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The latest addition to my collection and probably my last full build of 20204, is the Hobby Boss MH-60J Jayhawk. I've already built Hasegawa and Italeri/Revell Seahawks/Black Hawks, so it was interesting to try out Hobby Boss' interpetation. I was pleasantly surprised, with good (but not perfect) fit and reasonable detail. The kit represents an early HH-60J, rather than the current MH-60T and whilst I have added a few details (wire antenna, blade hydraulic pipes, interior clutter) I have not made any other changes to update it. I realised that the kit blade roots are wrong, but was too late to do anything about it (they should be tapered rather than square, presumably for composite blades). Painting the red and white was a pain, mainly because the fuselage contours made it very difficult to apply masking tape. It's my usual brush aplied Humbrol enamels, with Klear for the decals and an Acrylic W&N satin top coat to finish. The cockpit is nicely detailed (no collectives though), but I added two crew members just to spice it up. This is a good little kit, which is just as well, since I have several more variants in the stash to build! As an aside, after nearly 21 years, with this model it seems that my neverending bottle of Johnsons Klear is nearly exhausted! Fortunately I have another to cover the next 20+ years! FredT

In 2021 - Hobby Boss is to release a family of 1/48th Super Hornet. - ref. 85812 - Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet - released - http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=product&a=show&id=1607&l=en - ref. 85813 - Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet - released - http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=product&a=show&id=1625&l=en - ref. 85814 - Boeing EA-18G Growler - released Source: http://www.moxingfans.com/m/view.php?aid=7201&pageno=1 V.P.

RMS Titanic (83420) 1:700 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd There can’t be many people that haven’t heard of the appalling and unnecessary loss of life that happened when the Titanic’s maiden voyage route intersected with an iceberg, causing huge gaps down the ship’s side due to blown rivets, overwhelming the safety measures that led many to believe that she was unsinkable. At the end of the day on 14th April 1912 she hit that fateful iceberg and began taking on substantial quantities of water. The ship’s waterproof bulkheads only extended to a level below the main deck, and one-by-one they overflowed, causing the Titanic to settle lower and lower in the water. Less than three hours later she broke into two and slipped beneath the surface with many of the passengers still aboard, and many more forced to jump into the almost freezing water, where most died from hypothermia or drowning. Over 1,500 souls were lost that day thanks to the hubris of the designers and impatience of the supervising crew, but many lessons were learned from this tragedy that are still applicable today, and many lives have subsequently been saved as a result. The 1997 blockbuster release of the film The Titanic brought the story to the public consciousness again after the wreck had been found over 13 miles from her expected location some years earlier. She was found lying upright and in two major parts, both of which had hit the sea bed at a considerable speed, badly buckling the underside. She has since been thoroughly inspected, and some of the knowledge gleaned from those expeditions was incorporated into the fictionalised plot of the James Cameron helmed film, which itself has become part of modern vernacular, with phrases such as “paint me like one of your French girls” raising the occasional titter. The Kit This is a new tooling from Hobby Boss, and represents the Titanic on her fateful voyage, although we understand another boxing will be forthcoming soon that depicts her sister ship Olympic in Dazzle camouflage livery, as she appeared during WWI as HMT Olympic, performing troop ship duties. The kit arrives in a rectangular top-opening box with a painting of the Titanic on the front, and two cardboard dividers inside that keeps the various aspects of the kit separately. There are ten sprues in grey styrene, plus the hull and six deck parts of varying sizes, a black styrene stand, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, decal sheet and black & white instruction booklet with separate colour painting guide slipped inside the pages. It’s immediately evident that this kit is intended to be a more “serious” kit than the recent offering from another company that came with a basic lighting kit, as the higher number of parts and monotone grey styrene suggest. When you remove the sprues from their individual bags, the detail is very finely engraved, showing delicate planking to the decks, window frames, doors and other fixtures, found all around on the visible surfaces thanks to a substantial use of slide-moulds that improve the model without increasing the part count unduly. The inclusion of PE parts is welcome, however this is a small sheet, and doesn’t include railings or other fine fittings that would be outwith the scope of most kits, and would cause frustration and extra expense to many modellers, who would see it as unnecessary complexity. They’d be entitled to think so, but the aftermarket producers are able to assist if the urge takes you to super-detail your kit. Hopefully, the research that Hobby Boss have put in is as good as the detail present. Construction begins predictably with the hull, which has hundreds of portholes, fittings and the distinctive banding around the hull moulded into it, plus the tapered stern where the rudder and screws will be placed later. The initial deck part covers the majority of the top surface, leaving the stern and bow to be added later, turning the hull over to fit the port and starboard prop-shaft fairings into grooves in the underside, with three props, one in the centre, which was the only screw with strong rudder authority, making her slow to turn, and could well have contributed to the collision with the iceberg once it was eventually spotted by the lookouts, who weren’t issued with binoculars, amazingly. With the hull righted again, the bow and stern deck parts are installed, and various deck fittings are applied over the next several steps. The superstructure is built from two deck parts, adding sidewalls to the lower layer, and building up the ends to prepare for the next deck, and includes the bridge. Two more deck parts are placed on the raised guides, adding a few detail parts to the smaller section to cover a blank space that couldn’t be dealt with by sliding moulds. The gap between the two superstructure parts is filled by a pair of walls, adding more inserts around the forward area near the flying bridges so that the deck above can be laid on top, detailing the open areas with more deck furnishings. The smaller upper deck areas are each detailed with dozens of parts, including life boats, davits, and a PE compass platform, resulting in seven sub-assemblies that are also placed in situ with guidance from the raised shapes all around the promenade, which is then covered with dozens of benches. The ostensibly complete superstructure is mated with the hull, taking care to align the bridge with the bow end, which shouldn’t be hard thanks to the raised guides that are used to assist throughout. A small forest of deck cranes are mounted on turret-like bases at the bow and stern, adding a couple of PE doors to the sides of the hull near the stern, which are likely either particular to the titanic, or were left off the mould by mistake and added later. Who knows? The Titanic had four large oval funnels, one of which was fake and was used to vent the heat and fumes from the kitchen so that the First-Class passengers didn’t have to smell the cooking odours. The three active funnels are made from halves with nicely engraved and raised details, adding an inner ring near the top, and covering it over with a PE grille. Painting the interior of the funnel tops a deep black should prevent anyone seeing the shallow base, and while the exterior of the aft funnel is identical to the others, the insert has a tube projecting up the centre, plus a pair of holes should be drilled in the floor. The PE grille is also different, with a solid forward section setting it apart from the others. The completed funnels are installed on the decks with their raised oval base plates assisting with placement, and taking care to glue the correct aft funnel at the stern end. Dozens of davits for the life boats are arranged around the sides of the main upper deck, with a few having a different design, and these are pointed out in the instruction steps. The lifeboats are suspended from each pair on the deck, which is best done after the glue on the davits is totally cured, fitting the two masts as the final act. The foremast has a small crow’s nest for the lookouts and an angled jib, while the stern mast has a single level jib facing forward. Both masts will have copious rigging, but there are no diagrams showing where it should be fitted, however the box art should assist with this, as the Titanic is almost directly side-on to the viewer. Markings The Titanic didn’t last long after it embarked on its first and final voyage, floundering without completing a single crossing with huge loss of life. You can build her as she left Southampton below: Decals are printed by Hobby Boss’s usual printers, and are fit for purpose, although under magnification the blue seems very slightly out of register on our sample, but unless someone is very sharp-eyed, it probably won’t be noticed, especially if you don’t use the US flag that’s supplied. Conclusion This is a very nicely detailed kit of the Titanic, particularly at this relatively small scale, with deck, windows and portholes finely engraved. It’s not a gimmicky kit that lends itself to a quick build with lighting, it’s for the modeller that wishes to build a well-detailed model as a little part of maritime history, as an homage to those that lost their lives. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi Pals, After a long hiatus, I'm going to start with a new model, this time I chose a rather strange one, being an interwar model, and being one of the oldest ones I have in my stash, in fact when I bought it there weren't other more recent kits yet, like the Zvezda one... I think this is the first HOBBY BOSS I've made, I haven't heard good opinions in general about the brand, but I think it seems good enough for me, much better than other brands I've made before like Italeri or Eastern Express, in fact it includes "everything", copper wires, PEs (OMG!), non-vinyl tracks, transparent parts for headlights... I don't know how fast it will go but I hope to make some progress soon, now that the heat is a little (just a little) less... As always, thanks for watching and commenting. Cheers Francis.👍 T-28, Soviet Medium Tank, Interwar experiments (RFI topic)

Hurricane Mk.IIC/Trop (81779) 1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Hawker Hurricane was one of Britain's foremost fighters of WWII, and although overshadowed by the more graceful and slender Spitfire during the Battle of Britain, it was a capable aircraft that was available in large numbers, and achieved more than its fair share of kills during the conflict. It went on to see service to the end of the war, but was relegated to less onerous tasks as technology advanced, resulting in faster, more agile aircraft that came to the front on both sides of the conflict. The type originated in the early 30s and first took to the sky in 1935, despite the Air Ministry’s tepid reaction to monoplanes at the time, and it was an aircraft that set standards for fighters that followed it, being a monoplane with a predominantly metal airframe, retractable landing gear, an enclosed cockpit and of course the delightfully powerful and throaty Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Compared to the Spitfire it was a little old-fashioned, starting out with a fabric-covered ‘rag’ wing that was eventually replaced by an all-metal aerofoil, and it was less aerodynamically streamlined, with a thicker wing and overall chunkier, blunt appearance. Although the wing was replaced by a metal aerofoil later, it retained the fabric rear fuselage and as such was able to have minor damage repaired quickly and easily, compared to the Spitfire that would have to go back to a repair facility for structurally insignificant through-and-through bullet damage. A fabric patch followed by a few coats of dope, and the Hurri would be back to the fray, which endeared it both to its pilots and ground crew alike. By the time the improvements to the airframe resulted in the Mk.IIC, it was tasked with ground attack, taking out German tanks, which weren’t as easy to crack as first expected, because 20mm cannon shells would often ricochet off frontal or side armour, and bombing a relatively small target such as a tank was a matter of mostly luck, all while the enemy poured lead in your general direction. It was withdrawn from front-line fighter service at this stage of the war, as by then the enemy aircraft outclassed it in most respects, so it carried on in ground-attack, night fighter and intruder roles where it excelled, without unnecessary exposure to enemy fighters. It was succeeded by the D that mounted a pair of 40mm cannon in gondolas under the wings, increasing its offensive power appreciably, at which point it acquired the nickname ‘The Flying Can Opener’, adding additional frontal armour to the airframe that was exposed during the run-in to target. They carried on in that role until the Typhoon came into service, which could do the job faster and more efficiently without the worry of being bounced by enemy fighters that outclassed it. The Kit This is a new boxing of Hobby Boss’s 2022 tooling of the type, and whilst we have an excellent de facto standard kit from another brand, there’s no profit in that for Hobby Boss. The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of a Hurricane engaging successfully with some Luftwaffe Bf.110s, for which it was a good match, providing the Hurricane pilot was wary of the rear gunner on his approach. Inside are five sprues in grey styrene of varying sizes, two clear sprues, one of which is wrapped in foam sheet, two black flexible tyres in a separate bag, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a small sheet of pre-cut canopy masks, a decal sheet, instruction booklet in black and white, plus a double-sided sheet of colour profiles printed on glossy paper to assist with painting and decaling. The metal exterior surfaces are covered with finely rendered rivets and engraved panel lines, while the fabric areas have fluted surfaces to depict the ribbing showing through the doped cloth skin. There are also oddities such as separate gun bay doors in the upper wings, despite there being nothing within, and that perennial head-scratcher, the clear instrument panel that has a decal for the dials. Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the foot-trays and a small section of “floor” that doesn’t exist in the real aircraft but has probably been included because it gives the seat armour something to plug into, slotting the seat into a recess near the bottom of the part, and applying six-part PE belts to add detail. The control column and rudder pedals are installed between the foot-trays, then the side frames are brought in, and the clear instrument panel is slotted into the top, applying a dial decal and a gunsight into the top centre. The completed cockpit is trapped between the fuselage halves along with a front bulkhead, with very shallow sidewall details moulded into the port fuselage side, and nothing on the starboard other than an access door that is also separate. As the fuselage is closed, the prop assembly is built from blades that are trapped between the spinner and back-plate, secured with a cap on the rear of the axle, being careful with the glue in that vicinity. Two sets of fish-tail exhaust stubs are slotted into the cowling on each side, with solid tips and a seams down the sides, which will need dealing with if it bothers you. The lower wing is a full-span part that has the outer portions of the main gear bays moulded-in, fitting an insert in the centre to complete boxing in the bays, although detail here is perhaps a little simplified when compared to the recent competition. The upper wings are fitted with extraneous double bay doors before they are mated to the lowers on either side of the fuselage, which could be useful if you are scratching or buying aftermarket gun bay interiors. Turning the model over sees additional detail inserted in the main gear bays in the shape of short ribs, struts and retraction jacks, building the belly radiator housing from four parts and installing it between the wings, plus a desert air filter that is made from two parts that includes a portion of the cowling under the nose, with a separate intake lip. A crew step is fitted under the wing trailing edge, a pitot probe under the port wing, and clear wingtip lights on the leading tip of each wing, adding a clear landing light cover further inboard, then fixing the cannon inserts in the leading edge after installing the two barrels with moulded-in recoil springs. Careful alignment is key here, assisted by steps around the edges of the cut-out, which can be trimmed to improve fit as necessary. The main gear legs are moulded as struts with separate aft retraction jacks, fixing captive gear bay doors, adding a tyre to the hub part before fitting it to the axle at the base of the leg. The tail-wheel is moulded into its strut, and drops into a fairing under the tail to allow the model to stand on its own wheels for the first time. Righting the model sees the elevators slid into slots in the tail, each one interlinking to give a strong bond. The canopy is in two parts, gluing the windscreen in position with a rear-view mirror at the apex, the framed canopy fitting behind it, and an aerial mast on the spine behind the cockpit. The last page of the instructions shows the locations of the numbered masks for the canopy, which also extends to the landing lights and wingtip lights. Markings There are two decal options included in the box, one on each side of the colour instruction sheet, but Hobby Boss have a widely variable track-record for their decals and profiles. Both examples here are dressed in desert schemes, but the underside colours seem at variance with the standards for the era and theatre, using Sky for one, and Light Blue for the other. It’s possible that azure blue was unavailable at times, but that’s a task for your references and the balance of probability to decide. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals should be easy enough to apply, but some of the colours used are unusual. The roundel red is bordering on peach/pink (the scan doesn't show that), and the yellow outlines appear translucent on the sheet. There are a cluster of stencils included, plus a decent rendition of instrument dials for the panel, but check your references carefully regarding colour schemes, and factor in some new decals if they bother you. Conclusion Every major company has a Hurricane in their range, and this is Hobby Boss’s. It’s not the best in scale, but to those that aren’t obsessed with detail and accuracy this could fill the spot, as it will look like a Hurri once complete. If you’re a serious modeller however (I hate that phrase), you’ll probably be looking at the competition instead. Recommended with caveats. Review sample courtesy of

Corsair Mk.III (80396) 1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Corsair is an iconic fighter aircraft that had speed agility and an unusual look to recommend it to pilots, but its gestation was far from easy due to the optimistic and highly demanding specification that required not only high speed but great war-load carrying capability and a low stall speed to make it suitable for carrier operations. It was given the largest engine then available in the shape of the Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp radial engine, which could drive a huge three bladed prop that was almost 14 feet across. This meant that the wings had to be given an inverted gull shape so that the prop didn't strike the ground on take-off or landing. It had already proved itself capable before the United States entered WWII, being the first US single-engined aircraft to exceed 400mph. Concerns about armament led to the cowling guns being deleted and three .50cal machines guns being installed in each wing, which displaced the fuel tanks into the fuselage ahead of the cockpit, giving the aircraft its distinctive set-back appearance. By 1941 it was in production and had been allocated the name Corsair, but initial trials revealed an unpleasant stall characteristic that would lead to one wing dropping suddenly, which had to be fixed with a small root mounted stall strip. The set-back cockpit also gave poor forward visibility on landing and take-off, with oil from the engine further obscuring the view. The top cowling flaps were replaced with a fixed panel, and the landing gear struts re-tuned, but this delayed its use as a carrier borne fighter until 1944. Despite these set-backs it was used successfully as a land-based fighter, and was used in large numbers by the US Marines to good effect. A number of aces got their kills in the Corsair, which was superior to the Zero, which coupled with the pilots' experience over the poorly trained rookie Japanese pilots made them easy targets. Because the Corsair was fast at low level it was also used for ground attack, firing unguided rockets and bombs on wing pylons. The Royal Navy also used the Corsair from 1943, putting it into use immediately, as it was far superior to their existing options, and despite its unforgiving deck handling characteristics it found favour with pilots. The Mk.III was a Brewster-built F4U-1, who were having such production issues that their contract was rescinded and they went bankrupt soon after. The aircraft were prone to shedding their wings, so various restrictions were put in place to prevent this. After WWII it went on to serve in many conflicts, with the production line finally closing in 1953, more than 10 years after it opened. As a testament to its longevity and usefulness, some foreign operators still had Corsairs in service in the 1970s! The Kit This kit is most definitely one of Hobby Boss's more upmarket kits, and is well detailed throughout. Inside the top-opening box are 11 sprues of varying size in mid-grey styrene, a clear sprue and a reasonably sized decal sheet. On initial release there was discussion over the cowling, which appears to have an oversized opening at the front, and a misshapen auxiliary chin-intake as a result. This shouldn't be a major problem for most builders, but if you are striving for accuracy, there is a resin replacement in the wings from True Details that will address this issue, and those should still be available. This version of the Corsair is the final mark used in WWII, but an early block, although it has the by now familiar Malcolm type blown hood, rather than the claustrophobic bird-cage hood originally used in earlier versions. Construction is pretty straight forward, complicated only by the decision whether to fold the wings or not. The cockpit is built up as a "tub" with oval bulkheads at each end and a two-layer floor that exposes some of the control lines through a central hole. Side consoles and the main instrument panel are supplied with raised and recessed details, plus decals in black and white if you don't feel up to painting them, or using Airscale individual instrument decals on the build. Rudder pedals, trim wheel, fire extinguisher and control column make for a nicely detailed interior. The big P&W engine is well stocked with parts, and depicts both rows of cylinders, as well as the complex spaghetti-like exhaust stacks, which eventually wend their way out to the two exits on the side of the fuselage. There is also a reproduction of the reduction gear bell-housing with a ring for the wiring harness, although the wiring itself is absent in this kit. A little research and some lead wire will soon put that right though, and you will have a handsome looking block to put in the aircraft. The instructions then have you make up the inner wing panels and tail wheel, In preparation for closing the fuselage. The lower inner wing has the wing-fold ribs, intake backing bay and a couple of holes drilled out, then the short upper panels are dropped into place, with separate flaps, intake fairings and the wingfold mechanism (if used) together with support rods. Before closing up the fuselage, a pair of cockpit sidewall inserts are fitted inside the fuselage, and the large tail-wheel is inserted, then the arrestor hook bay is built up and glued in behind the tail wheel. Finally, the rear stub of the engine is trapped between the two halves, then the lower wing, cowling and cooling flaps, plus the empennage are assembled and fitted, which allows offsetting of the flying surfaces if you wish, although you would need to extend or contract the actuator arms accordingly. The outer wing panels themselves have their gun bays included, which can be modelled open or closed, with a boxed in bay and lengths of .50cal ammo supplied with the guns. You'll need to close them up if you're modelling the aircraft with its wings folded, and with that in mind, a full set of covers are included. The wing-fold ribs hide the interior of the wing, and you are supposed to be able to slot them together whether you are building the kit with folded or unfolded wings. Some test fitting of the straight wings would be a wise move to reduce the chances of a step, and I would definitely consider attaching the inner and outer panels in advance of closing up the wing parts. The ailerons are separate, as are the outer flap sections, both of which are made from top and bottom halves and can be posed again. Small clear wingtip lights are added to each tip as well as the root, and a pitot probe is inserted into a slot in the port wingtip. The kit is designed to be built with the wheels down, so all of the gear bay doors are engineered to fit the open bays, but if you're after a wheels-up look, test fitting is the way to go. The main gear legs are the central parts and have separate oleo-scissors, and a large A-frame retraction jack that beefs up the gear to stand the rigors of deck landings. The two small "knee-pad" bay doors attach to the front of the struts, and should be painted underside colour on the outside, and primer on the inside. The wheels are in two halves, and show a good level of detail, including circumferential treads on the tyres, and nicely moulded spokes on the outer hubs. There is no flat-spot on the tyres, so a sanding stick will be needed if you prefer them to show the effect of the aircraft’s weight. The canopy is in two parts, with a separate windscreen. It is shown modelled closed, but I'm sure it will be possible to pose the blown "Malcolm" style hood in the open position. Apart from a few aerials, the remaining parts are weapons to load your Corsair up with for a more aggressive look to the finished model. There are eight HVAR unguided rockets that were used to great effect at the end of the war, which have separate mounts, and will just need actuators made from wire to finish them off. The underwing pylons have two large auxiliary fuel tanks attached, and these have separate sway brace and filler/overflow hose parts to give them a little extra interest. There are demarcations for the yellow tips moulded into the blades though, which although handy for the novice isn't really very accurate, so they will need to be filled if you can’t live with them. Markings There are two decal schemes included on the sheet, both of which are British machines for obvious reasons, but different enough to pick a favourite from. The options are as follows: JS479/Q-BH2 of 718 Sqn. DAA Ballyhalbert, 1945 JS636/Y2F Naval Air Sqn. 759 Fleet Air Arm, 1944-45 The red seems a little pink in this scan, but to the eye it is more red. A quick Google shows that both these decal options were actually Mk.II airframes, with the distinctive cross-rail on the canopy. Several sources show them as such, so I suspect that Hobby Boss have dropped a clanger here, possibly getting the II and III mixed up and providing the wrong canopy as a result – the boxtop has the cross-rail, which backs that hypothesis up a little. Check your references, and if you agree and it bothers you, you’ll need to resort to aftermarket decals and some canopy surgery. The second option is announced to by “Royal Vavy”, but the decals use an N, so have a chuckle and move on. Unusually, the yellow prop tips are included on the decal sheet, which unless backed by a coat of white paint will probably look quite dull over a black prop, so you'll need to paint a white background on the tips, and it would seem a waste of effort to not then overspray the area with yellow, rendering the decals redundant. The decals are cleanly printed, in good register, and seem to have good colour density. Conclusion With the exception of the too-wide cowling opening this is a really nice kit from a builder's point of view that's packed with detail, and should build into a good-looking model. If you can live with the cowling issue, it will look great out of the box, otherwise, you'll doubtless need to pick up the aftermarket replacement, and maybe some aftermarket decals too if you’re interested. Overall, it's a nicely done kit, and should provide hours of entertainment for your average modeller, with the above-mentioned caveats. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Next Hobby Boss Corsair kit will be a 1/48th Chance Vought F4U-1 Corsair early version - ref.80381. Release is announced for late August 2015. So should be available in the best hobbyshops in September-October. Source: http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=product&a=show&id=1125 Box art V.P.

Hi, It's the last submarine I built:, HMS Astute (Hobby Boss): . . . . . . The sea made of resin... Chris

Hi All Started yesterday, Trailer first as I think a bit more leeway for poor fitting parts, get a feel for assembly for the Scammell itself, so far so good, gooseneck a bit of a tight fit to get the deck plate in, might not take too long, as the whole thing is just Green all over. Cheers All any tips on this would be appreciated if you have done one Mark

Hello everyone, I have decided that I will start the new year 2024 with a chinese submarine: a Golf type 031: . . . . Very difficult for me to find the "right blue"... . . Chris

US T34 Heavy Tank (84513) 1:35 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd Toward the end of WWII, when Allied tanks were encountering German heavy tanks such as the King Tiger and Jagdtiger, the American military put projects in motion that would be capable of matching them and dealing with German heavy armour (or Soviet for that matter), whilst remaining safe thanks to their own thick frontal and side armour. The designs were designated T29 and T30, both of which were almost identical save for the guns mounted in their turrets, sporting 105mm and 155mm main guns respectively. A further development, possibly inspired by the Nazis using their 88mm anti-aircraft gun in heavy tanks, was to see the high velocity 120mm M1 Anti-Aircraft gun reconfigured into an adapted turret. The gun could fire on aircraft up to 60,000ft, and consequently its armour penetrating power was devastating, far outstripping the other two guns that suffered from lighter-weight shells and with slower muzzle velocity respectively. It took until 1947 for the prototypes to be delivered to the proving ground in the US, and to balance the enormous barrel a sizeable chunk of armour was fitted on the bustle of the turret, possibly 99% redundant, but useful if the crew were caught napping. At a startling sixty-five tons, it was a weighty beast, and the US Army felt that it would be difficult to find a use for it thinking its weight could cause problems with bogging down on softer ground, and crossing bridges, in much the same manner that the Germans experienced with their heavy tanks during WWII. There was also an issue with fumes from the gun entering the turret, which was fixed by using an aspirator, but this came too late, and no production orders were made, the prototypes going into storage, and eventually finding their way into museums. The work wasn’t a total waste however, as a year later a lightened version of the T34 was designated as the T43, and was to enter service later as the M103 Heavy Tank, by which time its weight had ballooned up to the same 65 tons that had doomed the T34, using the same M1 gun, which was re-designated as M58 due to changes that had been made to it in the interim, including higher barrel pressure and quick-change capability. The M103 served with US forces until retired in the mid-70s, by which time Main Battle Tank doctrine had rendered the Heavy Tank a historic dead-end of tank design. The Kit Unsurprisingly, this kit is based upon the 2016 tooling of the US T29 tank that the T34 was based on, in a case of modelling production mirroring history. It has since had new parts added to turn it into a later T29 variant, a T30 and now a T34. The kit arrives in a typical Hobby Boss top-opening box with a slight corrugated surface to the lid, which has a dramatic painting of a T34 in the process of firing its main gun, with the muzzle-flash rebounding from the mantlet and turret. Inside the box is a cardboard divider glued to the tray to keep the large hull and turret parts from moving around the box and causing damage, plus most of the sprues are individually bagged, with additional foam strapping taped around various areas of the sprues and the front of the upper hull to further protect them during shipping and storage. There are ten sprues, two hull parts and the upper turret in grey styrene, eight sprues of track-links in brown styrene, two small frets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a tiny decal sheet. The package is completed by the black & white instruction booklet that has a glossy, full-colour painting and markings sheet loosely inserted between the pages. Detail is good, and includes weld-beads, sand-casting and rolled-steel armour textures, plus individual track links and PE grab-handles/tie-downs for the sides of the many stowage boxes on the hull deck. Construction begins with preparing the lower hull for its road wheels by adding bump-stops, swing-arms and other suspension parts to the sides of the hull, including the idler and drive axles, with some wheel stations having additional dampers moulded-in to improve the ride for the crew. Massive final-drive housings are inserted into gaps in the rear bulkhead, along with a pair of hinged armoured panels, first fitting the seven paired idler wheels all along the upper run of each track, then building paired road wheels with a loose washer trapped between them, doing the same with the four-part drive sprockets, all of which can be carefully glued to the axles with the hope that they will remain mobile once the glue has cured, which might work, or might not, depending on how dainty you are with the glue. Each track run consists of 113 links, which are joined together by fitting the figure-eight pivots to the track pins, the outer edge having additional plates to widen the track that spreads ground pressure. A jig is included to assist you with production, and you’ll be pleased to hear that there are no ejector-pin marks on the inner faces of the tracks. Each of the track links has three sprue gates, while the pivots have just one each, all of which are sensibly placed to minimise clean-up, so whilst it will take some time to create the tracks, it shouldn’t drive you crazy in the process. With the lower hull looking good, attention turns to the upper hull where all the detail is. The upper deck is started by building two banks of stowage boxes around the base of the turret, which have separate lids, rails with eyes, and eight PE handles running along the outer sides. These assemblies are installed either side of the turret aperture, adding various small parts, including headlights, side-facing vision slots for the front crew, and a pair of two-part exhausts that mount at the rear of both fenders. A short run of track is bracketed to the glacis opposite the bow machine gun housing, and a few pioneer tool are fitted onto the fenders. On the engine deck, six louvred panels are inserted into holes, fixing a C-shaped exhaust pipe to the backs of the mufflers on the fenders, with an armoured cover protecting the straight central section. More pioneer tools are glued to the fenders, and these are joined by more PE handles along the edges, with cages mounted over the headlamps and the bow gun made from three parts including the barrel, sliding into the armoured shroud moulded into the glacis. The front crew hatches have rotating 360° vision blocks inserted into holes in the surfaces, then they are fitted into the hull, adding a grab-handle next to each one for egress purposes. At the rear, a small section of bulkhead is inserted into the remaining space, adding rear lights and other small parts once installed. The turret of the T34 is as large as some early WWII tanks, and is built from upper and lower halves, with a seam running along the side of the deep bustle, along the swage-line where the vertical side sweeps underneath. A machine gun is flex-fitted in a pintle-mount, adding twin grips, an ammo box made from three parts, and a two-part post into which the mount slides. The mantlet is also prepared from two layers of styrene, adding caps over the pivot pins so the gun can elevate, plus a pair of lifting eyes on the upper surface, making the commander’s cupola with a separate hatch, then fitting this and the mantlet to the turret, which has some very nice texture moulded-in, including weld-beads and casting roughness. The bustle receives an armoured panel to balance the barrel weight, inserting four parts into holes in the lower edge, plus brackets around the bustle sides, a shell-ejection port on the right side, stowage basket on the same side, a pair of aerial bases at the rear of the bustle, and the other two hatches either side of the keel that is moulded into the roof of the turret. The machine gun fits in front of the left hatch, and behind the commander’s cupola, a fairing sweeps around the side of the deck. The last parts for the turret include a choice of two styles of barrel, both of which are made from two halves that are split vertically, inserting your choice into the mantlet with a circular PE washer trapped between them. The turret locks in place on the hull by its bayonet lugs, and you have a choice of finishing the build with the travel lock in the stowed position flat against the engine deck, or vertically, supporting the barrel of the turret, which must be turned to the rear. Markings There is just one option on the decal sheet, and four white decals on the front fenders and the rear bulkhead, denoting T34 and 1949 on opposite sides. You might have already guessed that it’s a green tank, so pat yourself on the back if you did. Hobby Boss decals can be a little scant, but that’s what’s needed for this prototype, and as there is no registration to worry about, they’re perfect for the job in hand. Conclusion The T34, not to be confused with the Soviet T-34, was a monster of a tank, and it’s the first thing that hits you on opening the box. Detail is good, especially the textures moulded into the surface, resulting in a good-looking model that can be a canvas for your weathering techniques. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hobby Boss is to release a new tool 1/48th Lockheed U-2R Dragon Lady kit in 2015/2016 - ref.81740 Source: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234972796-hobbyboss-148-for-2015/?p=1828290 V.P.

#2/2024 One of my dad´s more rare excursions in the modern jet world. IMO still the most bada$$ ground attacker and CAS aircraft. As I´ve read it is declared dead once again in a few years....let´s see. Hobby Boss kit, mostly oob. HB did the same as Italeri and used their A-10A kit and added some things. But like Italeri also HB did miss some. For example the wing tip detail, found a solution by using 3D decals from Quinta Studio. On the original aircraft all is yellow, but kept the decals grey to keep the nice detail. The kit seat comes with shoulder belts but no lap belts, added them from the sparesbox. Ailerons and flaps can be positioned as you like, kept them in neutral position. Also the gun bay can be displayed open if you like. The racks come without "clamps". There would be aftermarket PE ones from Eduard but this is a bending nightmare for sure . Kept the pins on the racks, so they somehow look like the "clamps" from a distance. Painted with a selfmixed tone. Looking at the original aircraft, depending on the light it sometimes looks more green, then more olive. One little decal detail HB missed, the "O" of Norris includes a front view of the gatling. Build thread here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235132035-centennial-brrrrt148-fairchild-republic-a-10c-thunderbolt-ii-104th-fs-fightin´-o´s-maryland-ang/#comment-4806011 For the centennial anniversary of the Maryland ANG in 2021, one of their A-10C received a special livery. Later on, some green painted areas on the belly and underwings have been washed off again. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0003 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0004 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0005 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0006 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0010 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0030 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0031 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0013 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0032 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0015 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0033 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0017 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0018 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0019 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0020 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0021 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0022 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0029 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0024 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

After the recently finished A-7E, my dad starts the next modern subject. DSC_0001 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0002 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

USAF XM706E2 (84536) 1:35 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Commando series of light amphibious armoured cars was developed by Cadillac Gage in the US and was designated the M706. It was developed specifically for the Military Police and convoy escort in Vietnam, Its high ground clearance and waterproofing being suitable for the terrain being encountered. It was one of the first vehicles the US had which combined the roles of the APC and a conventional armoured car, carrying upto 10 troops in the back. The design would spawn a whole range of vehicles some with turrets carrying up to 90mm guns. The XM706E2, was supplied to the U.S. Air Force primarily for base protection purposes, but was also used for post strike reconnaissance and EOD roles. The open top lending itself to a variety of weapons including 50 cal, & 7.62mm machine guns, and in some case 40mm grenade launchers, though they were most seen with the duel machines guns. Not many of these vehicles were kept after the Vietnam war, but the USAF did retain some which served as late as the 1980s in Korea and the Philippines. Though by this time they were becoming very hard to keep operational. The vehicle would be replaced in various roles by the M1117 made by Textron who by this time had merged with Cadillac Gage. The Kit Hobby boss have done a variety of kits based on the same chassis. The kits are well engineered and build up with no problems at all as this reviewer has built one of them before. The kit arrives on 6 sprues of grey plastic, a clear sprue, upper & lower hull castings, a sheet of PE, I small sheet of masks, a small length of chain, and a small sheet of decals. All of the parts are well moulded with no defects. Construction starts with the interior, this is not massively detailed but there is enough in there to make it busy. The centre transmission tunnel goes in followed by some seats and the drivers controls, at the rear the engine compartment is boxed in. For the upper hull a series of holes need to be made and some internal equipment installed. The two main hull parts can then be joined, the lower hull actually slots into the upper one. Flipping the vehicle upside down all the suspension, steering, and drive components plus the axles are installed. Take care here as the front and rear springs look the same but are not (ask me how I know this!). To the rear hull a toll rack is added complete with individual tools. The wheels can then be made up and fitted onto the axles. Moving back to the top side the rear jerrican stowage is added along with various hatches, grab handles and the armoured windows. The exhaust grill is added to the rear also. Headlight guards and mirrors are added to the front. The main hatch for the vehicle is now made up. This can either be open or closed up depending on how you stow the covers. PE mounts now need to be made up the for machine guns. A 50cal and M60 are both included in the kit to mount here. Markings A small decal sheet gives markings for one camo vehicle and one overall green vehicle. No other information is given. Conclusion This is a great kit from Hobby Boss of a little seen vehicle, the kit is first rate and builds up easily into a good looking vehcile. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

U-2R ‘Dragon Lady’ Senior Span (81740) 1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd Back in the 1950s, extreme high-altitude anti-aircraft missiles weren’t yet available, and aircraft could over-fly foreign nations with a degree of impunity, as long as they could stay high enough to keep out of range of enemy fighters and less capable missile batteries. Lockheed’s Skunk Works were tasked with creating a new aircraft on reasonably short notice that could fly higher than any previous aircraft or missile, virtually on the edge of space, to accomplish the task of gathering intelligence on America’s Cold War enemies, predominantly over-flying the Soviet Union. They took the fuselage of the new F-104 Starfighter that was then in development, adding massively extended wings more suitable to a glider, and shortening the fuselage, leaving sufficient space to carry high-definition optics and/or electronic intelligence gathering equipment. Developed in secret using black project money from the CIA, the airframes were developed in close proximity to the engineering staff, embedding them in the factory to quickly resolve any issues that came up, which resulted in the initial order coming in on time and under budget. New high-altitude fuel had to be developed, and the custom optics were designed specifically for use in the aircraft, which garnered the designation U-2, the U standing for Utility, to confuse anyone hearing about it, thus delaying its discovery a little longer. Once flights over the USSR had begun, it was discovered that the Soviets were regularly tracking the aircraft, which led to a project to reduce the type’s radar return, which was initially unsuccessful, but later was revisited by covering the skin in a Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) that was a matt black colour on application. There have been many upgrades and alterations to the type since it was initially fielded, leading to an aircraft that looks somewhat like the original, but is hugely different in terms of capabilities, especially when it comes to intelligence gathering. They still jettison their wing-mounted stabiliser legs on take-off however, and are stalked on landing by a muscle car to improve the pilot’s situational awareness from his cramped cockpit, which is worsened by the pilots having to wear a space suit due to the altitudes involved that would have a fatal effect on anyone flying whilst wearing a standard flight suit. The largest change other than building two-seat airframes for complex tasks and training of the elite pilots was the U-2R in 1967, which increased the size of the airframe by around 30% and introduced the wing ‘Superpod canoes’ that could be filled with intelligence gathering equipment and gave the aircraft a greater range by the enlargement of the fuel tanks. Despite the age of the basic premise and the march of technology, the U-2 has persisted attempts to retire it, even surviving the introduction of the un-manned Global Hawk, which is capable of many of the same tasks with extended loiter times due to the pilots being ground-based. NASA use a few U-2s, redesignated as ER-2s, which are used for high-altitude civilian research, painted white with the blue NASA cheatline as no-one is likely to want to shoot them down. The Kit This is a new tooling from Hobby Boss that was released late in 2023 and has only recently arrived this far from China, with another boxing depicting the U-2S expected soon(ish). The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of the aircraft flying high, which is what it does best, with the stars visible in an inky black sky. Inside the box are seven sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, Photo-Etch (PE) sheet, decal sheet, instruction booklet, plus a colour profile sheet in A4, printed on both sides. Detail is excellent throughout, and incorporates some intelligent use of slide-moulding, particularly to create double-wall, single part intake trunks with detail on the interior and exterior. There are also a ton of aerials, antennae, a dorsal pod, and optional flat-spotted forward areas to the Superpod canoes under the wings. There is also plenty of detail in the cockpit, gear bays, and even a pair of detachable wing support wheels on their banana-shaped struts, plus air-brakes that can be fitted in the deployed position with a suitably well-detailed bay behind each of them. Construction begins with the two long fuselage halves, drilling out several holes in the top and bottom, and inserting the air-brake bay parts toward the aft end of the parts. Attention then turns to the cockpit, starting with the ejection seat, which is made from seven styrene parts plus four-point PE belts, which is installed in the detailed cockpit tub along with a two-part control yoke, fitting a bulkhead to the rear, and the instrument panel in front of the pilot, with a decal to depict the dials. Two side wall inserts are then fixed to the top of the consoles to finish the tub, moving on to the rear gear bay, building it from individual wall and roof parts, locating the gear strut between the side walls, and adding small diameter wide tyres to each end of the cross-axles. The exhaust is a simple tube made from two halves, and it is capped by a representation of the rear face of the engine after painting everything a suitable shade of burned metal. The front gear bay is moulded in excellent detail, showing the shape of the merging intake trunks within, to which the front strut and its retraction jacks are fitted, adding another pair of larger wheels to the stub-axle ends, painting both bays a grubby white. The merging intake trunks are made in two stages that are joined together to create a Y-shape, which is blocked at the rear by a part that represents the front of the engine, gluing it to the roof of the front gear bay, then fitting the cockpit, both wheel bays and the exhaust between the two fuselage halves and gluing them together. A forest of antennas is dotted around the underside, adding sideways opening front gear bay doors, a tail-bumper, and the actuators for the air-brakes into the bays near the rear. Yet more antennae are fitted along the belly, a sensor dome is mounted in front of the front gear bay, and the rear bay doors along with the air-brake panels are installed, flipping the model over onto its wheels to fit the instrument coaming to the cockpit, plus another antenna and light to the spine. The canopy is moulded in two parts, fitting a small exterior rear-view mirror on the port side of the windscreen, and PE interior rear-view mirrors to the canopy, gluing both into position, the canopy hinging to the port side if you plan to pose it open. The two intakes are an impressive piece of slide-moulding, having inner and outer surfaces provided as one part, with a hollow interior that reduces the likelihood of sink marks, whilst providing plenty of detail, each one gluing into the openings behind the cockpit. There is a slight seam around the intake lips that is easily removed, but the detail is well worth those few seconds of effort. The dorsal pod is made from two halves with a small raised blister on the pylon added to both sides, fixing it to the spine over the wing roots on pins, while the tail fin is built from two halves plus a single part for the rudder, which has a corrugated surface that is a little too deeply defined. Check your references and either fill the depressions, or sand back the raised portions as you see fit, although several coats of primer and some light sanding of the high spots might be better to retain the original thickness of the part. This also applies to the ailerons and other flying surfaces, so you might as well do them all at once, unless you’re upset by this minor issue. Each wing is made from top and bottom half, adding the majority of the Superpod body to the underside, with the top half of the tail cone a separate part, and the forward section that uses either two halves to create a cylindrical section with tapering nose cone, or by using different parts to create the nose cones with a flat-spot on the outer face, both styles having an optional L-shaped antenna installed on the top. The flying surfaces along the trailing edge are all separate, and are glued to the rear of the wing, with the possibility of deflecting them if you wish. Note that the black RAM isn’t painted under the extended flaps, so take care to check your references to help you paint this area correctly. A spoiler is also fixed to the upper wing around mid-span, near the jettisonable stabilising gear legs that are made from curved struts with a wheel glued to each side of the bottom end. These locate in a socket under the trailing edge of the wings, and of course the same process is carried out in mirror-image for the other wing. The wings are glued to the fuselage sides on three separate slots, and here it will become obvious that they have been moulded with a slight sag, which is correct for wings of this aircraft, so don’t be tempted to correct this. The two-part elevator fins have separate flying surfaces, and these fit to the fairing under the fin using a relatively small tab and slot, taking care to achieve the correct dihedral by checking your references. There are several nose modules used in U-2 missions, and this boxing includes a simple more aerodynamic nose that is made from two halves, plus a single cone tip, with two PE probes fitted to small depressions in the rear edge of the nose. It is glued in place to complete the build phase of the model. Markings Any U-2 after the early days is painted in black RAM, with very few markings, unless it’s one of the civilian airframes. There are three options included on the sheet, predominantly stencilled in red, and most of the decals are applied to the tail fin. From the box you can build one of the following: Hobby Boss decals and the decaling instructions can be a weak point of their products at times, and they are generally printed anonymously in China. This sheet is printed in this manner, but is suitable for purpose, particularly as the majority of decals are printed in red. Registration where it occurs is good, as is colour density and sharpness, with a clear backed decal depicting the dials and switch-gear for the instrument panel. Conclusion The moulding and detail included in the kit is excellent, and other than the excessive corrugated texture on some of the control surfaces, there is little immediately visible to grouch about, although some are still trying. Other than making sure you have enough space in your cabinet to accommodate the enormous wingspan of the Dragon Lady, there’s no reason not to have one. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Bergepanzer BPz3A1 Buffalo ARV (84565) 1:35 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Büffel as it is known as in its native Germany, is an Armoured Recovery Vehicle based upon the chassis and lower hull of the well-liked Leopard 2E Main Battle Tank, which itself is a variant of the 2A6. Most of the lower hull is identical or similar to its progenitor, but the turret is missing, replaced by a casemate and crane, a winch and a bulldozer blade that allows it to retrieve damaged or immobilised tanks from the battlefield even if the fighting is still ongoing thanks to its armour. It is also equipped with an MG3 machine gun for self-defence purposes, a set of smoke grenade launchers to hide itself and its charge from those that wish it harm. It is powered by a large 12-cylinder diesel engine from MTU Friedrichshafen, a division of Rolls-Royce, that outputs almost 1,500bhp that allows it to travel at good speed across all sorts of terrain, but also to pull its immobilised compatriots, whether they were retrieving Leopards or PzH2000 SPGs, or anything up to a similar tonnage. The BPz3 was a joint project between Rheinmetall Landsysteme of Germany who produced an initial 75 for the Bundeswehr and a further 25 for the Netherlands, where its name lost its umlaut over the U in translation. It was also sold to other countries including Canada where it is known as the L2-ARV, and Spain where it is known as the Leopard 2ER Búfalo, with Switzerland a surprisingly large 25 export, and Sweden taking a number on charge after adapting them to their specific needs to improve armour and customise their electronic systems. For service in Afghanistan, the German vehicles and some Canadian machines were upgraded with new high quality vision systems by Karl Zeiss for the drivers that would give them 24/7 visibility, no matter what the conditions. The crane is electrically driven, and can operate independent of the power-pack, so even the unusual sight of a Buffalo replacing its own broken engine isn’t outside the bounds of possibility, presuming they have enough electrical charge in the vehicle. At time of writing, the type is in the middle of another extensive upgrade programme to give it more capability on the interconnected battlefield. The Bpz3A1 is up-armoured to work under enemy fire, and included the addition of mine protection equipment, and slat armour that is intended to reduce the effectiveness of shaped charge weapons in key areas. The MG has been changed to a remote mount, and the driver’s vision is enhanced by a thermal imager and low-light TV system that are combined as a single picture in front of the driver, improving their situational awareness. The Kit This is a partial retool of a retool of the 2015 release from Hobby Boss, adding yet more new parts to depict the differences between the early Buffalo and the improved variant that is depicted here. The kit arrives in a typically sturdy top-opening box with a painting of a Buffalo at work on another tank, and inside are fourteen sprues and two hull halves in sand-coloured styrene, a small sprue in black, a clear sprue, two trees of poly-caps, a length of braided wire, two Photo-Etch (PE) brass sheets of parts, two flexible black lengths of track, decal sheet and black and white instruction booklet that has the colour painting guide sheet inserted between the centre pages. Detail is good throughout, as we’ve come to expect from Hobby Boss’s armour models for the most part, although there is some thought that the hull is around 4mm narrower than it should be, but that’s a question for your micrometre, not mine. Construction begins with the lower hull, which has the suspension and return roller details added after cutting small sections from some suspension units, while the road wheels are prepared, consisting of fourteen pairs of main wheels, two drive sprockets and two idler wheels, all of which have a poly-cap sandwiched between the two wheels. Once the swingarms with stub-axles plus return rollers are glued in place, the road wheels can be pushed into place for removal during painting if required, thanks to the friction-fit of the flexible polythene sleeves. Quickly, the bulldozer blade is built from large, bulky parts, adding supports and pivots, plus an oversized towing eye at the front of the blade. It is joined to the hull by a pair of large pins that you should leave unglued if you wish to move or remove it later. The track runs are of the “rubber-band” style, but have good detail throughout, and you are advised that they will accept standard plastic glue and paints during construction, however a test with Tamiya Extra Thin glue reveals that this isn’t the case, so test your preferred glue on the short length of sprue at one end of the tracks before proceeding. There is an overlap of two links per run, and once the glue is dry they are slipped over the running gear so that attention can turn to the highly detailed crew interior that is included. The interior is begun by taking a floor panel with a lip around most of the edge, and detailing it with three crew stations, their equipment and comfortable-looking seats. The completed lower half (there is more to come) is glued into the bottom of the hull along with an insert against the lower glacis plate, and at the same time the rear bulkhead with towing eyes and shackles are put in place along with the convoy-light shield that has a PE lighting bracket over it. The next stage of the interior begins with the upper hull half, which first receives an insert over the front that has two holes in it, creating the roof of the casemate in which the crew sit, opening a few small slots in the front of the hull, and drilling out six holes in the short section of roof that is moulded into the upper hull part. A very detailed insert is made up into a four-sided assembly with a lot of equipment placed inside over the next five steps, including tools, some PE parts and stencil decals. That is glued into the casemate and backed up with a box and some brackets, then more equipment and wall panels are dotted around the left side of the casemate after being detailed in rather busy steps around the main diagrams. Similarly, the right side is built around a long insert with five steps that increase the level of detail substantially, and includes PE and styrene parts as well as some more decals for stencils and dials. The driver’s console with D-shaped steering wheel is inserted into the glacis plate, then the assembly is turned over to detail the exterior, first cutting right-angled notches in three of the six triangular supports at the rear of the casemate, using the accompanying diagrams to measure them before cutting. The upper hull’s rear is boxed in with a wide bulkhead that includes rear mudguards, adding another small box on the rear deck, removing a few tiny raised areas and filling depressions nearby. Front mud guards, a front hatch and two side crew hatches are installed with handles, adding an armoured cover over the new rear view vision block. The two hull halves are joined, and a gaggle of small parts are scattered around the engine deck and the casemate, then the side doors are shown being installed again – oops! This time the rear door is fitted with styrene and PE parts inside, while in the front of the engine deck, two PE strips are bent around a pair of raised cylinders on the deck surface. The driver’s almond-shaped hatch is given clear vision blocks before it is inserted into the hole, and at the rear bulkhead several detail parts are fitted. A frame is fitted over the two circular vents, adding three PE mesh sections to the rear, and fitting a foldable panel to the left side, plus more detail parts on the visible part of the deck. The next few steps are incredibly busy due to the upgrading of the type requiring many more parts, creating an L-shaped box that is covered in PE mesh before it is located on the rear right corner of the deck. The top hatch with remote MG3 machine gun station is first fitted with six vision blocks in the toroidal lip, making the hatch from three layers for installation along with another vision block, then adding two bracket-like armoured covers over the top, and fixing the five-part gun and its mount onto the rear edge of the cupola. This is mounted in the socket in the roof, then a huge stowage box is built from styrene parts and PE mesh, installing it on the rear deck over the mesh cover, and fixing smoke discharger packs around the left rear corner and on the back edge of the deck. A lifting brace is detailed with eyes and a large shackle at the top of its sloped upper edge, connecting it to the right side of the engine deck via a pair of pins that mate with supports at each end. Two spare wheels are made and mounted on bobbin-like fittings, attaching it to a shallow tray with brackets around the edge, inverting it and fitting a four-part sled over it and fixing it to the dwindling open area in the centre of the engine deck. A stack of stowage boxes that bear a resemblance to coolers are made with separate lids, mounting two of them on the left side of the engine deck, adding two appliqué armour panels over the glacis above the dozer blade. The main crane is built around a single three-sided jib, the hydraulic lift cylinder is mounted at one end within the three sided part, then closed over by fitting the fourth panel, with a V-shaped cut-out to allow the movement of it and its ram, which is attached to a two-part base and ram with the turntable beneath it, mating them by inserting the ram into the cylinder and positioning the pivot-points at the bottom of the jib with those on the base so that pins can be inserted without glue. Even the crane doesn’t escape the application of pioneer tools, with several items on one side and slat armour at the aft end on the other, plus more details and of course the block and tackle that performs the heavy lifting. The pulleys are assembled with the supplied wire linking them, so some care will be needed, gluing the outer parts and the lifting hook in position, then locating the top pulley into the end of the jib, securing it with a pin from each side, again without glue. Another two towing rods are built in a V-shape with eyes glued to the ends and located on the rear bulkhead by a pair of clamps. The side skirts of the original vehicle have been replaced by new boxy assemblies that are fitted over the forward wheel stations, and have narrow slat armour panels at the bottom, spaced away from the skirts by triangular brackets, using two or three depending on the length of the section. The left skirts have a sloped top-section, while the right are box-shaped, but have the same slat sections on the lower sides. The next two pages are again incredibly busy, adding dozens of additional slat armour panels above the skirts, around the deck and casemate roof, and behind the built-out skirts toward the rear. Additional smoke grenade launchers are mounted on stations in the front corners of the glacis, adding more equipment and towing eyes to the rear of the vehicle, and a pair of antennae on the casemate, one with a flasher unit at the top that should be painted clear orange and used only when the vehicle isn’t on active duty. The quantity of small parts requires concentration and careful study of the instruction steps, as they aren’t always totally obvious, and could easily be missed by anyone skimming the steps. Markings There are two options available from the sheet, one wearing a two-tone green/sand camouflage, the other in all over sand. There are further decals on the main jib that can be found on the instruction booklet, which you will want to refer to during painting. From the sheet you can build one of the following: As usual with Hobby Boss, there’s no information on the vehicle’s location, date or user, so a bit of Googling will be in order if you’d like to know a little more about your model. The decals are well-printed, in good register and sharpness, and are suitable to the task in hand. The instrument decals for the interior equipment with dials has a grey background, although much of the interior is painted white or NATO green. Here, Google is your friend. Conclusion It’s a well-detailed model of a low-profile, but extremely important vehicle in the Bundeswehr and other operators, with a lot of attention paid to the interior, as well as a huge level of detail to the exterior. You don’t get the engine, but that’s not a big deal, and could be a relief, given the already high part count. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Russian MiG-29K Fulcrum D (81786) 1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Mikoyan MiG-29, known in the West by its NATO reporting name 'Fulcrum' is an air superiority fighter designed and built in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. As with other comparable aircraft of that period, such as the Su-27, F-16, F-15 and Panavia Tornado, it was produced in significant numbers and is still in fairly widespread service with air arms around the world. The MiG-29 was developed as a lighter, cheaper aircraft compared to the Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker, an aircraft with which it is broadly comparable in terms of layout and design, if not size and weight. As with the Su-27, the engines are spaced widely apart, with the area between them being used to generate lift and improve manoeuvrability. The MiG-29 is powered by two Klimov RD-33 Turbofans, each of which generates over 18,000lb of thrust in reheat. As with many Soviet types, the aircraft is well suited for use on rough airstrips, particularly as the engine air intakes can be closed completely when on the ground, allowing air to be drawn through louvres on the upper surfaces of the wing roots avoiding FOD. Armament consists of a combination of Vympel R-27 medium-range air-to-air missiles and R-73 or R-60 short-range air-to-air missiles, as well as an integral GSh-30-1 30mm cannon in the port Leading Edge Root Extension (LERX). The aircraft can be used in a range of roles and can carry bombs and rockets in addition to more technologically advanced missiles. The MiG-29 has been widely exported and is still in widespread use with Russian, former Soviet and aligned nations, including several NATO member states such as Poland. Based upon the MiG-29M, the K was developed in the 1980s as an all-weather carrier-borne multi-role fighter that incorporates modern technologies that make it comparable in terms of generational capabilities as the Eurofighter, Saab Gripen and Dassault Rafale. After two prototypes were built and demonstrated, the Russian Navy didn’t make an order as they were already wedded to the Su-33, and it was an order by the Indian Air Force that saved the project as late as 2009, which the Indian Navy intended to fly from the former Soviet carrier they had bought. The initial order of a dozen airframes was followed by another of 29, plus training and simulation equipment, although a pre-delivery crash put the brakes on temporarily until it was revealed that the crash had predictably been caused by pilot error. Reliability issues of the engines dogged the fleet for a while, solved by India’s efforts that led to their satisfaction with their aircraft, although talk of replacing the fleet at one point was taken seriously by Western aircraft manufacturers. Russia’s Navy eventually decided that rather than build new Su-33s to replace those that were reaching retirement, they would take advantage of the open production lines of the MiG-29K in 2009, adding two dozen to the production schedule, which led to the Russian Navy holding a mixed inventory of MiG-29K and refurbished Su-33s as of 2016 when the last MiGs were delivered. A small number of MiG-29KUBR airframes were built with two cockpits under the same shaped canopy for training, with tandem controls for the student and instructor. The operational airframes were received in time to take part in Russian operations in Syria, losing one that failed to return to base after an operational sortie. The Kit This is a new tooling from Hobby Boss, and it arrives in a sturdy top-opening box with a painting of the subject on the front, and profiles of the decal options on one side. Inside the box is a cardboard divider to reduce movement of parts during shipping and storage, and most sprues are individually bagged, with delicate parts pre-wrapped in thin foam sheets, secured by tape. There are nine sprues, two fuselage halves and four exhaust nozzles in grey styrene, a long clear sprue in a bubble-wrap envelope, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass backed by a piece of card, decal sheet, instruction booklet in black and white, plus a folded sheet of glossy A3 printed in colour with one decal option per side, and another A4 sheet for the painting and decaling of the weapons that are included in the box. Detail is good, with intelligent use of slide-moulding to create additional detail without increasing the part count, and a choice of exhaust nozzles in closed or open positions, with excellent detail moulded into both layers. Construction begins with the K-36D-3.5 ejection seat, which is made from thirteen styrene parts, plus four seatbelts and ejection actuator handle in PE. This is slotted into the front compartment of the cockpit tub, adding the instrument panel and control column, and applying six decals to the panel and side consoles. Additional parts are fitted along with the cockpit sidewalls in both compartments, fixing a rudder bar with two PE foot straps in the front of the cockpit, remembering that most of the rear tub will be covered by an insert later in the build, so don’t waste any time painting and weathering that area. The nose gear bay must be built next, as it will be trapped between the fuselage halves, and this is built up from four parts, with the nose gear leg made from a single strut with integral supports near the top, fitting the oleo and swing-arm to the bottom, plus a clear landing light and other small parts before you attach wheels on either end of the cross-axle, building them from two halves each. The cover for the rear cockpit is raised, and has a grille on the front, plus two small boxes added to the top surface, then the fuselage can be prepared, drilling out several flashed-over holes under the wings, and one on the roof of the space between the engines. The nose gear bay is inserted into its cut-out, adding a pair of extension cups to the main gear bays behind the moulded-in sections, then gluing the cockpit tub into the upper fuselage along with an insert in the nose for a refuelling probe, whilst cutting off and sanding back a bulge on the deck in front of the windscreen as per a nearby scrap diagram. The two fuselage halves are brought together, fixing the rear cockpit cover and a small spine insert, then building the HUD from a sloped styrene core with clear lens, PE supports for the two clear panels, and applying a decal to the lens before it is fitted in a recess in the cockpit coaming. Soviet/Russian fighters tend to have built-in FOD guards, which in this case are supplied as large mesh panels that fit into the front of the inner engine intake trunks, that have a cylindrical profile and are blocked at the inner end by an insert that has the front of the engine moulded-into it, inserting the completed assembly into the engine nacelles, painting the inner surface grey, then adding the roof of the trunks to the sloped forward edge. This is done twice of course, and the two finished assemblies are inserted into the underside of the fuselage after adding extra wall detail to the main gear bays that nestle into the outer sides of each nacelle. In preparation, two short cowling sections are fitted to the upper fuselage where the exhausts will later sit. The twin fins are each made from two halves plus rudder, but they are equipped with different sensor fits in the trailing edge of the tip, which is further accentuated by the probe and sensors added to the rear, whilst both share the same T-shaped aerial near the change of angle of the leading edges of the fins. There is a large tapered cylindrical fuel tank between the engine nacelles, and this is built from two halves that are capped at either end, the nose cone made from two halves to include the forward pylon mount. This and the fins are put to one side while other assemblies are built for the underside of the model. This begins with the landing gear, the main gear made from a thick strut with trailing retraction jack, captive bay door, and a two-part scissor link, which receives a two-part wheel with circumferential tread moulded-in, although you’ll have to take a sanding stick to them if you wish to depict the weight of the airframe on the tyres. The exhausts have a short two-part trunk as their starting point, with a double layer depicting the rear of the engine and the afterburner ring, then you have a choice of posing the exhaust petals opened or closed, using two different sets of parts to portray the inner and outer layers of the nozzles. The closed nozzles have their inner part inserted from within, while the opened nozzles have their inner layer slid in from the rear due to the angles of the respective parts, with the resulting detail worth the effort. Both sets of nozzles are glued to the rear of the trunking, and are slipped inside the rear of the fuselage, adding the main gear legs and a bay door actuator to each side, then fitting the chaff & flare boxes on the fairings each side of the exhaust trunking, a pylon under each of the inner wing panels moulded into the fuselage, gluing on leading edges slats, and finally the twin fins that are attached to the fairings to the sides of the engines on pegs for strength. Doors are added to the gear bays, flaperons and their actuator fairings to the rear of the wings, a gaggle of antennae under the nose, and a two-part arrestor hook is fixed between the rear of the engine nacelles, mounting the large central tank between them. The next step is to fit the hinges to the ends of the inner wing panels, which are only applicable if you intend to fold the wings for storage on or below deck. This removes the option for a model ready for, or in-flight, and there is no discussion of the straight-wing or in-flight option in the instruction booklet. It is however possible using the parts provided, and simply involves omitting the hinge parts, laying the hinge cover panel flat to the wing, and fitting the outer wing panel at the same angle as the inner. The outer wing panels are built from two halves, adding slats at the front and ailerons to the rear, plus the hinge cover, which for folded wings should be placed at an angle. It’s best to test fit this in situ to obtain the correct attitude for the various parts. Regardless of whether you choose to fold the wings or not, each tip has a small strake inserted in a slot on the upper surface. More probes and antenna are clustered around the nose along with the refuelling probe with its cover, adding a clear lens to the sensor under the windscreen, which is also fitted at this stage. An actuator for the main canopy is installed behind it, and further aft two jacks for the air-brake are glued in position, which might be best done whilst fitting the panel to ensure they all line up. The canopy has a separate styrene lower frame with a cross-brace, four PE latches on each side, and a pair of rear-view mirrors in the front frame, fitting to the rear of the cockpit opening on the afore-mentioned jack. The elevators/elevons are single parts that fit into plugs on the side of the fuselage, and a gun fairing is fixed in the leading edge of the port LERX with another pair of PE antennae, one on each side of the nose cone, which has a separate pitot probe mounted at the tip. Like many Hobby Boss kits, this boxing has a plethora of weapons to suspend from the various pylons under the fuselage and wings. The following are included: 2 x R-77 (AA-12 Adder) BVR A2A Missile 2 x R-73M (AA-11 Archer) Short Range A2A Missile 2 x MSP-418K active jammer pod 2 x PTB-1150 1,150L Fuel Tanks 2 x KH -29T (AS-14 Kedge-B) TV guided A2S Missile 2 x KH-31P (AS-17 Krypton) Anti-Radiation Cruise Missile 2 x KAB-500Kr TV-guided bomb 2 x KH-35 (AS-20 Kayak) Anti-Ship Cruise Missile The various missiles are moulded as two halves, have separate fins fore and aft, and clear seeker heads where appropriate, adding adapter rails as necessary. The KH-35s however have their aft section removed before they are built, fixing folded fins to the sides of the missile, with a scrap diagram showing how they should appear once completed. A diagram at the end of the instruction booklet shows where the various munitions and pods can be mounted, but check your references for real-world load-outs if you prefer. Markings There are two decal options on the sheet, one in Russian service, the other in Indian colours. From the box you can build one of the following: Blue 39, Russian Navy 672 Indian Navy The various weapons, tanks and pods have a great many stencils that can be applied, using a separate colour page to guide you, all of which adds realism to your model. Decals aren’t always Hobby Boss’s strong point, but these are of good quality with registration, sharpness and colour density that are suitable for the task at hand. They usually go down well, and there are plenty of stencils for the airframe and weapons to add detail to your model, including more detailed instrument panel decals than many other companies provide. Conclusion The MiG-29 is an attractive aircraft, and the Navalised K from Hobby Boss seems a competent representation of what is a niche variant that was only produced in small numbers, including lots of detail and a large quantity of weapons. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

German Sd.Kfz.171 Pz.Kpfw. Panther Ausf.A (84830) 1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Panther was Germany's answer to the surprise appearance of the Russian T-34 after they finally reacted to the invasion that was Operation Barbarossa. Although the project had been in gestation some time before, they took some design cues from the T-34 in the shape of the sloped front and side armour, resulting in the Panther that was intended to fill the gap between the Panzer.IV and the (then) new Panzer VI Tiger. It was eventually supposed to replace both the Pz.IV and the earlier Pz.III that was really showing its age, but in reality it often fought alongside the Panzer IV. It was planned as a lighter, more manoeuvrable tank than the Tiger, and was fitted with a high velocity gun from the outset, which gave it enormous penetrating power that was only equalled later by the 17-pounder the British fitted to the American Sherman to make it into the more lethal Firefly. The sloped frontal armour gave it an increased effective armour thickness, but this was not so true of the side armour, which was comparatively weak, and this area became the preferred target of engaging allied tanks, especially in urban combat where this was a telling issue. Like most German WWII tanks it was filled with advanced engineering and therefore complex to produce, so suffered in terms of output volume, and this led to it being rushed into service with a long tick-list of issues still to resolve. Later production resolved most of these initial gremlins, but loses in the interim were high with many being abandoned after breakdown during combat. Confusingly, the Ausf.D was the first to enter production, with the Ausf.A following later in 1943, replacing attrition of the less reliable Ausf.Ds until they themselves were superseded by the Ausf.G, which became the final major variant with increased ammo storage, simplified design to ease production, and further improvements to reliability, although this was never fully cured with a high rate of attrition persisting due to mechanical issues, some of which resulted in catastrophic fires. The Kit There was a discussion thread within the last week here on Britmodeller about why 1:48 didn’t take off as a common scale for AFV modelling, and no-one could come up a definitive reason for it. A possible reason could be that not enough companies were willing to put their time and effort into creating new toolings, amongst others. Now we have this Panther from Hobby Boss to widen the range a little, and we suspect it won’t be the last from them. It is a new tooling, and arrives in a shallow top-opening box in the usual HB style, and inside it is divided up into two areas by a card insert. There are four sprues and three hull parts in tan styrene, a tree of translucent poly-caps, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a decal sheet, instruction booklet in black & white, plus an A4 sheet of glossy paper, printed in colour on both sides. Detail is good as we’d expect from Hobby Boss, and the inclusion of PE goes further in the quest for realism. Construction begins with the running gear, building up a pair of three-layered idler wheels, eight pairs of road wheels with poly-caps in the middle, suspension bump-stops, the final drive housing with two-part drive sprocket and a small wheel that helps prevent the tank from throwing a track. The rear bulkhead is detailed with a pair of exhausts linked by a cross-brace, a jack with separate handle, plus two stowage boxes with stiffening Xs moulded-in. The lower hull is fitted with armoured final drive surrounds, bump-stops, the drive sprockets, interleaved road wheels and idler wheels on both sides, finishing the lower hull by installing the rear bulkhead. The tracks are link-and-length, with long sections top and bottom, a short straight section on the diagonals, and individual links around the tightly curved ends to the runs. A scrap diagram shows the correct sag to the return run, and of course the task must be carried out on both sides of the vehicle. The top run will be mostly hidden by the side skirts, which are mounted under the sponsons on L-shaped brackets, finishing the front by adding the curved mud guards. Two towing eyes are mounted on the rear on the torch-cut ends of the hull sides, which are smooth and would benefit from adding the texture with a little liquid glue and a blade indented across the end. The upper hull is well-detailed, and should have two small holes drilled at the front of the deck, adding hatches for the front crew, racks filled with separate pioneer tools, and additional racks at the rear that hold spare track links. The large engine inspection hatch is prepared with lifting handles, the driver’s vision port is made from two parts and installed, adding a headlight to the side, and fitting track links to the racks at the rear, then covering the louvres on the engine deck with PE mesh to keep smaller debris such as grenades out of the engine bay. A two-part travel lock is mounted on the front of the hull using the two holes drilled earlier, and a tube for the barrel cleaning rods is locked into place on brackets on the left side of the hull. The turret is moulded with all but the rear face that has a circular hatch moulded into it, plus the roof. It is glued onto the lower turret part, and has a choice of two cupola types for the commander. One has a tapered cast body and vision blocks moulded-in, the other is layered from four parts and has an MG34 machine gun on a pintle mount at the front. The gunner’s hatch is a single part with a handle attached just in front on the corner, leaving just the main gun to build. This is made from the breech, which is not accurate because it won’t be seen, adding two poly-caps to the pivots, the mantlet to the front, and the single-part barrel with slide-moulded hollow muzzle slipped into the front, pushing the completed assembly back into the turret aperture to locate it. The final step involves joining the upper and lower hull halves, and adding the turret to the ring, then installing a pair of width indicator ‘lollipops’ to the front mud guards. Markings As is usual with Hobby Boss, the markings options don’t give any details of when and where the schemes were seen, but give colour codes in Mr Hobby, Acrysion, Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya and Humbrol paint systems. From the box you can build one of the following: The sheet includes three rows of 0-9 digits plus a few spare zeroes and 741 codes for one of the decal options, plus two Balkenkruez crosses in case you wish to use them. All the numbers and crosses have a thin white outline, and they appear to be in good register under magnification. Conclusion If you’re looking for a crisply-moulded 1:48 Panther for your next project, this will make a good candidate, striking a balance between size and detail, without unnecessary oversimplification. It will however be a faster build than a 1:35 scale alternative, and take up a lot less space in the cabinet. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hobby Boss is to rebox in late December 2016 the Tristar's 1/35th Fieseler Fi 156A-0/C-1 Storch kit - ref.80180 Source: http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=article&a=show&id=76 Box art Even the box art is the same Sources: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/105657-tristar-35034-fieseler-fi-156-a0-c1-storch http://www.tonyshop.fr/tristar-103/tristar-35034-fieseler-fi-156-a-0/c-1-storch-1/35-6060.html For kit reviews: http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/tri/kit_tri_35034.shtml http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/tristar/tri35034.html http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/article/fieseler-fi-156-c-3-trop-storch-in-1-35/7466 V.P.

While I was building my Me 262 2-seater I thought it would be a good time to build this kit that I have had for a few years, the Hobby Boss Me 262A-1a/U4. First a bit of history behind it: As the daylight bomber attacks on Germany intensified in 1944, attempts to bring down large numbers of American B-17 and B-24 bombers was getting more difficult. they were coming in ever larger formations of up to 800 aircraft and with over a 1,000 fighters for protection. Gorings first idea was to build more German bombers, he reasoned that if the Luftwaffe bombed the UK severely they would be too pre-occupied to carry on attacking Germany. This idea didn't go down well and it was pointed out that German industry was unable to produce sufficient aircraft to match the allies productivity even without the bombing of their aircraft industry. General Galland knew that his fighter pilots were being killed in ever greater numbers due to the defensive fire from the bombers and also their fighter escorts. As heavier weapons were fitted to the FW 190 and Bf 109 German defensive fighters to enable them to bring down the US bombers, this extra weight reduced their performance and they became easier targets for the US escort fighters. An idea to use ever larger calibre weapons that could destroy the attacking bombers with a single round from outside the range of their defensive fire was devised. Bf 110's with 37mm canon and then Me 410 aircraft with a 50mm canon were utilised, however results were inconclusive, these heavily armed twin engined fighters were easy prey for the more agile single engine US fighters and with such a long barrel, even a small deflection made the projectile miss it's target. Despite evidence that the 30mm weapons were downing the majority of US bomber losses an attempt to fit the 50mm canon to the jet powered Me 262 interceptor was attempted in 1945. The first Me 262 was converted from a standard fighter, to accommodate the large weapon the nose shape was enlarged and the nose wheel had to rotate flat with the underside of the nose on retraction. after evaluation this aircraft was issued to JV 44 and flown in combat on 16 April 1945, attacking a force of B-26 Marauders of the 9th AF it's canon jammed. No other flights were recorded and the aircraft was destroyed as US ground forces approached the base. Two other aircraft were being converted to carry a 50mm weapon, only one was completed and it was captured by US ground forces at Lechfeld airfield. It was marked up with US markings and then flown to France with the intention of being shipped back to the USA for testing. Unfortunately it crashed on landing, thus ending the saga of the 50mm armed Me 262's. Here is the Hobby Boss kit: As can be seen, it has not been started. These kits are good fitting but need a bit more work to assemble than the Tamiya kit, but HB made all the obscure versions so we are lucky for that. I have some extra bits to help make this kit, some Eduard resin wheels to replace the strange kit ones, a Master metal barrel with a nicely perforated brass muzzle break to replace the kit's solid plastic one. The kit provides a metal nose wheel bay to provide sufficient nose weight and it is correctly shaped so that the nose wheel could lay flat. Some Quinta 3D cockpit decals to perk up the instrument panel and side consoles. The kit markings are a bit mixed up, it shows the initial nose art applied by the US forces, "Wilma Jeanne", this was later changed to "Happy Hunter II" before its final fight to Cherbourg where it crashed on landing. It never carried either of these names with German markings just the alpha/numeric V083. I'm not sure yet how I will finish the aircraft, but if you want the nose art you have to source your own US star and bar decals. It will give me something to do while my other Me 262 build has it's sprue gloop hardening. Any questions or comments are always welcome.

In Autumn 1944 I./KG(J) received a Me 262B1 trainer jet, it was painted with a white lightning bolt from the windshield to the nose cone on both sides of he nose. There were two photos published in the Luftwaffe Im Focus magazine. I have the 1/48th Hobby Boss kit of the Me 262B-1a that has these markings. The kit is nicely detailed but the real thing had most of the panel lines and rivets were puttied and smoothed to maximise the speed that could be obtained from the Jumo jet engines. The wheels in the kit look a bit strange, the wheel rims are moulded smooth with the tyres and the sidewalls of the main tyres have a strange pattern marked on them so I will replace them with some resin ones from Eduard. There is a set of Montex masks for the canopy and also the national and other markings and some Quinta 3D decals to enhance the cockpit. I started off by adding some dissolved putty on the fuselage panel and rivet lines just like the real thing, while that dried I set to on the cockpit parts. There aren't too many parts, the side consoles and i/p had all the raised detail removed ready for the 3D decals, all other cockpit parts were added to the tub ready to get painted. I assembled the gun bay, since I will be having the gun bay panels closed so it seems pointless to add the 4 canon and belt chutes. The upper and lower wings parts were removed from the sprues and cleaned up, I'm looking at photos to see which panel/rivet lines I need to fill. In the lower photo you can see a second cockpit tub from a single seater, this is because I realised that HB have only made the cockpit of the nightfighter. I thought it was strange that there were no rudder pedals or control column in the back when the trainer version had full dual controls for the experienced pilot in the rear seat. The aerials are included in the kit so it is exactly the same moulding, just different decals and box art, but it means it's up to the builder to correctly modify the kit if they want to make the trainer version. So much for a quick, straight forward kit build. The aircraft that were built as nightfighters had no flight controls in the back, only the radar controls, but the main difference was the 600 litre fuel tank added behind the radar operator, this meant his seat was moved forward reducing the area of the rear cockpit. I've worked out how to correct this error, I need to cut off the short rear cockpit behind the pilots seat and add a spare single seat cockpit section with all the flight controls onto the front tub, with a bit of fettling this will make it right, then I just need to scribe a new step panel and fuel access panel to the left side of the fuselage under the rear canopy... simples! Any questions or comments always welcome.

Here’s my "VIRGINIA" I did just finished recently: . . . . . . Chris

I've put the finishing touches to this 1/32nd scale B-24 over the Bank Holiday weekend and took advantage of some spring sunshine to take some pictures of the completed model outside in natural light. I've been working on this on and off for a year or so, and it has been the ideal project to pick up and do a bit to as and when I felt like it. This model doesn't get the best press but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. You can spend a fortune on after-market improvements if you wish, but other than some seat belts, resin wheels and gun barrels, this is how it comes in the box. The interior is crammed with detail and took a long time to complete - excellent value for your money when you compare it to the price of the other 1/32nd 'heavies' on the market. Fit was excellent throughout and the only filler used was to deal with a small gap along the underside of the nose where, I believe, I hadn't got the interior aligned as perfectly as I could. The turrets, however, are a weak point of the kit. It's been well documented that the rear turret (and forward turret on the J-version) have a very visible seam right down the middle. Aftermarket replacements are currently sold out so instead I used the kit rear turret and painted the mating surfaces black before gluing and this has made the unsightly join a little less conspicuous. For some reason Hobby Boss put heavy framing on the upper turret which doesn't exist on any B-24 turret I've seen, so this was sanded off and the dome given a good polish so it now better represents the Martin turret fitted to this model of Liberator. I didn't want to risk putting the colossal amount of nose weight into this as I was using the kit's plastic landing gear (which is perfectly strong enough to cope with the weight of the 'un-weighted' model) so I made a tail strut as was so often put in place when B-24s are parked on the ground. The kit doesn't come with the most inspiring of schemes for an olive drab B-24, so I did a bit of research on 'Satan's Angels' and painted the model to represent this aircraft as it would have looked in the autumn of 1943 with the group insignia on the tail and the short-lived red surround to the stars and bars. This aircraft was actually written off in a landing accident at Lympne in Kent, when the nose wheel collapsed and it ended up in a ditch on 13th November of that year. I used Kits World national insignia as well as the Profimodeller stencil set. All in all a very enjoyable build, and if you want a large 1/32nd bomber that doesn't break the bank but still gives you plenty of detail, I thoroughly recommend this kit. All the best, Tom Consolidated B-24D Liberator, 'Satan's Angels' of the 328th Squadron of the 93rd Bomb Group, based at Hardwick, Suffolk, Autumn 1943.

Hi all, Trying something new with this tried and tested Hobby Boss kit of the tropicalised Spitfire Vb. This model is intended to complement the 1/32 Spitfire Vc I'm also planning to build over the winter! The box! Nice artwork of Wg Cdr Ian Gleed's clipped and cropped Vb with the Aboukir filter. My intention is to build it with an interchangeable nose section so I can swap out the exposed full engine nose for the streamlined covered version using magnets. Quite ambitious, but technically possible! I'll be building it as AB502, Ian Gleed's Vb of 244 Wing. All the best, Alan