VMA131Marine

And yet we have kits of the AMC Gremlin and Pacer

Interesting, as the R-2600 was about 850lbs heavier than the R-1820 it replaced, although putting out 600-700 additional horsepower at takeoff.

Could be Academy. The Academy kit at least had optional tails, with and without the dorsal fin. But, I have a feeling the wing leading edge is closer to the D than the B/C.

One thing is for sure, the decals in the Atlantis re-releases are much, much better than those in the original boxings.

Is Airfix not in Europe anymore? They’ve been consistent in releasing newly tooled kits of their own design for a while. Italeri also has had some spectacular releases. It seems Heller is finally on a firmer financial footing after a long period of uncertainty about their future so it’s too early to tell what their future commitment to new toolings will be.

Tamiya did the Morgan 4/4 in 1/24, but a Morgan 3-wheeler would be nice. What about a Jensen Interceptor? Reliant Robin Space Shuttle?

Squadron was also responsible for the Encore and CzechModel brands, TrueDetails resin parts, Squadron canopies (although some of these were also available from Falcon in New Zealand who manufactured them).

Squadron’s demise has far more to do with poor management than lack of customer support. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s Squadron was the biggest player in the mail order market for plastic models and accessories. But, they were slow in adapting to the rise of internet sales and they spent resources in a failed attempt to diversify their product line while neglecting the products of interest to their core customers. They tried selling R/C models but without the line of products or support of the then big players in that business, Hobbico and Horizon Hobbies. They tried die-cast collectibles but

This is a wildly optimistic view. For the most part we are talking about direct sales of products produced in the low hundreds to low thousands of units, only a fraction of which would end up in the UK. On top of that the UK distributor is going to want the typical 40-50% wholesale discount and selling to the UK looks even less attractive. The one alternative would be to sell through a third party like eBay or Amazon that will collect the VAT for you and submit it to HMRC but there are fees for doing that which may make it uneconomic. The bottom line is that a lot of these small compan

Don’t forget the He 177 was operational and, technically, it was a 4-engined aircraft even though it only had 2 propellers. The Me 264 also flew

Decals now going on the 183

I have way too many kits in progress so I will document my attempts to complete them here. Here’s a sample of what I’m working on: Eduard 1/48 Spitfire XVIe Eduard 1/72 Fw 190A-5 Airfix 1/72 Fw 190A-8 and Hasegawa 1/72 Fw 190A-8 (the one with the tailwheel) Airfix 1/72 Fw 190D-9 Trumpeter 1/48 Me 509 Revell 1/48 Lippisch P.13 AmTech 1/48 Ta 183

The only competition for a 1/72 Mosquito with two-stage Merlins is the Matchbox kit. That is, until the Special Hobby kits get released. But if they focus on the fighter versions then there won’t be any overlap.

Nothing is wrong with the AlleyCat Vampires. I have an FB.9 to build. But a lot of people are unfamiliar with or don’t like working with resin and they are more expensive, although the AlleyCat kits are reasonably inexpensive for resin kits. I’m somewhat fortunate with the Classic Airframes kits in that I have a stash of Aeroclub fuselage correction sets. There’s nothing really wrong with the Aeroclub vac kits either(other than they are getting hard to find).

It’s difficult to tell, but the CAD does not appear to show the Airfix fuselage having a fuselage break to allow for an alternate fighter nose. Fighters had the flat windscreen and side entry door in addition to the gun nose and cannon ports (the reason why the door had to be relocated). Without the nose break, Airfix would have to tool up two sets of fuselage halves to accommodate bomber and fighter variants, plus all the alternate cockpit parts and canopies. I’m not saying it’s not possible, just not likely based on past history. I think it’s more likely that they would tool up single stage