Richard Humm

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It says teardrop canopy on the actual box, so it must be the translation software Homebee is using that came up with that. As it's a straight reissue of kit JT60, there is only the three blade propeller included. The four blade one has only appeared in limited issue versions of the kit.

The September issue of Tamiya Model Magazine was late at my (independent) newsagent, and I haven't seen the October one yet.

There were a few more helicopters in 1/100 scale - SH-3A/D Sea King, CH-54 Skycrane, KV-107, UH-1B Iroquois and AH-1G Huey Cobra. The 1/48 scale Hughes 500 also turned up as a OH-6 Cayuse. Any 1/72 scale helicopters in a Tamiya box were Italeri kits, though.

The Fujimi tooling wasn't altered to add the RWR fairing - the original 1987 release came in four flavours, FG.1, FG.1 with RWR, FGR.2 and FGR.2 with RWR. The same four versions were reissued with tooling modifications a few years later, so they must have made two versions of the fuselage sprues.

Is it the motorised version? It's difficult to find an early Tamiya kit that didn't include a Mabuchi electric motor.

There's generally something like four or five 1/35 scale military kits, two or three 1/48 scale military kits, three or four 1/24 scale cars and one or two 1/12 scale motorbikes in terms of new tooling every year, which is more than most companies manage. It's obvious aircraft and ships aren't a major part of their release plans though recently there have been three F-35s in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale.

Yes, the Scale Models review of the kit said that it was the last work of John Edwards, the chief Airfix designer of the 1960s, who died a couple of years before the kit was actually released, and had been a fan of the Marauder.

And a trip around the Tamiya museum in Shizouka

There's one airliner - a 1/100 Embraer 175 in FDA livery. It looks like it was originally issued as a promo, then as a regular kit. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-92197-embraer-175-fuji-dream-airlines--1022010 Does a helicopter count as general aviation? https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-ma-114-kawasaki-hughes-h-500--133745 For manga/anime, there's a 1/700 scale aircraft carrier https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-25413-aircraft-carrier-ddv192-ibuki--1136395 Media tie-ins? One from Gerry Anderson https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-super-car--1091079

Atlantis reissue of the Aurora Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré 1/8 scale kit number A453 Build thread here. He does glow in the dark, but not brightly enough for my camera to pick him up.

So this evening it just remained to put everything together The purple spider is as per the instruction sheet, as is the green snake. So by half past nine I was finished, though I forgot to include my watch in the final shot. More in the gallery.

A bit more paintwork this afternoon. Now it's just putting it all together.

Got a couple of painting sessions in today, with the first also involving a bit of cleaning up the joints from the assembled parts. This afternoon This evening I did have to paint the femurs, and as I didn't have any of that Joy luminous paint that was always being advertised in Airfix Magazine around the first time I built the kit, I ended up using Army Painter Warpaint Fanatic Skeleton Bone.

Half an hour's work this evening getting the items that were in halves together