Julien

Wording does seem a bit strange.

F-101B/CF-101B/RF-101B Voodoo (KH80114) 1:48 Kitty Hawk Delays to the USAF WS-201 interceptor programme lead to calls for an interim aircraft to be brought into service, a design programme which was eventually won by McDonnell using the original F-101 Voodoo as the basis for the new aircraft. Some major modifications were need to the front of the aircraft to accept a twin cockpit, the large radar and a means to carry air-to-air weapons. The new aircraft was designated the F-101B by the Air Force though the manufacturer suggest the F-109. The new aircraft would also get more powerful engines with longer afterburners. To do away with airframe design changes the longer afterburners simply extended from the airframe. Weapons carriage for the new aircraft was also something new, in the form of a rotating weapons pallet under the main fuselage. The original missile of choice was the AiM-4 Falcon. Two semi active radar homing missiles, and two infra red guiding missiles were carried, one each on either side of the pallet as it was practice to fire one of each at the target. Later on the aircraft would gain the Nuclear tipped Rocket the AIR-2 Genie. In this case two Genies were carried on one side of the pallet and two infra red Falcons on the other side. 479 F-101Bs were built in the end, many more then the original A and C model. The only export customer would be the Canadian Air Force who designated the aircraft the CF-101B. As a final end to the Voodoo story in the early 1970s the USAF identified a gap in their reconnaissance capabilities ad a plan was put in place to mount three KS-87B cameras and two AXQ-2 TV camera in the aircraft in place of its weapons and radar equipment. 22 former Canadian aircraft were converted to the RF-101B role. These serves with the 192d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the Nevada Air National Guard. In practice it was found that operating only 22 aircraft in this role was prohibitively expensive even for the USAF and they had a short service life. The Kit This is an extension of the original Voodoo kit from Kitty Hawk, and like that kit is modular in nature. Construction does not start with the cockpit but the intakes and engines. The intake trunking is built up with representable fan front and their handed intake bullets. Also built up at this time are the other end of the engines the exhausts. There is a rear part and on engine ring to insert. The intakes and exhausts are then placed in the lower half of the fuselage centre section. The heat shielded part of the rear fuselage is also added to the centre section at this time. The top of the centre fuselage section can then be added on. At the rear the large extending afterburner sections are built up ad added, along with the rudder, tailplanes, arrestor hook, and rear airbrakes. Construction then moves onto the wings. Into the top part of the wing is added the 4 part main gear & wheel along with the inner face of the wheel well. Once the gear is in the lower wing can be added along with the air brake which sits behind the gear. As the front part of the wing also forms the air intake the boundary layer splitter is added. The wings can then be added to the centre section fuselage along with the two part tail (split left/right). The flaps and main gear doors are then fitted For those missing it construction now moves to the cockpit. The four part seats are built up and PE belts are added. Instrument clusters are built up, and rudder pedals added. The housing for the Air-2-Air ID light must also be added at this time. Even if the modeller does not want to open the panels for the front avionics bay it must be built up at this time. The front gear, and gear bay must then be built up. The cockpit section then first on top of the gear bay with the avionics bay forming part of this module. To the rear of this module is fitted the bay for the rotating weapons pallet and to door is also fitted in at this time. The instructions would have you build the missiles at this time, but I'm sure these can be left until later. In the kit there are 2 IR Falcons, 2 SARH Falcons, and 2 Genies. The complete cockpit/gear bay/weapons pallet module is the put inside the front fuselage halves, The instrument panels and coamings are then added. To finish up the front and main fuselages are brought together. If making the F-101B then the flat panel is placed under the front fuselage section, and if doing the RF-101 then the camera system is placed here. The canopy is added. The panels for the avionics bays can be added in the open or closed positions. The drop tanks can the be added. Its worth noting that the profile for the RF-101B is wrong in that it shows the aircraft armed when in fact the weapons pallet was deleted. In addition there seems to be no replacement panel for the weapons pallet if making the RF-101. Decals The decals are sharp, i register and look colour dense. One US aircraft is shown though in Grey FS16440 and in Silver? I was on the understanding all Voodoos were ADC Grey? From the box you can build one from RF-101B, one CF-101B, and three F-101Bs. The 60th FIS is shown as FS16440 but these aircraft were ADC grey FS14673. There is also one NMF example which seems to be unusual? 60th FIS, USAF 136th FIS, USAF 437th FIS, USAF 17395 409 Sqn "Nighthawks" Royal Canadian Air Force. RF-101B 59-0434 192d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Nevada Air National Guard. Conclusion The plastic looks great, and aside form a couple of issues with the RF version should build from the box into a great model. Highly recommended Review sample courtesy of Available soon from major hobby shops

The stencils are the same. If it bothers you just dont use them. Julien

Hi, not sure what you mean?

The problems the Canadians had were mainly down to how they had been stored and looked after while they were laid up. They also had operational issues.

F-5E tiger II (KH32018) 1:32 Kitty Hawk The original F-5 design was lead at Northrop by Edgar Schmued who previously at North American had been the Chief designer of the P-51 and F-86. The F-5 was designed to reverse the trend of bigger and heavier fighters to produce a small, agile, high performance aircraft. It was also recognised that life cycle costs, and the ability to upgrade the design needed to be thought out at the beginning. Thus after winning the International Fighter Aircraft Competition in 1970 to provide a low cost effective fighter to America's allies Northrop introduced the F-5E or Tiger II. More than 3800 aircraft were built and served with the US Forces as well as their allies. Indeed the F-5F & N still serve in the adversary role today. The design of the F-5 would later go on to influence the YF-17 and F/A-18, as well as the late unsuccessful (is sales) F-20. The Kit This is a complete new tool from Kitty Hawk, The kit arrives on 6 spures of plastic with a small clear sprue, sheet of PE and two decal sheets. There are in addition resin exhaust nozzles add two resin crew figures; one seated and one standing. Construction starts as one would expect in the cockpit. The seat is first put together from an impressive 20 parts. Next up the cockpit tub is built up from another 20 or so parts not including the instrument panel and coaming. Once together the canopy raising parts are also added behind the seat. Following this the complicated nose gear bay / gun bay is built up which goes on front of the cockpit. All the detail is there for the nose mounted 20mm cannons including their ammo boxes and feed chutes. Once built up this section and the cockpit can be added into the front fuselage halves after some PE detail is added to the sides first. The nose section can then be built up and added but the modeller will need to select the right nose for the airframe being modelled. The instructions are of no help here so you will have to check your references. If wanted the seated pilot figure can be added. The canopy is then added at this stage in the instructions though I suspect most will leave it until the end. The canopy retraction mechanism is only in the raised position so if you want the canopy down some surgery will be needed. There is then the option to display the gun bay panels open if you wish to show off all that detail. Moving on to the centre fuselage two complete engines are built and installed. This seems a bit strange as no intake trunking is supplied and they will just sit there inside the fuselage. The main gear wells are made up and installed before the top of the fuselage is added. There are some optional vent panels to be installed but again its a case of checking your references as the instructions are of no help. For the rear the modeller can choose to build up plastic exhausts or use the resin ones. The two fuselage sections can now be joined and at the front the intakes added. Next up the wings are constructed. The main gear bay walls are added to the inner parts and the outers then added over the top. The main gears are made up and added along with the leading edge and separate flaps. The wings, tail planes and vertical tail are then added to the fuselage. The tail has a separate rudder. To finish off the aircraft the underwing pylons are added, and a whole range of missiles and bombs are provided. These include AIM-9 & AIM-7 missiles, Cluster bombs, dumb bobs and fuel tanks. Decals The impressive large decal sheet (and smaller additional sheet) look to be well printed. There is minimal carrier film and the colours are sharp, everything looks colour dense. From the box you can build one of nine aircraft F-5E Brazilian Air Force. F-5N VFC-111 "Sundowners" US Navy (3 Greys scheme). F-5E VFC-111 "Sundowners" US Navy (3 Browns scheme). F-5E Republic of South Korea Air Force. F-5E Islamic Republic Of Iran Air Force. F-5E Mexican Air Force. F-5E Republic Of Singapore Air Force. F-5E USAF (Silver with Yellow fuselage Band) F-5E USAF (SEA Camo) Conclusion The plastic looks great, and there is an impressive array of marking options available. The addition of PE and resin parts including good figures makes this an all round exciting package from Kitty Hawk. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of Available soon from major hobby shops

If you want to talk submarines then we designed and built the Type 2400 SSK or conventional diesel electric subs. There were supposed to be 10 and long lead items were bought for 10, the Navy then cut the order to 4. It was then decided that 4 was too small a number to be cost effective. They were sold at a substantial loss the UK tax payer to the Canadian Navy.

Yes I did note it was OOB and Academy show you can raise the wing in the kit. However on the real aircraft the wing raise and the flaps/slats lowering were interlinked so in nearly all cases you see them dropped when the wing is up. Julien

A well built model, however when the wing is up like that you have to drop the slats & flaps as they deploy automatically. Julien

USN/USMC/USAF LO-VIZ INSIGNIA 1:72 & 1:48 Fantasy Printshop Lo-Vi markings now feature with the USAF, USN and USMC. These sheets for Euro Decals / Fantasy Print Shop bring us a variety of Lo-viz national Insignia, Intake warnings, Ejection Seat Triangle, Rescue Arrows and branch titles. These are in Black and three shades of Grey. There are also white makings for an F-117. In 1:72 all are on the same sheets, but for 1:48 two sheets are needed. Suggestions are made on the sheets for aircraft to use the decals on, but they have multiple aircraft uses. Fantasy Printshop print their decals with a nice thin glossy carrier film, and they go down nicely with a bit of decal solution, such as the green Mr Mark Softer by Gunze (other solutions are available) . There's no registration to worry about, but the lines are crisp, dense, and the carrier film is so thin that I had to check under magnification that the stripes were individually covered and not over the whole sheet. This will make hiding those edges a piece of cake compared to those thick leathery decals you sometimes get in older kits. Conclusion Like them or loathe them LO-VIZ is here the stay for the main part, even if not replacing the main kit decals these will be very useful sets to have around to replace decals during those unfortunate mishaps we all suffer from at time with decals shattering and or folding back. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I have seen it applied direct from the tin, and then when the tin was getting low some thinner chucked in as no one wanted to walk back to the paint store for another tin!

Gent this thread is entitled "Russian modern armour Images" can we keep the long missives out of it please. Open a separate thread if you want a discussion on something. Thx Julien

The Essex Modellers Show 2018 July 22 @ 10:00 am - 4:00 pm BST Now in it’s 7th year, and jointly hosted by the IPMS-South East Essex, Hornchurch and Chelmsford branches and MAFVA, Essex Branch A friendly mix of clubs and traders from around East Anglia and the Southeast. Open competition, the usual ‘Grand’ raffle, refreshments and free parking. Admission: Adults £3.00 Child/OAP £1.50 http://theessexmodellersshow.com/ Well worth a visit if you are in the area, myself & @bentwaters81tfw will be there on the IPMS Ipswich Stand, Julien

All I can say is I WANT ONE!

Anyone else thinks it looks like the Firefox? At least they have picked a decent name.

Biber Trailer + Resin Wheels 1:72 Special Hobby The Biber (Beaver) was a German Naval midget submarine used in WWII. It was crewed by one man and carried to externally mounted 53cm (21") torpedoes, or could carry mines. One advantage if there were any with the Midget Submarines was that by carrying the weapons externally it mean the width was less and it was able to be transported by road. With typical German efficiency even though as a weapons system it was not that great they designed and built a trailer specifically for moving it by road. This standard road trailer with a single axle at either end, the front axle articulating with the draw-bar. A frame work was also added to carry a canvas cover to conceal the load. It also appears from WWII photos the trailer could take the weight and dimensions of a sub loaded with torpedoes. The Kit Inside the box there is one sprue which contains all the parts for the trailer. There is also a small bag with an additional part which has not been moulded correctly on the sprue. For construction the twin wheel units for each corner are mad up first. The articulating front axle unit is then made with a ring top which will fit onto a similar ring on the trailer chassis. The main chassis is a one part moulding to which the front part is added, a back axle and additional straightening parts. The rest of the plastic sprue is then made up of the frame parts for the trailer. If the modeller wants to model the trailer with its tarpaulin cover then a paper template is provided to make a cover. Decals There are no decals provided for the trailer. It can be painted either German Field Grey or Dark Yellow. Wheels Under their Blitz Armour accessories line CMK/Special Hobby supply a set of rein replacement wheels for the trailer. This is one of the few cases where I feel the resin wheels add nothing to the kit at all. The plastic wheels have better tread definition and the hub detail is about the same. The resin wheels will require clean up from the pour blocks, and it would seem the holes in the wheels are flashed over in resin so they will all need to be cleaned up. The plastic wheels meanwhile will need a quick pass of a sanding stick where they remove from the sprue, and to clean the mould line (which is hardly visible) Conclusion The trailer will be a great accompaniment to the Biber submarine and will allow it to be displayed without having to resort to a water diorama, or the stand. It also allows the sub to be part of a larger vehicular diorama if needed. Highly recommended for the trailer, but pass on the extra wheels. Trailer Wheels Review sample courtesy of

Yes pls

Thanks for the review, unfortuantley looks like one to avoid.

From what I read, and what I have seen of the couple of Sea Vixens I have looked at an Photographed in museums I thought Dave's comments were a bit restrained. Know one likes to bash a kit, but even from Photos you can see parts of this kit are wrong. Julien

Yes even in 1/32 it would not be massive, good that we will get on in 1.48. I did do a really horribile one in 1,72, some eastern eurpean kit. Julien

Its at The Bentwaters Cold War Museum.

Liberator GR Mk.V BIGSIN SET (SIN67213) 1:72 Eduard BIGSIN for Eduard Kit Eduard now bring us a BIGSIN Set for the 1/72 B-24. These sets work out better for the wallet than buying all the sets as separates. Engine Set This set gives us complete one part engine castings with a PE wiring harness and other PE details Supercharger Set This is a set of drop in superchargers which are prominent on the aircraft. Some minor surgery is needed on the kit parts. Wheels Set This contains a full set of replacement set of wheels and the mud guard on the front gear leg. Masks are included for painting (not shown). Bomb Bay Doors This contains a full set of open bomb bay doors. These were unique on the B-24 the way they slid up the fuselage. Depth Charges This is a set of 6 British 250lb depth charges, complete with a small sheet of decals. Bomb Bay Rocket Projector Unique to the Coastal Command Liberators was a set if 16 60lb rockets mounted in a projector which fitted into the bomb bay. This is a comprehensive set in resin & PE which includes all 16 rockets. This BIGSIN Set is recommended if you want to goto town on your Liberator. Review samples courtesy of

This was at the Helicopter museum the other day where @bootneck thoughtfully got us a great set of walkaround pictures; Julien

B-24 Liberator BIGSIN SET (SIN67212) 1:72 Eduard BIGED for Eduard/Hasegawa Kit Eduard now bring us a BIGSIN Set for the 1/72 B-24. These sets work out better for the wallet than buying all the sets as separates. Engine Set This set gives us complete one part engine castings with a PE wiring harness and other PE details Supercharger Set This is a set of drop in superchargers which are prominent on the aircraft. Some minor surgery is needed on the kit parts. Wheels Set This contains a full set of replacement set of wheels and the mud guard on the front leg. Masks are included for painting (not shown). Bomb Bay Doors This contains a full set of open bomb bay doors. These were unique on the B-24 the way they slid up the fuselage. This BIGSIN Set is recommended if you want to goto town on your Liberator Review samples courtesy of

Additional Mil Mi-24F Hind-A pics added today; https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235022039-mil-mi-24f-hind-a/ Julien