klr

Assuming this is the Antares tooling, all I can say is good luck trying to get the canopy to fit. Actually, it's more a case of perseverance.

... and it also has the option of a four-bladed propeller. I have one in the stash, and no way am I selling it.

I built this back in the '80s, along with lots of other Italeri 2- and 3-engined WW II subjects, Those were the days (sigh). As stated already, it was obviously way better than the Matchbox kit. I was able to get another kit of this exact same boxing a few years ago. If memory serves, Bilek re-boxed this in several "value-added" versions, including a torpedo bomber, and a night fighter with an etched aerial set.

Lucy Worsley notably suffers from Rhotacism, which made her series on Romanov Russia a particularly brave choice.

I got the three Vintage Classics kits myself yesterday. Actually, I got two Shooting Stars. That's on top of three of the DHC Beaver last week. Just like old times, except with better decals. I also picked up the Beagle Basset a few weeks ago, ending a 44-year wait since I saw it in a late-1970s catalogue. I've had a close look inside the box of the Anson, and while it looks an excellent kit, I just don't "do" 1/48. As for the Victor: I've put the brakes on buying any more large kits for now. The stash is just too big, despite some ruthless cleaning out of kits I'm unlikely to build.

I've never seen the Frog kit, but I built the other two, My recollection of the Airfix kit is that it was let down by very "soft" (indistinct) framing detail on the clear parts. That's one area where this old Revell kit probably had the edge. On the plus side, the Airfix kit was nowhere near as rivet-infested as some other Airfix kits of the era, not by a long shot. I got the Airfix kit again a few years ago when it was reissued with Cartograf decals, including for a French subject. This was before the days of the Vintage Classic programme. But I offloaded it a few weeks ago during a mass clear-out, as I don't really need it. I have several of the "new" Revell A-series, not to mention two of the C/Z version. Since I also have an Italeri A-4 (Torp)/A-17 and a Zvezda G-6, I figured I would never build the Airfix kit again.

I salute your intestinal fortitude in tackling this kit. Having built it back in the mid-1980s, it's not something I would want to do again ...

Unfortunately, yes ... but then I'm officially a programmer/analyst, so it goes with the territory. It requires, how shall I put it, a certain amount of patience and diplomacy.

Assuming it does not get overtaken in an unexpectedly big flurry of voting, and/or people don't changes their votes from it to something else. As a programmer, I feel obliged to mention that

I'm still trying to get my head around the mudguards issue. It's a 234-series vehicle, with the mudguards from the earlier 231-series (8-rad). What makes it even more bizarre is that there was no 231-series variant with the Pak-40. Well, it was the 1960s. Who knows what they were smoking in Haldane Place in deepest, darkest Wandsworth? A pity, because having built it myself upon a time, my memory too is that the major components all fit together well.

Ah, I see where I went astray. The instructions just say "... Bolivariana ..", leaving out the all-important "... de Venezuela". Still, it's another South American air force, something I don't have enough of.

Thanks for the heads-up. To be honest, it was the Bolivian and South Vietnamese options that interested me most.

To be honest, lots of companies could learn from how Italeri uses decals as a selling point. I've reviewed the Italeri kits I've bought over the last 5 years or so, and for almost all of them, the decal sheet was a significant factor in my decision to buy, and in many cases, it was the overriding reason*. In fact, I've just ordered the re-release of the ESCI F-5A, mentioned in this thread a few months ago. Yes, its a excellent kit, and I already have quite a few in the stash. But one look at that decal sheet made it a no-brainer to get yet another. *The corollary to that is if it weren't for the decal sheets, I'd be buying very few Italeri kits. Even with those wonderful decal sheets, I'm still buying less Italeri kits than I did when the company was consistently churning out new and interesting kits in the 1980s and 1990s.

While I am not currently active in the GB sphere, that may change. I'll happily give my vote to this one, as it's high time I built an Fw 190 or two.