Tiger331

Love these classic airliners in 1:72 scale..... Great Job, Well Done, Sir !

You are correct. I can vouch for the quality of this build since I was fortunate enough to see this model 'in the flesh' shortly after Toby completed the build and presented it at the club for viewing. Great Model, Toby !

Great finish, as always, Toby. Pity I couldn't see it 'in the flesh' during one of our regular club sessions.........maybe someday I will get back to Stavanger. Mark

Dana, Thanks....your reputation in these areas precedes you and I was suspicious anyway since I have never heard of USAAF aircraft sporting Azure Blue.

Thanks.....Life's too short for me to worry about nomenclature.....I merely used the term 'Revell of Germany' to distinguish the European Company from the Revell & Monogram brand names for products marketed in the USA. I suspect most of the co-respondents could associate with the 'Revell of Germany' descriptor......Like I say, life is too short for me to worry about corporate nomenclature.

These Italeri kits in Tamiya boxes are readily available in the UK and Estonia too......I've seen quite a few here in the Baltic States, so they do not appear to be limited to just the domestic market.

Hi Folks, I'm looking to do a 1:72 B-25 Mitchell from the 12th BG in North Africa using the new Airfix kit. I want to do one of the well worn examples in the Desert Pink/Azure Blue scheme, such as 'Pink Petunia'. The problem I face is understanding which cowlings to use. The Airfix kit includes both the smooth version fitted to the B-25B and early -C model but there are variances between photos and colour side profiles of 12th BG aircraft. Decal references don't help either so I'm faced with not knowing whether the aircraft operated with the smooth cowlings or the ones with the fairings (or were the latter retrofitted at some point in their service ?). Grateful for any advice.

Its all a bit of a 'minefield' when it comes to determining what is in the box these days. As many have said, Scalemates is a good starting point since they generally speaking provide a very neat 'kitography' in graphic form which shows the origin of a kit and then indicates when it has been re-boxed, by who, whether it has new parts/decals etc etc. Revell of Germany appear to be one of the most prolific when it comes to reboxing other manufacturers kits. They have been known to use Academy, Accurate Miniature, Eduard, Hasegawa, ICM, Italeri and Zvedza to name but seven !. I am sure there are more. Tamiya have used ICM and Italeri kits (though mainly in their AFV and figures ranges), there is an obvious tie-in between Revell of Germany and Monogram with many kits travelling in opposite directions across the Atlantic etc. Airfix have also, from time to time used other moulds including Italeri - They caused some confusion by marketing the old Italeri C-47 Skytrain one year and then, less than two years later, producing an in-house all-new mould kit of their own. The Red Arrows Gnat was another case in point with both the old 1960s mould and new mould kit being on the market at more or less the same time. Apart from Scalemates it is often best to check the outside of the box too in order to see where the kit is manufactured. Revell normally show (albeit in very small writing) where the kit was manufactured. Most of their own stuff comes from Poland so if the box says Italy, Japan or Russian Federation you can pretty well work out the source from there. I also agree with the other co-respondents on Zvedza kits. Many of their early releases were reminiscent of 1970/80s standard kits with soft detail and ill fitting parts. They have gone from strength to strength with the quality of their products - their 1:144 scale airliner kits are deemed to be 'gold standard' for their genre and the 1:72 and 1:48 Pe-2 are also superb kits (again, the larger one has been re-boxed by Eduard !) so care needs to be taken with selection. Again, Scalemates can help out with this along with the plethora of reviews etc on Youtube and elsewhere. HTH

Just goes to show that you can still produce a great model from one of the 'old generation' Pre-Academy/Zoukei-Mura kits of the classic F-4J Phantom. Nice job ! Well Done, Sir

Great model of a great subject. I had a chuckle when I saw the different colouring on one of the drop tanks. It reminded me of a rather a£$7 SEngO who, upon arrival on the Squadron at Leuchars hit the roof when he spotted that aircraft were similarly kitted out and, regardless of all of the other priorities, directed that all of the drop tanks should be of a uniform colour to match the recently re-delivered aircraft that had returned from a major with the new colour scheme. Anyway, well done, Sir - GREAT result !

It looks fine to me.......I'm not sure that I can actually see the issue that you refer to but a light brush over with a fine wet n'dry should take away ony of the roughness. The shading on the under surfaces looks good too......not too overstated from what I can make out and I think a light wash for the panel lines later on will seal it

Very nice...........For some reason, we do not see many of the earlier A-4 Skyhawks in these attractive high-visibility USN/USMC markings. Like others have said, I also like the subtle weathering....not to over the top and a reflection of the good care that aircraft maintainers, at sea, took with any of the carrier-borne assets to combat the effects of corrosion. The staining from the engine outlets is great and the scuff marks around the all-moving tailplane are sublime !. Well Done, Sir ! I also agree the supply of the Hasegawa A-4C does seem to be sporadic. I do recall picking up a couple late last year when it was re-released and it is still available from some outlets although the issue seemed to sell out quickly with some of the bigger MO houses etc.

Nasos, With regard to your question, there is nothing specific to the Tamiya kit on the market right now. Aires, Eduard and others have done a load of their 'standard' resin/photoetched parts for the cockpit, airbrakes, undercarriage, exhaust nozzles etc but nothing specific with regard to avionics bays etc. As I am sure you already know, Aires and Quickboost quite often do small sets for the avionics bays (as they have done for the Academy and Zoukei-Mura F-4 Phantom series) but the company to probably watch out for is Black Dog. I suspect if any company will produce the type of sets you are looking for, it will be them. They have done some extensive sets for the F-4 Phantom, F-16 and soon, the Great Wall Hobby F-15, including the avionics bays, gun bay, radar and upper spine panels. As a near neighbour (I'm in Estonia) we also have this project in common. I am also part way through using this superb Tamiya kit for an IRIAF F-14A and my experiences so far mirror yours. I am doing the three-colour blue-grey camouflage scheme. Anyway, great work so far and I will (obviously) follow your build with some interest ! Mark

Very nice................Agree that KH seem to do better with their rotary wing kits. Well Done, Sir !

Great Job ! Hard to believe this is a 1/144 scale kit. I do like these Zvezda kits of Soviet/Russian Airliners. Well Done, Sir !

Nice job for a WIF scheme !

Kitty Hawk missed a real trick with this kit - They could have well and truly wrapped up the 1:48 Jaguar market if they had applied a bit more thought to the accuracy and construction of this kit. As I understand it the overall shape is pretty good (apart from the leading edge of the wings) and your completed model bears this out. The overly complicated construction with all of those unwanted open panels etc combined with the 'lazy' inclusion of a French orientated weapons fit really let the kit down and have put a lot of modellers off. I applaud your tenacity and determination to complete this challenging kit....hopefully Kinetic will oblige us all someday (as they will be doing with the Mirage F.1....another favourite of mine). Well Done, Sir !

As a previous co-respondent has already stated, Great to see the Gladiator in a different colour scheme. I have a particular interest in this one since I am currently researching military aviation in the three Baltic States as part of my personal development for my next job. Well Done, Sir !. Nice job

NICE job........Love the Meteor F.Mk.8 Well Done, Sir !

Great, great job on that SAR Sea King Well Done, Sir ! (and good luck with your exam results too !)

Very, very nice. It would be interesting to see how the Modelsvit kit shapes up against the more recent Trumpeter kit. I have both but, in reality, can only complete one so it would be good to know what the general consensus is between these two kits. I'm particularly interested in this aircraft since the Soviets used to operate them 'just down the road' (well 2+ hours drive) from where I live right now. It would be cool to get one of these done in due course. Well Done, Sir !

Nice job......I have one of these in the 'to do' pile (OKATS) which I am planning to complete with the well documented damage caused by a Serbian SAM over Bosnia back in the 1990s. Well Done, Sir !

Yes, Caracal Models have a FAP option on their aftermarket decal sheet reference CD48084

Brilliant..........cannot wait

Not sure that I follow the logic that a Limited Edition re-issue of the Tamiya kit as a P-38H variant that is not mass produced will probably lead to the conclusion that Tamiya will not produce the P-38J/L variant in due course. Given the parts breakdown of the original kit and the plethora of colour schemes/markings applied to the later models, I really cannot envisage a situation where they would abandon this idea (unless economic considerations come into force, of course). The P-38J/L was used by far more operators/nations than the earlier models and sported many more colour schemes than the standard Olive Drab/Neutral Gray. Think of all that wonderful WWII-era nose art and those esoteric Post War operators, particularly in Latin America, for which there are already a huge number of aftermarket decal sheets. Sure, we may have to wait some time for the kit (just like the Grumman F-14A+ or F-14B Bombcat) but that is normally how Tamiya roll.