jan_cz

I largely took the text from SH, with few notes where I remember 😀 Thanks for the additions and corrections V.P.!

Hello to you all! Special Hobby posted on their blog a list of planned releases for 2022. 1/35 Armor SA35008 Panzerbefehlswagen 35(t) SA35009 Panhard 178B '47mm Gun Late Turret 1/72 Armor SA72027 Captured Sd.Kfz 250 SA72028 Rheinbote German WWII tactical ground to ground V4 Rocket 1/32 Aircraft SH32083 Fiat G.50B Bicomando SH32084 Manshu Ki-79 'Japanese Trainer' 1/48 Aircraft SH48053 Breda Ba-65 A-80 (re-issue) SH48160 Baltimore Mk.I/II SH48200 SNAC NC.701 Martinet SH48202 AH-1G Cobra SH48205 Reggiane Re.2000 III. Series SH48207 SIAI-Marchetti SF.260AM/M/W SH48210 Heinkel He-177 A-3 SH48211 Avro Anson Mk.I SH48212 Siebel Si-204E 'German Night Bomber & Trainer' SH48216 AJ-37 Viggen 'Strike Fighter' SH48217 Aero C-3B 'Czechoslovak Bomber-Trainer' (note: post-war Si-204) SH48218 L-4 Grasshopper SH48219 Buggatti 100 Racer SH48220 J-3 Cub SH48221 Potez 631 (New Tool) 1/72 Aircraft SH72075 CH-37 Mojave (re-issue) SH72162 Short Sunderland Mk.V 'Fighting Commies in Europe and the Far East' (re-issue) SH72291 Mirage F.1B (re-issue) SH72336 Sea Vixen FAW Mk.I/II (re-issue) SH72352 Mirage IIIC SH72406 Piaggio P.108B 'Quadrimotore' SH72415 Vautour IIB 'French Jet Bomber' SH 72425 Hudson Mk.IV/V/VI (New Tool) SH72436 Curtiss CW-21 (New Tool) SH72438 Short Sunderland Mk.I/II 'Flying Porcupine' SH72445 Tachikawa Ki-54 Otsu / Hickory 'Gunner Trainer' SH72448 Junkers Ju-87D-5 'Axis  Satellites' (Academy plastic with upgrades) SH72450 At-6B/C/D/F/G Texan SH72452 DH. Mosquito PR Mk.XVI SH72457 Bugatti 100P SH72458 Junkers Ju-87D-5/N/D-8 'Night Attack Stukas' (also probably Academy plastic with upgrades) SH72460 P-70 Nighthawk SH72462 Bf-109 E-7 Trop SH72463 Gloster Meteor Mk.8/9 IAF SH72471 Aero A11 'Blue Bird on a Long Flight Over Europe, Africa, and Asia' L-BUCD (New Tool) - plan is for a family of Aero A-11/12 SH 72152 Fairey Albacore Mk.I (New Tool) 1/72 Naval SN72007 Kriegsfischkutter Looks like some very nice re-issues, new variants of existing types, and of course exciting new models! Jan

Off the cuff, Reskit does a full resin cockpit for the V, but it is also designed around the Quinta decals. They also do the cargo / crew cabin. So far Eduard have done only the IPs in their Look range, but no full cockpit (at least thus far).

The September Eduard Info changed the list of camouflages. Instead of the second JX-B it has a GN-A (P3576) from 249sqn, Fl/Lt J.B. Nicolson.

And one more Eduard is doing a Dual Combo titled 'Hurristory', to be released in October. Arma is also selling it with some package deals...but more importantly they also give us a glimpse of the artwork... They are listing it at €35 Jan

Arma has added the schemes to the Hurricane Mk I Trop 'Western Desert' Z4615/ 6 Groupe de Chasse "Alsace", El Gamil, June 1942 (I think the link is to the right one given the artwork) V7544/TP-S, 73 sqn, P/O James Eric "Jas" Storrar, Gazala, February 1941 P2638, 274 sqn, Gerawala, April-May 1941 V7770/OS-A, 3sqn RAAF, F/O John Francis Jackson, Benina, February 1941 Jan

I would expect the pricing to be quite close to their Wildcats. That would put expect the expert boxing around 20Eur with regular around 15Eur (EU prices; outside little less). But we'll have to see

Another version coming soon! 🙂 This time it is Hurricane Mk. I Trop "Western Desert". For now all that we know is that it will have 3 RAF markings and one Free French (depicted on the box art). My guess at the smaller ones on the side is that it might be No. 73/208/274 sqn with a blue lightning (possibly the 208th) N. 73 sqn TP-S, V7455 and one more White 6 FFAF, Z4426 It complements nicely the earlier boxing of Mk. I Trop, which features the P3731 "J" that was on HMS Argus and flew over Malta

The schemes included in the Eduard leaflet are still "in progress", so we can expect some changes or additions...

Arma is working on the 1/48 Hurricane Mk. IIc - I believe that they said it would be around the end of the year, possibly December. They have commented that they've had some delays due to Covid, so the Hurricane might come out early next year. I suspect that if it does well, they will do a Mk. I as well. Given the Eduad's title, I wonder if we can expect a second boxing of the Mk. IIs at some point in the future. It would be particularly awesome if they would include the external cannons for IId, or maybe even do a conversion for IV...one can dream Or perhaps Arma will get there first

The late Spitfires should come back maybe toward the end of the year / early next year. My guess is that they are yet to get to these after the fire. IIRC there we should get the S-199 later this year, and the 109s F, G, K are also in the pipeline (possibly to be done again with SH). There has also been a talk of another "secret" project for later this year, probably around the now-scuttled E-Day - so we'll have to wait and see what it will be Judging by their general pattern, I suspect we can expect a lot of the 48 fighters in 72 as well, but it will probably be a while before we get there. I'd love to see them putting out the early 190s as well as the Dora in the smaller scale, but I am not sure if those are on the table at all...

should be out in October. Looks like it will have resin wheels and exhausts alongside the customary PE and masks. Should be a nice boxing of the Mk.Is

The F4F is on final approach Should appear at the end of June Six markings: F4F-4 Wildcat, white 84, squadron VMF-121, Cpt. Joe Foss (26 aerial victories), Guadalcanal, October / November 1942. F4F-4 Wildcat, black 8-26, squadron VGF-26, ex-Operation Torch, Guadalcanal, April 8, 1943. F4F-4 Wildcat, black 6-F-8, squadron VF-6, USS Enterprise, April 10, 1942, a week before Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. F4F-4 Wildcat, 5093 / white 23, squadron VF-3, USS Yorktown, Lt.Cdr. John S. Thach (3 aerial victories), Battle of Midway, June 4, 1942. F4F-4 Wildcat, 3512/29-GF-10, squadron VGF-29, USS Santee, crash landed by Ens Joseph M. Gallano during Operation Torch, French Marocco, November 8, 1942. Martlet II, AJ148 / Ø-7A, 888 FAA Squadron from carrier HMS Formidable, Oran, Algeria, December 14, 1942. Source: https://www.armahobby.com/70047-f4f-4-wildcat-expert-set.html?utm_source=implebot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=F4F-4&utm_term=F4F-4-announcement&utm_content=en Jan

New ltd. edition boxing - ref. 70044 - Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIb trop Source: https://www.armahobby.com/70044-hurricane-mk-ii-b-trop-model-kit.html With the usual two markings: Hurricane IIb BE400 "Z" of 318sqn during the "Virile" exercise in Palestine in Oct 1943 Hurricane IIb Z5659 "WK-C" of 135sqn, P/O Jack Storey in Mingaladon Burma, Feb 1942

I'm just puzzled at the price comment, tbh. Their 1/72 11c's are 14/9 Eur depending on the packaging on their website. The only item approaching 30Eur is a set with additional detail items in it. I'd say that the 10-20Eur price range for single-seat WWII era fighters is quite typical across manufacturers, perhaps even bit on the lower side. But that's just my take. I have a number of their Hurris and some of the PZL aircraft. I found them to be quite enjoyable, if perhaps not exactly up to Eduard's latest 1/48 releases. But it is certainly very well done for the scale (especially the corrugated surface of the 11c). The build is somewhat reminiscent of Eduard's kits like the 1/72 110, which are very nicely done but do have some minor fit issues and require bit more attention. As Jeff commented, however, this is still a new company and given their improvement already, I suspect that in few years we will be seeing even better from them. Also...lets not forget that Eduard will be repackaging their Hurris next year. In a way that's an endorsement of the quality of this kit, I'd say Jan

Gary, I think it is a reissue of their old kit with a new resin gun cover. The parts layout is the same as the older release, and ScaleMates lists it as having new decals. Plus, I have not seen or heard anything recently about them tooling a new one...and Eduard is usually quite happy to give us a peak into the kitchen so to speak Jan

Judging by the sprue layout, it seems to be a re-issue of their earlier kit. Compared to the previous ProfiPack edition, this one has two additional sprues (B and Y) and the resin gun cover. As far as I can tell, the marking options are also new.

That's some great news!! Not only another addition to their great line, but looks like some crackin' options included in this boxing. All we *need* is a IId, IV, and the oceanic siblings Will be certainly getting a few of these... Jan

Thanks Basilisk for the photos! Given the picture on the left, I wonder if Eduard reproduced with the PE bands (PE nrs. 20 and 31). In the photo they look a bit raised so this might be how they went about doing it... Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and expertise! Jan

Thank you very much for the sprue shots! The kit is looking very nice but as you note, there are some intriguing things going on. The sink marks (also small ones on the prop) might be the result of it being the first moldings of this kit - it will be worth watching if they'll show up on the later editions as well... I'm somewhat wondering about the gun ports. If I'm looking at it correctly, it seems to me that the leading edge division is not fully straight and that it has indents around the gun ports (most notable on the outer ones). The bottom wing has a small protrusions, that the upper wing seems to copy, although from the front the upper wing almost looks like a short shot. Will be curious on how it fits together. Thank you again! Jan

Greetings to you all, looks like we are getting a new re-boxing of Eduard's 1/72 Bf 110C/D. The distributor leaflet suggests that it will be a limited edition titled "Adlertag" and will presumably cover markings of aircraft participating in the Battle of Britain. Judging by other releases, there is a some chance that it will have some resin add-ons, or perhaps just a larger decal sheet. We shall see. Jan

I have the MPM production from about 20 years ago. I guess I can no just leave it in the stash and wait for this one. Given by their latest models, this should be quite a nice kit!

Ced, about the under-wing storage, I've seen few photos with rockets, but it seems that the most common outfitting was the central hard point and then two bomb racks under each wing (similar to camo A and E in the Eduard profipack). The central hardpoint could be done to carry bomb or a fuel tank. It might be nice to do a storage on this point and then install empty bomb racks under the wing to give it a different look from a standard A-8. Really nice progress on the fiddly bits! Few bits on the wheel wells. My experience has been that there is quite a seamline in the wheel wells toward the leading edges, especially in the larger area for wheels. I've had the best experience with perfect putty to just put it in and then smooth it and give it a light re-spray with RLM 02. Similarly, in few cases the PE locks that you have in one of the photos above can stand too proud and not allow the wing to close smoothly - so check the fit. If this is the case, you can try to sand them down a bit. In my case I have ended up pulling them out, deepening the slots on the bottom wing and re-attaching them again. In either case, with a bit of care they end up fitting. IIRC the rest of the wing assembly should be fine. The other wonky point of the kit is the cowling - but that's for later HTH and look forward to seeing more of your progress.

Ced, nice progress so far! I've done one of these earlier this year and did not mask the exhausts at all. In my version the panel immediately aft was black, so that was a good basis, and I then did a bit of detail painting / pigments for the parts that were particularly visible - this is especially the case for the singular tube on the bottom, which sticks out a bit from the cover. I'd say that the surrounding paint / exhaust stain / weathering usually provide a good enough look to the exhausts. I suppose one option would be to have a small piece of tape over the side openings to cover them - but even then it is just the flat faces that are visible. Hope this helps along with your nice build! Jan

I'm with you Mr. P! Mine should be in the mail as well - looking forward to getting my grubby hands on them Jan