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Aeropoxy is to release in late April a 1/72nd Fletcher FU-24 Utility resin kit. Source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?id=100057396942579&story_fbid=933827168540506 V.P.

Another older work of mine, but I think FGN (Federal German Navy) ships are a bit underrepresented. Hence ... As always: thanks for looking Cheers

About 25 years ago - I scratchbuilt a 1:48 Fletcher FU24 (pic below). Scratchbuilding is an almost certain guarantee that the subject will be be released as an injection moulded kit within a matter of years. This subject has been somewhat resilient though - but we do now have a 1/48 scale RESIN kit from prolific Ukraine manufacture Unicraft (Igor Shestakov). Unicraft specialise in models of obscure aircraft (just google them) mostly in 1/72. They fall into the cottage industry end of the spectrum (ie "some modelling skills an advantage") - and are not recommended as the first kit to introduce your grandchildren to model making? But Unicraft ARE making resin kits of unusual/unique subjects including no doubt some deliriously happy Luft46 modellers? This build will hopefully give you evidence that with a little effort you can get a nice result by supporting the cottage industries efforts - even if they're a little short of a Tamigawanuts? Anyway, to kick off - here's my 25yo scratchbuilt Fletcher. Doing another one sort of averages out the effort - well that's my excuse. Oh - and I like crop dusters... So let's look at the kit (I've actually done a bit of preliminary work). Lots of resin - solid left wing and right wing. 2 x fuselage halves, separate tail feathers. And bits and bobs like wheels, U/C leg seats, prop etc that may or may not form part of my final model. Panel lines are a bit on the heavy side (think Matchbox) but fixable with the usual methods. The shape actually looks good vs my plans (that's ingredient #1 in my view). Fuse profile looks good. wing chord looks good. Not sure about the wingspan yet - but that's because I haven't cut off the wingroots and checked where things will line up). Rather oddly - there are cargo doors port n starboard (handy if you're a parachutist but I don't think something the manufacturers thought up. Also some handy retractable wheel wells on the wings but the FU24 had fixed undercarriage. Hmmmm. Both easily fixed. So here's what the fuse looks like. You can see you get value for money with the resin - plenty there! The external surfaces look just fine - the internals - well you're not going to see them so don't fret! You'll also see that I have spent a bit of time using a small grinding tool to grind out the cockpit area, thin down the walls and prep it for a detailed cockpit - because we ARE going to see that Next steps are to continue with the basic preparation. The nose is going to be chiselled out to make way for lead (which is heavier than resin) - and probably grind out the tail section too (as air is lighter than resin). No point having this as a tail sitter! Anyway - looking forward to this in a bizarre sort of way! (and isn't that what model making is about?). Also a bit of a plug for oldmodeldecals.com which is a NZ manufacturer of decals in 1/72 and 1/48 primarily for NZ operated aircraft. They have a GREAT range of decals for this kit - NZ was a key market for the Fletcher and it's successor the Cresco. (note I have nothing to do with either Unicraft or OldModelDecals - just like what they do!).

New issues: Shorts Stirling 75(NZ) Sqn WWII 1/48, 72 and 144 Percival Mew Gull G-AEXF final scheme 1/48 and 72 Percival Vega Gull RNZAF and RAF (24 Sqn) WWII 1/72 BN Islander – Milford Sound – 1/72 and 144 BN Islander – 13 schemes - 1/144 Fletcher Fu24 – Skydive Abel Tasman 1/72 Re-issued as Digital Decals All Embraer Bandierante and SW Metroliner schemes in 1/72 and 1/144 All GAF Nomad, BN Islander, Piper Chieftain, Piper Navajo, Cessna 402, Cessna 406, and Fletcher Fu24-950 schemes in 1/72 All F27 Friendship and Vickers Viscount 800 schemes in 1/96 Cairo Aviation Tu204-10C in 1/144 Tranzair Beech 99 in 1/144 Motueka Aero Club Cessna 172 in 1/48, 72 and 87 News: At last the conversion to Digital format is essentially complete. The remaining inkjet schemes – namely the BAe146, Saab 340 and RNZAF Devon will be re-worked and re-issued with new schemes in the coming months along with a backlog of new issues. These decals are available through my website www.oldmodelsdecals.com and, for NZ customers, TradeMe. John Oldmodels Decals