rudder panel, building one for each side of the model, and plugging them into the sides of the fuselage along with the wings and the surprisingly clear canopy part at the front. The two engine nacelles are split vertically in half, and are equipped with a nose with intake, through which the prop’s axle slots, securing the four-bladed propeller in position. Intakes and exhausts are added to the sides, and the main gear legs are trapped between the two nacelle halves during closure, fixing a pair of wheels to the ends of the axles. Once complete, they are pinned to the underside of the wings, and the main gear bays are given three doors each, plus another three for the nose gear leg that is now projecting from the bay under the nose. One useful feature of the Rotodyne was the clamshell rear doors that made loading cargo an easy task. These are supplied as two curved sections with four-part hinges that let them open and close if you are careful with the glue. They are locked into position by a pair of C-shaped clamps that glue to the interior of the fuselage in the tail. The penultimate task is to build the rotors themselves, adding half of the tip motors to the ends, and plugging each blade root into the rotor-head, ensuring they are installed at the same angle of attack for accuracy’s sake. The forward access door in the port side of the nose is depicted in the open position, hinging up and down in two halves, with a stairway glued to the lower portion for easy access. Markings There was only one flying Rotodyne, and it wore a fetching white, blue and silver scheme, with Fairey Rotodyne written in large text over the lower silver areas on the sides. From the box you can build the following: Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion There is only one kit in this scale, and this is it. It’s an old kit, but it gets the basic shape, and despite some of the details being a little toy-like, a creditable replica can be made with a little effort. The inclusion of new decals will certainly help with that, as they are very crisply designed and printed, especially the instrument panels. Highly recommended for a vintage kit. Review sample courtesy of
  13. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I/II Photo Archive Number 26 ISBN: 9781908757401 Wingleader Publications The Spitfire was the champion of the Battle of Britain along with the Hurricane and a few other less well-known players, and it’s an aircraft with an amazing reputation that started from the disappointing Supermarine Type 224. The gull-winged oddity was the grandfather of the Spitfire, and despite losing out to the biplane Gloster Gladiator, designer R J Mitchell was spurred on to go back to the drawing board and create a more modern, technologically advanced, and therefore risky design. This was the Type 300, and it was an all-metal construction with an incredibly thin elliptical wing that became legendary, although it didn’t leave much space for fuel, a situation that was further worsened by the Air Ministry’s insistence that four .303 machine guns were to be installed in each wing, rather than the three originally envisaged. It was a very well-sorted aircraft from the outset, so quickly entered service with the RAF in 1938 in small but growing numbers. With the clouds of war accumulating, the Ministry issued more orders, and it became a battle to build sufficient airframes to fulfil demand in time for the outbreak and early days of war from September 1939 onwards into the Battle of Britain. By the time war broke out, the restrictive straight sided canopy had been replaced by a “blown” hood to give the pilot more visibility, although a few with the old canopy still lingered. The title Mk.Ia was given retrospectively to differentiate between the cannon-winged Mk.Ib that was instigated after the .303s were found somewhat lacking compared to the 20mm cannon armament of their main opposition at the time, the Bf.109. As is usual in wartime, the designers could never rest on their laurels with an airframe like the Spitfire, as it had significant potential for development, a process that lasted throughout the whole of WWII, and included many changes to the Merlin engine, then the installation of the more powerful Griffon engine, as well as the removal of the spine of the fuselage and creation of a bubble canopy to improve the pilot’s situational awareness. Its immediate successor was the Mk.II with a new Mk.XII Merlin, followed by the Mk.V that had yet another more powerful Merlin fitted, which returned the fright of the earlier marks’ first encounters with Fw.190s by a similar increase in performance of an outwardly almost identical Spitfire. This twenty-sixth volume in the series returns to the early Spitfire, revisiting the Mk.I and then covering later Mk.IIs that the author didn’t have enough content to justify a full book to itself, whilst trying not to rehash old photos and information on the original Photo Archive that detailed the Mk.I from prototype to the Battle of Britain. As such, this has been designated a Special Edition that is a companion to the initial Photo Archive #1, which is still available and can be purchased here if you’ve not already got one. You may recognise the name of the author of this edition, as Richard Alexander is one of the people behind Kotare models, who have uncoincidentally recently released a spitfire kit in 1:32. The profiles have been penned by his colleague Ronny Bar, who is well-known in the hobby. Some of the photos are staged and are of official origins of course, but there are also a large number of candid shots, very few of which are in colour due to the era, and a small number are of battle-damaged aircraft with holes in their rear end for the most part, one upended on the airfield after a difficult landing and possibly over-zealous application of the brakes. There are also several photos of the pilots in and around their cockpits, some of whom didn’t make it through the war. This edition is also unusual because of its Reference Guide that fills the rear pages of the overall 72 leaves, helping the modeller navigate the minefield of subtle differences between the early Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.IIs, many of which are enlarged portions of photos that are accompanied by informative captions specific to the elements under discussion. A visually impressive book with plenty of reading material into the bargain that will have you coming back to it again and again. It will be of use whether you have #1 or not, although it will probably result in more sales of the earlier volume. There are a growing number of Spitfire volumes of various marks in the Photo Archive series, which will build into an invaluable reference for Spitfire modellers. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  14. We reviewed this puppy mid February, and as I'm a sucker for a late war jet, I dug in straight away to see what I could do with it. As I said in my review, it's not a shake-and-bake kit, so you'll definitely have to apply some of those fabled modelling skills to building it. If you're the type to get all uppity because some flying surfaces are too corrugated, walk away This isn't a Luft'46 subject in some ways, because a partially constructed example was captured at the end of the war, and there are pictures of it languishing outside some buildings, covered with US soldiers and staff posing in front of it. The Americans liked it so much that they took it back to the US and finished it, calling it the X-5. It's the grandfather of the swing-wing generation of fighters and bombers, so it has a place in history. This boxing is the Night Fighter option, and RS sent me the one I was most likely to be tempted by, and they were right. I was. I started off with the cockpit, which was nice, and fitted the fuselage nicely. I added some HGW seatbelts, and detailed the IP with Airscale instrument decals, basing my dabblings on a cut-down sub-set of the Me.262's panel, with the following result: Those HGW seatbelts really are the donkey's whiskers, aren't they? Absolutely worth the faff and fiddle of putting them together. I curse and I swear, but keep going back for another set, and will continue to do so The exhaust was pretty simple, although the outer tube had a big mould seam around it that needed removing. It's a tight fit too, and as I wanted to pop it in later, I replaced the styrene tube with a length of brass tubing of the correct diameter that I had lying about, reusing the centre dooh-dad, and repainting it in the same burnt metal shades. The intake is a simple tube, and again I had to do some fettling later in the build, so all that metal shading was lost under a load of Black 4.0 paint yesterday. This is modelling There's just a blank at the back end of the intake, so no detail was lost, and even with a bright light, I can't really see anything inside. It also works because the airframe is black. Happiness The wheels are moulded in halves, and they looked familiar, so rather than having to carefully sand the seams whilst trying to avoid the raised circumferential treads, I looked up late WWII German aircraft wheels, as I expected them to be reused from another design to save development costs. My first guess was Me.262, but they're way too fat and large. It turns out that they're scarily close to the wheels of a late war Bf.109, so that's what I went with, picking up an Eduard resin set. You can see just how close they are below: Very nice, although the kit wheels are decent, I just couldn't be bothered sanding the seams because I'm lazy The wings were pretty simple, consisting of two parts that glued together as you'd expect. I decided to cut out some wingtip lights and cut out areas that I thought would be the likely site, and glued in some clear acetate after drilling a depression in it that I painted red and green, hoping I'd get the right wing matched with its light The white line is a piece of styrene strip that I used to tidy up the edges so they'd fit better. They got covered up with liquid mask pretty much straight away, and haven't been seen since. Once I'd got the cockpit, intake, and gear bays in the fuselage, I joined the two halves, and set to work on the seams. They took some hiding TBH, partly because the styrene is quite soft, but I was also using soft sanding sticks. Once I'd stopped doing that, the seams disappeared, and I could put the parts together for a test-fit. After seam filling, I had some panel lines to reinstate, which turned into a complete rescribe, so all the panel lines looked the same. Then it got silly, and on a whim, I decided to rivet the entire airframe, which I've never done before. I used the Galaxy Model riveting tools that I've had lurking about for almost 4 years, and have barely used. I've certainly used them now! Over the course of an evening and the next morning, probably 4 hours in total, I marked out the rivets as I reckoned they might appear, again, using the Me.262 as my guide, as the wings were intended to be the outer wing panels off that aircraft at one point. It's probably not the best or most accurate riveting that a model has had in the world, but I'm quite pleased with it, and it has added some extra visual interest, as well as distracting from any mistakes I've made along the way. The top pic is just after I'd finished with some of the pencil still visible, the second shot is later on after a bit of tidying up, and re-filling a few lengths of the seam that had eased or cracked during handling. There was a much fettling and filling of the various mistakes too, tidying up lines that weren't quite square, and making good, plus drilling out four tiny holes in the nose cowling to help me locate the radar antennae later on. once I was done, I glued all the major parts together, and it turns out the tail fin tab was slightly wide, and it split the rear of the fuselage, which I had to make good. The whole thing received a unifying coat of primer and a good buffing to remove any rough patches, then I put it aside for a few days while I was busy with other stuff. I dipped the canopy in Klear and left it to dry, masking it up with narrow lines of tape, which I in-filled with scrap pieces once I'd finished. I glued it on after putting the gunsight on the coaming, which I'd also covered with a sheet of 0.25mm styrene to ensure the seam stayed hidden, replacing the moulded-in glass with two squares of acetate, making sure they didn't interfere with the sharply raked windscreen. The canopy got glued on with GS-Hypo cement, and was taped down and left to cure overnight. Last night I did some choosing of shade, having decided to depict the scariest decal option that's based on an all-over black airframe with little wiggly clouds of grey all over it. I might as well, as I like to make things difficult for myself Here's the base coat, which isn't black, it's a dark grey called Gunze Tire Black H77, which is very dark, almost black, but not quite. I'm going to lighten it with further coats, then noodle the camo grey over the top. That's the plan, at least I noticed in that pic that the paint is a bit thin on the fuselage centre section, so it's just as well I have the paint still in the 'brush. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some modulation on it this evening, and will post up some pics when I do. I'm determined to finish this one, as I have too many sitting close to the finish line that I'm thoroughly ashamed of. Wish me luck!
  15. Those spray-masks look like fun. I really must have a go at those soon. Keep up the good work
  16. Chinese J-20 Stealth Fighter (LS-002) 1:48 MENG via Creative Models Ltd The J-20 is China’s first fifth generation fighter, making heavy use of stealth technologies to give it an advantage during operation in a contested air-space, starting the project in the 2000s as a successor to a previous project earlier in the decade. Chengdu aviation developed the J-20 in response to the requirement, and it has been a work in progress, even after the initial ground-handling and flight testing that occurred in 2010, using Russian built engines that were fitted as a temporary measure whilst they worked out the issues with their own indigenous engines. The new high-tech Chinese engines were expected to provide a significant boost in performance, adding stealth characteristics to the exhausts, and the possibility of vectored thrust to improve manoeuvrability. A home-grown engine designated WS-10 was chosen initially to remove their reliance on Russian engines, with the more advanced WS-15 expected to be fitted to new-build airframes when development was complete, then retro-fitted to earlier airframes as the opportunity arose. Several prototypes were seen performing flight tests throughout the next decade, with limited numbers of the type entering service toward the end of the decade, with improvements still coming on stream throughout this period. After the initial low-rate production batch, full production started, and it soon gained momentum, leading to the replacement of many older 4th generation fighters in service, particularly around China’s borders, where they would expect to intercept intruders. Some airframes have been used as adversary trainers, where they take the part of F-22s or F-35s in combat, to allow both “sides” to learn how to cope with adversaries flying different generations of fighters. The design of the jet, known by NATO code Fagin was established and fixed for full production, adding two other variants to the development roster, one of which represents the first two-seat stealth fighter in service in the world, with a prototype built and observed in 2022 under the designation J-20S. The two-seater isn’t simply a trainer, but will also be used as a combat airframe where the workload is shared between the two crew, using sensor fusion, carrying out electronic warfare duties, or controlling UAVs or drones as part of their weapon systems as a force-multiplier. The J-20B is an improved variant of the single-seat type that has improved stealth characteristics, and is thought to use the final WS-15 engine, which increases the power available for super cruise substantially, and this too was also first spotted in 2022, demonstrating the rapidity at which the type is developing. The ongoing improvements to the J-20 are rapidly bringing it up to a similar capability to the American F-22, despite concerns that a canard-equipped fighter would have compromised stealth capabilities, which seems not to have been an issue as far as the Chinese engineers and designers were concerned. The main weapons bay is found in the belly, where the larger weapons are carried, with serrated doors and margins of the bay to scatter radar returns. The smaller weapons bays in the sides of the fuselage behind the intakes are similarly stealthy, but the weapons can be deployed and the bays closed again to maintain stealth, allowing the missiles to be launched fractionally faster without having to open doors and bring out the missiles before launch. It is thought that these bays are in the process of being redesigned to accommodate 6 missiles using a new ejection rack, and research is underway to reduce the diameter of future missiles to assist with packing as many as possible into the bays without having to use the four underwing hard-points that will spoil its stealthy profile. The Kit This is a new tooling from MENG that was released in the last days of 2023, taking some time to reach Europe, and it is the most recent of only a few kits of this type in 1:48, so should more closely represent an in-service airframe. It does appear to have the Diverterless Supersonic Inlet (DSI) bulges that were more recently added to the design, one of the engineering innovations that both improves the aircraft’s stealth, and reduces its weight by offloading additional complexity of the intakes, hiding the rotating engine faces by using a serpentine trunk within the fuselage. The kit arrives in a substantial top-opening box with a painting of a J-20 launching missiles from its open main bay, and inside the box there are seven sprues and three fuselage parts in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a clear red sprue, a strip of four polycaps, a small Photo-Etch (PE) fret, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet, printed in colour on glossy paper, and stapled into a portrait sub-A4 format. For a change, construction begins with detailing the upper fuselage part, adding two polycaps in sockets for the canards on the fuselage sides, fitting two clear sensor windows forward and aft of the cockpit opening, and applying the shallow refuelling probe bay on the starboard edge of the nose chine. Modern cockpits are relatively simple by comparison to earlier fighter jets, with many of the knobs and switches moved to a large Multi-Function Display (MFD) that takes up most of the instrument panel. The cockpit tub is fitted with rudder pedals, plus side console mounted throttle and stick, using the ‘Hands on Throttle and Stick’ (HOTAS) schema that is common to modern fighters. Once painted, the tub is inserted into position, locating on four turrets within the upper fuselage, applying plenty of glue for a strong bond. At the rear of the upper fuselage, the serrated cowlings of the twin engines are fitted on a pair of turrets with a healthy overlap for strength, and two more polycaps are inserted in cups that are glued under the pivot-points of the twin tail fins, one each side of the engines. The intakes are made up from two halves each, adding a circular insert depicting the engine front to the aft end, and joining them together on two pins and sockets that hold them both at the correct angle. After painting the trunk interiors a pale greyish-blue, the completed assembly is mated to the lower nose part, fitting the nose gear bay, a detailed insert for the forward sensor, which is glazed over with a faceted clear part, and has a clear red window fitted on either side. To be able to close the fuselage, the three weapons bays must be prepared, starting with the main bay, the largest of the three. This is made from a large roof with moulded-in end walls, adding the side walls and a central divider, painting it white before building the missiles, which are almost complete save for two fins at the rear and a conduit down one side of the missile body, after which they are mounted on a slender pylon and four of them can be installed within the bay. The completed main bay is then clipped into the lower fuselage, locating on three turrets, then turning to the intake-mounted weapons bays. The main parts of these are moulded in a C-profile, fitting end walls to each of them, and installing those in the sides of the intakes, along with the main gear bays that are made from three parts each, and all bays painted white. A clear red window is inserted in a cut-out in the port intake side, reducing the number of sub-assemblies before fuselage closure to two. Those two are identically built exhausts, which can be made with the petals constricted or opened, by using different sets of petal parts around the central circular former. Each petal section has a detail insert on the interior face, then six sections are arranged into a cylinder around each former, the aft section differing in shape to depict your chosen exhaust shape. The exhaust trunk is made from two half cylinders that are closed around the afterburner ring, and has a representation of the rear of the engine closing the forward end, joining the petal assembly to the opposite end of the trunk, and painting it accordingly with shades of burnt metal. The lower fuselage receives the two exhausts in the rear nacelles, while the nose and intake trunking assembly is installed in the front of the part, extending the lower fuselage to full-length. The upper fuselage is then glued over the lower, and it’s worth noting that the two fuselage halves have stiffening ribs criss-crossing them to add strength to the assembly, and much of the blended wing structure is moulded into the fuselage halves, as is often the case with modern stealthy aircraft models. You have a choice of portraying the weapons bays open or closed, showing off the unique talents of these short-range weapons bays that allows them to close the doors with the weapons extended for use. The simplest option is to nip the overflow pips from the doors and fit them in the closed position, ready to move on to the next step. To extend the missiles first requires the building of one or two missiles, which have two separate fins, a nose part, and long pylon, painting and stencilling them before installing them. The bay has a flat-faced insert glued into the bay, which has three curved supports for the missile so that it is suspended outside the bay and slightly below so that the door can still close. The closed doors are each one part with three small slots in the bottom of the doors to cater for the supports, while leaving the doors open adds another part with internal ribbing structure, plus hinges that suspend it from the upper edge of the bay. This is repeated on the opposite side, with a choice of three options per side, which you can mix and match at your whim. The main bay doors must be open to deploy missiles, so there are two choices, the simplest being the closed doors, which is depicted by a single part with serrated edges and hinge lines engraved to give the bay a realistic look. To pose the doors open, three door sections are fitted together with an actuator ram at either end, mounting on the outer edges of the bay, with a scrap diagram showing how they should look from ahead. The landing gear is safely tucked away inside the jet during flight, so only their doors need to give low-observability a thought, and as such their structure is very familiar. The tyres are moulded as two halves, as are the hubs, joining together to make each main gear wheel, which fits to the lower end of the sturdy struts, adding separate oleo-scissor links and a lightened retraction jack that is formed from three parts, with another small strut near to the top of the leg. The two legs are handed, and are fitted inside each bay, locating firmly in the bay for strength. The nose gear leg has two tyre halves that close around a single hub part, flexed into position between the two yoke legs. The strut is adorned with separate scissor-links, twin landing lights with clear lenses, and the retraction jack plus a captive bay door, for which there is a separate scrap diagram to assist with detail painting the part. This too is mounted securely in the bay, with a side-opening bay door with three hinges attaching it to the starboard side. While the model is upside-down, the two canards are push-fitted on the intake sides, two strakes are glued to the sponsons on either side of the exhausts, adding leading-edge slats that can be deployed or retracted by using different parts. A four-lensed sensor is fitted on the belly with a clear lens inserted from behind, and a tubular assembly is located next to it, which appears to be a Luneberg Lens, which is the mechanism by which any stealthed aircraft can be tracked during peacetime. It is understood that the latest airframes have a retractable version of this lens, so they can transition to a war footing without landing. At the trailing edge of the wings, two flap sections with stealthy actuator fairings moulded separately are fitted, selecting different parts for the flaps down option. The final flying surfaces are the all-moving fins, which have a fixed portion glued to the fuselage, through which the pin on the fin projects, securing it in the polycap fitted at the beginning of the build. This should allow them to be removed for easy painting and decaling, and later offset if you feel the urge. Whilst most of the cockpit was built very early in the build, it is missing some key components, one of which is the ejection seat. This is made from two halves of the chassis, adding three seat cushions and a flip-up pair of arm rests, with a detail insert under the base cushion to depict the pull handle. A flat cover is applied to the back of the seat, with scrap diagrams and colour call-outs helping with accurate painting of the assembly. You then have a choice of using the included pilot to crew your model, or fit the supplied PE seatbelts to the empty seat, using the scrap diagrams to assist you with shaping them before installation. The pilot figure has separate arms, a two-part helmeted head, and an oxygen hose, with another detailed painting guide with two views to the side, colour call-outs given in MENG colour and Gunze Acrysion codes. The pilot’s instrument panel is next, applying decals to the panel’s large screens and detail-painting the various buttons moulded into the part. The coaming is glued to the top of the panel, adding the HUD from two clear parts, one inserted into a styrene frame, painting the front pane a transparent green before installing the completed assembly in the front of the cockpit, remembering to detail paint the instrument cluster in the coaming edge. A pair of angle-of-attack probes are fitted to the sides of the nose at the same time, then you have another choice to make. Create the canopy from a simplified set of parts, or go for more detail that includes PE parts. The simple canopy has the det-cord to shatter the canopy before ejection moulded-in along with a couple of interior frames, which are recessed within the part, and can be painted with white or grey acrylic or other water-based paint, wiping the excess away before it has chance to dry, leaving the paint in the recesses to represent the cords. Both options use the same lower frame, which is prepared by fitting two side frames, a small triangular support at the rear, and demisting tubing at the windscreen end. If you are using the PE parts, there is a separate blank canopy, and it is suggested that you bend the PE det-cord and heater hoses before gluing them to the lower frame, fitting the canopy in place over it once they are painted. The simplified canopy with the cord moulded-in is similarly glued in place over the lower frame without the PE parts if you don’t fancy your chances wrangling them. Either completed canopy can be fitted to the cockpit in the open or closed position by selecting the appropriate opener strut, adding a two-pronged hinge part to the rear of the open option that slots into the front of the spine. The choices aren’t quite finished yet, as you can close the refuelling probe bay by fitting the door over the area, but if you wish to deploy the probe, it has a tapering ladder support and a different door part, inserting the rear of the probe into the bay and setting the correct angle courtesy of the support. It has a bright red section near the business end of the probe, which is best painted before installation. Speaking of ladders, which we kind-of were, there is a crew ladder included on the sprues, made from just two parts, one of which is well protected by a deep extension to the runner next to it, protecting the rungs moulded into that half of the assembly. This is latched over the lip of the cockpit on the port side, and you can leave it loose or glue it in place as you see fit. Markings There is just one scheme given on the rear pages of the instruction booklet, but a full set of tail-codes are included, so you can build any airframe in the low-viz grey cloud camouflage shown below: Decals are printed in China with good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. It includes many stripes around the weapon and gear bays, which are supplied as sensibly designed sections that should remove as much frustration as possible whilst applying them. Slime lights and various sensor dielectric panels are also included on the sheet, and on an addendum sheet (not pictured) that is barely the size of a postage stamp, a single “bunny-ears” decal numbered 25 is included, so be careful not to lose it. Conclusion This is a large aircraft, around the same size as the immense Mig-31, and MENG have done a good job of representing the detail. Most modellers could build it straight from the box thanks to what’s included, although some aftermarket is bound to come out soon. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  17. True. Gallingly, I've just found the location of my kit after months wondering where it was
  18. The key question is though, did it make you rich?
  19. PV-1 Ventura Cockpit, Nose & Turret Armament (4467 & 4469 for Revell/Academy) 1:48 CMK by Special Hobby It’s hard to believe that the Revell 1:48 Lockheed PV-1 Ventura was released as far back as 2011, but I’ve still got both of mine and haven’t built either, to my shame. It’s a nice kit, even by today’s standards, but as with all injection-moulded models, its level of detail can be improved upon by the application of resin casting, which is what CMK’s artisans have done. The two sets we have for review arrive in the familiar clear vacformed box, with the resin parts safely inside, and yellow-themed instructions sandwiched between the header card at the rear. Decals and Photo-Etch (PE) when included are separated from the resin parts by a clear piece of acetate to prevent scratching and damage during transit. Pilot Cockpit (4467) This set includes eighteen grey resin parts, two 3D printed control yokes, a small sheet of printed acetate instruments, a decal sheet with instrument dials, and a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) that contains an instrument panel and seatbelts. Construction begins with thinning the cockpit side walls in a thick L-shape that matches the new resin inserts, which are glued into position once they are suitably deep. The rear cockpit bulkhead has the door support cut out, and this is glued to the cockpit floor, adding two instrument clusters in the centre, plus a throttle quadrant on a tall stand, adding eight PE levers into the grooves on top. Two resin control columns are mounted on the floor, and are topped with the 3D control yokes, and the crew seats are built. The pilot’s seat has a high back and arm rests moulded in, adding four-point seatbelts from the PE sheet, then mounting it on the bulkhead behind it on a pair of projecting supports. The co-pilot’s seat is less luxurious, with no arms, and utilising the kit legs to attach it to the floor, adding lap-belts to the completed seat, as we must presume that his head is of lesser value than the pilot’s even though he has full controls to fly the aircraft. The instrument panel is made up from layers, depending on how you prefer to create your panels, starting with the resin back plane, which has the instrument dial recesses moulded-in, and you have the choice of either decaling that, or using the acetate film and painting the rear white, adding the PE layer over the top after painting it. Alternately, you can mount the PE panel over the decal. It’s entirely up to you. The pilot’s rudder pedals are well-detailed resin parts and are suspended from the rear of the panel, as are the co-pilot’s pedals, although they are simplified L-shaped rods that mount on a cross-bar, one end of which fits into a slot in the rear of the instrument panel. The completed panel is glued to the central quadrant box, which is glued to the forward section of the floor. Nose and Turret Armament (4469) This set is well-detailed, but straight forward in use, replacing the kit barrels in the belly gunner and top turret positions. The belly gunner uses the rear portion of the kit part, supplanting the barrels with the twin perforated resin barrels provided in the new set. The upper turret is a replacement for the kit parts, consisting of the two barrels linked together, adding a pair of resin breech parts to the rear. The other barrels are for the two nose guns in the upper portion of the nose, which are straight replacements for the kit parts and add extra detail there. The three barrels under the nose are installed in a resin fairing, adding three angled shrouds to the fairing before inserting the barrels into them, taking care to align them all in the direction of flight and at the same angle. This fairing is then mounted under the fuselage within the lines detailed on the accompanying drawings. Conclusion A great and cost-effective update to the kit, with more sets available to upgrade the flying surfaces on the tail and ailerons. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of
  20. He's probably earned it. I hear he was quite a good driver, or summit
  21. Well, if he's not rich now, he soon will be if everything sells
  22. They are pretty useful - I have two on the side of my spraybooth, and they're FULL of tools that would otherwise be cluttering my desk or stashed away in drawers. Just make sure your handles are ferric, as there are ferric and non-ferric handles. The non-ferric ones will not adhere to anything magnetic, so that's an easy way to test the ones you have
  23. That's great news. I was thinking of getting one of these "vehicle scale" kits, but I think I'll hold off now
×
×
  • Create New...