Richard Humm

It looks like Paolo missed a couple of the January 2004 white box Tamiya reissues - I got the following list from their old website, though the only one I actually have is the Buccaneer: 60003 1/100 Douglas A-4E Skyhawk 60006 1/100 SAAB J35F Draken 60008 1/100 Lockheed F-104J/G 60011 1/100 SAAB AJ37 Viggen 60021 1/100 Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S.Mk.2 60023 1/100 Messerschmitt Me 262A & Me 163B 60028 1/100 McDonnell Douglas F-4EJ Phantom II 60029 1/100 F-105D Thunderchief The 616xx numbered releases were in July 2004, with the Messerschmitt double and the F-4EJ coming down in price to ¥500. The last reissue of the B-52D as 60025 didn't come out until April 2011, though I thnk it had been reissued in the early 1990s.

I've got a 1975 Tamiya catalogue, which shows the following: PA1001 MiG-19 Farmer-E PA1002 LTV A7E Corsair II PA1003 Douglas A-4E Skyhawk PA1004 BAC Lighning F.Mk.6 PA1005 Dassault Mirage IIIC PA1006 Saab J35F Draken PA1007 Fiat G.91/R1/R4 PA1008 Lockheed F-104J/G PA1009 MiG-21 Fishbed-F PA1010 Bell UH-1B Iroquois PA1011 Saab AJ-37 Viggen PA1012 Grumman A-6A Intruder PA1013 McDonnell-Douglas Phantom II (looks like an F-4E) PA1014 F-4K/M British Phantom PA1015 Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle PA1016 Not listed - Scalemates shows this as the Boeing B-52F Stratofortress PA1017 Bell AH-1G Hueycobra PA1018 Boeing-Vertol V-107-II PA1019 Sikorsky SH-3A/D PA1020 Kawasaki Vertol KV-107-II Airliner PA1021 Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S.Mk.2 PA1022 North American F-86F Sabre and MiG-15 PA1023 Messerschmitt Me 262A & Me 163B PA1024 Sikorsky CH-54A Skycrane PA1025 Boeing B-52D Stratofortress PA1025 Republic F-105D Thunderchief - this appears to be a typo - Scalemates shows the F-105 as PA1026 Later issues were the B-52D in silver finish as PA1027 and the F-4EJ Phantom as PA1028, but there weren't any more original tools unless you count the Space Shuttle and Embraer 175.

Checking instructions for previous issues of the kit, Hasegawa (who originated it) suggested having the crew entry ladder (part A5) down, then using part A19 under that to prop it up. Revell issued the solid nose version as well, and recommended 8 g of ballast in the nose.

The Smer kit is 1/48, being the Merit tooling, but isn't worth bothering with. The Lindberg kit is the much nicer Inpact kit, though that's 47 years old now.

I like the ANG schemes - does anyone do them in 1/72 scale? I can't find anything at Hannants.

Humbrol 28 Sky was discontinued in the early 1970s, along with another 15 colours in the standard range. 28 Matt Camouflage Grey was introduced in 1988 as a replacement for Authentic HU10 Grey FS36622 after the Authentic range were completely discontinued.

What you might have been thinking of, Claus, is Volume 1 Number 1 with a build article on the RAREplanes Ventura and the Gloy ad on the back cover showing a Lodestar, which they suggested could be built from the Airmodel kit.

If we're on Sikorsky helicopters, a 1/72 scale Westland-produced Whirlwind variant would be nice. Even when Sikorsky-produced versions are considered, the Airfix reissue is older than I am, and the Italeri is rare and expensive.

Nice to see the Jaguar GR.1 back, it hasn't been around for a few years. ¥1200 isn't a bad price, though I shudder to think what it will cost over here.

Apparently they sold a few tools to Revell in the mid 1980s as well - the 1/150 Gorch Fock and 1/24 Mercedes 300SL are the ones I found in JCC's book - and the 1/8 Kawasaki bikes went to Nagano.

The Hasegawa kit was recently reissued by Hobby 2000, so it would be a lot easier to find in their boxing.

Did you remember to put some nose weight inside the intake splitter? There aren't many other places for it.

The first three Hasegawa kits were reissued as a special edition a few years ago. They date from 1963, I think, though they are not shown on Scalemates. I'll have a go at at least one of them.

My subscription copy arrived on Tuesday.

Yes, they had eleven in total - Corona, Stella del Norte, Santa Maria, Drakkar Oseberg, Bireme Imperator, Phenix, Royal Louis, Sirene, La Reale de France and Chebec being the others. They had a joint Aurora Heller logo. Scalemates shows ten of them, though for some reason the Corona is still listed under Heller even with the joint logo so doesn't come up with the others. There were also some aircraft. J-C Carbonel's Heller book gives the Victory a 1979 release date, so that would be after Humbrol started British distribution, but before they bought the company.

Aurora reissued Heller kits in the USA in the late 1970s, but they didn't have any design influence on them. The Soleil Royale is Heller's own tooling as much as the Victory.

Airfix's researcher said in an interview that he has looked at AEW.3s as well while researching this kit, but there were so many differences that there was no way of doing both versions.

Apparently this isn't a collaboration with Academy, it's the first kit by a new designer at Airfix (Ethan), who has also designed the starter kit Land Rover.

Tamiya's catalogues don't generally include any kits that haven't yet been released. It's very rare for them to announce something more than three months ahead of it being in the shops. They also aren't that into releasing aircraft. I'd expect to see something like six 1/35 scale military. four 1/24 scale cars, three 1/48 scale military, two 1/12 scale motorbikes and maybe one 1/48 scale aircraft or 1/700 scale ship per year from them.

The Airfix catalogue only has three very small images for the Vampire FB.5/9, a silver RAF one of 213 Squadron, a silver French one (no squadron markings that I can see, but codes X-5A on the front fuselage) and a camouflaged RAuxAF one of 502 Squadron.

Yes, if there's just a suffix change on the kit number it is usually a new set of decals but the same plastic.

Dale said in the video that there would be a new bomb bay in the Mosquito. No mention of the tail wheel though.

Maybe they could have included a Vulcan as well to make it the most expensive gift set ever.

Unless the Academy kit has 42 parts and comes with a shadow stand, yes.

Third or fourth depending how you count the two versions of the Cromwell.